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Do you know which ones are edible? A guy who married
Posted on: September 1, 2019 at 20:24:12 CT
JeffB MU
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an Indian taught survival skills for my oldest son's scout troop some years back. He had become friends with some Indians & they showed him quite a bit about living off the land.
He went off and brought back a lot of plants, separating them out into groups of what to eat and what was poisonous or otherwise not good to eat.
Later, he sent the boys out to get some vines so he could show them how to make fish hooks from the vines & by splitting off little bits of wood. They started making a fuss from a distance and he went to see what was up. They yelled that it was a black snake blocking their path back.
He came back with a big ol' snake longer than his arm. He was holding the head & its body went up his arm & across his shoulders. He told us "This is no black snake, it's a water moccasin. See the cotton mouth?" as he stuck his index finger into the side of its mouth to force it to open wide.
Yeah, that sucker had big ol' fangs for sure. The boys all went up & stroked its back & checked it out close up. When everyone had had their fill he went over and released it at the edge of the clearing.
I asked if that was a good idea, as I remembered I had been going over to that area to take a leak, but he said they were a necessary part of nature & we shouldn't disturb things any more than necessary.
He said that when you see them laying dead in the woods it's usually because they fell out of a tree. I don't believe I've seen any laying dead in the woods, but I'll take his word for it. Of course, that doesn't make me feel any more comfortable thinking about snakes falling out of trees as we're walking under them.
A little later I saw that water moccasin climbing up the side of a small tree. It was interesting to watch. I didn't realize they could climb like that. He was all on one side of the tree slowly moving up in a wavy snake pattern similar to what you see on the ground. I would have thought they would have had to wrap around the tree somehow to hold on, but I guess their scales can cling to the tree somehow to hold all of that weight up.
He went off and brought back a lot of plants, separating them out into groups of what to eat and what was poisonous or otherwise not good to eat.
Later, he sent the boys out to get some vines so he could show them how to make fish hooks from the vines & by splitting off little bits of wood. They started making a fuss from a distance and he went to see what was up. They yelled that it was a black snake blocking their path back.
He came back with a big ol' snake longer than his arm. He was holding the head & its body went up his arm & across his shoulders. He told us "This is no black snake, it's a water moccasin. See the cotton mouth?" as he stuck his index finger into the side of its mouth to force it to open wide.
Yeah, that sucker had big ol' fangs for sure. The boys all went up & stroked its back & checked it out close up. When everyone had had their fill he went over and released it at the edge of the clearing.
I asked if that was a good idea, as I remembered I had been going over to that area to take a leak, but he said they were a necessary part of nature & we shouldn't disturb things any more than necessary.
He said that when you see them laying dead in the woods it's usually because they fell out of a tree. I don't believe I've seen any laying dead in the woods, but I'll take his word for it. Of course, that doesn't make me feel any more comfortable thinking about snakes falling out of trees as we're walking under them.
A little later I saw that water moccasin climbing up the side of a small tree. It was interesting to watch. I didn't realize they could climb like that. He was all on one side of the tree slowly moving up in a wavy snake pattern similar to what you see on the ground. I would have thought they would have had to wrap around the tree somehow to hold on, but I guess their scales can cling to the tree somehow to hold all of that weight up.
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Do you know which ones are edible? A guy who married - JeffB MU - 9/1 20:24:12