Or more accurately, Ms. Jeannie should say, something has been in the shed. Take a look…
A snake skin! Mr. Jeannie Ology was the one to discover it, wrapped in between the prongs of a pitch fork hanging on the shed wall. Yikes – that would be quite a surprise to happen upon. Here’s a closeup of it’s head…where you can even see the skin covering his eyes…
If there is one creature in the natural world that Ms. Jeannie has an honest to god fear of – it would be snakes. The South is home to some pretty big ones, so as a gardener, Ms. Jeannie has learned to be cautious about where she goes digging.
This snake skin measures just over 47″ inches long and at it’s fattest area 1″inch around. Holy moley – that’s a big one!
Snakes shed the outermost layer of their skin as they grow. Unlike humans, as we grow and expand, so does our skin. But as snakes grow, their skin only has so much capacity for extra give. So they shed what no longer fits and moves (or in this case slithers) along in life.
They do this shedding fairly often, more frequently when they are youngsters growing into adults (as much as once a month) but once they reach adulthood their growth slows down quite a bit, so shedding slows down to once every two or three months. This still seems like a lot to Ms. Jeannie. At those rates, you would think that we would come across more snake skins then we do.
Funny enough, as mentioned above, their was a small section on snake shedding in the nature book Ms. Jeannie has for sale in her shop…
Ms. Jeannie just knew this book would come in handy for both kids and adults! The illustration in the book features a timber rattlesnake, which got Ms. Jeannie to thinking about what kind of snake her skin is from.
While trying to identify the type of skin, Ms. Jeannie discovered a website where you can send in photos of your snake skins for free identification. So she just sent her pictures off. We’ll see what they say!
Mr. Jeannie Ology’s bet is that it belongs to a black snake. Do you have a guess? If so, comment below and we’ll put your naturalist abilities to test!
In the Vintage Kitchen: Where History Comes To Eat 
Amazing find, Ms. Jeannie! I have found some cool snakeskins in my time, but never as long as 47″! And finding it with the area around the eyes intact is a superb bonus! What are you going to do with it? (I have a small snakeskin coiled up in an old pint sized jar, topped with a neat wooden lid.)
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Good idea about the jar! I’m not sure what I will do with it – right now it’s sitting on the plant stand on the side porch. If I look at it for too long I get goosebumps – so I’m keeping at a healthy distance for now! Although you have me thinking… I do have a box of natural wonders which contains two butterflies, a beattle the size of my thumb, some seashells, bird feathers, a wasp nest and a broken bird egg – perhaps it should go in there. Hmmmm… are there any other creative things I could do with it?
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What I would hate is the fact that a snake now bigger than that skin is somewhere nearby 😦
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No kidding Laura! Goodness gracious – this creature could still be in the shed, even bigger now! I know snakes are good but I’ll think twice about going barefoot in the grass now:) Such a pity – we have one of those carpet type soft lawns that I always say would be lovely to lay down in…
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Wow, I would shudder too, it is fascinating though. The book is truly lovely, I’m pretty sure I remember owning a copy I poured through as a kid.
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Oh how fun!
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