So this is what we do with rattlesnakes that startle us at nearly midnight 'round these parts.

I hate waste, and I think it is something of a waste when a venomous snake like this one cannot go around eating huge, destructive wood rats, but I have stated before and continue to emphasize my position: where you see a rattlesnake is where its territory is, and that's fine, as long as it's not my territory also.

So under my trampoline, and by the front gate, these are places that are no good to share with snakes.

Therefore I feel obligated also to dispatch the snake quickly and take its skin and, if possible, the meat also. My 13-year-old son Peter discovered how to carve long, beautiful boneless fillets off rattlesnakes. He did that for the snake I killed two months ago under my trampoline and got a Zip-Loc baggie full of beautiful white meat.

So we are rattlesnake skinning, snake-chili eatin' comfortable survivalists around here.

I spent all day with my brother prepping the two corrals for cattle catching. Soon I'll have photos of South Texas cattle punching on the blog. My goal with the next big round-up is to brand everything we don't sell, and to bring some of the better looking heifers and cows nearer to the house where I can gentle 'em up and raise some beef cattle for table.

Till then, be sure and support your local food growers, and take care of your body by eating the good things God gave us, and very little of the rest...