Mmmnnn Snake...

Happy April Fools day!! But seriously, this is not a prank, yesterday was the big day where I finally manned up and tried snake for the first time! Just FYI, there are pics below of cooking the snake and me eating it (really dark and I apologize on that). But before I go into detail about that, let me tell ya about my swim!

After my swim!

Finally went back down to the river, this time I wore swimming trunks because I knew I wouldn't be able to resist jumping in (it was 89 degrees yesterday). So I traversed the massive amount of stairs to get there and brought my machete from my buddy Stu's pawn shop (hi Stu!) and swung away! I cleared out a decently wide path about 8 foot wide and about 100 feet long to the island that we have (and by island, I mean little piece of land that has a little bit of water that breaks it away from the main land.. nothing too special). I found some holes where a rather large animal has dug down and made a cave, I didn't quite explore it in case it was a skunk or something mean. But that little bit of clearing had my shirt soaked completely through! By the time I finally got to the water, I was ready to jump in. And I did, it was cold at first, the springs head pumps out 9 million gallons of water an hour at a constant 58 degrees, but by the time it gets to our house around 17 miles away its not that bad, and I am convinced it is warmer than the bay, so this guy isn't complaining... especially with the lack of jellyfish and pungent salt water filled with bacteria. Not saying I would drink from my stream, but it is definitely pot-able and swim-able water. It has a descent current, so its like saving thousands of dollars on the never ending pool, you point yourself upstream and like Dorry would say from Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming." (Speaking about swimming, Congrats to my buddy Paula on her first Triathlon!!) So yeah, I have an endless pool and I hope my swimming technique will get better from it. :) Its also fun to just turn yourself over and back float, but then next thing you know your a 100 feet down stream. I am definitely going to buy an inner tube and float down to the bridge a few miles down the road soon! I will video tape and throw it on Youtube for your viewing pleasure.

All strung up on the hangers! Ready to go in!

Look at that fire pit!

Roasting the snakes!

Later on, I made a fire pit out of some of the stones I pulled up from the garden. As any right guy would do, I made it rather large, big enough to put whole pallets in to burn. I will continue to build it up and by the time it is done, should look rather awesome. As the sun was setting I went in and "prepared" my snake meat. Basically I added lots and lots of pepper. I skipped out on the salt, since I had the meat soaking in a salt brine to get rid of some of the gamey taste. Might skip that step next time, I'm not one for a lot of salt on my stuff, and this definitely had a salty taste, and I'm sure it was from my brine solution. Well, to make a short story long, I stuck the meat on some coat hangers and cooked it on the open fire! When I first took it out of the fire, it was probably done, but it was too tender and juicy for this scared guy, so I threw it back in for another ten minutes or so. This time, it came out fully cooked and kinda tough.. as in, most bacteria is dead! I will tell you this much about snake. It has a taste somewhere between chicken and Alligator tail. If I'm lost in the woods and haven't eaten in a day or two, I would eat snake like it is going out of style. But, since I'm not starving and lost in the woods, I think I will stick with my chicken and beef and pork and beans for my protein intakes. It was definitely a novelty for me, now I can say I have had snake. But, I'm not going to go out and butcher them just for eating. And if I do get a crazy idea to do this again, I would want a fatter snake. My two snakes were skinny, barely had any meat on them to begin with. And bones... sooo many bones. They crunched and occasionally made a loud popping sound in your mouth when you eat it. Some people on snake eating forum websites said they like the bones... to me, I would like them gone!

My meal all cooked up

Dark, sorry, but it is me eating snake!

Alright, I hope I didnt gross out, or truly offend anyone with this post, Ill keep the next one PG! Till then! :)