A River, A Bird and A Snake

Yesterday, after Shessla's funeral and family luncheon in Redfield, I asked Bud to drive down to the Middle Raccoon River on the west edge of town.

It has been a few years since I went that way and with all the rain, I figured there would be a lot of water going over the dam. This old mill site and low head dam was first a place of commerce and now an area of recreation.

You know, a place to launch your canoe or kayak - or just to wade in the cool water.

Not too far downstream, the Middle Raccoon joins up with the South Raccoon River before meeting up with the North Raccoon before they flow Southeast and meet up with the Des Moines and then eventually, on to....well, you know.

You could say there's been a lot of water over the dam since the first sawmill was built here in 1850. The area is now the 26-acre, Redfield Dam Park, a place to fish, bird watch, or.....

.....yikes! Watch out for snakes. When Bud first saw this, he thought it might be a rubber snake someone had put there for grins. He started to reach for it with his hand and I yelled, "Get a stick!"

It was a real snake, swiftly moving to a point of safety among the rocks after being touched. I can't decide by looking up 'Snakes of Iowa' online, is this a Black Rat Snake?

One thing I told my son at his sister-in-law's funeral was that I wanted a family picture of us all together, because the last one was taken eight years ago.

And, as Shessla's tragic death reminds us, you just never know what might happen...