I found a new friend living in my compost pile

While transferring compost from one bin to another the other day, I saw something desperately scurrying to get away. So, I plunged my hand into the pile and pulled out a little snake. It was much smaller than the 5 footer me and Jude found 2 weeks ago. She was freaking out over the big one, as you can imagine. Of course Jude was wanting to play with this one too, but I really don't want her to get the idea that snakes are ok to be around - Ya know? It kept coiling up on my hand and fingers, so I was forced to pull out my cell phone and snap a quick photo of it. I took it inside the house to show my wife the new friend I had made, but she didn't care too much for that idea. Ha! As usual, I was bombarded with frantic pleas, and told to GET OUT!!! Hehe...I released it back into the compost pile, of course. Little stinker.....

In other news, I acquired my first curbside bag of "high dollar grass clippings" from the neighborhood in the center of the fancy golf course the other day, and will be mixing it into the newly started batch of compost i'm making. Since the 3 new tomato plants are calling my surplus pile of shredded leaves "home" right now, it should be all that is needed for at least a month, I figure.

Other things:

One of the corn stalks has 2 ears forming on it. Yay! I hope several more do the same, because the succession planting in the raised bed are probably not gonna produce anything. More on that later....

Let's see....there's fruitset on cucumbers and tomatoes, and possibly crookneck squash. It's too early to tell on the squash, but so far it looks like it was pollinated.
One of the brandywine plants is showing problems on the foliage, and some copper fungicide will be applied after the affected leaves have been removed. It's a good thing they're isolated, because all other plants look great. Well, at least all but the ones by the shed with herbicide damage - they look horrible....
It should be a pretty busy weekend around here, and i'll try to take lots of pictures. I plan on working on the flowerbed for my wife if it isn't raining, and the first construction post for the project will come on Monday. I'll try to be as detailed as possible with part 1, and hope it makes sense.

In closing, i'd like to say hi to Jeff and Joel Pounders, just in case they are reading!

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG