Monday Mystery

Well, this mystery is actually solved or so we think. But first, let me take you back to where this mystery began.

You will recall that I've decided to go with all red flowers on the patio this year. We are really loving that. They are so bright and showy. We had this beautiful angel wing begonia--probably my most favorite thing I bought. It was so lush and full. All of a sudden, one day, it was just smashed--like some animal decided to sit on top of the thing and crush it to bits. 

This picture is from the first part of June. You can see the flower in the background. Picture it filling that entire space until something smashed it. I thought Butch had stepped on it getting to the electrical outlet for the fountain. Secretly, I sorta' still thought that's what happened and he didn't want to admit it. (Okay, sorry Butch!) There just was no explanation. It was a mystery. Until...

...it happened again. This groundcover (pachysandra) that looked so nice, was now a mess. 

Upon closer inspection, there was this debris. At first I thought it looked like some sort of hive.

But it's snakeskin---from a pretty big snake! It really freaks me out. Then I remembered these pictures that my neighbor took in our yard from 6 years ago. 

That is one huge snake! The neighbor said it was 6-8ft. long. 

I am very happy that I never saw it in person. Now, I'm convinced that it's still living here. I do not know how long snakes live or what their predators are. I know that they are supposed to be really good for the garden. But this one isn't helping at all. The side yard is full of moles. And, unless it's really old for a snake, I have a feeling it's laid many eggs. The one currently doing all the damage could be a descendent. 

I swear, if I ever do see it, I'm pretty sure I'll have to move!

Update:

We are suddenly having all kinds of yard/garden problems. Butch noticed the work of a mole/moles (must be multiples due to the amount of damage) in our side yard next to the pool. Then he noticed that much of our beautiful ivy is dead. 

Completely dead. It looks like someone sprayed it with some sort of plant killer. Sooo, I had Sara, our garden girl come over. She was baffled as her crew had not sprayed anything. As we walked all around, she notice that much of the remaining ivy has some sort of fungus called leaf spot. It spreads quickly--which accounts for the entire bed being dead. 

Then we continued to walk through the garden to the back yard, noticing that leaf spot everywhere. Sara is going to handle it.

I took this picture from my bedroom about a week ago admiring how nice everything looked. You can see some of the damage in the grass close to the patio. 

What you can't really see from this angle is that the entire yard is torn up.

And on in to the beds. Sara is pretty sure we have an armadillo. She has seen their "work" before. Still, she's going to treat it like moles and dose the entire area with whatever kills moles and something else to get rid of the grubs that moles feed on. In the meantime, she put a "mole bomb" down the snake hole (she verified that for sure). This happened:

Sara told me that the smoke is supposed to permeate the tunnels underground. The fact that the smoke came out of the hole told her that either something was sitting in there blocking it, or that there is not an actual tunnel there. Either which way, I'm still freaked out. I think about when I'm sticking my hand in the pond to trim my water plants and gather any other debris, there might be a snake in there. Makes me kinda' scared. No, not "kinda"---really scared!

Then, Sara sent me this picture from the front yard. 

What the?? This is ridiculous! I have no idea what's going on around here!

Oh and then to add insult to. injury, the dang rabbit is back!

I think I'm going insane! I could understand if he was eating the leaves but he's just stripping them.

Just when we seem to have our pool problems under control (I guess I shouldn't have said that), it something else. There's always something else. And just when everything was looking so nice. I just want someone to wave a magic wand and make all these problems disappear. If only....

Further update:

Butch went out at 2:30 a.m. with a flashlight to see if he could find some nocturnal animals reaping havoc in the yard. He didn't see anything. I guess they just weren't frolicking at 2:30 a.m. Sheesh!

Further, further update:

Yesterday, I prayed for help with our yard. I don't recall ever praying for landscaping. I don't know if God intercedes for the benefit of a nice yard. I guess that would mean he'd have to do something about his other creatures who are annoying the "he**" out of me! I sure hope he does.