How to Startle Yourself

When I am not chasing critters away from my plants I am fighting leaves.  We rake in the fall.  We rake in the spring.  We haul and burn, but we never win the war.  They collect everywhere. I have been raking and burning everyday it was warm enough to be outside lately.  I have a brush pile where I wheelbarrow the leaves I gather for burning and as I started to dump a wheel barrow full, I looked down and saw this.

 

 It did startle me for just a second then I realized it looked familiar and was being very still.  Last year when we were fighting the nesting birds in the eaves of an open shed we placed rubber snakes there to scare them away.  It must have fallen then I  raked it up without noticing and dumped it in the brush pile the day before!

There is one under the lid of the gas tank right now, I just hope we remember to move it before the tank needs filling up again or someone else may be startled!!