The Loop Newspaper - Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide

I was out irrigating a five-acre alfalfa field that we had at our place on Cherry Lane, moving 3-inch aluminum sprinkler pipe, when I saw something up at the edge of the field. It looked like a twisted piece of pipe. When I got close, I saw that it was one of the biggest gopher snakes I've ever seen. It was 'bout as big around as that sprinkler pipe. But it was dead. And there was a big ol' boar gopher sticking out of side of that snake. I guess that big snake had caught the gopher and swallowed him too soon, before he was dead. Then that gopher tried chewing his way out of the snake but only got part way out before he died too. So there they were, a huge dead snake and a huge dead gopher. I guess they each met their match.

– Henry Hand

Henry Hand was raised in Kern County and began farming in Tehachapi in 1937 and continued until he passed away in 1988. He sold vegetables, peaches, eggs, pigs and rabbits. He was the uncle of columnist Jon Hammond.