Man vs Wild

Saturday, Terry went out to run his errands. I knew when he came back and Sadie and I waited for him to come inside. We waited. And waited. I thought at first that maybe he was listening to something on the radio in his car and was waiting for the end. After several minutes, I headed out to see just what it was that he was doing.
He met me at the backdoor with a board from the fence and said, "Let me show you what I've been dealing with." My first thought was that another of the fence boards had sprung off and he was having trouble getting it back on. We walked to the back of the deck and this is what I saw.

He said that he had seen the tail of it laying up on the deck and thought that with the board that he'd be able to just cut him in two and that would be the end of it. But that wasn't so. Evidently the board didn't phase the snake. He pulled it up on the deck and held the tail in place with his foot and the head in place with the board. And started at it with his pocket knife. It still appeared to have some life in it by the time I saw it but it's kind of hard to tell.
I've tried to do some research on just what kind of snake it was....and I'm sure that it was probably a good kind (if there is such a thing!), but quite honestly, I'm satisfied not to have it in our yard. My guess is that it's some sort of rat snake, but holy cow! Look how long it is. That's a r-e-a-l snake. Now everytime I go outside or Sadie acts like she's heard something in the flower beds, I'm on my guard.