Start paying attention because there's a lot of wisdom in what old people say. Many years ago, before I was even interested in camping, an old-timer Cowboy told me: Put a length of rough rope around you to get rid of snakes. The theory is, that the rougher the rope, the less snakes like it. It deters them when they try to slither over it.
I lived in the desert at the time, down in Arizona, and this guy was a little boy when the Cochise Gang (loosely, very loosely friends and comrades of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch) and the Clanton Gang rode through town and shot everything up, especially the bank, and the saloon, in that order.
That was also true! I looked it up at the library and there was his name under his photo. I decided then and there, that it's sometimes a serious sin to doubt old people.
So, I remembered him recently on a trip. I looked over to my left and happened to see a harmless gopher snake. (They're everywhere around here, and non-venomous. They're good to have around actually, and eat pests, but I still don't like snakes and definitely do not want to sleep with any.)
Then I remembered that old timer and also that I happened to have 4 lengths of 9.5 feet of craft rope at home. It's completely scratchy and awful and it's supposed to be that way to look rustic. I had purchased it for a craft project I later abandoned. I bought it at the dollar store. Yes, $1.25 each bundle.
I decided to tie the lengths together to make an anti-snake rope for my next trip. I will report back on my results.
Four lengths of it, at 9.5 feet, made approximately 37 feet of usable length of rope for $5. That's enough to go around my tent. Twice. Almost 3 times. Perfect.
Here it is:
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