Rattlesnake Precautions

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Iggy
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by Iggy »

I wonder how long a jug of water can stay out in the heat before bacteria set in and you got e-coli or whatever that other disease is that gives you the you know what :?:
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by Desert Cruiser »

Like these from back in the 1940's at an old mine site. I reburied them in the rocks.

Image

Don...
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by ElPaso2008 »

Jerry Feldner wrote:All this talk of H2O reminds of my younger days floating around the desert. On one long trip I ran into an old guy in the Little Berdoo Mtns in CA who turned out to be Edmund C. Jaeger. He showed me some things about the desert that I never forgot. He showed me a pile of rocks, a cairn he called it, and when we removed the rocks, there was a jug of water underneath the rocks. It wasn't cold but it wasn't hot either. So, if you see a pile of rocks alongside a desert back road or a trail, you can thank the old timey miner who probably put it there. Once I got a 4x4, I spent a lot of time replenishing water jugs in the desert.
Hmmmm. I'll be on the lookout for these in the future, Jerry. It was probably a common practice.
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by ElPaso2008 »

Well, it's time to actually do something about keeping the rattlesnakes at bay since I will be moving the motor home into the canyon tomorrow.

It was suggested that I build a 4' wall with an overhang, but the homesite project is $3,000 overbudget, and I'll probably have to pay a $1,600 deposit to the electric company for a transformer. So a wall is just not possible at the moment.

The motorhome is about 2' off the ground with retractable steps that are open.

I could certainly hobble something together with lumber from the hardware store, and will if necessary, but I'm hoping some good suggestions will come out of posting this question.

Thanks in advance.
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by reptilist »

You'll probably find out that your worries are greater than the reality. I live in a small neighborhood that is out in the desert...Are there rattlesnakes? Of course! Do I find them lurking on my property? Not once in 4 years.
If a person can learn to wield a shovel to kill a rattlesnake, then he can learn to use snake tongs and a bucket. I don't understand why more people who live on the frontier don't have snake tongs.
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by ElPaso2008 »

reptilist wrote:You'll probably find out that your worries are greater than the reality. I live in a small neighborhood that is out in the desert...Are there rattlesnakes? Of course! Do I find them lurking on my property? Not once in 4 years.
If a person can learn to wield a shovel to kill a rattlesnake, then he can learn to use snake tongs and a bucket. I don't understand why more people who live on the frontier don't have snake tongs.
Terry, this is not a neighborhood exactly. I'm on the side of a mountain on a small homesite. The motorhome will just be a few feet away from the brush. I hope you are right, of course, but I want to make sure they can't get under the steps and get surprised when I step down.
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by gordon c. snelling »

Come on Terry you know tongs and bucket arent manly enough for most people.
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by reptilist »

Yep, I don't know how many men I've spoken to that tell me how they'd break out a shotgun....Oh brother...So simian!
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by ElPaso2008 »

reptilist wrote:Yep, I don't know how many men I've spoken to that tell me how they'd break out a shotgun....Oh brother...So simian!
I couldn't agree more.
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Re: Rattlesnake Precautions

Post by Desert Cruiser »

We had a neighbor in the foothills in CA that built a house on a hill not to far from us. He apparently had a rattlesnake den on the top of hill too! He used to brag about how many snakes he killed with his shotgun while working on the house. Then one weekend we hear the ambulance siren coming form town (16 miles away) and went to see if a good friend was in some kind of predicament. But it was this guy on the hill. He'd shot into the snake and some of the shot bounced back and got embedded in his face. Nice going, huh? I still think the safest way is to get tongs and move them!

Don....
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