Of course the risk would be that you just land on another snake.
When I was at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, I had the pleasure of actually going out the front gate to wait for some deliveries, where I got to meet some of the local fellows, including the Afghan National Army guys that were “directing” traffic into our one-lane entry road.
There was one ANA in particular who had such a stick, and apparently was employed to herd the gaggles of children running amok out front. This guy would holler a sting of something at the kids (presumably “Get the hell out of the way you damned rapscallion scalawags!” in Pashtu or Farsi), point, and swat the bajeezus out of 'em. I was all giddied-up in body armor, and hurt me just to watch it. :eek:
Tripler
. . . and I would have gotten my deliveries that day too, if it weren’t fer them meddling kids.
I was walking through the woods a couple of days ago and I picked up a stick which I then proceeded to use for the following: poking ground to see how mushy it was, swinging in front of me when walking though thick ferns so as to (hopefully) scare off or find any snakes I couldn’t see, helping me keep my balance when crossing streams on rocks, and helping me stay upright while climbing steep rises that I’d otherwise have had to crawl up.
I knew an old dude who carved portraits of people on canes. They were beautiful, semi-caricature in full 3-D. If he liked you, he’d make one from memory and give it to you later. Otherwise, he sold them.
Funny I’d forgotten him till just now. An old gf stole mine. 
That is seriously cool. 
Umm. Not to hijack too much but…
Walk your tortoise?
Just how long does it take to walk a tortoise around a block?
Depends on how much you hit him with the stick. 
It helps if an eagle comes by.
And this came up.
Cool, huh?
It can’t be the same guy, he’d be way over 100 by now.
I gotta go look some more.