Snake skin

Weeds and ants try to overrun the firepit each year and I hoped to dissuade them w/o using poison.  I grabbed a black tarp w/ grommets around the edges.  Think it originally went under my tent so it was about the size of the firepit area.  I placed firewood around the edges to keep the winds from flying the tarp across the field.  Usually can't use the firepit in spring anyway because the county has a no-buring rule until everything greens up sufficiently.  After each rain I'd check for standing water and, if there is any, I tug on the tarp so the water slid off.  A mosquito hatchery I don't need.   The tarp was was in place for a month and I checked if it is having the desired effect.   I peeled back about a third of the tarp.  There were a few plants - long spindly and pale.  There also was a snake skin.  The snake had used the taut area between tarp and ground to rub off it's outer layer of skin.  I measured the shed - 32" long.  Of course, the snake isn't that long.  The snake's outer epidermis wraps around the top and the bottom side of each scale so when peeled off in one continuous pull the shed becomes about twice the length of the snake itself.  I replaced the flap of tarp I'd pulled up.  Whatever other discoveries the other 2/3rd's of the tarp may cover can wait for another day.