TICK MAGNET

Aaaaah! Country life! Can’t stay awake past 9:30. Up at 5:30 a.m. and out to commune with nature as soon as you’ve breakfasted.

Here’s a photo of Nellie romping through a wheat field. She loves to lope through the fields, her ears flopping high with every jump. But there is a down side to that activity. “Nellie just can’t relax tonight,” I said to Mike. “She’s concerned about something on her body.” We knew what it was and there was no putting it off. Nellie had to be inspected for ticks, and I really hate doing it. Initially I removed four. When she still seemed concerned about the party that was taking place on her hindquarters, Mike and I took her outside and found four more. We decided she needed her tick repellent renewed, so Mike applied that while I removed two more ticks from her person. Someone told me the ticks are prolific this year, and it would certainly seem so to me. Probably no amount of tick repellent will keep her totally free of the ticks, though it will protect her from their attaching.

The hike this morning seemed rather more strenuous than necessary. We skirted around the fields, which was rough going, and then we trekked through rough terrain with fallen trees, hidden rocks, bind weed, and what have you. THEN – we walked from the bottom of our lane to the mailbox on the road. Here's a picture of Mike trudging up Plank's hill. The photo to the right is of "June's field" and the tire ruts are the approximate location of the old road which went past June's house and on down the hill to our house. When June's property was sold in the late 1940s, our present lane was excavated on our side of the property line.

Mike wants to know if anyone can tell him what those loops on the back of his pack are for. He tried using bungy cords to attach the tent vertically, but it flopped around.