Saturday, October 25, 2008, 03:32
Gray and Dreary
Here I am again. Another week has gone by AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT HAS GONE TO.
That's becoming the story of my life. I think it means I've got too much going on at one time.
It was, for the most part, a gray, somewhat cool and at times quite windy week. It has not rained much, but it has rained off and on.
We are rapidly approaching that dull, gray, brown time of year when all is dead and the landscape looks dead, as if it will never be alive again. And it won't be alive again for another five or almost six months. So now begins that long, slow time of year when the cold weather is approaching and the below zero weather and the snow and trying to drive with my nearly bald tires — and unfortunately, not enough extra funds to buy new tires right now.
Oh yes, that's right. I'm whining. Americans are a nation of whiners, according to Phil Gramm, a former adviser to the McCain campaign. It would appear that I am supposed to slide around on bald tires this winter so that the Fat Cat Wall Street types can be bailed out to the tune of $700 billion. Apparently, they are not whiners, just greedy or incompetent. Or both. And greedy and incompetent is acceptable. But whining about not being able to buy tires is, well, whining. Just like I'm whining about driving around on bald tires. Ho-hum.
Now here's an idea. When I slide in the ditch this winter, maybe I ought to call Phil Gramm, or one of those Wall Street types, to come and pull me out. Think they would?
Shoot, they wouldn't even know what end of the chain to hook where. Or how to start the tractor, if I were close enough to home to use the Farmall 460 to pull me out. Which is a real possibility, because the corner around the hill from our place can be a doozy when the road is snow covered and icy. It's just at the right angle that when you come around the hill, if you're not careful, or are going a touch too fast, to go right straight ahead into the powerline right-of-way instead of staying on the road. Yee-hah. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
Monday, October 20, 2008, 00:56
A Dozen Deer Ticks
This must be a bad fall for deer ticks. I gave Pixie a bath with flea and tick shampoo Saturday evening. Friday I found about a dozen embedded deer ticks on my little Shetland Sheepdog. They were all around her collar and in her mane.
Then I found a deer tick embedded in my thigh Saturday morning after I took a shower. Pixie and I have only walked along the road, and I have been out in the hayfield a few times. It's not like we walked through the woods or a lot of old grass. I can only imagine that if we did that, we'd really be covered with the little darlings.
The deer ticks are especially difficult to remove because they are so small. They are hard to get a hold of and pull out. And when you do pull them out, the spot where they were embedded is very painful for quite some time. I have had deer tick bites that itch for about six weeks after I have pulled them out. I can only imagine how Pixie must feel, although maybe they don't bother her skin so much.
Earlier, at the end of August or beginning of September, I put the horses back on their maintenance dose of antibiotic crumbles twice a day to help ward off Lyme disease. There is no vaccine for horses. And from past experience, I know that deer tick bites on horses can be very nasty.
On Kajun, the bites fester and puff and swell and drain pus for quite a while. Really quite a bad local reaction. Ever since a veterinarian suggested about 10 years ago that I put the horses on a maintenance dose of antibiotic crumbles when the deer ticks are bad (that was when I still had my old quarter horse), the horses have not had problems with the bites. The deer ticks are worst in early spring and then again in the fall. They are around during the summer, too, but not quite so bad when it is hot.
When we moved back here 13 years ago, that first fall, I never gave deer ticks a thought. It never occurred to me that they would get bad in the fall just when the weather is starting to cool off. The bad thing about them is that they can be quite active, even when the temperature is cold with only a high in the upper 30s or 40s during the day. That's the problem in the spring, too. The snow hasn't even melted, but it has warmed up to 45 degrees during the day -- and the deer ticks are out.
I am predicting that local clinics may see an increase in Lyme disease cases this fall. People are out now bow hunting for deer and duck hunting and whatnot. Those folks are walking around in prime deer tick habitat. If I can pick up a tick just walking along the road, and Pixie can pick up a dozen of them just from wandering down in the ditch once in a while, imagine how many those people are picking up who are walking through brush and old grass. If I were intent on picking up as many deer ticks as I could, I would walk around in the big pines across the road. That's a guaranteed area to pick up deer ticks.
Between the Asian lady beetles and the deer ticks, a person doesn't even want to spend time outside to enjoy the fall colors and the cooler days. We won't be able to stop worrying about deer ticks around here until the temperatures are consistently in the 20s and low 30s during the day. And that could be two months from now. Or it could be tomorrow. You just never know when the bottom is going to drop out of the temperature in this neck of the woods.
LeAnn R. Ralph