A New Way to Have Fun

Last week, Rocky and I ran a few miles at Turkey Mountain. I let him lead the way, and we found our way over to the YMCA and headed straight south onto some trails that have gotten quite overgrown. Along the way, I felt a tick making it's way up my leg, I pulled him off and flicked him away. After that, being a little cautious, I found and remover 9 more ticks before they had a chance to bite. Last spring, the ticks were terrible and I always picked up 4 or 5 every time out. After the hard winter we had, I thought they would be wiped out, but instead they thrived. Then we had all the rain in late spring and summer. It was as though the ticks all had drowned. I went several weeks with no ticks at all. It was a real surprise that on a cool October day I would pick up 10 ticks. All that I found were the male deer ticks, as best as I can tell.
This evening, as we do every evening, we set on the patio and feed our dogs. We have 3 chocolate labs who need all the attention they can get.We sit with them, drink beer, wine, or whatever while they eat, and then they get their doggie snacks and their ears scratched, their bellies rubbed, their medicine when they need it, and lots of lovin. Since the weather has gotten cooler and it is getting darker earlier, we have bought a chimnea, and build a small fire every evening.
This evening while scratching Rocky's ears, Dana found a tick. She pulled it off and handed it to me to dispose of and since I had a nice bed of coals in the chimnea and tossed him in there. Now call me evil or whatever, but I watched with delight as it's 8 legs flew and wriggled for a split second, and then POP!!!! It exploded like a popcorn kernel!! The search was on. Dana managed to find 6 or 7 more ticks around his collar and each tick did not disappoint! As you can see, we are easily entertained. I highly recommend checking for ticks after getting into high grass, and there is no better way to get rid of them!!