Cliff and I like to do things together

I guess that's why we both came down with colds at the same time with the exact same symptoms. You know, the cold I described a couple days ago as "minor"?

Forget that! I'm thinking it wasn't the wisest thing to go riding the motorcycle yesterday, because we coughed and hacked all night; both our colds took a decided turn for the worse. Cliff said he didn't feel like going to work this afternoon, and I told him, "I know exactly how you feel, and I wouldn't go to work if it were me." So he called in for a sick day.

We've been napping off and on in our recliners most of the day.

Remind me never to brag again about not having a cold all winter.

Oh, I did take my choking, hacking self out to the pasture (slowly) to see if any poachers were on my place stealing morels; I unlocked the cabin so I could get Sadie a drink and noticed some sort of toad all flattened out by the door handle.

See him, to the right of the lock?

He didn't even budge as I approached for a closeup. In fact, when I closed the lock thing, it touched him and he still didn't move.

Isn't he cute? Click HERE and scroll down to "gray treefrog"; I think that's him.

I saw this little skull in the leaves below the cabin; a squirrel perhaps? By the way, ticks are already out and about. I discovered one latched onto my arm a couple of days ago, and I found one crawling up my ankle today. So I availed myself of the Deep Woods Off I keep at the cabin.

I always forget what these are called; they aren't violets.

It's easy to remember the name of these: Dutchman's breeches!

ticks

I spent lots of time outside yesterday, including some time in the woods, both at my cabin, and in clearing a new path to the bottom of one of our "hollers". The hillside is steep, I got tired, and I sat down to work on the brambles and brush.

When I got back to the house, I felt something crawling on my arm... it was a tick! At least he was crawling, rather than buried into my skin. But this was a warning to me to check for others.

Two years ago, I was bitten by a deer tick, and developed "bulls-eye rash" that is characteristic of Lyme Disease around the bite, as you can see by the above picture; the red area was six to eight inches across. The doctor gave me a round of antibiotics (testing for Lyme really doesn't work immediately following a tick bite).

This morning before getting dressed, I had Cliff look my backside over (a job he never seems to mind, for some reason). Sure enough, there was one on my upper back in about the same spot the above rash was found, feasting on my blood. I examined it closely and found it to be a female "wood tick" or "dog tick" (Click HERE to see what different varieties look like). Whew. I simply have to start wearing insect repellent.