After a long day of wood chopping....a sure sign spring has come

Split about 1/2 cord of elm yesterday using 2 axes (one broke the head clean off...shame, it was a neighbor's axe). Worked up several good sweats doing it...bout 2.5-3 hours of chopping.

I'm in my master's program, so I was up until 1:30 last night working on a final due tomorrow.

I realize I'm scratching my my leg repeatedly almost subconciously and that it hurts. Outside part of the leg, upper thigh.

Check it out and find a nice tick biting in for all its worth, not yet engorged. Deer tick (confirmed via pictures).

I used the old fashion way and heated the end of a pair of scissors (couldn't find a pin and at 1am didn't want to wake the wife with my rifling around) and basically killed it/made it withdraw a bit then pulled it out with my fingers (didn't take alot).

Nonetheless, today my thigh feels like it has a nickle sized lump in that area and I'm quite "off" in the head. Ugh. It's not Lyme obviously, but I'm guessing that little tickie left me a present...

Joe

They have to be embedded for a good time to transfer Lyme, I was surprised to hear. Creepy, nasty, evil critters. My BIL's dog had 9 on him the other day (3-4 on my dog, and they will carry her off to the woods and finish her off)

Yeah, it wasn't engorged so Lyme's out, but ticks carry paralyzing factors and rocky mountain spotted fever around here. And those can come over much faster.

Ticks have to be engorged for 24 hours to start passing Lyme disease. After 24 hours they get full and start to regurgitate back into the host.