A fellow called yesterday in need of a survey.?ÿ He purchased about 17 acres that was once part of a 40-acre aliquot part a few years back.?ÿ Now, he wants to know exactly where his boundaries are.?ÿ Sounds easy enough.?ÿ Have him nail down the address, while I do an online search of the County GIS.?ÿ Took one look at the shape of the tract and asked, "Did you purchase that from Webb?"?ÿ Surprised, he said, "No, but the seller referred to it as the Webb Place when we bought it."
Instantly, my mind went back to being the surveyor on that job in 2001.?ÿ On the first trip there we had driven up to a wire gate that separated hay ground from pasture ground.?ÿ Got out of the pickup for about three minutes to eyeball where we needed to go to set the north line.?ÿ As I turned to get back in the pickup, I looked down and saw that my jeans appeared to be moving on their own.?ÿ It was hundreds (thousands?) of miniature deer ticks.?ÿ Did you ever get the urge to jump into a fire??ÿ I did??ÿ You can't knock them all off because you can't see all of them.?ÿ OMG!
Obviously, we completed the job, but only after soaking ourselves down with enough bug repellent to knock us on our backs kicking our limbs about like a dying bug.
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Nine hours and not one person has asked if I agreed to take on the current project in tick Hell.
My helper will view it as just another day in Paradise. I won't get any closer than the middle of the county road, inside the survey chariot with all windows closed. Two bouts of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever has greatly influenced my enthusiasm, or, more precisely, lack thereof..
@holy-cow The ticks are bad this year in my area as well. I mean bad. I walked through the pasture yesterday to return a wheel barrel to my neighbor. My daughter had used it to plant and weed their flower beds and pots. They are upper 80’s and she is finishing up her community service hours for a FFA project. Which means she gets credit for what we already teach her to do. That simple walk had me covered and I was still picking them off in my dreams last night.
@holy-cow I can't speak for Rockey Mountain Spotted Fever but did manage to contract a very bad case of Lymes disease around the mid 90's. It was bad enough to have me on long term IV antibiotic treatments and I was out of work for months.
In 2015 after a 10+- acre topo, I discovered hundreds of extremely small ticks on my legs below the knees. By the time I got home, most were stuck in clusters and so small you couldn't grab them with tweezers. My wife used vinegar on a dish cloth to remove them. They came right off but my skin is discolored even now from them.
