Giveaway Winner! ... And A Message About Ticks

Today is the drawing for the Going Over 10,000 Views Giveaway Celebration!  My daughter was so happy to put all the names in a hat and draw the winner for me before she ran off to school this morning.   

And the winner of "Carrots Love Tomatoes" by Louise Riotte is ....

hoosier girl!

Congratulations!  E-mail me at my address below to send me your address and I'll get the book right in the mail!

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Now, a message about ticks. 

(May I add that simply looking for pictures of ticks made my lip curl)

We've had an unusually warm autumn and the ticks are horrible.    The family went for a walk and we found ticks climbing up our pant legs!  I went hunting, and even with all the necessary precautions, I still found a tick with it's head embedded into my foot.  

How do you get out a tick that's embedded itself into you?  In the past, I've tried the old standbys of putting a hot match to it's rear (didn't work) and putting Vaseline on it to smother it (I don't know about you, but I don't want to wait around for that nasty thing to smother - ugh). 

 I have found that the best way to remove a tick is to grasp the body firmly with a pair of tweezers and rotate counter clockwise (why counter clockwise?  I don't know, maybe because I'm right-handed, but it seems to work) while very gently pulling away with the tick.  You may have to rotate the tick body 5-7 times before it lets go.  Disinfect the site.  

I quickly run the tick to the toilet and flush it down because it seems that you can squeeze a tick really, really hard and it doesn't die!  This method of removing ticks works well with your dogs and cats too - if you can get them to sit still (the pets, not the ticks).     

Be sure to watch for infection of the site and particularly look for a telltale red bulls eye which indicates Lyme's Disease.  See a doctor if either of these things happen.

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srfitzg@zitomedia.net