Hey Edna I hear you. I was out attacking my Constance Spry a week ago, not pruning it's a bit too early for that here, just trying to subdue her somewhat. She was in the habit of making a grab for me every time I went around the corner of the house, just laying in wait with those outstretched thorny branches of hers. I finely got her tied back but not until she left one of her thorns in my scalp. I do think we have come to a understanding though, I won. It's good you're on antibiotics, tick bites can be dangerous. I keep a big jar of tea tree oil stuff for sore and aching muscles on hand, it's kind of stinky but it works like a charm for me.

Annette

Enda, I laughed outload reading your goldfish story. I know the guilt to our fishy friends, I have on several occasions found one of my buddies sucked into my filter/pump because the fliter floated off...always makes me feel like a murderer...glad to know I have a fellow fish endangerer :) Thanks for he chuckle!!!

Dear Sweet Cousin Edna ~ I thoroughly enjoyed your post. I laughed out loud and the smile that is stuck to my face is broad and I can't seem to quit.

I also was outside yesterday playing in gardens, in between helping DH with installing new stove wire in attic, and a new plug and outlet for stove.

I also have wounds from working in gardens with one of my favorite flowers. I said out loud, 'No wonder DH doesn't like you.' I laughed and went on about my gardening business. I re-potted two rose bushes and two Texas sage plants and I couldn't believe how heavy they were. I told DH getting older is no fun at all. You still think you can do what you could a few years ago. But after a hot shower and DH massaging in some herbal sports gel into my back and a couple of glasses of wine,I felt pretty dang good. Today was another beautiful day for which we are thankful. Hurricane season will be here all too soon. Today was windy and cool, with sunshine and clouds. We did some more attic work, and ran our Monday errands. As for gardening, I only watered a couple of things. : -) My muscles are still recuperating from yesterday's efforts.

Hope you have recovered from your physical exertions. The benefits of gardening far outweigh the drudgery of chores and small calamities that happen while working in our pieces of paradise.

Enjoy the rest of the week and have a lovely and loving Valentine's Day.

FlowerLady

Ohhh you made me laugh but I have to say I want updates on the fish ....you really got a lot done. I on the other hand have done nothing but play in the woods.

I went to McIntosh State Park in Ga on Saturday and ran in the woods with a friend and saw 2 downy woodpeckers that let me get about 3 ft away and had a picnic by the river there. Then Sunday I went out and ran the upper part of the Bartram's trail in Tuskegee Nat'l Forest. Bartram was a wonderful naturalist and we are grateful for his explorations here. Today I went back and ran the lower Bartram's trail, it is 9 miles and very much a wilderness as they no longer maintain it. I got lost twice and slid down a bank almost into the creek...had quite an adventure.

DH fixed burgers and fries and we had wine too and I feel much better. I need that massage though !! I hope everyone will be prudent in their exertions...a nap sounds very good . c

i have a little pond made of an old claw foot tub sunk in the ground. we have 2 4-5yr old fish. last fall i found 2 babies. they are about 2 1/2 inches now. yesterday i went out to feed them and found 2 new babies about 1/2 inch long. they are so cute. they are just the 15 for a dollar fish we got at wally world, only the 2 big ones survived and for this long. my hazard was pruning a queen elizabeth climber. One of the bigger limbs came down on my head and about 2hours later my head was burning on top and my dh found a huge thorn in my head, he had to dig it out. eeuuwww! and owww!
Tanya

Oh dear me, Edna. First Spring Fever followed by a tick bite. Have a nice warm bath and take care.

Libby

Trailrunner, you mentioned burgers on the grill, and you guys are talking spring.....Your making my mouth water, it is single digits here tonight yet again...it was zero this morning.

Oh Edna! Laughing out loud here too!!!
Even with your ouchy blisters, scratches, bruises and near fishocide,
I'm still MIGHTY JEALOUS of you in your beloved garden.
Have fun and be careful!
Better take out some insurance on the fish.

Hugs,
Patti

I may have to rethink getting any roses....ya'll are scaring me with the thorn stories. I has 7 koi in a pond here at this house when we moved in. I loved them so much. One morning on Labor day a couple years ago I went out to feed them and I smelled a strong chemical smell in the air and when I got to them they were all dead. I know someone sprayed something for mosquitoes as we were having a really bad time in the whole area with them. It wasn't the city as it was a holiday and they had not sprayed recently. So I called every neighbor but they all said no....I filled in the pond area and haven't had the heart to try again.

Keesha it was 71 today and will be 70 tomorrow. Last year I was able to get in the pool, unheated though it is, on March 15 !! We'll see this year...get your suit and come visit !! c

Very amusing stories, I am sitting here grinning, and nodding in sympathy. I have plans for rose pruning this week, so thanks for the timely cautions, everybody!

Trailrunner, when I was a kid, an elderly neighbor man came into our yard one Saturday morning, when mom was asleep, and poured bleach into our fish pond. He said he was making sure mosquitoes would not breed there. None of us kids thought to tell mom about it. Later that day, she decided to clean out the pond. Whilst she had her arm in the water, stuggling to free the stopper, I mentioned the neighbor had poured something into the pond. Oh, Lordy, she began to scream; declaring no wonder her skin was stinging and probably the skin would fall off her arm! She hot-footed it over to the neighbor's house, pounded on his door, and loudly demanded to know why he had trespassed, what had he done to her pond, and didn't he know there were goldfish in there?!

A few weeks later, a city offical went around door to door with plastic bags filled with mosquito fish. He said that everybody who had a pond was required to have mosquito fish because the fish would consume all mosquito larvae. My mother told the man about the neighbor's trespass. She insisted that the man go to the neighbor's house, tell him about the new law, and that our pond now had mosquito fish.

Lorna

Eeekkss Edna, that was quite the experience.

The trick is to get them there roses before they get you. haha A suit of armor for next time is in order. And might help avoid ticks too. ;)))

Poor fishy....watch that fungus doesn't develop where the missing scales are.

Sierra

trailrunner Egads! Koi are not cheap.

I think the fish eat the mosquito larvae anyway so what's the fuss about mosquitoes? I have a little pond that I put the cheap goldfish in this summer. First year to have them survive. I think I finally got the filtration system right. Anyway I started with 12 still have 8. Most of them are about 3-4 inches now. My husband wanted me to just leave them in there and see if they would survive the winter. But I felt "responsible" for them even though they were just fish. I brought them in the house in an aquarium for the winter because I knew the water would freeze solid. I can't wait until it warms up enough to put them back outside. They are the filthiest fish I have ever seen. Nothing like tropical fish. I feel like all I do is clean the filters.

proudgm, I use a livestock tank heater in my pond and winter my fish over outside each winter. They always do just fine. I know it costs a bit of electricity but it is worth it to me.

I, too, laughed out loud. Poor little fishy.
Dueling roses! That is why I prune mine twice a year and in between if they are looking to get out of hand. The first prune is done around valentine's day. But they won 't need it this spring. I am not sure how many we have here. Diane can root roses unlike any I have ever seen. I went out and counted. There are 24 and about 14 cuttings rooting.
Do y'all have lim disease out there? Once in a while we will here about a case in this county.

The fish is doing great. I added rock salt for extra measure. They are comets and I've had them for about 6 years. Comets are much hardier than koi or fancy goldfish.

Me on the other hand had a back reaction to the antibiotic. It didn't like me one bit and came right back up. My arm is still sore where the tick bit me and it's turned back and purple. We do have Lyme disease out here and I'm going to be really ticked off if I get it.

A bit of advise...don't peel an orange after pruning roses.

Edna, do stay on top of it, Lyme's disease is a nasty, nasty, thing. That's what they thought I had, but it turned out to be Lupus. You sure as hell don't want to have to deal with that so if you have any of the symptoms march yourself right back to the doctors and insist on them testing for it.

Annette

Thank you, Annette. Please do take real good extra special care of yourself too.

Edna

One of my dogs contracted Lymes disease, so I went on a campaign to research it. I talked to a hospital advice nurse, my doctor, an entomologist, the vet, and I read articles. With humans, a double dose of antibiotics is given, the sooner the better. The type of rash which indicates probable Lymes disease is a spreading red rash with an inch or so of skin in the middle which is normal color. Some people contract Lymes without manifesting a rash.

My dog was diagnosed early on. Her symptoms were lethargy and intermittent lameness in all four legs. She was alternately favoring each leg. I took her to the vet the second day I realized she was off-kilter. The vet immediately diagnosed it as Lymes. I insisted she be given two consecutive courses of antibiotic treatments, just to be safe. She was cured. She lived a long, healthy life.

Only deer ticks carry Lymes. They are very tiny ticks. Under normal circumstances they cannot be seen by eye unless they are engorged with blood, because they are so small. There are a couple of other nasty diseases which ticks can carry. A blood panel can be done to test for tick borne diseases.

Edna, did your doctor rule out venomous spider bite? The bruising sounds more like a reaction to venom, than to the bite of a tick. Maybe you got a double whammy, a spider bite plus a tick latched onto you. Arnica cream is helpful for healing bruises.

Lorna

I knew I spelled that wrong, but for the life of me I couldn't think of the correct spelling. We lived in Lyme, CN for about 1 year while DH was building stores there. It is one of the prettiest places I have ever been.

Dear Edna ~ I hope you do not have a problem from the tick. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Hugs ~ FlowerLady

It's a deer tick AKA Western Black Legged tick. I have the little bugger in a jar.

Oh, my goodness! I know just how you all feel. We had very high winds over the weekend and I went down into the hollar to check on the still column and darned if it had not blown over. What a mess! The darn coons and possims and other critters had got into the mash and since it was about three days into the run they was all drunk as skunks. Opps. There was a skunk there too, but my good blue tick done run him off without getting sprayed. It took me the better part of the next day to get the still back up and running not to forget the lost mess the darn critters ate and or slurped. Things look good for a good run at about 90 proof on the first run and that is real good this time of year.
Youall know that the spring time is very inportant up here as everybody has been shut up without fresh squizings since the mash wount run with it is cold.
Spring is my favor time of year as I get to make some spare money to put into my race car. I use half gas and half corn licker and that darn thing will outrun any laws car made.

Have fun with your stills and such

1eyedJack and the Dawg. DAWG! get your darn nose out of that jug, you hear

Edna - get your butt back to the doctor if that stiffness persists. Ticks bites are nothing to fool with.

Good for all of you getting out into your gardens last weekend. I have to admit, I looked at everything I had to do but just didn't have it in me to do anything about it. I needed to rest this weekend, and rest I did. I stopped feeling guilty about it sometime around 11:00 a.m. on Sunday while sitting in my bathrobe on the patio, slowly sipping my coffee.

Next weekend comes the dirty work.

Steven

well, I have enjoyed all of your posts - identifying with so many of them.

I pulled vines in my woods where we are cleaning and cutting some brush/trees. Obviously, the vines have no greens but you can certainly get poison ivy/zumac or oak from just the brown vines - - Yep, I'm dealing with poison something!! Will I ever learn?

Carrie

Edna, if you aren't able to tolerate the first type of antibiotic the doctor prescribed, he can change the drug for you. Since you know it was a deer tick, it would be best to take two rounds of antibiotics. Lymes is a very debilitating disease, a terrible form of crippling arthritis.

Carrie, did you wash with white vinegar to cut through any plant oils which got on you? Clothing can also be washed with vinegar and shoes/boots wiped down.

I pruned roses yesterday. I used my pruner to pick up the lopped off branches, then dropped the trimmings into my tip bag. I wondered if everybody knows the trick of using the pruner to gingerly pick up thorny branches. I learned it from an older friend many years ago. One has to use a light touch to keep ahold of the trimmed branch without cutting through.

My friend was suffering from cancer. She was too weak to prune her roses. I volunteered to prune them for her. She demurred, saying she was very particular about how pruning should be done. I told her she could bring a chair outdoors and supervise. She ended up following me around and directing each cut I made. She was very worried that I would be cut by thorns. She explained to me how to cut through the larger trimmed branches, to make smaller pieces, which could be picked up from the ground with the pruners, and deposited in a leaf bag. It took me a couple of minutes to get the hang of it.
Lorna

Ahhhhh, the stories of early spring.

Daffodils are popping. So are the dandelions. Sigh.
I've plunged into rose pruning with zeal. They are fighting back. LOL about not peeling an orange after pruning roses. I so understand!!!!!

I have a couple more shrub roses I want to rearrange....gotta get that done soon.

Warm here today. 70s but with HIGH winds. Yuck.
Tomorrow however will be icky and cold. Middle 30s for a high. But hopefully, with RAIN.

I posted a few spring blooms on my blog. Feel free to visit for a bit of brightness.

Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Soul

Oh Edna, I hope your fish is ok!!! Sounds like you got a lot done. You'll be thankful once it starts to warm up for sure.

I got your lovely card the other day- it really brightened my day. Thank you!

Tracy

Edna, the advise about the tick bite is sound, I have a hard time with antibiotics too but sometimes a girl gotta do what a girl gotta do, do take natural yogurt with them or if you hate yogurt as do I get some (spelling will be iffy here)acidofulous tablets to replenish your good antibodies...why don't doctors ever tell you that?
I am waiting for a shift change at the PO to send you some thank you seeds (that guy just knows way too much, LOL )M

Edna, I'm so sorry about the tick bite. Do take care of it. I'm highly sensitive, too. I still have an itching red spot from an attached tick FOUR YEARS AGO this June! I'm still putting iodine on it. I'd love to just have the place cut out of me!

Poor goldfish! We're down to only two as they Great Blue Heron stops by.

Take care,
Cameron

(who has gotten most of the buddleia trimmed, but still needs to cut back all the ornamental grasses and the shrub roses)

Mora, that's interesting, I've never heard of using acidofulous tablets. I've got to do research on that. Thanks for the tip. The antibiotic was a one tablet dose. I never felt so ill from a pill in my life.

Oh Cameron, my heart goes out to you. I'm a bug lover but ticks, fleas, mosquitoes and earwigs are just plain disgusting.

Goldfish is doing great! A little rock salt did the trick.

Happy gardening and be careful :-D

....one more very important thing...be sure your Tetanus vaccine is current before pruning roses.

Edna

Edna brings up a very good point everyone should keep their tetanus shot up to date, especially gardeners. That's one of the first things the doctor asked me when I took a header in the garden last summer.

Cameron I feel for you, having a persistent itchy spot can be pure torture.

Annette

y'all are making itch just reading this!