A stormy night

A no-name creek

Last evening produced quite the gullywasher, though nothing worse at my cabin. No trees down, no power outage, no hail. I was luckier than some areas not far away. The thunder and lightning was still bad enough to scare the chicks, the kittens and the dogs. That makes for a rocky evening, one where little is accomplished and a walk is out of the question.

After the downpours, the remnants of the storm hung around, producing rain off and on for much of the night. The morning is muddy and the local creeks and washes are all running full. I’m just happy the storm is over and cooler, less humid weather is ahead. I turn into a slug during hot and humid weather. Even reading seems like too much effort, let alone cooking or washing dishes or wandering the woods.

At this point in the season the woods are as lush as they are going to get, and the rain makes the forest look even more lush. Trying to walk through woods this thick is a bit like trying to walk through a jungle, and it’s not enormously fun. Brambles, deer ticks, wet leaves don’t make for an easy time of it.

I pulled a deer tick off my wrist yesterday after my morning walk with Dog, and we stayed on dirt roads for our walk. Those ticks are so tiny they are no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence. I thought I had a piece of dirt on me, went to brush it off and only after it wouldn’t brush off did I realize that it was a tick.

In summer I tend to stick to existing trails where the underbrush is chopped back. Bushwhacking is better left to the winter months or at least the fall when the remaining underbrush is dry and easier to navigate. The ticks are fewer then too.