The chicken whisperer

That's Evan's favorite chicken, who Ashton has named 'Little Red Robin Hood'. We have 4 others; Marley, Clucker, and the twins - Millie and Vanilli. Evan is very good with the chickens as you can see. Amazingly enough, he hasn't been pooped on yet.

The chickens all run for cover when Ashton enters the yard. He just loves them a little too much sometimes. I have also caught him trying to ride them, trying to make them fly, and giving them rides down the slide. But he is the champion chicken-herder since they run for the coop whenever he comes near.

My sister's kids loved playing with the chickens when they were here this spring. They sat there playing with them for hours...

Tick-ed Off!

Poor Evan, he got a tick right in his armpit. On his birthday too! It's times like this that I'm glad he likes bugs and creepy crawly things because he wasn't freaked out like I would have been.

So let's review how to remove a tick, since it seems to have changed since Nate was a boy scout. It is no longer recommended to burn the tick with a match or smear it with Vaseline or any other substance because this will only aggravate the tick, causing it to burrow deeper and release more saliva, increasing your chance of catching diseases like lyme disease.

While Nate was busy doing all those things you should never do, I hurried and looked online at about ten different sources that all said to just grab the little bugger with tweezers as close to the head as possible and pull it out. If the head gets stuck, it will work it's way out.

Ya kinda gross. Now let me tell you MY defense against ticks: NEVER go into nature where the ticks are and they can't get you!