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Ayupmeducks, I don't recall having ticks in the UK, never saw one once and I literally lived in the forest, are they there?

We have a big tick problem up here this year, nasty buggers, it's the Lyme disease they carry that's the problem, it's an awful disease to get. 

I have never been bit by one, but then I go hiking here armed with DEET spray, bear spray, sunscreen spray, the works, it's like arming yourself for battle against the wonders of nature. 

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Thank you FLY2, you're not kidding, I had some great reading and trips down memory lane here before I joined last night, great stuff.   Hello Jill, The Mediaevalist (right up my alley) do th

Mosquitoes here are stinkers, they'll chase you, relentless little buggers. There are man-made still water lakes/ponds in every new community, I myself live in a new lake community, beautiful place bu

nice to hear all about people who have moved from Nottingham to Canada, at the ripe old age of 16 {1966 when we won the world cup} my oldest brother Terry Goodwin decided he would go and climb the roc

loppylugs, I'm surprised there's no mosquitoes back home, or is there now? It's sure wet enough and it's not like Canada is hotter that the UK, we have tonnes up here. I have an Argentine Dogo and he hates mosquitoes, feels every bite like it was a rat biting his ankles, he gets right upset.

When I lived in Airdrie the city released adult dragonflies because it got so bad, thousands of them, within two days you couldn't find a mosquito, it was brilliant.

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Oztalgian, I have seen some of the critters you get in Oz, geez, I'd never put a pair of shoes on without shaking them out first :Shock:

I once worked in Honduras and woke up many times to find a cockroach in my bed (this is not a testament to my taste in men) and I assure you, no one jumped out of bed quicker than I each morning when the roosters crowed. I actually considered plugging my nose and ears with tampons when I found out there were no bug nets anywhere.

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katyjay, oh you are killing me, I haven't seen or heard dock leaves in eons, I'm suddenly well and truly homesick.

I felt like I could live in Colwick woods when I was growing up. I'd spend all day playing in the forest, building forts, eating blackberries, unripened hazelnuts, apples, mushrooms, walnuts. There was no lack of fish (though the big pikes in The Loop always scared me!) and lots of pheasants, it really was a wondrous place. 

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Ticks are on every continent except that "cowd" one at the bottom of the earth. Lyme, you don't have to tell me about that, I'm a Lyme survivor and I don't think I got it from a tick bite, probably a mosquito is my thoughts.

For some reason the tick problem isn't too bad hear this summer, I've only taken a few off me in the last few months, usually catch a fair few on me and kill them. Even the dogs don't seem to be getting them as bad this year.

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I should mention, this is the roach capital of the America's...LOL Climate is perfect for them, long damp summers and short winters that can sometimes get bitter, but it doesn't slow them down any, both the American brown and the black ones we used to call "Blackclocks" in my childhood. They don't last long when they get into the house, my big feet take care of that.

 

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Be careful with DEET on bare skin!!  I live in a very rural area of Missouri in the Ozarks, we have everything here, Mountain Lions, bears, Bobcats, Coyotes and oh yes, I've actually seen a Roadrunner, and no they don't go beep beep, but they are one strange looking bird.

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I'm a bit late coming into this thread, so welcome to the forum ABA! Hope you enjoy it!

 

In #7 you mentioned your Mum working at Viyella and you attending the nursery across from it, was this by any chance the factory on Ilkeston Rd and the nursery school Douglas?

 

In regards to the mentions of nettles, I got stung by them as a kid and have avoided them like the plague ever since, it formed into a huge blister and popped whilst I was in school! Very painful indeed.

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Ayupmeducks, sorry to hear you got Lyme, are you all good now? 

Argh, I don't like cockroaches on me. Don't mind if they are around me, but not in my house or crawling on me, $od that. 

When I worked in India they were everywhere, a total infestation where I worked, but you could step on those and they'd die. Those Central American ones, not a chance, I think you could drive a tank over one and it would get up and run off. I saw cat trying to kill one once and the roach walked off in victory, the cat gave up.

 

I only put DEET on my socks and other clothes as it's carcinogenic when mixed with sunscreen on the skin, horrible stuff isn't it. I'm cursed with that pasty white English skin so sunscreen is in my daily arsenal. That said, I'm so white I think the rays just bounce off me :laugh:

 

You're lucky, I'd love to see a bobcat in the wild, have you? I have a very handsome leucistic coyote in my area, I see him often. Hope no one shoots him, he's not been any trouble to any of the residents or their pets.

 

What kind of woodworking do you do?

 

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Hello Melissa! Yes I'm pretty sure that's the one, in Hucknall right? It's been a while, had to clear some cobwebs ;) 

 

Makes me wonder who looked at stinging nettles and went "let's me a cup of tea out of it" 

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katyjay, I have never seen a javelina in person. They're like a smaller version of wild boar right? Do they cause any damage to gardens and such? I have family in The Forest of Dean and wild boars have dug up their garden a few times.

 

I have heard lovely things about Arizona, how do you like it there?

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I'll ask my Dad, he'd remember, I think. Would love to see a photo, whenever you get chance. Is it vacant now, I thought I heard somewhere it was derelict? Did you go to Viyella's nursery?

 

Everyone is lovely, yes Melissa, lots of trips down memory lane too :) 

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Nobody knows if one is totally cured of Lyme ABA, I had a relapse after I was almost 100% right from the initial attack, took me right back to square one after so much hard work in rebuilding muscle tissue. But been symptom free for around seven or eight years since using a herb called "Catsclaw" which I attribute my cure too. At present there is NO medical cure for the disease, I've heard of horror stories from other Lyme patients over the heavy use of drug type antibiotics, which don't work, just a case of trying them to see if they improve a patients lot, I steered clear of them as we suspect I'd been infected for a few years.

 

We saw a male Bobcat once when we lived in the Sierra Foothills in California, it was sat at the intersection of two highways watching the traffic!! I assume it was male because of it's size. Neighbor of mine told me of a local who found some Bobcat kittens in her barn, when she got back with a rifle, the Mother had taken them out the barn and gone. She feared the Mother would present a danger to her kids and dogs, they can be quite dangerous. So we know they are around here.

We know we have a local lion, probably a male according to wildlife, he's been caught on hunters night cameras several times over the last few years.

 

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Yes ABA, they do a number on your gardens. They love irises up north and agaves in our desert garden. Not sure what else, but they sure are ugly buggers. They are not from the pig family though as some think. We llve Arizona, been here 31 years. We are in the northern part (almost 7,000ft altitude) in the summer months,  and the desert in the winter. Both so different. Lots of wildfires right now, I heard there are 14 different ones on the go, my son is working communications on one of them right now. 

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Yes, you are right about the Lyme disease, I should have asked if you were in remission, not just ok. I'm glad to hear you have been symptom free for 7-8 years now as it can be truly horrible, I know I don't need to tell you as you know full well. 

It's a very controversial topic in Canada, I'm not sure how it is in the States? I knew someone who ended up going down to the US to get tested many years back.

Good for you for seeking out a treatment that works in keeping it at bay, I truly hope it continues to do so for you.

 

I got very sick from eating a rotten, undercooked fish in Honduras, it gave me bleed in my upper gastrointestinal tract, so I had vicious cramps and uncontrollable black diarrhea. The medicine I was given at the hospital did not work at all, no change in 2 weeks.

Finally, I stayed up in the slums, a kind lady offered me food one evening and I tried to explain I was sick from bad fish and couldn't eat. She waved a finger at me and rustled me up a tea steeped from various plants in her yard, I watched her pick them. It was full of twigs and something that tasted like lemongrass, she urged me to drink it and I had nothing to loose at that point so I sifted the brew through my teeth.

Well, by next afternoon I was completely symptom free, I was grateful and completely amazed.

I believe that there are cures out there we are not aware of for all sorts of illnesses and it would not shock me at all to find out it's something that's been used by native people for generations.

 

Picturing a bobcat watching traffic, what a sight that must have been! 

Keeping nature and people safe and in harmony, it's a fine balance isn't it?

 

What do you think of all the reported mysterious big cat sightings they have in the UK?

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katyjay, hope you and yours stay safe with those fires going.

 

Teach me to assume, I always thought those were some sort of pig/boar. My lesson for the day!

They look like they could do some serious foraging, much like a boar.

 

Arizona looks beautiful, what terrain, stunning. You don't see vistas like that back home.

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Big cat sightings in the UK, IMO lots will be peoples vivid imagination but I think some will be for real. Back in the early 70s there were very few regulations about what animals you could keep at home. Then they bought in all the regulations about dangerous animals and it is for sure not all the privately owned animals went to zoos etc. Again IMO many were released into the wild though how many survived is a matter for conjecture.

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I think you're right, NewBasfordlad, likely a lot of wild imaginations, one too many pints and such. It's hard to tell from some recent photos, plus our technology today for doctoring is so advanced. I have seen a couple of clips, however, that were definitely much bigger than your average mog... makes me wonder a bit what they might be.

 

I was hiking last Winter, quite close to the city limits, I passed a dead deer up in a big tree. Lots of cat tracks at the foot of the tree so I made myself scarce, I didn't want him/her coming back and thinking I wanted an arm wrestle for it.

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I can't comment on UK big cat sightings ABA as I don't keep up to date with UK news of any sort.

 

I'm not sure if there's a new test for Lyme, I do know the bacteria that causes it tends to hide in deep muscle tissue so does not show up like other bacerial tests, so they used to use the "Western Blotch Test" a very unreliable test that is used for "AIDS" too.

During my illness, I came across a lady in Southern California on a support site. She went to dozens of Doctors as she had no idea what was ailing her, eventually researching, she concluded she had Lyme, and well past the nine days to waste money on antibiotics, three or four years past, due to the ignorance of Doctors. She eventually went to another Doctor, told him her history of other Doctors, he examined her and said she had Lyme disease. Now treatment??? There was none, she like the rest of us were up the creek without a paddle..

I tried a high salt and Vitamin C regimen for a few weeks that eventually did leave me well again, but I went into relapse after a few months, it was while looking like an escapee from Belson Concentration camp that I came across a Doctors site in Nevada. He was an acclaimed Lyme expert. Some of his patients told him they had tried "Catsclaw" with great results in just a few days. I had nothing to lose, so got the wife to order some for me.

"Cured" after a couple of weeks, well lets say symptom free after a couple of weeks, and still taking my daily dose of Catsclaw, just in case.

I've passed this on to hundreds of Lyme sufferers, who have all had positive results.

So if you know of anyone who has Lyme disease, pass this info on PLEASE! It does work!!

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#14. ABA, your dad should have come here if he's into cowboys. Williams has a cowboy show every evening on the main street, May thru Sept for the tourists. They close a  block on there and divert traffic around during the show. These same folks who do the skits also do one every morning at the train station for the passengers on the Grand Canyon Railway, year round. On the return journey of the train, they are on horseback, bandannas over their mouths, they stop the train  a few miles north, and board it pretending to rob it. We have many working ranches out of town, these cowboys come into town periodically, still with their spurs on! We have several rodeos a year too. 

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ABA, so far, no fires close to home. The fire my son is on, the Goodwin fire, grew to 21,000 acres by last night. It's hot, tinder dry, and windy, so there's no stopping it yet. They have tankers dropping retardant (including a DC10) helicopters, engines and 752 personnel working on it. Lots of evacuations for the locals who usually have 20 mins notice to grab essentials before leaving. Our son used go be on the fire line,  but went on a communications course and now does that. He loves it. Every firefighter has a radio, to keep in contact with everyone else, so he and his team have to keep moving antennas on high ground as the fire moves. They hike up hills with heavy backpacks full of equipment and errect towers. If they can't hike the best hill, they are dropped by helicopter. All personnel get 6,000 calories in meals daily!  Catering companies come in to feed everyone, trailers with showers, toilets etc come, it's quite the operation. One year there were so many fires, the one he was on got a catering company out of Hollywood that catered on film sets, the nearest company they could find at that time.  Ian said that was the best food ever!  

 

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The fires are a product of poor forestry management due to the stupid "tree huggers", I gather they have the same problems in Australia.

Huge out of control fires were almost a thing of the past when forestry used to have winter burn offs to rid the forests of ground and ladder fuels annually. Due to tree huggers "bribing" politicians, because THEY believed winter burn offs were a bad thing, burn offs are now banned, and now we have huge out of control fires in several states.

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For once, this fire doesn't involve trees, it is rough mountainous terrain with low scrub plants. It was a man made fire, which started at 1/2 acre on Sunday last. High winds whipped it up in no time.

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