Every time I go hiking with my dog I pull one of these little bastards off his fur. I cover him in permethrin, as well as every inch of my clothing, shoes and hat, so I’m not SUPER stressed about it, but it’s still annoying. A couple days ago I found one in his tail floof (he’s a golden so it’s a giant poof.) The tick was near dead already by the time I got it untangled from his fur thanks to the permethrin though. Usually I spot the ticks on him either because they’re on his head (where they’re easy to spot immediately), or because they got tangled in his fur and couldn’t jump off. I’ve never once seen one bite him thankfully.

It’s wild to me because I have only seen other kinds of ticks twice so far this season, but otherwise it’s all lone star ticks, which are not supposed to be the most common where I am. They’re definitely more prominent this year though. Of all the tick diseases, alpha-gal terrifies me the most, so I’m not thrilled by this increase in lone stars.

Backpacking - Either one really swanky sleep system (the full Zenbivy ultralight), or perhaps one crazy expensive ultralight tent like a Durston, or if we’re going budget, an entire setup of basic gear including backpack, tent, cook system, sleeping bag and pad, etc. Everything needed to backpack you could buy for under 1000€ to get started.

Before the Reddit Exodus I only used Reddit and YouTube. Social media is a plague. Once I left Reddit I never looked back and now use Lemmy exclusively. I don’t really see it as “hardcore”, it’s just me avoiding the worst and most stressful facet of modern society. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything by not using any other social media.