LYME!

I left Canterbury in 2007, before the scourge of the Lyme tick hit full force. On Maui, I was blissfully safe from Lyme ticks (rabies, snakes, varroa mites, poison ivy and oak, forest-dwelling leaches (just try hiking in Australia’s rain forests)) and other things lurking in the grass. Since then almost everyone I know in NH has been bitten at least once by a deer tick and sported the horrid bulls eye of Lyme.

My brother, Ethan, contracted Lyme back in the 70s, before they even knew what it was. To this day he has psoriasis and arthritis from the dreaded spirochete. My mother was stricken on Martha’s Vineyard years ago and has recurrences of foggy-headedness, whacky balance and headaches.

Let me just say that the prospect of being in New Hampshire was 90% wonderful and the other 10% was a total panic about getting Lyme. My first few days included savage research about how to repel ticks, and regaling from friends about nightly tick checks and the ridiculous places those tiny ticks had been found.

Should I wear permethrin-laced clothing (oh no, bad for cats!), spray myself with Deet (oh no, bad for me)? Will Jill check the back end of me every night for these little buggers? Will I die?

Of course it was May, so the blackflies and mosquitoes were adding to the insect-phobia. How did I ever put up with it all for 33 years? How do all these hearty New Hampshirites put up with it and thrive? Will the insect world take over with ever-evolving toxicity and wipe out this particular host species?

Don't be telling me this isn't scary!

I DO NOT LIKE LIVING IN FEAR! But fear was in my face, up in my grill, in the form of a pinhead-sized, eight-legged blood-sucking banshee.

Nothing but wonderful, safe, dry, insect-repelling gravel all
around me!

After a few weeks I realized that I truly was in the best possible location to build my Tiny House. I spent 6 months in a 100 x 100 foot patch of gravel and a wooden building. Blackflies didn’t bother me, mosquitoes saw the dry oasis of gravel and said ‘No way’, and ticks decided the dust and rocks were just too unpleasant to go for the succulent morsel (me) that sheltered in the middle.

 I haven’t overcome my fear of Lyme and I actually think that’s an evolutionarily wise stance to take. Another brother in Pennsylvania now has chronic Lyme and is working hard to overcome the foggy-headed lethargy he’s had for months. I pray for the health and safety of all those who get ‘the bite’. Chances are good that it will happen to me someday. It is another humbling reminder that Nature isn’t done with us yet.