Jason, don't get your skirt in a knot, I've been out of town, or, rather, in town. We went to Kitchener to visit the Bishop Superkids. With the price of gas, a trip to Michigan to visit the Brown Superkids wasn't in the budget at this time.

Fireworks at Bedrock on Canada Day Eve.

Scooter-girl Ellia.



Finally got to meet Superhappy Athena.

Superkids at the Spraygrounds.




Kita watches over Athena.



Kman learned to ride a two wheeler while we were there. Awesome, Dude! Ellia will be riding very soon.

Hot and humid yesterday, after the morning rain.




Sun going down.



Foggy this morning.




Jason, since I didn't see the bugger that bit me, I must assume that it was one of those mutant, ninja, no-see-ums of the very large variety.

Razor, I don't think that there is a bug out there that doesn't like my O-neg blood.

Today's essay, titled "Why I hate Bugs'.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

It works Kathleen.
It works Kathleen

If you are looking for pictures of what's her name's birthday party, you'll have to click on over to Grasshopper's blog.

Bugs that are out right now. Mosquitoes, black flies, horse flies, deer flies, sand flies, and nippers. On a "brighter" note, the fire flies are out too.

Hey! You broke the 40,000 mark on the old hit counter! Some people need to get a life.

Scenery pics.

Remember, screens are our friends. It would be miserable with out a screened in deck at this time of year. Mrs. Slate really, really deserves one. The black flies seem to be thinning out a bit, but they can still come out in droves. They can crawl inside bug jackets and through your socks. Kita really suffers from them and it's hard to keep him inside. The mosquitoes are really bad, the worst in years. Probably due to all the rain. The weather has been strange the last three weeks. The old saying about waiting ten minutes holds true. Thunder storms, down pours, drizzle, fog, interrupted by short blasts of sun. The temps have hung around 15c, that's in the low sixty's, for Y'all's.

Grasshopper has gone to town today, so no one is pushing to hurry me, but that's about all I have to say today, except some of you bloggers are getting lazy. That's for you Tim, Rich and Super Calliope.

The road is now dry, but with all this rain, keep an eye out.

Caution.

Due to a beaver dam break, the Notman/Gibson road has water running across the road, just past the culvert, on the way in. Yesterday the water was about six inches deep by about fifty yards. The road hasn't washed out, but caution is advised when approaching this area.

Out with the old...




In with the older.

We replaced the old, ugly stacking chairs at the kitchen table and replaced them with older chairs. I even found a Joseph's paint brush of many colours. I think they look pretty good against a background of white cabinets, white walls, and white ceiling. The school chairs are so old that the metal feet were worn right through.

The sun is actually shining right now, after three or four thunder storms dumped another half inch of rain this morning. The lake had gone down about four inches, but gained back three with all the rain of late.

Sis, you only have rat dog type bugs down there, while we have the pit bull strain up here.

Jay, it must be tough playing golf in hip waders and using a paddle as a club. But, I bet you still have your patent leather saddle shoes tied around your neck.

Storm cells pass by while we drown worms.

The black flies are the worst that they have ever been, and the mosquitoes are just coming into full bloom. For that reason, we haven't fished much lately. Kat and Cat are the only ones catching fish. You should see poor Jack, the bunny. His ears are all chewed up and he rolls around in the dirt looking for relief. I'll try to get a pic of him as soon as the bugs thin out and provides some visibility. Usually the birds wake me up around 5 or so. This morning it was mosquitoes on the bedroom screen that woke me. I think it's been raining since your last long weekend, and it is starting to get old.

OH!, The Humidity! +28c and really sticky.+32 with the humidex.






Loons beside the dock. If you look real close, on the left, you might see #2 just surfacing. Missed by that much.



There are sooo many bugs that I decided to take a truck load into town on Wednesday. It amazes me that you can drive 15km through the bush, and drive the highway at 120, I mean 90km, and get to town with the truck box still full of bugs.

Kita had his yearly check up, and he might out live us all. The vet says that Kita has one of the lowest heart rates that he has ever heard.

That's it for today.

Happy Birthday Super Calliope!

You are 6 years old and cuter than ever.

Here, Super Calliope prepares to fly off and save the world.

Another sun set.



A collision of two flocks of geese.

It's been pretty quiet on the Little Tomiko. Black flies and mosquitoes have a way of doing that. Just waiting for the dragon flies to help out.

That was a cruel comment Jason. No wonder your mother doesn't have any grand babies of her own.

Tim, you must have sissy bugs up there. A cold snap here just seems to toughen them up.

-1c and snowing this morning. Match that Tim, up there in the land of the midnight sun.




We went down the river yesterday and saw a pair of Bald Eagles. They are a little camera shy.

They were fishing for spawning suckers. The dam is in good shape and still draining nicely. The lake level has dropped close to three inches the past week.

One of the Grosbeaks likes to get his picture taken.

Still waters run medium deep.



A pair of Evening Grosbeaks shot through the screen. They are still a bit too nervous to get close ups.

Super Calliope has her own Super blog, link on the right side.

The black flies are out! If any one finds a left ear, it's mine. Chewed right off, flush with the skull. Other than that, not much going on. Just hiding out under the covers 'till the snow flies.

We had snow showers yesterday morning! Now, some people might think that the long weekend was crappy, weather wise, but, we will have another long weekend next week, and the week after that, and the week after that one, too. Har, Har, har.




We've had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at the feeder the last couple of days.

We saw a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a White-breasted Nuthatch at the Fowler's on the weekend. On the last trip to town we saw a Turkey Vulture. We are getting pretty good at identifying birds, except for the little brown ones.

One strange bird that we didn't get to see was Richie. Rumour has it that his truck made a hard right turn into Fannie's and wouldn't leave the parking lot. I didn't start that rumour, I'm just passing it on.

Happy Birthday Razor!

(yesterday, Tomiko time)

I used the Lloyd Robertson video filter to smooth out the road map on his face. No one knows how old he is, they are just surprised that he made it this far!





Grasshopper with her first small mouth bass. The bass was released since the season doesn't open till next month.




Grasshopper also caught the first pickerel of the season. This fish was released to spawn again. The score yesterday was three to one, but who is keeping score? Definitely not me.

Sun set pics.

Happy Birthday Squeegie! Thirty years old! How did your age catch up to mine?

No Kaeden, I'm not one hundred years old.




We have tons of swallows this year. I hope they stay for bug season. We also have one bat. A single bat. How is that going to help with the plague of bugs?




Nope, that's not Tomiko Tessie. Just a log. The lake is still turning over and you have to keep an eye out for logs popping up.




Yesterday we put out the navigation lights. I Frank-Einsteined another solar light from three broken lights. I have lost three or four lights from Gull "Sht" rock the past couple of years. I also installed another gull deterrent given to us by the city dump. The other deterrents that I installed haven't slowed down the gulls, in fact, they seem to take great pleasure in breaking them. You'll also see that Doc Shaw's pet owl is missing. Wind? Waves? Armorous gull?

LOOK! A peregrine falcon!




It's just another deterrent from the city. It hangs from a twenty foot pole and flies like a kite. How am I going to install them on rocks in the middle of the lake? This might take some more Frank-Einsteining, with a little millwronging thrown in.




I guess that spring is officially here when the trailer park trash move back in. There goes our peace and quiet.

Happy Birthday Sis!

I don't want you to "LII" about your age.








Jason, there is NO dirt to be found on your Mom. She is so squeaky clean, she makes Mother Theresa look naughty.


This nuthatch hit the door on the deck and went for a loop. I put it out of harm's way, (George), and after a half hour or so, it recovered and flew away.




A pair of mergansers.




With the snow melt and the couple inches of rain that we got over the weekend, the water level is very high. We checked out the beaver dam and water is flowing over and around the dam. The level should drop eight to ten inches, barring more rain.

Too busy this week to blog or to take pics. We got Linda settled in for the summer. Oh! Linda brought us a nice present, all the way from Florida. Five Cm's of SNOW! YAHOO! Thanks Linda, you shoulda been here last week when we had temps in the high twenties.

I helped Razor and Whitey build a deck on BK's cabin and put in the docks.

Razor and Whitey are thinking about having a wake for Bitchy Richie on May 24 weekend, if they can find enough people who care.

I have to send out a "good day mate" to Jan and Elsie, down under, in the penal colonies. Jose says hi, too.

OK, I got a couple of pics for you. I was offered five bucks not to post them, but I got a better offer to put them up. Remember, the same as last year, if I disappear, look for a guy with a bullet and a back hoe. Some people get jealous that I look better in a wet suit.