Bath, Bugs and Fruit

The ol' mercury in the thermometer is a rising these days, and anyone that knows me knows that summer is my least favorite time of year. It must be that I grew up in Oklahoma where 105 degree days and 100% humidity were the norm. Needless to say I'm heated out. Well, in Northern Alberta, when the heat rises so does the bug count and I have to say I'm astounded. Want mosquitoes? We got 'em. Big Black Flies? Bucket loads. Oh and lets not forget the big one: Horseflies. Huge ones.

There's not a lot of things I hate in this world, but these three bugs together would certainly fall into the hate category. Anyway, enough of my whining. Here's a few more pics from life in the forest. Here's senor Rufus after getting a bath. He's getting big. He's 53 pounds as of today. The water seems make him look smaller though.



One cool thing about being out here is that there are wild strawberries everywhere. However, they're not exactly the same size as the kind you buy in the store so they take a little more work to pick, but they're delicious. Maybe sometime we'll pick enough to make a jar of jam.



France and I on one of our nightly walks with Rufus. We have to cover up like this and spray our face and hands with bug spray to keep from getting eaten alive. Good thing no one is out here to see how goofy we look.



France and Rufus on our walk down the airstrip. We like walking down the airstrip because we can see our surroundings better if there are any bears nearby. Fortunately we haven't seen any yet.