^^^ No kidding!! Wow.
Well, I could live w/o it all, as after a long winter of home complacency, we get to inspect winter's damage around the old homestead --- and given the kind of winter we've had (180+" of snow at the house, higher elevations have had more), there is a large list pending of home repairs....not including clean-up (likely a month's worth of kindling from blown down branches which subsequently got covered w/snow and are just now surfacing). And all the flood prevention nonsense, man the pumps (we have 3).
With a minimal window of time in which to get it done. Up here in the north woods country, we have black flies, in profuse numbers, and they are hungry for blood. Anyone who has ever been attacked will attest to the agony. It's enough to drive the moose out of the woods and into the roads (early June). Worse, I'm allergic, so one bloody bite turns into a golf ball-sized lump, which usually requires a week's worth of prednisone. Because the dear insects are so terribly fond of faces, scalps, ears, anything shiny (like glasses, rings, watches), I often wind up with one on my face, near my eyes. So I have to wear a netted hat (fondly referred to as my burqa) for at least 6 weeks, from around May 10 to just after the 4th of July, which is the earliest I dare show my face. Yeah, DEET works, but you can't put it 1mm from your eyes.
That's when I head indoors for the annual HI projects (this year, a bathroom gets gutted) - or to the confines of a screen porch, which DH finally built in 06 and is my only way of being outdoors here during that period without being fully covered, head to toe, especially face.
Phooey.
Not my favorite time of the year.
Used to love it, use to plant and have a garden, etc.
Not in the Maine woods.
