After each rainstorm this area turns really buggy. Black flies and mosquitos re-constitute for the occasion. Deer flies leave the woods and visit lest we forget their annoying "bouncing-on-victim's-head-'til-they-go-mad-and-bite-them-back-to-lucidity" ways. And then there are the yellow jackets.

After disturbing a pile earlier in the week my ankle disappeared underneath the swelling bite for a couple of days. Yesterday, walking down the middle of the road and minding my own business I was bit again. On the ankle. On the same ankle. On the opposite side of the same ankle. Some kind of yet to be discovered yellow jacket aesthetics no doubt.

It's swelling nicely.

Faith read that when you kill a yellow jacket it gives off a scent which causes other yellow jackets to attack. It's true, I probably killed the first one which bit me, but that was five days earlier (and I did bathe).

Poor Zeke, though, is the one who deserves pity. His bug of choice has been ear mites. I'm pretty sure Tink the cat is responsible for pawning her mites off on him. She is doing fine. We've been trying a few things but it is slow going. His scratching isn't helping at all. I spent a few hours this morning cleaning and shaving his ears. Probably not something y'all want described in detail.

Instead, let's talk about Zeke & Jerry's Magic Dog Shampoo! We were unable to find our favorite dog shampoo yesterday so I concocted a homemade batch. Here's the ingredients:

• fresh rosemary
• eucalyptus (dried)
• citronella
• olive oil
• vinegar
• vegetable glycerine
• dash of tiger balm
• Common Sense almond soap

Liquified the first four ingredients and then added the others, mixing well. The dried eucalyptus made it a little chunky, extract would have been better, but the end result was a pretty cool smelling shampoo. Zeke got a thorough bathing and afterwards his fur looked and felt great and smelled good to boot. Hopefully it helps to ward off bugs.

My final bug story comes as the weekend wrapped up and I was relaxing on the back deck reading. I noticed this little bug trying to land on my feet. I'm not sure what it was but it was pretty small, had the colorings/shape of a bee, and it hovered. Just like a miniature hummingbird. It also seems to like stinky swollen feet.

I went inside to get the camera and it was still waiting for me (my feet) when I came back. I set the camera for a pre-focused close-up shot (button half down) and waited for it to approach. It did, but when I moved the camera close the little fella lost interest in my foot and started landing on the camera. I kept flicking it off and it kept zipping back. The shot below is just before a camera landing.

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