June 1^st, 2006

e have seen the huge male black bear the last few days.. he is behaving and staying off our property, but yesterday I could watch him all morning our cabin window.

The Mosquitoes are BAD this year. I was glad for the winds all day that drove them away. The horses were BLACK this evening and last night I had to kill 3,000 +/- No-See-Ums on my goat before I could milk her and then I left her complaining in the milk stand while I ran to get the Citronella EO. I put her in the goat shed every night to give her some relief from them. I need to make up a large 5 gallon bucket of bug dope for the horses tomorrow. I bet the black bear does not even take heed of them.

I had some people come tour the homestead here to talk about the magazine. Two of them from Toronto could not make it after all as they went to a HUGE meeting down south that I could not begrudge them for. They did all subscribe though.. so that was wonderful and two of them are going to help promote the magazine.

I am putting the finishing touches on the Summer 2006 issue and it will go to press this week I hope and then I will also run off additional copies of the Winter and Spring issues which I am now SOLD OUT of. When I get some time, I will change the Summer 2005 issue and also have that one available as a back issue. That Summer 2005 issue is all in color and it has to be changed to black and white for the 2nd printing of it. The all color one was a special thing as it was the first issue. Some day maybe it will be a collectors item *S*