Ok, I know what the flies are now: buffalo flies. I was talking to my mom this morning, and she asked me if I’d noticed them, because they’ve been terrible out at the farm, too. They’re wearing hooded jackets outside sometimes just to keep the flies off, and she saw one lady working in her garden wearing a bee veil. The worst thing is they’re really getting after her chickens, burrowing under the feathers and driving them crazy. A few have even died, so if that keeps up, I could lose my free egg supply!

The good news is that they’re only supposed to stick around for a couple weeks, so they should be gone soon. And now I don’t have to throw away my shampoo. Apparently they don’t bother things in the dark — people are putting black paper over the windows of their chicken houses to keep out the light and keep them off the chickens — so maybe I’ll walk Pepper before dawn and after dusk for a while.   The rabbit hunting is better then anyway.

Ok, so this morning I washed my hair with bar soap, no shampoo, and I doused my head with Off before we went for our walk. I still got swarmed. Whatever they are, these flies don’t mind Off, and they still like my hair. Now what? Maybe when the town sprays for mosquitoes, that’ll get rid of them. I feel like I should ask around and see if anyone else has noticed them, or if I’ve been singled out like Job, and should expect to start sprouting boils any time now.

More to come later today; I’m working on a couple long things.