Mud

I used to say that Chicago has 4 seasons: June, July, August and Winter.  The Northwoods is a 3-season place: Winter, Mud and Bugs.  We're well into mud season this month.  For my southern friends, mud season happens after the 2 feet of ice in the ground finally heaves up and melts.  It's nothing like mud in the south.  This is a monster that has a life and agenda of its own and is ravenous for boots, tools and small children.  Mud is my least favorite season.  Bella likes it, though.  She wallows in it and is always carrying a mudpack.  Eventually the rain and cool weather will end, though, and Mud will be over.  Then it's on to the plague of the month Bug season.  It has already started with last year's ladybugs and cluster flies hatching out of the siding.  We've also seen the first ticks, though since the grass is shorter this year they aren't as intrusive as last year's nightmare-inducing swarm.  Next will be the mosquitoes, followed shortly by flies, gnats, no-see-ums and then a new round of mosquitoes, flies and ladybugs.  Sounds great, doesn't it?  But these little annoyances are part of the reason that this beautiful part of the world is so sparsely populated and I guess that when push comes to shove, I'd rather be dealing with a cloud of gnats than a Walmart moving in across the street.  The bugs and mud, along with the winters, keep the riffraff out of our neck of the woods, and I'm ok with that.