I woke early, and cleaned up the house a bit thinking that Dana might be staying over tonight.

It had rained during the night, so I didn't have to water the garden. I went to the farm and checked the animals. Everything seemed okay.

I went to the bookstore to meet Dana. Victoria came with her, she's going to run the store for the day. Dana and I went off in my car to see my calf in the north pasture. On the way we saw many native flowers; tiger lilies, Canada anemone, hare's bells, brown-eyed Susans, and many more.

Dana was unsure of the cattle, but I think that she liked them. She really likes little Dancer, my little charcoal and white heifer. She is a very nice looking little calf.

After we took some photographs of Dancer and the other cattle, we headed up to the Silver Bend hiking trail. Dana asked me how we were doing, and I told her that I thought we both deserved someone who would love and respect us no matter what. I'm not exactly sure how she took that.

It was a very steep and winding trail. We saw many butterflies, birds, squirrels, frogs and snakes. I was surprised to see that the Saskatoon berries were ready for picking. I grabbed a handful and stuffed them into my mouth, warm from the sun and juicy sweet.

There were also many woodticks and mosquitoes. We must have picked fifty or so woodticks from ourselves. A few of them were deer ticks, but none of them had attached themselves yet.

We passed an anonymous gravesite, marked with a bit of stamped tin. Some poor soul who had died in the era of the paddle-wheel steamers that patrolled the Assiniboine river whose banks we were strolling upon.

When we got to Doyle's landing we turned back. The little spit of land that had been cleared as a waystation for the paddle-wheelers was as good a turning around point as any. Besides, it looked as if it would rain soon.

The first drops fell as we reached the car. We spent some more time picking off ticks and then headed into Miniota for a break. We put up a flyer for the store at the restaurant as we left.

When we got back to Virden we stopped in at the store. Victoria had had a very good day at the store, with excellent sales. After a while I pulled in the sign, and Dana closed the store. The girls headed off for Elgin, and I started over toward the Central for a coffee.

It started pouring just before I got to the Central, and it absolutely bucketed for fifteen minutes or so. Then it just stopped. The streets ran with water for a long time afterwards.

I went out to the farm again to check the animals, all was well.

It had dried up a bit, so I went out to my garden to pick strawberries. There were so many. I hulled them and washed them and froze them. I'll have to learn how to make jam or something....