mosquito bugs

that's what has been on my mind non stop since Thursday afternoon. That is when we arrived to camp at the family compound on the beautiful Rogue River. About 3 seconds after we piled out of the car and were running over to my dad for hugs, we were intercepted by a swarm of 10 pound mosquitoes, that impaled us with their huge proboscis's and left us laying in the driveway as a big lump of itchy mosquito bug bites. Way to start a long weekend. I have to admit, I, as an adult, had a hard time not itching and whining about it, the girls are still whining about it, and Maggie only has about 1/2 of her skin left. (This very well may have something to do with her inability to stay upright at a flat run, she starts off great, and as soon as she hits top speed, BAM!! she hits the skids and it no doubt ends in tears--hers always, and mine sometimes, she really hits hard)
We had a fantastic weekend camping with my family and one of my best friends Jim and his family. We ate, we drank, we played, it was amazing. The only thing that put a damper on the whole deal was those stinking skeeters. We bathed in deet, we sponged it on, we inhaled it, nothing seemed to slow those suckers down! We tried Avon, OFF, camper's friend, citronella, we raided tents, cars and campers and we still got bit. This was miserable. We went to bed sticky and chemical covered and still sporting full bodies of bites. Let's just venture off here for one second as you realise what it means for me to be constantly spraying chemicals all over the tiny (ok, not really) bodies of my girls. It almost made me cry. Here I spend all of my time getting chemicals out of our house and bodies, only to be relying on them for protection now against these pesky, and painful bugs. The worst part was that it didn't even work!!!
So here I sit, scratching myself (not in the good way) trying to figure out what I am going to do for the remainder of the summer for this nagging (and itchy and annoying) problem. Alan is in LOVE with the river, I think he professed no less than 1000 times that he wants to go back every weekend (not going to happen-6 hour drive!) But we do want to go back for his birthday, and that is rapidly approaching. My mind wanders back to my new wonder drug-vinegar. I have heard tell of some ancients using it for everything from child birth to burying the dead, it has to have some practical applications for that span of time in between-dontcha think? Google, here I come. I stumble across "vinegar of 4 thieves", this is actually familiar, I had read about it last week before we left. This is an herbal concoction that is made with vinegar that has antiseptic and germicidal properties. It can be used in place of Lysol or hand sanitizer, people even use it with olive oil for salad dressing. ****(angles singing) it can also be diluted and used as a very affective bug repellent!!!!**** I just got an order in for my herb blend, and it will soon be on it's way to me. (horns trumpeting) It is possible that we may smell vaguely like pasta salad until the spray is dry, but it is reported to work like a wonder and is not even related to anything unnatural-yay me. Will report back after we use it and let you know. And then possibly mass market it to the public and retire early, you just never know.