from http://www.agelesslove.com/boards/showthread.php?t=10717

Twas early in the spring when I decide to go,
For to work up in the woods in North Ontario;
And the unemployment office said they'd see me through
To the Little Abitibi with the survey crew.

Chorus:
The blackflies, the little blackflies
Always the blackfly no matter where you go
I'll die with the blackfly a-pickin' on my bones
In North On-tar-eye-o, eye-o, in North On-tar-eye-o!

Now the man Black Toby was the captain of the crew,
And he said "I'm gonna tell you boys what we're gonna do;
The want to build a power dam and we must find a way
For to make the little Ab flow around the other way."

chorus

So we survey to the east and we survey to the west,
And we couldn't make our minds up how to do it best.
Little Ab, Little Ab, what shall I do?
For I'm all but goin' crazy on the survey crew.

chorus

It was blackfly, blackfly, blackfly, everywhere,
A-crawlin' in your whiskers, a- crawlin' in your hair;
A-swimmin' in the soup and a-swimmin' in the tea
Oh the Devil take the blackfly and leave me be.

chorus

Black Toby fell to swearin' cuz the work went slow,
And the state of our morale was a-gettin' mighty low,
And the flies swarmed heavy; it was hard to catch a breath,
As you staggered up and down the trail, talkin' to yourself.

chorus

Now the bull cook's name was Blind River Joe;
If it hadn't been for him, we'd've never pulled through.
For he bound up our bruises and he kidded us for fun,
And he lathered us with bacon grease and balsam gum.

chorus

At last the job was over; Black Toby said "We're through
With the Little Abitibi and the survey crew."
T'was a wonderful experience and this I know,
I'll never go again to North Ontario.

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by Fusionaut.

Moving this video to calvados's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

I've been there. It's all true.

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 6:41pm PDT - promote requested by notarobot.

I really really hate black flies, due to a couple incidents as a kid where I tried to suffer politely through being eaten alive by them. People who haven't experienced black flies don't understand: it's not like mosquitoes.... mosquitoes bite you and go away or you slap them and they're dead. Black flies just nip at you over and over and over every few seconds relentlessly and it's more painful than a mosquito bite.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Monday, August 15th, 2011 4:35pm PDT - promote requested by NicoleBee.