How to Work

I said I'd post some pictures of the beavers in our pond. Their industry is inspiring. Above, you can see the edge of the dam and how the pond's water level is above the surrounding land. Below, you can see how they've started hauling in big logs to reinforce their mud-and-stick wall. Anything that's not tied down, they cart away and use to shore up the dam: a snow shovel; a whiffle ball bat; an oar from a boat.

This is where they live, the lodge. They recently had young beavers, who, I imagine, will be swimming down stream to build a damn (oops, typo--but I'll leave it, because that's how people feel about it) on my neighbor's property. ("This pond ain't big enuff fer all o' us beavers.")


And here are the wetlands on the other side of our house, a paradise for birders. Muddy Man lived just to the left of this scene.