Maybe those beavers ain't so bad after all

I think I might have changed my mind about our beavers. I might actually have to take back all the nasty things I've said about them. I said MIGHT. I still have yet to see what our beaver pond (aka beaver mess) will look like this Spring, so I can't fully commit quite yet to loving beavers.

My reason for this sudden change of heart came about after last weekend - the older kids and Ben headed outside for some fresh air and ATV riding. Will was riding his dirtbike and Charlie and Ben were on the 4-wheeler. I could hear them riding all around and yelling and laughing while I hung out cleaning inside while Jacob napped. On one of my trips in to my bathroom to put away towels, I caught a glimpse out the window of the 4-wheeler doing donuts like crazy out on the FROZEN beaver pond. Huh? The kids were hooting and hollering as Ben used his 'zamboni' to smooth out the ice and clear the snow so the kids could play. Huh.

When Jacob woke up, we headed out to see what was going on. WOW. I could not believe how cool this little 'skating rink' was. The kids were taking turns running and sliding on the ice - having a total blast. Check it out:

Now if only we had some ice skates!!

A deVINE discovery

The other day, we decided to go check on our blessed beaver dam.  If you aren't up to date on the dam, you can read about it here.  We've been meaning to do something about it ever since we discovered it, but we just haven't gotten around to it. Somehow planting GRASS (ha) took center stage around here.  A couple months ago at a neighbor's party, another neighbor volunteered his friend to come trap the beavers, as apparently trapping season is approaching. I was all for it - get em OUT of here!  However, our realtor (and farmer/neighbor) stopped by the other day to talk to Ben and the dam was somehow brought into the conversation.  The two of them trudged down to check it out, and the realtor/farmer/neighbor guy was just in awe. He said, as a kid, they had a dam near their farm - and at dusk they used to go sit and watch the beavers in action.  He wants to bring his grandkids over to see it! He was very shocked that we wanted it gone, as he was totally marveling over the awesome piece of nature that it is. 

Of course, I do think it's cool and 'awesome' and all of that - and I really am amazed at the engineering skills of the little devils... but on the other hand, they are totally ruining trees and transforming a natural play area into a hazardous area.  Hmph.  What to do.  

Along with that conversation, Ben also reported to me the growing SIZE of the dam and 'pond', so this weekend we headed down as a family to assess the damages.  WOW. How many freakin beavers are camping out here?

With an upcoming get-together with TONS of kids coming over, I was kind of counting on a nature exploration (by the creek) being included in their activities... hmmm not so sure about that anymore.  We continued on our trek to see what else we could find to 'play' with.  Getting around down there is a little bit of a challenge - the brush and weeds are THICK, and there are some kind of 'vines' growing on everything.  Some of the trees have actually been pulled down by these annoying vines (another thing we need to take care of), but DUDE - check it out!

Indiana Jones has nothin' on my kids!  They must have done that a hundred times, getting more and more brave with each swing. It was FUN! I'm pretty sure we would have stayed out there for hours if it weren't for Charlie dropping off his vine into a pile of something itchy. Leave it to him! 

We headed back to the house for an oatmeal bath and some benadryl lotion (which solved the itchies beautifully), and with plans of heading back... in long sleeves.  Till then - 

I'm just not a fan of the Beave

I'm probably going to offend some people here (sorry Mac), but I just gotta say - I THINK BEAVERS ARE ANNOYING !!!! *whew* Yesterday, we headed over to the new pad to check things out.  After scoping out the house, we headed over the hill and through the woods to ... a disgusting moat and a beaver dam? Ugh.  Our nice LITTLE beautiful *kid friendly* stream had been turned into a big, nasty, stagnant DEEP *kid hazard* of a beaver paradise.  

They built this:

and our stream went from THIS:

to THIS:

Yes, that is me wearing argyle socks and polka-dot rubber boots.  LOL

While the kids had a lot of fun trying to break this thing apart, I seriously do not know what to do about these pests!  The dam is so thick and everything is soooo backed up.  To make matters worse, I think they also have a couple smaller dams down stream.   I read somewhere that to get rid of the beaver dam, you need to get rid of the beaver.  Is that true?  How the heck do you get rid of a beaver?  

Between dodging the flying mud glops, steadying teetering kids, and scanning for ticked off beavers to jump out and bite us, it was an eventful afternoon.  The kids actually got some water flowing over the edge as you can see above, but I'm confident it was probably repaired shortly after we left.  (fuzzy jerks)  

More to come...