Hubby says it’s the biggest hutch he’s ever seen and thinks it’s a big family of them. This spring the kits will be sent out to make their own homes in another area but usually close to the parents.
We let them stay as long as they’re not flooding any of the pasture or routing the water that will harm neighboring property. They’re amazing construction creatures and fun to watch at work when they think no humans are close and watching.
Today we are preparing for another snow event in our area of 4-8 inches of snow depending on what part of the county you live in. We like to prepare for the worst and hope for the least. Eddie hauling some hay just outside of different fields the cattle are in. We just hauled firewood to the front porch. The cattle were fed normally but tomorrow morning they’ll get hay and some grain but fed near the woods for protection from the snow. Today I made sure the ducks and chickens have extra feed, watering pan full and I put some treats in the hen house for them. The snow is not supposed to get heavy until tomorrow afternoon but you never know with Mother Nature.
We brought three tractor loads of firewood to the front porch and have covered it with tarps to keep as dry as possible.
Our woodhouse is only half full now but we want to use everything in it this year so it can be thoroughly cleaned out in the spring/early summer and treated for termites and wood borers.
I filled two bins with kindling for fire starting.
The wood rack beside the stove is full and holds enough wood for two days if the wind isn’t bad.
The end of the porch is filled with really dry wood and the stack to the front is semi-dry and used to hold the fire during the night. We do oversleep at times and the filled stove will hold fire about six hours. We both tend to get up during the night.
I keep this large teapot full of water day and night to help with the dryness of the air using wood heat.
We’ll be warm!! I also brought in some canned goods and potatoes from the cellar, a big pot of vegetable/meat soup sounds good! I filled two five-gallon buckets, and one three gallon bucket with water for flushing the camode if the power goes off. I filled 10 gallon jugs and some gallon pitchers for drinking and cooking water, We are ready for the second snow event of 2019.
Beavers are beautiful, hard-working creatures but so destructive. My husband has tore out their dams seven or eight times since July and the varmints are back. I don’t think they ever left to tell the truth but just waiting. I want to share some pictures of the water they hold back and the trees they destroy to make their home.
The hutch is the mound behind and to the right of the fence.
Old trees they’ve taken down that Eddie pulled out of the dam.
Tree they started bringing down during the night.
Water backed up above the dam and on the pasture is over three feet deep and getting deeper each night.
Another tree taken down during the night.
Pasture covered with water above the dam.
What used to be a narrow stream is now a river running through the pasture.
Eddie pulling the dam apart. He hopes if he tears it up every week they’ll leave. I have my doubts.
The dam break a little larger and the sound of the water rushing through sounds like a major waterway.
It’s hard work pulling out the engineering of the beavers.
The dam is probably 30-45 feet across.
Eddie tries to put several gaps in the dam.
He pulls out all of the limbs and when the beavers rebuild they never re-use the old limbs.
At this point the water is not quite as loud or rushing.
Downstream the river is becoming wider.
Up close look at the gap in the dam.
The water is up about 3 ft on the fence posts.
Pile of brush and tree limbs pulled from the dam.
One of our neighbors has a small farm behind our farm and a small spring runs through their property, through ours and on into Sinking Creek. Last year a beaver moved into their part of the stream and they love watching them. Well, now part of their farm has become flooded due to the activity of the beavers and they have raised kits which have moved further down stream to our property which is now flooded. They raised kits and their family moved to the next farm adjoining us. Hubby has been trying to destruct their dams on our property a couple times. Here’s pictures of the dam before the destruction:
They have cleared out a big area of brush and young trees on the neighbors side of the fence to build this home of theirs. On Monday, hubby took the tractor, hip waders and cable with treble hooks down to the dam built on our side of the fence and ripped it all out and the water had receded that had raised to the fourth strand of high tinsel wire.
Even from a distance you can see the difference once the dam was torn out and released.
The lake is back to a stream.
The entire fence is visible without the dam.
The smaller dam below the larger one is broken up too.
Big difference!
Hubby called this morning to make sure I made it to work with problems since we had another snowfall during the early morning hours. He had driven down the holler to check on the dam and during the night the entire dam had been rebuilt overnight as well as the smaller one. The destruction continues and they have killed some fruit trees in their habitat building.
And NO, I don’t have a picture of the culprit because they work at night while I sleep and I won’t give up my sleep for a beaver!!
We have a beautiful pond in front of the yard and it’s full of fish. It’s deepest part is about eight feet, I think. On good days when there’s not pollen and it not cloudy you can see the fish swimming around. We have perch, bass and blue gill in the pond. We also have some massive carp to keep the pond clean.
Picnic table and boat house full of fishing gear.
I love the gazebo but my favorite part of the pond is riding around in our pedalboat. Hubby bought it for me for Mother’s Day a few years ago. Last year we didn’t bring it out of storage but this year we did and I had high hopes of spending a good deal of time in it reading and relaxing.
All cleaned up and ready to float.
It seats four comfortably and can seat three up front and two in the back. There’s cup holders built in and a cubby hole in the back for books, towels, food, drinks.
Well, I haven’t been it but once since we brought it out of storage and that was to empty the rain water out of it so it wouldn’t sink. It’s been horrible boating weather even on a small pond. It has a lovely canopy that goes over the top to shade you from the rays of the sun.
With tomorrow being the first day of August I’m hopeful that the sun will be seen more and we can play on the pond as we have in the past.
Cleaned and ready to fill.
Waiting for hummingbird food to cool and pour into feeder!
I know it’s still cool but I always put my hummingbird feeders out on the 15th of April and it never fails that they arrive around that week. I’ve pulled out one feeder and cleaned it. I make them a mixture of 4:1 water to sugar. Last year we had over 20 by mid summer and the year before about thirty and they kept me busy filling feeders. We usually have four feeders on the front porch and so enjoy watching them feed, flutter and fuss as they are very territorial. This is a picture of last years group.
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