Beaver, Millpond

Not only was today a work day, but it was also chilly, raw, and, for much of the time, rainy and windy. For a brief time in the late afternoon, however, the rain lessened to mist, and while the nor'easter was still howling, I did manage to get out for a quick walk to the millpond. Amazingly for this time of year, almost all of the ice has disappeared, and because of all the recent precipitation—praise the Drought Dissipating Lord—the beaver dam that I had tried last year to dismantle at the top of the dam had washed away. That dropped the water level in the pond and made it possible for me to get across the dam. When I surveyed the shore for the first time in a couple of weeks, I discovered that I wasn't the only mammal who'd been busy. The local beavers were clearly active in the January Thaw weather and these master architects were in dam replacement mode. Looks like I'll have to be in beaver dissuasion mode... and I thought I'd convinced them to go elsewhere...