Dam-busting Snake-a-thon!

  I bust the dam.  Note the water level.

  It keeps draining and the engineers show up to take a look.

  They start to work.

  Using native organc materials.

  Meanwhile, the other gentle woodland creatures sleep it off.

  To windy to do much outside.  Sunny too.  Non-photographic weather.  Went out to check the beaves and walked down to take a look at the moccasin tangle.  He was in it.  I'm assuming this is his home spot.  I approached him very quietly and used an indirect line.  He finally spooked.  I don't think he smelled me with his tongue but could have.  He certainly saw me.

  Wonder how big a range a snake like this has?  Gotta move around some to hunt.

Sculling Snappers, Swearing Beavers.

  Hull down.

  I'd like to get my hands on the guy who ruins my dam, just once!

  Hauling out.

  Big turtle #2 passing.

  Seal it.

  The sweat of his brow, the spit of his mouth, the enamel of his teeth.  

  Does this angle make my butt look big?

  You think YOU are discouraged.  Consider these Beavers.  Every night they dam up the water.  Every day I tear it down...and for WHAT?  

  Construction, (especially after hours night construction) takes time-and-a-half and a sturdy work ethic.  You think these Beavers are getting a check?  Nope.  It's all sweat equity.  

  Every construction crew I worked with used coarse language, if not from time to time then as a basic lingua constructiva.  You think these overtime dam builders are swearing about some simian who is cutting the dam every night and dumping the habitat downstream?  For Art?

  Book it.  These are some swearing Beavers.

  This ain't just putting on a hardhat and turning on the mill neither.  This dam has to be gnawed out of sticks in the dang forest.

  So, a little dam deconstruction today.  Easier to destroy than build, for sure.  Afterwards I drifted along the streams looking for Southern Snappers and (just like arrowheads: look and you find): there one was.  

  Sculling back and forth.  I got my Nikon.  It wasn't the turtle from the day before- no hole in the shell.  About the time I was getting bored a second snapper hauled himself over the sandbar.  The count is three Southern Snappers along one little stretch of creek.  Very nice.  I blinked and the turtle hauling out changed his mind.  He watched my tree for longer than I cared to stand it.  Sapiens isn't going to match patience with a reptile, ever.  I can outlast a squirrel or a deer but even a frog can outwait any hotblooded mammal.  I left.  But three turtles!  Who knows, there could be 30!  No sliders, no softshell and no snakes yet...but three nice southerns in 200 yards of pooled stream.  Oh my.

There was never an Alamo in Oregon.

  I've seen better Beavers drawn on cave walls with a piece of bone and some red ocher 55,000 years ago.  This is the back side of the Oregon State Flag.  The front side is worse!

  Is this a beaver or a manatee?  Is he on a rake or a flying carpet?  What the hell is the State plant up there?  Cannabis?

  Don't answer that, but I'd be damned embarrassed to fight and die under a flag like this.

BeaverBlogging!

  Do I look like I'm damming?  Hell, yeah I'm damming!

Update:  Welcome Sayuncleanchers!  More wet, hot, young, hairy beavers frolicing in the rushing water, plus political griping, rabid coons, pissed off Snapping Turtles at HOME.

A(nother) night of organic, sustainable, hydro-engineering, shot to hell!

  Don't go into the light.  Just keep working.

  Tourist on his way back from the neighborhood garbage cans.

  Sustainable damming.

  Wipeout.

  The raccoons, possums and deer never give a flip about damming the stream, while the Beaver think of nothing else.  God drinks, I tell you!

  It's not easy being beaver.

More Wet, Young, Industrial-grade Beavers!

  Complex hydralic engineering problems.

  Dude, where's my chainsaw?

  Industrial-grade Beaver.

  Just before the wipeout.

  While the rest of us are hiding from the freezing Texas Spring rain, these hardy aquatic animals are OUT there!  Doesn't some state have the beaver as the State Animal?  They ought to!

  

  Update:  It was freezing and raining, plus the cam site was only about 10 inches above the waterline, so I pulled the cam for the night.  Back up when the creek is back in the channel.

Happy Reality!

  Defining conservatism:  When a conservative say's he's going to post photos of hot, young, wet, hairy beavers.....he uses real beavers.  That's all you need to know, right there.

Update:  No cam up tonight.  Still raining.  The bottom is flooded.  They are going to be busy everywhere until the water gets back in the channel.  Dam Beavers!

UpdateII:  Flooding down along the creek.  Water back in channel.  Cam back in position for Thursday (tonight) and Friday AM.  Beavers were busy up and down the creek during flooding cutting trees and eating bark.  Now, I'm having peppermint tea and the redhead and I are going out later to eat later.   No bark.  And down in the bottom today it was raining and 39 degrees.  I was so cold I was unfocused, (so to speak) while trying to photograph.  I have a lot of respect for the beavers.  They live there and love it, bark for dinner or not.

Update III:  Big sandbars moved around in the creek channel.  Wonder how my snapping turtle friend is doing?  Sandbar right through the center of his pool.  

Update IV:  Lots of hits looking for the beavercam.  Hope to have plenty of fresh, hot, young, wet, hairy beavers in the morning, guys!  Just try and keep your bark on!