Photos of beavers taken from the porch while talking to my brother on the phone - Nature's Little Wonders

Last night I stepped out on the porch while talking to my brother on the phone and noticed this tranquil domestic scene directly below me at the edge of the slough. Four beavers have dug their version of the Erie Canel just below the cabin to better access the tress on this side.

Another group from the back slough has begun working the way up the lane from the other end. One thing I wonder about is that they ignore smaller trees that are a few years old and seem perfect for transport. Instead, they spend several nights taking down on a massive tree that then gets hung up on the surrounding and does not fall to the ground, creating an ongoing hazard for everyone. I guess they know their business, but maybe they could use an MBA to help them reorganize their processes. That would at least ensure that no more trees would get taken down, and they could learn all about the joys of focus groups and powerpoint presentations.

The deprivations of the Back Slough Gang from last year are recorded here. https://thatsjustthewildwood.blogspot.com/2018/09/view-of-chute-beavers-use-to-harvest.html

"We haul'd some barges in our day

Filled with lumber, coal and hay

We know every inch of the way

From Albany to Bufallo

Low bridge, ev'rybody down

Low bridge, we're coming to a town

You'll always know your neighbour

And you'll always know your pal

If ya ever navigated on the Erie Canal"

from Low Bridge

by Thomas Allen

Trip to Shellbrook for drinking water pump ( & breakfast) deer, hawk, blackbird amid blue sky day. Hawk and Blackbird.

"Snow melts into the earth and a gentle breeze 
Loosens the damp gum wrappers, the stale leaves 
Left over from autumn, and the dead brown grass. 
The sky shakes itself out. And the invisible birds 
Winter put away somewhere return, the air relaxes,"

Taking the gravel shortcut back to the cabin we stopped to look at ducks. Instead, my attention was attracted by the drama above the slough. Most of the hawks we see on our trips are Red-Tailed Hawks, and this spring they are often being harassed by smaller birds, in this, case a maile Red-Winged Blackbird. I am always impressed that birds can shed so many feathers, as this hawk has and remain airworthy. 

"Moments go when summer comes and turns this all into a garden? 
Spring here is too subdued: the air is clear with anticipation, 
But its real strength lies in the quiet tension of isolation 
And living patiently, without atonement or regret, 
In the eternity of the plain moments, the nest of care 
—Until suddenly, all alone, the mind is lifted upward into 
Light and air and the nothingness of the sky, 
Held there in that vacant, circumstantial blue until, 
In the vehemence of a landscape where all the colors disappear, 
The quiet absolution of the spirit quickens into fact, 
And then, into death."

both quotes from The Late Wisconsin Spring
by John Koethe

Trip to Shellbrook for drinking water pump ( & breakfast) deer, hawk, blackbird amid blue sky day. Deer Crossing Hwy.

Faithful Readers will see my title as a clumsy homage to the Billy Collins poem of my previous post.

This young deer took its time in crossing the highways but the vehicles in both lanes had time to stop.  It did look a bit seedy, possibly it is still shedding, it has been cool the last few nights.

"But that beneath my life lies something intricate and real and 
Nearly close enough to touch. I live it, and I know I should explain it, 
Only I know I can't—it's just an image of my life that came to me one day, 
And which remained long after the delight it brought had ended." 

from Early Morning in Milwaukee

by John Koethe

Purple Finch Feeding

"It seems these poets have nothing
up their ample sleeves
they turn over so many cards so early,
telling us before the first line
whether it is wet or dry,
night or day, the season the man is standing in,
even how much he has had to drink.

Maybe it is autumn and he is looking at a sparrow.
Maybe it is snowing on a town with a beautiful name."

from Reading An Anthology Of Chinese Poems Of The Sung Dynasty,
I Pause To Admire The Length And Clarity Of Their Titles

by Billy Collins

Tick Tock

“Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?”

Another summer another round of antibiotics. But enough about the ticks, time for some Tock, so I have pulled out the philosophy text by which I mean to organize my life.



“For instance," said the boy again, "if Christmas trees were people and people were Christmas trees, we'd all be chopped down, put up in the living room, and covered in tinsel, while the trees opened our presents."
"What does that have to do with it?" asked Milo.
"Nothing at all," he answered, "but it's an interesting possibility, don't you think?”

Because life is about possibilities, isn't it?



“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.”

A Day in the Life

"We risk our eyes

every day; they celebrate; they dance

and flirt over this offered treasure.

"Be alive," the land says. "Listen-

this is your time, your world, your pleasure.""

from Crossing Our Campground

by William Stafford

Yesterday I worked around the cabin taking out some grass, to discourage ticks and moving some plants. Despite bug repellant, changing my clothes after a tick check, a shower at the farm, more tick checks, scanning the sheets with a flashlight before bed, I found I had been bitten by two ticks. Helen has ordered me an anti-tick outfit, I believe it is a plastic buddle with waldos. She has also put the kibosh on some of my landscaping plans, I am not arguing. Ticks only became a problem here a few years ago when the winters warmed up. I was getting a bit discouraged, thank god the dragonflies showed up about four days ago.

Then this morning I woke to this out the front window.

We went to Shellbrook for breakfast and shopping.

On the way there were ducks. A Canvasback and 

some Scaups.

An old cabin. This looks similar to the homestead cabin

on the farm which was built about 1911-1912. Quite the

place to spend a Saskatchewan winter with the family.

The view from Arnies Grill, the wonderful restaurant in Shellbrook.

A prairie town sleeps under a blue sky. 

Nice but we really need rain.

A quick stop for gas, almost there.

Road Trip # 1 2019

"The past, he said. The past is too much with me. And the past has made me useless. I have too much to remember—so much to remember that it becomes more important than the things there are to do. I’m living in the past and that is no way to live."

from Aesop, a City story

by Clifford Simak

We saw a young black bear with a white blaze on its chest rearing up to survey the cabin from the edge of the slough Friday night. I don't think it approached any closer, but hopefully, it moves on. It was quite positive that I could pick it out of the brush after my cataract surgery. I suspect I would not have noticed it last year. Each year is different, as one might expect. After the tent caterpillar invasion last year they are not really evident so far. But their still around. On a happier note, we have seen a lot more Shovelers this spring.