Garden, apples, beavers and bears

No frost overnight as low was in mid 30s F. No freezing predicted for the next week so I put the garden coverings away. I may be dumb for believing the weather forecasters... we'll see.

3 more pocket gophers caught for a total of 251 for the year. I almost got the middle pasture cleared of the pocket gophers. ....ya, right!

Half the herd was still in the hayfield around the house this morning. Unusual. The rest were in their typical siesta spot. Some of the cattle by the house were mooing at me to give them some treats. Didn't you get your fill last night? Oh yeah, I got home after dark and didn't give you your treats. I gave them some apples.

This afternoon a few cattle bellowed briefly down by the river as I checked traps. I looked and seen some were at the far end of the island. What's up with you guys? Don't go and be adventurous today!

Tonight the cattle almost came through the fence in the front yard as they fought for apples. The top fence board started to come out of one post. I leaned against it then moved down the fence to feed more apples.

I found it was the magpies that snitched the bread the other morning. I caught them trying it again this afternoon. They also were stealing apples I have on hand for the cattle.

I pulled the pea plants and some of the green bean plants. Then I took down and rolled up the fencing I had for the pea plants to climb. I picked a container of strawberries. I had to fight off the yellowjackets to do this. Lots of them were swarming around the ripe strawberries. I am amazed I still am getting strawberries considering I neglected the plants all summer.

This evening I seen my neighbor, Daryl, and his wife across the road out in the creek. I went over to find they were clearing the culvert of the dam the beavers made. While they did this I went down stream to check for more dams. I didn't see any but I couldn't completely check as the water was outside the narrow creek channel. In the tall grass I didn't notice the water and got my shoes and socks soaked.

After they cleared the culvert we turned our attention to a new dam (one of four total) a short distance up the creek from the culvert. With this new dam the water level is now even higher into their yard. Daryl has removed beaver dams before and has a large metal 3-prong hook. He tossed on the dam and his wife drove the pickup and pulled it. The hook would pull a small part of the dam away. The dam is well constructed so it took three or four times before the dam was breached enough to make a difference. He wanted the dam breached to get the beaver's attention. He moved one of his conibears traps to near the dam. The previous trap location was on a beaver path which they apparently abandoned.

His trap is much larger than my conibear traps I use on gophers. At least four times as large. In addition it has two springs, one on each side, to squeeze the trap shut. Due to the size one needs a tool to set the trap. Daryl said that even with the tool it still takes two people to squeeze the springs and set the trap.

Daryl has seen three large beavers the other night. He also said when he hired a trapper earlier, and they were checking the location, they found tracks that the trapper claimed were bobcat tracks. My other neighbors, Bob and Jan, have seen a mountain lion in the past.

We talked bear. Daryl had something in his pickup bed and one morning found black fur on the side of his pickup bed and one tire was punctured. He guesses the bear tried to climb into the pickup bed. He had spoken to a neighbor down the road to the north and they claimed their 11 year daughter almost came face-to-face with a bear one day. And I found what I think is bear scat down by my river last year. So the bears do make their way around the valley.