We were hoping our friend Bucky the Beaver was spending his time in another part of the river. We hadn't noticed any recent damage to our bushes and trees, but the last few days we've caught some glimpses of Bucky in the river.

Today dispelled all hopes when we saw not only Bucky, but two or three of his family members enjoying life in the river.

This is a cute little Baby Bucky chasing dad, several times he dove under the water and came back up right behind Bucky as he swam along, a game of tag.



Baby eating tender spring grass. There is a large area of chewed grass, in that part of the river bank, and I suspect little Bucky Jr. is living right here next to our house.



Bucky went through the culvert to the side stream where he's maintaining some dams.



Mr. Troutbend saw him place a fresh tree limb on the top of the dam and continue on upstream. It's the first time we've seen him in that side stream, because he usually does his work there in the dark of night. It seems like we just checked that dam a day or so ago and since then he's cut down some fresh trees to arrange on the top. He's probably out there working on it as I write this at 10:30 p.m.

Tomorrow we will get out there and wrap a bunch more trees with chicken wire, our only defense against the Buckmeister and family. I just hope we are in time to save all the ones we think are at risk.