I want to let everyone know the water in the pond seems to be heading downward. Third son, Jamie, reported the welcome news mid-afternoon, after securing the barrels and buoys that were in danger of being washed off our lawn at camp. We suspect whoever came to check the dam after being alerted to the 8 in. rise, opened it further and that began drawing it down effectively. The weather is going to get a bit colder, so that will also slow things down.

When I was taking pictures today, I noticed that there was a rag-tag sort of beaver dam on the pond side of the culvert at Ned Hamilton's. I got a picture from Ned's footbridge. It's hard to figure why the beavers, smart as they are, would try to dam the culvert on that end. They successfully dammed it on the upper side several years ago, using the bank around the culvert to their advantage and flooding Ned's tennis courts. When we lived at camp, we would tear out the dam before going to work in the morning and by the next morning it would be back up again. Finally, I think either the road commissioner at the time, Gus Perry, or Ken Rogers who had a camp further up the pond from us shot the beasts.

This time, the makeshift dam is on the pond side and today the water was almost equal, both sides. Made me wonder if the beavers were confused somehow having the water higher than usual in the pond, and built their dam on the wrong end of the culvert. It didn't seem to be effecting the water level on either end of the culvert, but it's quite a mass of branches and mud.