This is not likely something most people will ever come in contact with.

I've got a creek that comes through my property behind the house. It's beautiful and is one of the reasons I chose this place (I'll need running water and plenty of room to grow food and livestock when the inevitable zombie epidemic hits). There is one thing that I didn't anticipate though... beavers.

Before this year beavers were this mythical kind of "thing" that you might see on the nature channel or National Geographic. They are smart, industrious and actually pretty cool in a beavery sort of way with their flat tails and sharp teeth. Well, they are anything but cool when they stop up the creek causing floods in the areas where the garden and the barn were to be.

It wasn't always like this. When I first got the place and realized there was a beaver dam out back I didn't see the harm. The water was not, at that time, coming over the banks and there was essentially no harm done. The little fur-balls made their dam and created quite a trap for small fish and crawdads so their little beaver lives were full and rich, and I had my own thriving family of beavers living out back. There's something about beavers that I didn't know... they don't create a bountiful home and then bask in the luxury of their surroundings - they keep building... and building... and building. If the beavers could have their way the whole world would be one huge muddy swamp swarming with crawdads that they have no time to eat because they are too busy buidling up their dams ever higher. By the time the flooding started the dam was well established - about 7 feet high with so much mud and rocks packed in that it took me hours to bust through it enough to let the water flow away from the barn site. When I was finally finished I dragged by beaten and broken body to the shower to wash off 3 inches of grime and fell into bed exhausted.

Did you know that beavers are nocternal? I wasn't thinking about that as I sauntered out to the dam site to inflict more damage on the thriving rodent habitat. But wait... the flooding is WORSE! Those rascals had come out in force over night, clearly angry at my vandalism of their aquatic shangra la. Now I really had my work cut out...

Finally I got that dam all the way down and tried to remove all traces that it ever existed. Maybe they would think they lost it and move somewhere with a lower crime rate. No such luck... I was repayed by not one but FIVE new dams along the creek. It seems several of the youngsters had moved out of the house to make it on their own.

Todaychecking the creek for evidence of beaver dams is a daily chore. If I go out there every day then there aren't too many sticks and logs to clear and it doesn't take long. If I wait a week then it all starts over again.

So yes, I have a huge problem with beaver. Every night I have beaver working overtime that are up all night and just won't leave me alone, and it's driving me crazy. Oh, the irony.