This summer will surely be listed in the weather logs as “unusual” to say the least. There have been more dark, gloomy mornings than I can ever remember. Inside and outside, things are damp. When a couple of clearer days arrive, they don’t compensate for the rainy ones. It will be great, come autumn, if we get some brisk breezes to blow through your houses and wipe out summer!

There has been a lot in the news lately about beavers. These sturdy wildlife critters are causing concern in neighboring areas as they build dams to create the kind of environment they want and need around their houses. They cause roads to be flooded and even the yards of people who happen to live near a stream which the beavers occupy. It only takes them one night to rebuild their blockades to culverts, bridges, and sluices. No wonder the phrase has been coined because of these industrious critters – “Busy as a Beaver.”

If you have ever lived near a beaver lodge, you know that their ambitious work in building themselves a homesite and neighborhood can be very amusing – and also very alarming. They are masters in the art of tree cutting and they are very determined. They don’t give up easily.

When we spent summers in Vermont at our little red house, a beaver pond managed to exist not far away. It was a short walk that visitors often took in the early evening, hoping to see these busy little neighbors as they continued clearing land around the pond. If you were extremely careful to be quiet, it was sometimes possible to reach the slope above the pond and watch as they worked. More often than not, however, the beavers sensed your presence, and with a loud whack of their broad tails on the pond’s surface, they would disappear into their house and wait until you left, to continue their work.

On a very quiet evening, we could at times sit on our deck and off toward the pond hear that loud sound of their tails on the water, and we knew they had unexpected visitors.

Our wildlife around the cabin also included a mother bear and her cub. They were around for a couple of years and never bothered anyone and were not seen often. The cub stayed around a couple of years and left to find its own territory. Mama bear was seen one summer day when she crossed the road above our place, in front of the car in which Wendy was riding. Her eyes were big as the proverbial “saucers” when she stopped to tell of the experience.

The chokecherries were especially large and ripe and juicy, one summer. The natives in Vermont don’t use them for much, but I learned how to make good jelly with them, and the season wasn’t complete unless we went back to Connecticut with a couple of batches of this late season jelly.

Just below the cabin on the dirt road, a lane branched off to the beaver pond. Huge bushes of chokecherries were lush with colored fruit. One evening my husband offered to go pick a pail if I had time to jell them. I did – and off he went. In about 20 minutes he was back on the dirt road, walking briskly and swinging the pail. While he was picking on one side of the thick bushes, mama bear was having super on the other side. She made a guttural sound as she chewed away, and that was enough to alert the human picker. He left the bear to enjoy her meal. In a hurry, he left.

Next morning we walked down the lane and it was evident that the bear had been there awhile – the bush was picked clean and branches broken as evidence.

We had deer nearby the cabin and often saw their hoof prints in our yard when we arrived for a weekend. Wild turkeys were down the hill in back of our property, and bird life was abundant. It was mostly a peaceful place to be, but occasionally we were treated to a little bit of variety.

The quote last week was by LeRoy “Satchel” Paige, an outstanding baseball pitcher who started in the black leagues and ended his long career in the major leagues. The quote is from his book of 1953, How To Keep Young.

Who said, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”?