KFRM Blog

Leave It to Beaver
Monday 10th of January 2011 06:33 AM
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By Kim L. Fritzemeier

KFRM Central Kansas Reporter

Farm Wife along the Stafford/Reno County Line

I was one of those kids in the 1960s who loved watching the Beav and Wally on Leave It To Beaver. Even though it only ran from 1957 to 1963, reruns introduced the Cleaver family to other generations of television viewers.

But the County Line has another kind of beaver. Even though he's elusive, and we haven't seen him in person, we've seen evidence of his work.

If we were to catch a glimpse of him, he'd probably look something like this:

(I got the photo from Wilderness Classroom.)

We have cattle in a pasture on Peace Creek. It's also where the guys go every day to load up silage to feed the cattle.

As Randy was driving into the pasture, he noticed the gnawing marks on the tree.

Then, he saw the hole in the ice where the beaver had broken the surface of the creek to get to his chewing station.

And, even though it was about 10 degrees at the time, he came back to the house so I could see it, too. That's true love, isn't it?

The beaver probably lives on the other side of the creek, beyond the bend. When we still farmed that land, we took a 4-wheeler ride and saw the beaver dam along Peace Creek. We don't farm the ground anymore, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

And while it was interesting to see the well-chewed tree and the broken ice, I got distracted by the beauty of the sun reflecting on the ice.