This is Why NW Oregon is Green

We get a lot of rain in this part of Oregon. You see my pictures and leave comments about how green everything looks. Well, when you average 5-6 inches a month through Fall and early Winter, that's what you get... lots of green.

December average rainfall is around 6 inches, depending on what source you check.

This year we've had over 14 inches so far, and it just keeps falling.

We're blessed to live up in the hills where our home is at more of a threat from volcanoes or forest fire than flooding, but take a walk down to our creek and you can see evidence of all the extra water trying to make its way to the ocean.

The beaver family hasn't been active for the past year, but their dams are still mostly intact, adding to the noise of rushing water many waterfalls over and around dams. If it wasn't so cold and wet, I'd want to park myself on the bridge and let the white noise wash away all the tension of life.

Leave it to Beavers

Its been awhile since I let you see our Beaver Family's activity down in the creek bottom. Well, they're still busily at work, maintaining their structures. Our rock-skipping beach is now completely drowned.

They seem to be happy with the size of the dam just above the bridge, since they haven't made it any taller for the last month or so. The little waterfall on the right side of the next photo is where the creek has re-routed to flow under a big old-growth log that has been on the ground for at least 50 years.

The nice slope of the dam is now more vertical, having held back some high waters, but in the meantime having been pushed to its stretching point.

During those high waters, we were happy to see that the beavers were clever enough in their dam placement that our road only had a little bit of surface water running over it, and no damage whatsoever to the bridge.

Just enough surface water to splash around in.

And up on the road that heads uphill from the bridge, we discovered this perfectly symmetrical hole leading down toward the water's edge. We think they were digging up to create a new burrow and didn't anticipate our road cutting into the hillside.

For more posts about our Beavers, click here. If you scroll all the way to the bottom (click on Older Posts until you get to the first post), you can read the story from the beginning.

A couple of rough video clips for you... can't for the life of me get the sound to play, but thought you might like to see them anyway.

Meanwhile...

Down in our canyon... the Beaver Family has been busy.

Just a few months ago, the view from above our bridge looked a bit like this:

It now looks like this:

Talk about a Front Row Seat! To be able to meander down our road and see nature at work right before our very eyes is pretty cool.

We are being much more watchful of this new development than usual though, because they are building such a system of new dams that there is potential for our road to get flooded. As our only connection with the other half of our property, we're not thrilled with the idea.

The Farmboy already has a plan of action figured out in case he has to do a bit of de-construction.

There's also a new dam built just below the bridge and around the corner... where we used to have a gravel bar perfect for rock-skipping...

 we now have rising water.

Our fascination with these incredible Beavers is growing. We hope we don't have to tamper with their industriousness, because we want to remain Good Neighbors.

In honor of our farm mascot, I picked out a special ornament for the kids' 2012 Christmas tree...

Can you even believe how perfectly adorable they are?

The etsy artist who made them was so easy to work with and quick to get them finished. She even offered to add the thread loops for hanging when I told her they were to be ornaments. Go check her shop out, and if you can't resist one of her offerings, tell her I sent you!

Traipsing

We love our family walks in the woods.

So compatible with each other, we always seem to notice the same things.