Well, the days do pass by quickly sometimes don't they... The weather here has been really nice the past few days. We're seeing daytime temps around 43-51, so it feels almost 'balmy' ;-) But really, they have been nice and since the rain's let up a bit, we all feel we can finally get some work done. I personally have been busy playing outside when I can... you know... boys with toys. I spent Monday mucking out the rest of the barn. I do it two days because shoveling can kick your ass... no Miracle intended (inside farm joke ;-) And anyway, with all the rain we've had, the path to the compost pile has really been getting muddy. Every trip down, the tractor seemed to sink more & more... and I really didn't want to get it stuck in the mud pit. Granted Denise & I were able to get it out of the other situation... but down here, the mud is at least 1.5 feet deep and my Jeep would be of no use. So I had put off hauling the 'compost' outside and just left it in the barn until the weather got better. I'll post that up later. In the meantime, today was such a beautiful, sunny day, I decided to stretch my legs and so I went up to see how the pond was looking. Last time I saw it was a day after the big rain.
I again walked around all the rock, mud and silt... looking for treasure. The river feeding the pond was almost back to its normal flow... and overall, it seemed more peaceful. In fact, as I crested the small embankment, I came up on about 15 wild geese. They stopped by for a break I guess, but that didn't last long... as soon as I came a clump'n along, they all took off. Caught me by surprise too... Love to have gotten a picture of them. But oh well... I got something better! A sign of the elusive, Wally the beaver. I found a few of these footprints on the north side of the pond, and got confirmation from Wayne, that they are indeed beaver tracks. That was the score of the day for me. 
Then there's this... a Bicentennial Pepsi can. Who knows the when & where of this trophy, but it might be safe to say that it had been buried up there since around 1976... give or take a year. Notice the old pull tab on top... It's not gold or silver, but still a nostalgic trophy none the less ;-)
Then I walked into the woods again, following the river back up towards the landslide. I wanted to see how it might have changed since I was there last. This time the journey up the hillside was much more calm and serene... The sun was out and I was able to take my time and really look around. Last time it was raining, and more intense. The top pic is from today and you can really see the difference... 
And here again... what looked like a natural river is no more. You would hardly have known it was there to begin with. But look at all the rock... Remember, it all came down from just beyond that fallen, horizontal tree, way in the back ground. And now that the water had clearly subsided, I was able to walk up into where the hillside caved in. The size of the collapse was almost double what I had originally thought... The first time I was walked around it, I was leery of getting too close, in case it caved in some more... it could've been very unforgiving. But this time I was able to fully explore it... and it's still intense. 
And for those curious about the mouse situation. The decision to bring in the 'mouse traps' wasn't easy... but there was no way around it. They were just getting too bold and out of control. So the first night I set the traps was New Years Eve I think... not that the timing was meant to be significant... just convenient. I was graciously invited to the main house for dinner... Tom cooked some great pork chops with a homemade 'chutney'... Denise threw on diamonds, and Henry, Wayne & I brought our appetites. But I digress... I gave the mice a 40-60 chance... I had set up 3 'terminator' traps and 2 'user friendly' ones. Not sure about the math on that one, but oh well. When I got back home after our midnight, the ball has dropped, champagne... I found one mouse had 'checked out', while I was gone. And not even a half hour later, I heard a "snap"... and another one had 'checked out'... and 20 minutes after that... "snap"... another vacancy. I'm not proud... but I gotta tell ya... I slept like a baby that night.
And since then I've only had one other 'guest'... and he was a good adversary... For 2 days he was able to eat the bait off the traps with the skill rivaled only by those who work for the bomb squad. But on day 3 he got cocky... I'll spare the details, but I wish he would have gone after the potato chip bait... I guess 'BBQ' wasn't his flavor... 
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