it almost could be a beaver, but I'd think you would have seen that already.

interesting critter to show us via your regular release of pictures on what's going on in your neck of the woods (and water too, as it turns out). One caution, you have to watch where you're walking, they tunnel burrows and such, so don't step into a hole (leading to their den).

(No rifles around here.)

different story, when they chased the groundhogs away, it was usually out of their big garden, so they were quick to protect their garden. I thought it was rather humorous, the turtles were more of an issue in the garden, then the groundhogs or rabbits. The turtles love lettuce and strawberries!

Aunt and Uncle in rural Connecticut had veg garden AND rifle; not sure what Uncle George used rifle for, but we/they'd harvest Hanukah Bush on their property, and Aunt Marie decorated with sugar cookies.

them and they loved tomatoes too (besides the groundhogs). And, talk about shooting them...do you know how hard it is to hit a tiny chipmunk from a ways off? It's not easy, and I never ended up hitting one. They would just scamper away quickly. This particular epidemic of chipmunks lasted only a year or so too. It's amazing, as to what critters you may see by the thousands from year to year in the Ozark countryside.

One year we had cicadas by literally the millions, so many, that they were weighting the branches down. We finally got back into the car and drove away (we were checking on my grandma's place to make sure it was aok), just to get away from the overwhelming noise of the cicadas.

and this year, I've read, DOUBLE infestation of cicadas are due, in SOME places; thank goodness not here!

tons of them? Your garden is gone, and they're everywhere.

Other infestations included a plague of ladybugs, believe it or not, and these ladybugs bite! We didn't know it until we caught a few of them, and they bit us. And their bites are painful too. I never thought that they bite. Never have ever seen so many ladybugs in my life. They seemed to like gathering on the sunny side of my cabin/shed. I should have caught some and sold them by the dozens, to make a few bucks. Ha ha heh.

Grasshoppers one year, they were everywhere, and your garden was also gone. Our animals seemed to like eating them, but gosh, how many grasshoppers can your cats (two of them at that time) eat?

And then one year, it was mice, by the thousands it seemed. Every time you picked up something, a board, anything, mice would go scurrying out everywhere. The owls/hawks had to have a field day/week.

One day I'll gather up all of our pictures (they are actual photos) and grab the ones that showed the infestations online. Every time I see these doomsday scenarios of plagues and such, related to the 'End Times prophecies', I think of all of the infestations that when one lives in the Country, rural part of the Ozarks, that have already happened. It's interesting how Nature shows herself as being out of whack sometimes.

DID have 'year' of 'fruit flies!'

daughter's and neighbor's houses!

I haven't made any wine in a while.

I've never seen a groundhog climb a tree, or climb anything higher than a grassy plot of ground. Hmm?

couldn't recall name and I've never seen them climbing either!