Last week, Dick Parker mentioned using a cistern to keep our stored fruit in the basement cool. That novel idea reminded me of the struggles Wally had with the water table and the fruit trees. The struggle came as a result of the conflict he had with the beavers, for they insisted on damming up Park Rill which raised the water table and drowned the roots of his fruit trees. The beavers and Park Rill go hand in hand, so I’m assuming the dams have always been there. Before the fruit growers arrived, the beavers did their thing and the trappers controlled their populations in winter when their fur was the thickest.

Then the fruit grower arrived and broke holes in those dams releasing the water in the summer. The dams were thirty to sixty feet long so destroying the whole barricade was out of the question. The beavers took exception to a broken dam and plugged the holes with new sticks and mud. These industrious animals would repair the dam holes so well that it would take a lot of strenuous effort to break them open again. This would go on all summer long if you let it. The local trappers would not come in the summer so Wally had to find other ways to control the critters.