Note From JWR:

Yesterday I took a “speed hike” day with #1 Son and and #3 Son here at the Rawles Ranch,. (I’m trying to lose a few pounds and get in shape for a four day course that the Memsahib and I plan to attend at Front Sight, later this year.) While on the hike, we got our best view ever of the beavers on our neighbor’s pond. They are cute, but destructive critters. They have been busy for the past two years. Their dam has raised the pond’s level by a couple of feet, and this has increased the pond’s surface area to nearly six acres. (It was formerly only about five acres.) They have also decimated the trees that used to ring the north end of the pond. Since they are rapidly exhausting their food supply, I suspect that the beavers will abandon their lodge and move further up-country next year. Coincidentally, our first letter today concerns ponds…