Did I tell y’all about the beaver in our pond? They apparently came in with all the flooding that was going on earlier this year. I looked out the window one day and saw what I thought was a dog swimming across the pond. Then, it saw me. It dove under and didn’t come back up. I didn’t know whether it was a nutria or a beaver, but it certainly wasn’t a dog.

The beaver built two lodges on the pond, that we know of, and dammed up the culverts at the other end of it. Next heavy rain had the pond threatening to flood the neighbor’s house. We had to hunt them out. I think there were only three of them, but the last one apparently left when it stopped raining and the pond stopped rising.

But my husband’s personality being what it is, and his sense of humor being what it is, he couldn’t let the beaver go without having a little fun with them.

This is the pic I posted for our July 4th party. The caption for the picture was, “Y’all remember those beaver I told you about?”

Let me just stop here and tell you something: I love gullible people. They’re so much fun! That picture went up with the picture of the regular pit, so it apparently was mighty convincing for some of our family and friends. I kept trying to explain to them that this was going to be tons better than the gorilla lips and the monkey brains he served early in our marriage. Thing is, nobody believed that he actually served those–I mean, where would one actually get gorilla lips and monkey brains?

But since everyone knew we had beaver on the pond–and since the lodges were still there to help prove the point–all but the most avid hunters and daring meat eaters were concerned about what was on the menu for July fourth.

The picture of foil-wrapped whatevers was a decoy, though. Actually, MSB put the beaver in a foil pan with potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions and roasted it on the pit. Inside the foil wrappers was the best brisket anyone could ever sink teeth into.

Trust me–when the pan came off the pit, there were a lot of tentative bites and ewwwws involved before we got around to telling them the truth. The foil pan held strips from a pork roast.

Aside from the tall tales and great food, MSB looks forward to watermelon time, aka “feed the turtles” and the birds and squirrels. And the ants–but we won’t get into that. Basically, all you have to do to feed watermelon to God’s creatures is to eat the nasty red stuff off first and toss the scrumptious rinds on the ground and into the pond. Then just sit back and watch. It’s always fun–especially later in the evening when the deer come to feed on it.

So, there’s our July 4th tale. I hope you had a good one too.