1

I like to hear about the beavers; I don't get a chance to see them much in my area. Like you say, they are the engineers of the animal world.

I wonder if your situation is one in which the beaver population (recovering from earlier situation of heavy trapping) is encroaching on suburbia.

It's definitely easier to live with than coyotes moving into suburbia.

2

I'd talk about them more, but there hasn't been a lot to say since the county killed the last bunch.

3 Was it extermination, and not relocation?

I'm a little surprised.

4

The story I heard was that they were worried about using live traps. The fear was that with the animal in the trap, neighborhood kids would try to pet them and get bitten.

Anyway, I am sure they were killed, not relocated.

5 Well, now I'm sure they're back. That branch is gone, and there are a lot more fresh wood chips out there.

6 Sigh. You have got to be living in the only place, in this country, that doesn't have snow. :/

7 Considering that it's January, it's actually been pretty warm here: 51 in the day, about 40 at night.

8 tHiS iS thE hOUsToN WeaTHeR LiBEraTIon FrOnT.

wE HAve YoUR cOld WEetHeR.

We WiLL RelEasE IT To yOU fOr OnE MillION dOllaRs in SmaLL uNmarKeD bIlls AnD YoUr HarUhI FiGuReNE.. 

YoU hAVE oNe WeEk. 

9

Haruhi sez:

You can keep it!

10 I heard that you got snow there. Something like the first time in a hundred years. And they're saying there's a chance of snow in Florida. (Which should do wonders for the citrus crop.)

11 None of the snow hit Houston itself, although there was a light dusting just to the southwest.  However, temperatures have been in the 20's at night for the last 3 days, barely climbing to 40 in the day. (41 @5PM right now) We've had some pipes freeze in our house overnight. (houses here aren't built for that kind of weather)

But don't worry, global warming has us covered....

12 Leave a faucet dripping. (The complex here has a sign they put out just before cold nights that has a picture of a dripping faucet on it.)

13 Ah, the great faucet controversy. We chose to drip.  You know, I almost made my first post at Houblog in a while over that, but it was just too silly for me to care much.