We didn’t do a conventional Thanksgiving this year. No turkey, stuffing, or cranberry sauce. Thanks to Dave’s hard work, we had home-grown pork shoulder roasts done Puerto Rican style. Dave grew the pigs, I did the Puerto Rican. I took all the garlic cloves I could buy, smashed them with salt, pepper and oregano, and then rubbed this fragrant paste liberally into every nook and cranny of the roast.
The aromas took me back to noisy celebrations at my grandmother’s apartment in Spanish Harlem. So many aunts and uncles, cousins and laughter, and so much food: the pork, rice and beans, green beans, big salads, and pumpkin pie. My Wisconsin take was just a little different. I didn’t make rice and beans, but I added roasted smashed potatoes and an additional home-grown apple pie. We enjoyed family, laughs and great conversation. A real blessing.
That was last week. Now, we’re cruising to Christmas as snow accumulates and temperatures fall, farm equipment is repaired, and we worry about the beaver dam.
In the 13 years we’ve been on Bull Brook Keep, we’ve never had a dam threaten the brook that runs across the southeastern corner of the farm. For some reason, this fall beavers decided to build just downstream of the property. This has caused two large problems: water backup on the farm, and, a dramatic reduction of the speed of water flowing in the brook. It is the strength of water flow that keeps the brook from freezing over. This is critical because the cows need open water from which to drink. They can’t break through ice.
The problem
Bull Brook runs just 8 or 10 feet from the road that forms the western boarder of our farm. I walked down the road to take a closer look last week, I quickly realized taking this dam down is not going to be an easy task. The beavers used hundreds of long and heavy branches, wedging them tightly to create a structure able to hold back hundreds and hundreds of pounds of water pressure.
Dave has reached out to local officials to hopefully get their cooperation in removing this blockage because the rising water not only affects us but also poses a threat to a public bridge that abuts the farm and to the nearby road. We’ve got to do something sooner than later.
I’ll walk the road again today, while it’s still light.
Meanwhile, I’ve started pulling out cookbooks. What desserts will I make for Christmas dinner? A spicy chocolate bundt cake? Maybe a cranberry steamed pudding with vanilla hard sauce? A frangipane dotted with honeyberries? Hmmm. This should be fun.
I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and are looking forward to lots of love, laughter and great food this holiday season. Oh, and no beaver dams.
