New Friends

But now something else amazing has happened in the critter world! The beavers have moved into the yard. I’m so excited I could do a beaver dance.

Apparently down the road there used to be a beaver pond but the little busy bodies caused a problem with the bridge and some piping so the city came and tore their damn down. This was way before I was around (otherwise I may have had to Occupy that beaver pond!). The beavers weren’t killed, they just disappeared.

Now the beavers have reappeared in our yard. We noticed that the stream at the bottom of a hill had overflowed during the rainstorms a few months ago. Then it started to expand into a pond. We went on a little hike one day at dusk and saw ripples in the water and there, busy building a whole series of intricate damns and tunnels was a fat brown beaver!

Do you know who Angela Shelton is? She’s a writer, filmmaker, public speaker and all around fiercely life-affirming woman. I stumbled upon her delightful website the other day looking for you-know-whats and found out you really should look too! Angela was first recognized for being the co-writer and producer of the 1999 movie Tumbleweeds about life with a serial-marrying mother. Since the tight script is autobiographical we can assume the pragmatic, exasperated young girl in this scene is her.

She then received national acclaim for her own documentary “Searching for Angela Shelton” in which she drives across country looking up every other Angela Shelton in 48 states while addressing her own thorny history of sexual abuse by her father. The grim background of sexual violence against women brought her eventually into the recovery hero limelight (On Oprah and Rosie) which she has now transformed into a speaking career about living joyfully and violence against women in colleges across the country.

Now she is living on a comfortable farm, writing and speaking and starring as an Emmy-winning Safe Side superchick for the Safe Side videos, while still finding time to watch some exciting new neighbors. Castor Canadensis to be precise! Located in a particularly beaver-phobic state all the feedback from her friends and neighbors has been negative. Never mind. Angela has learned that life’s challenges bring enormous victories to the women who wrestle with them. She wants to keep her beavers and learn about them. We’re having a “living with beavers” chat tomorrow.

Thanks to Angela for being willing to try something new, get excited about wildlife, and talk with a stranger after a moments introduction! And thanks to BK the retired librarian from UGA that taught me how to set up the new google search function that lead me to her doorstep!

Searching for Angela Shelton’s beaver festival? I’ll be sure to keep you posted.