Coon Hollow

Every week or so I head down into Coon Hollow to monitor the water in Coon Creek.  When I think of a hollow I think of Snuffy Smith. I believe he lived in a hollow.  But this hollow is more like a Jed Clampett hollow than a Snuffy Smith hollow. All 8 houses on this tiny road bordering Coon Creek before it empties into the Mississippi are McMansions with fertilized lawns, manicured shrubs, cement driveways and expensive landscaping.  Two of the houses have identical odd lawn ornaments.  The ornaments are black plywood cutouts of German Shepard dogs and they rest on the ground on a thick black metal spring so they wiggle in the wind.  Now why would these McMansion homeowners keep fake dogs in their lawn?  What are they trying to scare away?  Cats?  Coyotes?  Raccoons?  After all it is coon hollow.  Geese maybe? Geese excrement would not look pretty on these green carpet lawns.  I'd like to ask but none of these people are outside tending to their gardens.  They hire people to do that.  In any case I come every week or so to monitor the creek. This week as I approached the pedestrian bridge over Coon Creek I noticed less of the water was visible.  I was seeing more branches and brush than usual.  At first glance I didn't like that.  I threw my bucket over the railing to collect my water sample.  As I pulled my bucket back up I noticed why less stream was visible.  Two saplings had tipped over because a beaver chewed the trunks down to a point sometime during the last week.  Aww, that is cool.  Also down there was a dozen or more yellow prairie cone flowers looking up at me.  Most of what I do to monitor the creek is measurable.  The temperature, stream depth and transparency are all measurable.  Another question though is recreational suitability which is more opinion than anything else.  This stream is always very nice.  I never see trash in it.  The flow is quite strong so the bottom is sandy and there is no algae  I've always rated the recreational suitability quite high. It's good but not the boundary waters.  The fact that the McMansion owners mow their manicured lawns right down to the edge of the stream has bothered me.  But when I see evidence of recent beaver activity I want to rate it higher than usual.  Is that subjective?  Yes it is.  But I'm the one who has been coming here almost every week for the past 3 summers so that gives me the right to rate it higher.