Holly’s note: I am re-running this episode of Holly’s Animated Life that was posted on May 8, 2008 because it is my very favorite. It is the origination of my Texasholly social media profile picture. I have digitally enhanced the drawings and hope you enjoy it…
Holly lives in a suburban neighborhood of one of the United States of America’s largest cities.
Normally all God’s creatures do not congregate in a suburban neighborhood of one of the United States of America’s largest cities but Holly doesn’t live normally.
One day Holly went outside her house and saw this:
Holly loves all God’s creatures. Holly thinks beavers are cute and have a reputation for being busy.
The next morning Holly went outside her home and saw this:
Legend: Pinkish Red circled “X”=trees felled by beaver(s)
Holly loves all God’s creatures. Holly thinks beavers are cute and are living up to their reputation for being busy.
The next morning Holly went outside her home and saw this:
Legend: Pinkish Red circled “X”=trees felled by beaver(s)
Holly loves all God’s creatures. Holly thinks beavers are cute and are really living up to their reputation for being busy.
The next morning Holly went outside her home and saw this:
Legend: Pinkish Red circled “X”=trees felled by beaver(s), Large fancy two-toned arrow emphasizes that a tree between Holly’s house and the street was also felled.
WHAT?
Holly has no problem with beaver activity as long as it is not interrupting her home’s landscape. There are plenty of trees around to share. Holly thinks the beaver(s) have gone too far.
Holly is mad.
Holly loves all God’s creatures except for beaver(s) who overstep their landscape boundries. Holly thinks most beavers are cute and live up to their reputation for being busy. Holly thinks a small minority of beavers are evil and out to ruin her landscape.
Holly makes a call to the beaver relocation program:
Soon a professional trapper arrives to put an end to the small minority of beavers who are evil and out to ruin Holly’s landscape.
The professional trapper sets two traps along the creek and one trap in the pond.
Holly made this handy dandy trap map for your reference:
Holly is so proud of herself for hiring a professional trapper to relocate the small minority of beavers who are evil and out to ruin her landscape.
She is so happy until she hears this:
Which causes Holly to say this:
Before the professional trapper leaves he gives Holly trapping lessons. Holly learns that any trapper worth her salt (and Holly is pretty sure she is worth the 75 cents that salt is worth) checks her traps early in the morning.
The next morning Holly goes out to check her traps around 6:30 am.
Holly is sleepy and just got out of bed.
Holly is still in her shorty pajamas. The one thing the professional trapper forgot to mention was the dresscode for beaver trapping:
Holly does put on her tall rubber snake fighting boots because Holly loves all God’s creatures except for beaver(s) who overstep their landscape boundries and snakes.
Holly sets out to check the traps along the creek. The trees are so thick that it is very difficult to walk.
The trees behind Holly’s house are very dense:
Holly finds that if she walks down the middle of the creek she can get to the two traps along the creek without fighting too many trees.
She finds that she trapped a turtle in the first trap.
She finds that she trapped a turtle in the second trap.
Holly is pretty sure that trapping turtles isn’t going to help her beaver problem.
Holly starts toward the third trap.
It is not along the creek.
It is very difficult to get to.
Holly fights through the trees and brush.
Holly is fighting through the trees and brush when she thinks she might hear a snake. Holly is not rational enough to assess that one usually doesn’t HEAR a snake.
Holly starts pushing and shoving through the trees and brush to the edge of the trees behind Holly’s house.
She is so frantic that she falls out of the woods:
Holly literally falls out of the woods behind her house onto the golf course that is behind the woods behind her house.
When she lands she is approximately 6 feet away from the ball of a early rising golfer.
She is 15 feet from his golf cart in which his partner is sitting.
She is 25 feet from another golf cart filled with the remainer of the early rising golf foursome.
To be fair, Holly is unsure of the five parties involved who was more startled.
Before running back into the woods to escape the early rising golfers, Holly said this:
Holly is suspicious that this little episode might have been told again once the foursome got back to the golf clubhouse.
Holly is a little suspicious that there might have been some laughing involved.
Holly is pretty sure they didn’t buy the beaver trapping story so she would like to post this in the clubhouse just to set things straight:
It is true that Holly did end up trapping 2 beavers, a racoon and 3 turtles. None of these fierce animals were hurt in anyway. The beavers and racoon were relocated to a more rural location. Unfortunately for Holly it didn’t happen overnight. Holly was just like Pa from Little House on the Prairie for 2 weeks.
Holly was very careful on all following beaver trapping trips to wear REAL clothes and listen very closely for snakes.
HA HA HA!! this is hillarious!!! So are these different beavers than in the past or did you just finally have enough.. I love the golfer story. I actually thik I heard someone tell me about a crazy lady who came out of hte woods while they were golfing.. Tee hee
Oh, Holly, Holly, Holly! Gee whiz. You know those drunk golfers went back to the clubhouse and got really crude about a woman and her beaver, right? I’m glad they were safely evacuated and your landscape remains intact. I didn’t know we had beavers around here Mr Ingalls.
I’m confused–did Holly make the statement about checking her beaver traps while sitting or while curtsying?!
Yes, this story will surely make the rounds of many a golf course.
Alabama beavers only fell trees that will block driveways, and build dams where the rain run-off will flood driveways. Particularly MY driveway.
You’re much nicer to beavers than I would be, if I could ever catch the damn things.
And let’s not talk about snakes, okay?
note to self: do not read june cleaver nirvana late at night while husband is sleeping. one can hurt oneself trying to stifle laughter.
Oh, Pa! You’re the best.
Oh my gawd, I was laughing so hard. This is the funniest thing I’ve read in ages.
I feel like I should send you an Orvis catalog. Also, how do you keep from telling these things for two whole weeks? I wouldn’t have that kind of restraint. I bow down.
Is is bad if I feel like confessing my love for you everytime I read your blogs?
I thought so too.
I am sure that veronica just stole my comment.. (Oh that is right She is related to me so we think alike..)
Holly that was hilarious..
thanks xxx kim
Holly is very funny. Holly makes me laugh. If I were an early-rising golfer, I probably would have started blogging just to tell that story!
I agree with Jennifer H (how I found this blog), how in the WORLD did you wait 2 weeks to tell this story?
OK–I knew you set beaver traps, but you never told me about FALLING onto the golf course in your pjs!! Bwahahahahahhahaha!!!!
Isn’t there a regulation in the HOA regulations about that?
Too funny. And, for the record, the only time I’d wear skinny jeans, would be as a stick figure.
Thanks for the laugh!
My husband just looked at me with that real crazy look. Ya know seeing as I was laughing so hard and all. This was great I can just imagine what those golfers were thinking.
Hilarious as usual!
I am happy you saw no snakes–I hate snakes.
Adn ya know I am betting my neighbor may have had a hand in knocking down your trees…he wants the town to be free of pesky acorns 😉
Good thing you caught those nasty turtles. Maybe they were responsible for some of the downed trees
Funny drama seeks you out, doesn’t it?!
That’s hilarious, by the way.
*LOL* You were checking your beaver traps *snicker*
Your animated stories keep getting better 😀
Holly is a very funny, accomplished beaver trapper.
GREAT one! I can’t wait for the book of Holly’s Animated Life!
lmfao! rof!! love this!! this is the BEST yet… in my opinion! 🙂 i loved the entire story and i, of course, love your drawings!! i must say though that the picture of you in the skirt, you really needed a slip or something b/c you could see right through your skirt, not that I was trying to see, but you just noticed it right away… maybe you were standing with the sun behind your or something… I’m just sayin’… I would want someone to tell me. I’m also the person that will def tell you if you have something in your teeth… which you didn’t. 🙂 i also LOVED the pic of you sitting on the golf course, indian style with your hair all messed up. 🙂 anohter one of my fave pics of yours. =)
anyway… glad you got rid of the beavers and the racoon, and all that.
thanks for the laugh as always!!
xoxoxo’s Jenn
Oh Holly, You ARE just like Pa Ingalls! I am SO proud of you!
You truly crack me up.
I Too would buy the book of Holly’s Animated Life. I’d use it anytime I felt a little down…LOL!
Pax, EJT
OMG! Tell me you did not say “I’m just checking my beaver traps!!” The tears are running, I’m laughing so hard!
Checking your beaver traps. You funny, Top Momma.
What…the early rising golfing foursome didn’t offer to help you find the beaver trap??? I bet they only laughed a little bit!
I, on the other hand, laughed a little bit more than a little bit;)
OMG, this is HI-LAR-IOUS.
Dude. The picture of you falling and the guys on the golf course…”checking my beaver traps”
I’m going to be giggling all day.
Oh my goodness! First, I am trying to actually imagine having such wildlife in my back yard. Turtles, how fun!
Second, can I recommend you invest in a Lipstick Cam? It’s a tiny camera you can attach to a baseball hat (To cover your morning hair) and then we can see the real footage, for I am soooo curious!
OMG. I am dying. really. when is the book coming out?
I smiled.
I chuckled.
I laughed out loud so explosively I may have scared my child.
You do realize that the punch line “I was checking my beaver traps” is going to live on forever at the clubhouse, right? LOL!
Holly is hilarious.
Holly makes Soliloquy laugh and laugh and laugh.
Soliloquy feels good when she laughs and laughs and laughs.
Soliloquy wants to be Holly’s friend.
I gotta make my husband read this one. He’s gonna love it! ; )
Happy Mother’s Day!
ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!! You were the hot chick with the nice ass in the shorty?? That was you??
I heard guys telling that story at the golf course on our park. Don’t worry. Rose bit them. 😉
Oh the beaver jokes! Oh the google searches you will now get 🙂 I am impressed with the number of trees those beavers took down. Now at my house, it would be a little obvious if a beaver felled one of my four trees.
Holly, I love your blog! It always make me laugh. And today’s story was great!
I love you even more for admitting the problem with your beaver to male strangers. That’s hot.
Love the trapping attire. I’ll bet those golfers wish they had a camera!
Hilarious!!!
Happy Mother’s Day!
That is the funniest story EVAH! And I love Pa. And what guy doesn’t like a good story about beaver traps.
the hell? I left a comment yesterday, but it didn’t take. I will repeat.
Coming from a family of male golfers known to hit the links anytime they could get a tee time, I can guarantee the pj girl checking the beaver traps at 6:30 am is STILL being discussed today.
My neighbor puts out Indian corn and sunflower seeds for the “birds” what we get are rabbits, moles and chipmunks. It is about to be open season in my backyard if I find ONE MORE perfectly dug hole. Maybe it will be open season in THEIR backyard. If we had a creek, I am sure the beavers would be feasting, too.
On a totally separate note, your house setting looks AMAZING.
KEEP BELIEVING
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the sunflower seeds then SPROUT becuase the stupid little vermin bury the seeds and I get corn and sunflowers growing in places I never planted them. LIKE THE SANDBOX. Then I am repulsed because I know they have been in the sandbox and my kids OCCASSIONALLY play in there.
KEEP BELIEVING
Man, you have all the fun. I want to trap some beavers, darn it!
I would love to hear those golfers telling a story about the woman in snake boots and shorty pajamas who fell out of the woods! Hilarious!
Ha!
Beavers – crazy beavers – routinely flood the roads out my way. It’s a big problem. Stupid crazy beavers.
Holly–I tagged you 🙂 Check out my blog for details.
OMG Holly, I love your beaver trapping escapades. And I love that the neighborhood golfers are on to your early morning beaver-trapping ventures. I’m sure they thought that was Stedman’s job…(sp?)
Oh, I just thought of something. SO perfectly fitting that June Cleaver was trapping Beaver!
This is so funny on so many different levels.
xo and Happy Mother’s Day ~ K
Oh, MY! Are you sure you didn’t arrange for those beavers to come just so you’d have such AMAZING blogging fodder??!!!! It’s almost too funny to be real!!! It was hysterical enough withOUT the falling onto a golf course in your shorty pajamas…
By the way, my step-sister used to see a gynecologist called “Dr. Harold Beaver” in Washington, D.C. Yup, that’s right… Harry Beaver. You’d think he’d have changed his name…
You really crack me up!!!
I needed a laugh; thanks! Mother’s Day came and went here (it’s now 00:16 on Monday morning…)and my husband still doesn’t know he and the kids completely missed it…
I agree with Karla – funny on so many levels.
When the early riser golfers are telling this story (and of course they are). There are many, many Caddyshack references being tossed in there.
Oh my word, that is so funny! The illustrated posts are so great – I almost hope you never go back to your camera again.
You’ve given those golfers a memory to last a lifetime.
As a first time reader, I gotta say this was quite the post to come in on.
Don’t have anything clever to add, it’s too late, but just wanted to say “hi” and enjoyed the read.
I’m swooning over your pictures. seriously.
You are absolutely hilarious. I’m glad I found you here in Blogland. I’ll be back.
What anglophile said, but worse. OH, Holly you are HYSTERICAL – in deed and artwork! What a tale.
I’m reading this pretty early in the morning and I’m realizing you’re going to have to be later-in-the-day reading for me. I’m laughing too hard and it hurts and I haven’t had a diet coke yet!
LOL!!
I’m a little concerned that all of your outfits are sheer. What’s up with that? You are so risque!
Ohmygoodness, I just discovered your blog and I have not laughed this hard in ages!!!!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read this, and I just didn’t know what to say. I still don’t- but I will say that if I had never started reading your blog I would have NEVER guessed what you are all about. LOL
You rock:
http://blogs.chron.com/goodmombadmom/2008/05/bs_sunday_2.html
How funny, I think I will join the golfers in a laugh at your expense, I hope you don’t mind! 😀
I know I’m a bit late in the game to be reading this post. Heidi from Frantically Simple had told me she got the idea of “Adventures in Heidi” from you and pointed me in this direction.
Your story (and illustrations) are great. I can picture the foursome of men out for an early morning round of golf and then you fell out of the woods in your shorty pajamas.
I hope your husband is ashamed that he did not do trap checking chore.
Oh my WORD!! Obviously new to the board, but so glad I’m finally here. Thanks for the laugh. The new school week has sapped me dry – but THAT is hilarious – in a “glad it didn’t happen to me, but VERY sorry it happened to you” kind of way.
I’ll leave you with one of my all-time favorite movie quotes…
“Nice beaver!”
“Thanks, I just got it stuffed.”
EM
Holly, I hadn’t ever read this! Thanks for choosing this one to link too. It is so great. I am in awe of your talent. Thanks for playing along.
Too funnY! Love your drawing!
This is one of my favs of yours, too.
Hi, I’m Jesi. I don’t know how I found you. I started on http://nowenteringmomville.blogspot.com/2008/11/want-me-to-link-you.html which led me to http://suburbsanity.blogspot.com/2008/11/cocktail-party-in-suburb-and-youre.html and then suddenly there were beavers.
Aaaaanyhoo – just wanted to tell you that you are hysterical, and I just subscribed. Thanks for making me laugh. Hard! and for a long time.
This is absolutely one of the funniest web things I have ever read. Super-Dudos to your efforts.
Ha! Great story.
I think I need some snake fighting boots.
Hilarious Drawing 😀 I must say you are creative and made For that 😛 LMAO
Nice Story 😛
http://e-dollarsonline.blogspot.com
So when does Holly’s Professional Beaver Trapping Service launch? I’d love to hire you….but only in REAL clothes (although snake fighting boots ARE essential). 🙂
Great poat! Now I understand the business card…I thought it had risque undertones, but now I realize I was wrong. Well mostly wrong. I, like another commenter noticed the sheer clothing you were wearing while out beaver trapping. Maybe that’s how they do it little house on the prairie style. They just told the kids and neighbors that they were out beaver trapping.
Wait wait wait… you fell onto your golf course in shorty pajamas and rubber boots?
OMG Laughing so hard I just peed a little.
Yes, I have been known to exaggerate other tales, but this one is completely true – down to the shorty pajamas, boots and almost being beheaded by an early morning golfer.
I don’t care how many times I read this, I laugh every single time. It’s my favorite, too.
Oh my! LOL! That is great, I love it. I’m glad nothing like that has happened to me. I’m sure now that I said that, it will happen to me. But not with beavers, or golfers.
I love your pictures!
always forever one of my absolute favs.
This has always been one of my favorite animated Holly episodes, and I still giggle about it on occasion – because I can. 🙂 Thanks for re-running it.
Oh.My.Gawd!
“I’m just checking my beaver traps.”
?!?!?!?!
….
….
Do you still have beaver problems?
Oh yes, I went there.
Did a spit take! This is hilarious…and made even better with these fabulous illustrations!
This is BETTER than an episode of Little House! LOL!
You have TOO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS, I think. You need another blog project!
This is too funny. haha
I am snorting a very ugly gigglesnort right now, hoping it doesn’t turn to a gigglepiss.
Great Post! I personally really like your writing. This is a great website. I will make sure that I stop back again!.
I have just spent the last hour reading your blog. You are hysterical! This story and the pictures had me laughing out loud. You know those golfers were talking about the beaver trap for days. I had no idea I was in the presence of such greatness when we were in Houston!
Thanks for the laugh! 🙂
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
–>Just found your blog and this was HILARIOUS.
~deb
HILARIOUS. Just found you through BlogFrog. I didn’t want this story (or pictures) to end!
I agree! Totally hysterical. I love a good laugh to start my day!! I also found youthrough BlogFrog.
I loved the writings and story of Holly’s lifetime activities. The drawings were great,too. I am a teacher and I think my preschoolers would love to see “books by Tara” and see Holly’s drawings and read her stories.
SO worth the read! LOL!
Oh my Holly! I am dying over here with tears in my eyes. Hilarious! LOL!
I believe you are one heck of an artist! Hilarious!
OH you had me at Holly “doesn’t live normally’!
this was hilarious and got me out of my sleep deprived crabby mood! thanks for the belly laugh!
Just found this & laughed for a half-hour!! You’re extremely funny!! I live in the South (obviously) & you CAN hear some snakes – a rattlesnake comes to mind. I didn’t grow up in this particular area but am married to a man who did. It is very rural & folks just have a different “take” on things. We have a lake which we own & one day my husband came across a tree felled during the night by a beaver. He wasn’t happy about that at all. Several days (& trees) later, he actually met the beaver itself. It was rather large & stopped when it saw him. He was carrying a shovel at the time. As he approached the beaver, it STOOD UP & HISSED at him!! He knocked it upside its head with the shovel. Well, he figured it was dead so he went to his way around the lake to work. Later, he got to thinking that he’d always heard beavers were tough cookies & he got to wondering if he’d killed it after all. So he went back to check on it. IT WAS GONE!! lol. He was asking me did I think it would die later or just have a bad headache. I’m a city girl. I don’t know anything about beavers!!! The creature never came back & we’ve not had any problems with beavers in the 12 years since. Any way, I really enjoyed the story & the illustrations were hilarious too!
love it!
This is hysterical! Love it, drawings and chart and all!
Hysterical Laughter heard echoing in Texas…all the way from Suburban Seattle…
What a great way to start my day. I love your drawings, and I can soooo imagine the golf course scene and the conversaions in the clubhouse later.
Very funny! just spit out my coffee. I love that your stick figure wears skinny jeans and falls in slow motion. Thank you for writing this. Now I will go back and read it again, sans coffee.
I so loved this! Priceless story, and I want you to illustrate my life, too, so I can wear skinny jeans. I just found your blog by accident; I’m so glad I did!
Now THIS is what entertaining blogging is all about!! I’m a fan…after one visit!! Thanks for showing us your view of life!!
found this by pure accident – interesting
More, please! More, more, more!
I found you on the website for the Pajama Pants. I LOVE your drawings and I am glad that you caught the beavers. That seems like a real job and a half. Sorry about the golfers but they always lose thier balls anyway. LOL.
How are the jeans doing? I would like to order them but if they don’t last what is the point. Hope to hear from you soon.
That was the funniest, best, most magnificent shiz we have ever seen or read on the internets. YOU ARE AWESOME!!!
Love it!
You are hilarious! I can just imagine the look on the golfers face when you suddenly popped out of the woods 🙂
It was so silly. The whole thing. I can’t even think of it without a combination of laughter and embarrassment!
hi holly!
i am laughing so hard. the drawings and your captions are hilarious. i was shocked when my husband told me beavers could be anything but delightful. they were damming up his parents’ pond and making the ducks leave and other pesky side effects that i can’t remember…but your story is much funnier. 🙂
That is so funny that you have beaver experience! Thanks!
this post was amazingly brilliant and funny! thanks so much for sharing.
LOL:) I’m laughing so hard I can’t even post a great comment:)
Your experience reminds me of my own experience with a corn-rustling woodchuck. Every time I see the GEICO® commercial with the woodchucks, I am reminded that they are NOT little, NOT cute and decidedly NOT funny. Beavers, at least, are trying to create something rather than being marauding thieving reivers of ones livelihood. But I try not to be bitter.
I used to live near Punxsutawney and the ground hogs were THICK. It was generally smiled on when you hit them with your car which makes the whole Punxsutawney Phil celebrity thing kinda funny!
oh wow, it’s almost 12:30 a.m, my whole family is asleep..and when I got to the bottom of this post I started cracking up so hard my stomach hurt! I think I woke up dh, too.
loved the drawings! 🙂
That was absolutely hilarious!
You have to stop!! My husband is going to kill me. He’s trying to make a powerpoint for his class and I’m laughing.
ROFL!! BEST thing EVER!!!
Yes, 2 years before your beaver fiasco, we had ours “down the pond” from you. 8 trees gone in one night. No beavers “hurt” but they continued to move down your way. Love your story. I will not be able to look at your without thinking of a “beaver”. Love it!!
Thank you sharing that beaver story! Hilarious !
That is insanely hilarious! More art posts, please. 🙂
Thanks for the laugh.
HAHA! I got to your site from the Tip Junkie. Can’t even remember why now. This is so funny. Love the art. And I was riveted by the story. It would have been a page turner if it was longer.
“Mommy, why are you crying?” “I’m reading something that made me laugh” “But you are crying!” I laughed so hard… glad I discovered this about you. This is SO something that would happen to me.
This post is awesome. Good job relocating the raccoon, too!
Well we don’t have beaver issues thank goodness cuz I don’t have any skinny jeans or enough trees around our house. But we do have squirrel issues. I may draw them with “X’s” for eyes. LOL..