Porcupine enjoying sap

While on a walk yesterday afternoon, a big round ball was seen up in a tree from quite a distance. Getting closer, what was thought to originally be a bear was a porcupine enjoying some nibbles on sugar maple. He was about 50 feet high when this picture was taken. Sugar maples often get nibbled on like this from creatures who can't resist tasting the sweet sap. The porcupine also climbed that high as a means to soak up the sun.

Like porcupines, trees will do what it takes to stay alive. This young red oak, with the house in the background, has grown 8 feet in the nearly four years since the brush cutter rescued it from an ocean of weeds.

We avoided the big coastal storm. Nearest snow was about 100 miles south. But we found this neat Abominable Snow Monster, who makes an appropriate addition to any northern New Hampshire home.