Porcupine hunting... and other forest play

So last post was about our play inside but we have been doing our best to get outside too... and discovering some neat wintertime activity.

While Dylan plays with his forest "train"...
Fionna hunts around for signs of life... in this case she turned over a piece of bark to find a cocoon... She eventually brought that big piece up to the house (yes, she would have taken it up to her room if I had let her) and put it next to the wood pile... as I type this I realize that I need to let Wes know why it is there... oh, the drama of burning the cocoon... I don't want to think about it!

While we were hunting around we noticed this scat which we knew was not deer... (sorry about the scat picture... all for research!)

Then we saw that the tree next to the scat had these marks...

Going all the way up the tree...

Now at this point I would love to say that we concluded that it was a porcupine because we are just awesome trackers and can "read the signs of the forest"...

But in reality our neighbor had just mentioned the day before that she had seen a porcupine in her spruce tree the night before...
So, the first stop in the guide books... Porcupine.

I had no idea they could climb up trees like that... shows you what a city girl I am... truly.

That night is snowed pretty good so the next day we could not rely on scat to show us the way but we ventured out to see what else we could find....
Fionna even brought along her sample bucket this time... kinda glad all the scat was covered and frozen...
We did find another tree with gnaw marks....

After a day of indoor play we headed back down into the forest yesterday...
Fionna spotted these very neat ice formations... Next on the library list... a book about ice.
She was on the lookout for porcupine sign and wanted to see if she could find any old nests... There are a few nests closer to the house in deciduous trees but she wanted to see one in an evergreen...
While we did not spot either of the things we were looking for we did have some fun watching the makers of this mess of chewed up pine cones... our resident squirrels are always busy in the forest and are very vocal about letting us know when we get to close to their favorite spots...
Fionna also found a great "climbing tree"... Not in the traditional sense but just right for these two...
Dylan needed some help but had all kinds of fun "aboard" the tree...
Fionna worked her way through the branches and eventually jumped off... only to return again for a few more rounds...

As we made our way back to the house she was keen to point out some landmarks that would help us find that cool tree again!

Today was so cold that Fionna could not be enticed to venture out... I was psyching myself up for it when Wes called to tell me it was -26 C (-14 F) with the wind chill...

Even so... Dylan went out with me and we found a not-so-windy spot next to the house... that happen to be where the sled run is... So after a little sledding and some laps around the house we headed in for the day...

A chilly kick off to our coldest month... Welcome February!