Prickly Visitor

We had a visit from a very prickly guest here at the house. He only raised his quills at us once or twice.


But most of the time he didn't seem too concerned, as he munched on fireweed blossoms.


He stopped to stare at us every now and then.


But then went back to eating.

Some interesting facts about porcupines:

- They are the second largest rodent in North America, behind the beaver.

- A group of porcupines is called a 'prickle'. (how convenient)

- They can't shoot their quills, you have to be close enough to touch them to get stuck.

- The tips of their quills have an antibiotic coating, to protect themselves from infection when they accidentally stick themselves or each other.

- They have about 30,000 quills each.

- Baby porcupines are born with their quills (but don't worry, porcupine mama, the baby's quills are soft at birth, and harden over the next few days).

We harvested some of our broccoli this week.  So far we've harvested beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and various types of onions. We 'hilled' the potatoes for the last time of the year, this time with just straw to cover up some of the spuds that were breaking out from the ground.  It's been a warm week so far, but the rain is forecast to move in tomorrow.