Our patrol into the back woods on the other side of the road on Friday kept running into the evidence shown at left; there were many places were remnants of pine cones lay scattered. We are not sure if these are from squirrels, which is our best guess. It is unusual to find acorn remnants lying on stumps or stones, which we know the squirrels are eating. Therefore, why would squirrels eat their pine cones on a nice rock but not the acorns? Or, who makes the extra effort to eat pine cones (actually pine cone seeds is what they are after) on clear surfaces like rocks or flat stumps?

The woods are teeming with growing underbrush from the wetter than normal weather. There are large and dense patches of ferns, wild raspberry (which have bothersome prickers), and young tree seedlings; for a time, the blogdog and I got lost and ended up making at least one circle between the state highway and the pond. The blogdog wasn’t always helpful because he was smelling something else in the vicinity and was constantly trying to go in different directions, pulling strenuously on the leash. With cloudy skies, no compass, and a seemingly endless sea of green made up of waist high or taller flora, I got mixed up as to where I was not just once but twice.

This was not a high risk adventure, however: the area is about a quarter mile square with borders of a large pond, a state highway, a country dirt road, and our country paved road.