HARVEST TIME--

It is not uncommon to see variations in yield in nut trees from year to year but I have never seen walnut production of this kind in the 24 years I have lived here.

Never!

This little trailer is about 30 x 40" by 12" deep.  If this load were leveled the trailer would be F.U.L.L.

And, every bit of this load came from one tree in the middle of my only grassy yard area.

I'm not sure how many walnut trees I have but there are two or three out along my township road.  Passing traffic ground up those nuts and their black-as-ink, decaying fluid made the tar-and-chip road surface look like newly paved and polished asphalt.

There is another nice walnut tree below the dam but its yield was conveniently dumped in the weeds and didn't require my attention.

I tried raking and I tried shoveling but nothing worked as well as bending over about a thousand times and picking these things up by hand, one-by-one.  I worked as long as my 77 year young muscles would allow each day and it took three of them to amass this harvest.

You can see a tiny piece of the pond in the left background and the lower deck is cantilevered over the pond's west bank.  The stairs visible under the deck deliver folks to the boat dock.

(Remember, you can left click on the photo to see a larger image).

I was able to dump these in a nearby weedy area where an army of composting-critters (say, bacteria) will go to work and transform this messy pile of woodsy detritus into fresh top-soil by Springtime.

Except, of course, the nuts ambushed by raiding squirrels who will apply their own special form of composting over the Winter.

And, so it goes!