It's going to be a long rough winter
 

If the old-timers saying is correct. 14 mounded wheelbarrows of black walnuts so far.
It'll be about the most ever by the time they all fall....meaning a hard winter.

The upper branches of the tree are still hanging with groups of them. Notice the height of the tree comparing it to the utility pole in front of it.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1759866056.jpg


The walnut gravesite keeps growing.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1759866158.jpg

You keep thinking that is a burden to deal with.

In fact it is free walnuts for life, with a little bit of work.
Give that tree some space.

^^^ What??

The closest tree to it is forty feet away.

Mount Walnut ... famous tourist site!

This is the year my neighbor's tree is dropping 'em bigly too ... it's cyclical, some years none, 6, or 6 gallons ... from one stinkin' limb that hangs over....

Those trees belong in da woods I tellz ya .... and I toss my stash into them....

I don't really have a problem tho' ...

A good share of the dropped walnuts end up in the road. Cars hit them and the nut gets squeezed out and hits the underside of the car. It's loud when it happens and sounds like a gunshot. :)

I can imagine that some of the drivers are going WTF!

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Interestng, our oaks and hickory trees are also dropping lots of nuts, more than normal it seems.

I removed a bathroom skylight that used to catch a few ... it got yer attention!

Willow Oaks are really dropping this year too... both are bigly after a couple of light years... but not the biggest...

I didn't realize Pecan trees were "every other year" growing up ...

Trees are nuts :D

A tree like that is worth a small fortune...

I know a guy that buys and removes special hardwood trees for furniture and veneer.
I asked him about removing it..mostly just to get it out of there.

He said that being by the road there was too much chance of nails and wire being in the core.....he didn't want it. But yeah...it's got a large trunk that is very straight.

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I've seen a bunch of stuff online with folks asking about having logs out of yards milled, and heard the same many, many times. Most mills won't touch a tree out of someone's yard because the chance of finding metal (bullets, wire, nails, etc...) embedded in the tree is high, and the profit from milling that log won't touch replacing their blade after it runs into something. I cut up a pecan that fell, and cut a dead branch off of a pin oak. I wish I'd realized/thought about using my chainsaw to cut them up and dry some planks/wood from them.

Two things. Masting, the process of producing ‘excessive’ nuts, is normal and cyclical. Second, the volume of fruit (in this case, walnuts) does not indicate the severity of the coming winter. It indicates the overall health of the tree.

Trees bearing fruits (or nuts in this case) overproduce fruit (nuts) is an ultimate resistance against their inevitable demise. However, typically, the velocity of the demise of the tree is quite unpredictable.

So, be comforted in that the tree has reached, and maybe gone beyond, the typical range of its lifespan.

Question is, ‘Who goes first; you or the tree?

I had a guy stop one year when I was shoveling them up and he asked if he could have them. I was more than happy to tell him yes and go for it.
Him and his wife came out and picked them all up a few diff times. He said he dumps them in his gravel driveway and drives over them all winter. When the meat is totally off the nut, they pick them up and crack the nuts open for the walnut.

He only did it for one season....never heard from him after that.:)

Easy answer...Me.
I just hope it's not while raking and shoveling walnuts.

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But you would be remembered as someone who expired doing what they loved.

A huge consolation, right?

I have the routine down to the easiest method of picking them up.

I start with when mowing around the tree, I set the blade height to 2 inches or less...just like a golf green.
Then when the nuts start dropping, they rake easily into groups. I then use my poly scoop shovel to load them into a wheelbarrow and dump them into the graveyard.
It takes maybe 15 minutes to clean them up each time....but it happens almost every day for a couple weeks.

Remembered as a real nut job....I like it.:D

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There is a story of a Indian fort in Oklahoma and the General in charge was worried about a cold winter, so he had his men chopping wood and stocking up.

He sent a crusty old sergeant to talk to the local Indian chief and get his opinion on the coming winter. The chief, said yes major bad winter coming. So the fort stockpiled more wood.

The sergeant was sent to talk to the chief, yes very bad winter coming! So the fort stockpiled more wood.

The general sent the sergeant back one more time and the chief sad really very bad winter coming. The sergeant finally asked how do you know it will be a bad winter? The chief pointed at the fort and said white man stocking up on much fire wood!

Strange, we have a big hickory in our backyard as well as several oaks and none have been producing much this year.

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^^^ As Crowbob said...it's cyclical and your southern area may be on a diff time than our great white north area.:)

(white as in snow.:))

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Who else calls Willow Oaks by the name we've always used too... they are Pin Oaks around here ... tiny, slender leaves and itty-bitty nuts... bigly, bigly trees!