Helping Wildlife As They Feed Us

 Everything is food for something.

 We celebrate when the crops are good in the wild.

The acorns had a spotty yield this year, 

some trees had them, some did not.

Deer, squirrels, wild hogs and a variety of animals eat acorns.

In turn something eats them

and so the food/life cycle goes.

I found evidence some squirrels had been enjoying the acorns.

They also enjoyed the walnuts and chestnuts we took to the woods last winter when their food supply was low. We had an abundance.  They did not. This week we ate some squirrels. We are grateful the land feeds us in more ways than one. The food chain/life cycle continues.

Chestnuts and Figs

It's fall

 and the chestnuts are falling.

The trees look prehistoric to me.

A disease killed out the native Chinquapin years ago.

Dad planted a few chestnuts.

He also planted figs which aren't supposed to grow in our climate.

Dad's love of figs began when he cowboy-ed in California. 

You had a great crop of figs this year, Dad.

Your chestnuts are plentiful, too.

The figs are far easier to pick

I wish you'd planted the chestnuts much further from the house, Dad.

Thanks.

The Mighty Chestnut Tree

is a pain in my hands and my feet.  We had similar trees that grew wild years ago, the Chinkapin, Dad said they had a disease and died in our area.  He purchased an alternative, the Chestnut.

The tree almost appears prehistoric with the rough bark and saw toothed leaves.

This is a fully opened burr

and one containing the nuts.

I don't think anyone wants to go barefooted around these.

I picked up many burrs today.  I used tongs.  These stickers are scary and hurt like heck.  It was a sheer joy to start a fire with them.  I was more joyful burning the burrs than I was picking up the nuts.
Marcy is roasting them but not over an open fire.  She is using the dehydrator.

 I had trimmed some limbs earlier in the month and added them gleefully to the fire of chestnut burrs.

The fire burned low as Hubby bush hogged the valley 

The dogs patiently waited for me to play stick.

A Crisp Wind Blows...

through the valley today raining leaves sideways. The trees rustle as if to say, "No, it's not time!" Another season begins.

The "falling back" of the clock has timed itself well. Food is falling. We gather walnuts, pecans, hickory nuts, pears, chestnuts, persimmons, and pawpaws. Preparing them for storage and use like the generations before us.

The figs frozen by the cold nights display the color of their last hurrah and drift to the ground.    Green still fills the valley as the hillsides are in constant color change.  Once again the valley shall shelter and feed the fifth generation of our family as they have fed the inhabitants that have gone before.

I believe the valley smiles.

We are home.

Under The Chestnut Tree...

We have a few chestnut trees Mom and Dad planted.  The wild ones were destroyed before the Great Depression.  Many more blight resistant species were brought in and they grow very well.

They grow enclosed in a prickly burr that falls to the ground when ready.  Inside can be four to six nuts.  The horses love them, the squirrels love them and the people here like them, too.

The look of the bark, the leaves and the canopy remind of something timeless, almost prehistoric.  Bev found the trees selling for almost fifty dollars for a three foot tree and the nuts sell for $16.95 a pound!!!  And we have been giving them to the horses for treats!!

Bev was out early, with her tongs and feed sacks, picking up burrs for compost or firestarters in the fireplace.  The nuts were saved in another bucket.

I guess we're not the only ones that enjoy chestnuts.  These insects were finding something good on this pair.

Two five gallon buckets later, Bev is not finished...and this is not counting the ones that have been fed to horses.

Since chestnuts trees are few and far between, we hope to make seed bundles for the shop.  Instead of Johnny Appleseed maybe we will be called The Chestnut Sisters.

Thursday's Things In A Row

Chestnuts and burs in the grass,

rows or bunches, you may ask.

Gossamer strains from a spider's rear

make beautiful rows throughout the year.

Flower buds trying to beat the frost,

gonna bloom, no matter the cost.

Tracks on tracks make it very clear,

first the tractor, then the deer.

My rows are finished, I am done.

Stop by Pat's and join the fun.

This N That

We have something to crow about! The chestnuts are popping
And the crop is good!

Fall is in the air...

The last few mornings have been cool but hopefully we are far from a killing frost. The garden is still producing okra and a few cucumbers.

The chestnuts are falling along with the walnuts, persimmons and pecans. Marcy has planted winter greens where we cleared for two purposes, food and erosion control.

Do not know if someone will be buying walnuts this year or not. That was always my spending money growing up. We had to pick them up anyway and if we sold them we got some pocket change. I am not so eager this year to pick them up since I am a year older and a year stiffer. Bev and I picked several feed sacks full this afternoon.

Last year we got forty dollars for a bed load. It did fill up all the equipment with gas...last year!