No matter what anyone says, no matter what sort of spin they put on it, never, ever, ever buy an oak tree or a house with an oak tree in its yard.

They are a horrific nightmare!

We have one in our front yard. It was there when we bought it. We didn’t really realise what we were getting ourselves into for every Autumn/Fall for the rest of our lives.

After spending quite a bit of time in back-stressing labor with a rake, I ended up with this:

That’s half a trash bag full of nothing but acorns.

After more and more raking, shoveling and foraging, I had increased my haul to an almost full bag full of acorns.

By itself, this is fairly impressive for one tree. However, my daughter extracted another couple of bags about the same size a few weeks ago from the yard, and after surveying the state of affairs to see the dent we made today, I figure that we’re only about half way done. If that.

Unfortunately, there isn’t really any sort of market for acorns. However, luckily, my wife has a friend whom can use them to feed deer where he hunts, so they don’t all go into the trash.

Meanwhile, I am wondering where the hell is the squirrel I have seen many times this summer, and why is he not stocking up for the winter!