Help!! Acorns!!

You think this? All the other nut bearing trees on earth don't have this problem? You ever look for spent 45 casings right at your feet and be unable to find them all? I have. Not all the acorns, or any other nut, are found and devoured in such a way as to make new tree growth impossible
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I think TL is right on this one. I could go look in my Tom Wessels book, but it's out in my truck and I'm full as a tick with too much lunch right now:o

In nature, the dog would die and its (stupid) genes would not be part of the pool. (That would work for people too
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Amen. The evil part of me kind of likes this solution for this dog too--what an awful thing to say on Christmas eve huh?;) :p Sorry we're at day 4 of the inlaws's visit and my tension level is up a few notches....
 
munk said:
Oaks have acorns in waves so some years they outnumber the ability of the critters to eat them all. Otherwise, there would never be new trees -- the demand would match the supply>>>>>>>>>>>> Thomas Linton

You think this? All the other nut bearing trees on earth don't have this problem? You ever look for spent 45 casings right at your feet and be unable to find them all? I have. Not all the acorns, or any other nut, are found and devoured in such a way as to make new tree growth impossible.

Besides, everyone knows the reason Oaks do this is to drive the dominant species on earth insane.

munk
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I and botanists think this. They study such things. I just look around for the last fifty years.

Don't know about all other nut-bearing tress. Certainly it's true of maples; big spinner years are followed by lean spinner years. Then comes the odd REALLY BIG spinner year. Beech, on the other paw, uses another strategy entirely -- clones -- shoots from roots create thickets of "new" trees.

Not only were acorns overwelming the critters this year -- apple and hickory did the same. I collected three bushels of nice hickory nuts in half an hour.

I have lost ammo casings before. But I found most. Last year, to find nuts that hadn't been drilled by bugs took an average of almost ten minutes per acorn (mid-November) in a grove of mixed beech-white oak. This year, the ground is STILL carpeted under the snow.

California Indians relied heavily on acorns. Accordingly, they stored in fat years to survive the lean.

"[T]he number of acorns varies from year to year. Large numbers are produced every four to ten years." U. of Ill.; accord, Hasting Natural History Reservation; acord enaturalist.com. (Google search "acorn" or "acorns" plus "varies.")
 
Otherwise, there would never be new trees -- the demand would match the supply.>>>>>>> Thomas Linton


The operative word here is "never" Otherwise, of course I agree it is a defensive adaptation to produce acorns in this manner. Everyone would agree, and the number of years so and so has known a biologist has nothing to do with it. I'm not striving against all recorded acorn gathering, squirrel avoiding, back yard raking, break a sweat piling, bitter inner fruit tasting DATA; All I ever said was that other nut bearing trees surivive without this defensive stategy and so too does the Oak. I'd wager 10000 squirrels could not find the last acorn and so wipe out the mighty Oak from the surface of the planet. Oh Mighty Oak! How Frail Thou Art, How Fleeting Our Time Here on Earth, How precarious Our Spirits!



Now, by God, that's as Christmacy a post as I can muster.



munk
 
I have a question; When I was a kid, the neighborhoon parents, and actually everyonelse too, told me acorns were poisenous and not to eat them. They're bitter, I recall. What's the story here? Do they have to be cooked first? Are they dangerous to ingest in their green state?



munk
 
munk said:
I have a question; When I was a kid, the neighborhoon parents, and actually everyonelse too, told me acorns were poisenous and not to eat them. They're bitter, I recall. What's the story here? Do they have to be cooked first? Are they dangerous to ingest in their green state?



munk
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They (acorns) have a chemical in them called tannin that has to be leached out before you can consume them safely. I've not done it, but have read of it. I understand you use several changes of water to remove it. The same chemical was used to treat leather. I don't know if it is still done in this manner.

The inner bark of the pine tree can be processed and used as flour as well.
 
munk said:
I have a question; When I was a kid, the neighborhoon parents, and actually everyonelse too, told me acorns were poisenous and not to eat them. They're bitter, I recall. What's the story here? Do they have to be cooked first? Are they dangerous to ingest in their green state?



munk
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I have polled the spirits of the 10,000 squirrels who once lived in my back yard, and they report that "white oaks" have less tannin and can be eaten safely by most two-legs without processing. "Red oaks" need the ground meal put through "several" soaks of hot water to reduce the tannin to safe levels.

(Commander Data confirms this intelligence, but his skin is a funny cast of yellow, so he may be a tannin-eatin' monster.)

(The above does not apply to those with basic personalities who are seeking balance.)
 
I don't like the sound of, "basic Personalities'; what's that, 'as issued'? Reminds me of towels in gym class, uniform and without character, but some fluffy and some worn to rags.

But getting back to Squirrel Ghosts; Is this tannin the same as 'tannic acid'?

I recall waters in the Arizona desert dyed deep brown by what I now realize is tannin from the Oaks.


munk
 
munk said:
I don't like the sound of, "basic Personalities'; what's that, 'as issued'? Reminds me of towels in gym class, uniform and without character, but some fluffy and some worn to rags.

But getting back to Squirrel Ghosts; Is this tannin the same as 'tannic acid'?

I recall waters in the Arizona desert dyed deep brown by what I now realize is tannin from the Oaks.


munk
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But "basic personalities" have more potential!

tannon, AKA tannic acid. See "tanning"
 
I have a Husqvarna leaf blower that reverses as a lawn vacuum. It has a large heavy cotton/poly bag and fills a bag of acorns in maybe 60 to 90 seconds.

Noah
 
I've been cleaning the place up and doing the usual here, and while I was at it thought of a sappy film noir joke I could use in writing. "His character was as distinguised as a gym towel, laundered until off-white and no different from the rest." (something like that)
...an insight into my cracked and oft dreary mind...



munk
 
I have a Husqvarna leaf blower that reverses as a lawn vacuum. It has a large heavy cotton/poly bag and fills a bag of acorns in maybe 60 to 90 seconds>>>>>>>> Noah Zark


Don't let the squirrels get ahold of that. They really could make extinct the mighty Oak.



munk
 
I have a Husqvarna leaf blower that reverses as a lawn vacuum. It has a large heavy cotton/poly bag and fills a bag of acorns in maybe 60 to 90 seconds.
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Hey Noah, My father in law is interested in this idea...But how big is that bag? If it's good size he may go for this option. And if you don't mind, what model #blower do you have? Thanks!

Rob
 
MauiRob said:
And if you don't mind, what model #blower do you have? Thanks!

Rob
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That'll be the Model 69 re-Lief Blower and when reversed the
Model 69 A Corn Sucker.;) :rolleyes: :p :D :o ;)
 
Get yourself one of those high-powered slingshots. Acorns make great ammo and you can shoot those suckers 100 yards or more.
 
MauiRob said:
Hey Noah, My father in law is interested in this idea...But how big is that bag? If it's good size he may go for this option. And if you don't mind, what model #blower do you have? Thanks!

Rob
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Rob:

Sorry I lost track of this thread.

Husqvarna no longer makes a combo blower/vac. I did a search and found that Stihl makes them, combo vac/blower/shredders. The one in the link below has specs similar to my Husqvarna (pronounced HOOSH-far-nuh by the Swedes, and NEVER "HUSK-uh-var-nuh" as in the US, but I digress.)

http://www.stihlusa.com/blowers/SH85D.html

SH85.gif


The SH85D should have the cabability of sucking up your Dad's nuts.

That didn't come out right . . .

Noah
 
Hey, Jake, your post made me hungry for a squirrel sandwich.

Dang, I can just see deep-frying them in the acorn flour with some spices.

and, sorry, but I agree. The idiot dog needs to "eat acorns and die," I say.

I wish MY backyard squirrels would come back. I miss them.

Well, not very often. That's why there aren't any.



Ad Astra :thumbup:

The line of gray figures charged towards us. My rifle picked out one after another and I fired until I heard the hammer fall on an empty chamber. The fusilade of lead didn't slow them. They paused in the trees for a moment, then their leader gave the signal in silence. As they rushed towards us I could see their eyes, dark and wide; as wild animals they came. I dropped the empty rifle, and drawing my pistol, began firing. I couldn't miss, but there were just too many. I fired point-blank, bringing one down as he was about to leap. They were just too many of them, and as the slide locked back on an empty chamber, we were overrun by the flood of squirrels.
 
Anyone needing acorn ammo is more than welcome to my stash.
I have 21 oaks on a 1/2 acre lot, errrr acorn farm.

DaddyDett
 
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