Upon moving into a rental house, my family discovered we had a walnut tree in the back yard. The huge tree gave very good walnuts, and we picked with a long pole every time we could. It was difficult to pick the walnuts this way, so we had a tough time gathering enough nuts. We also had competition - the squirrels. They would sit at the top of the branches and munch on the outside shell in order to get to the walnut itself. Then they would either crack the walnut open with their teeth or drop the nut to the ground in hopes that it would crack and open. We would always try to wash the squirreles away from the tree with a water hose, but they hid very well in the branches and kept munching away, ignoring the stream of water only inches from them. So, we gave up. I watched the squirrels from my living room glass door one day and saw how they were busy picking the walnuts, throwing them down in bushels to later claim them and take them away to bury somewhere only they knew and could find later. Then the big light bulb went off in my head. I went and grabbed a basket and picked up walnuts from the ground that the squirrels had thrown, still leaving plenty for the squirrels to harvest. I had enough nuts to bake with and the squirrels seemed uninterrupted in their gathering. Both of us enjoyed the bounty while sharing. Each year after that, I let the squirrels throw all the nuts they wanted to the ground while I picked up only what I needed. They picked the nuts from the tree and I did the ground work, and we'd always get to share enough nuts!
