Nutless
Category: Blogathon...
Posted Saturday, July 29, 2006 at 05:01 PM [GMT-6]

It's the oddest thing. Our big ol' pecan tree in the back yard is giving every sign of producing not a single pecan this year. Not one.

I haven't investigated any of the neighbors' trees to see if theirs are in the same boat, but I have seen trees in other places that seem to have a pretty good crop.

I guess the late hard freeze we got last winter came just at the wrong time. But here's the thing: I'm really happy about this development, because our tree produces the World's Worst Pecans. Ever.

They're a native variety and they cannot be extricated in halves from the shell by any process known to man or squirrel. In fact, the squirrels around here don't eat them immediately; they just bury them to try to soften them up (and as a result, we have baby pecan trees growing in all of our outdoor planters and throughout our yard).

The only downside I can see to this situation is that we'll probably have a whole raft of hungry squirrels in our front drive holding signs that read "Will work for food." And, take my word for it, they make lousy hired hands...much too easily distracted.

Oh, look. A baby squirrel...