Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!



Our house is surrounded by trees, as you can see by the photo above. Very, very large trees. Most of them are pines and white oaks. A few maples, alders and other varieties are sprinkled in.

Apparently this year we're experiencing a bumper crop of acorns and pine cones. Our yard is now liberally sprinkled with lots and lots of pine cones and acorns. Very little seed is being eaten from our bird feeders as all the critters who frequent them are off enjoying the natural fruits of the fall.

Yesterday afternoon, so many acorns were dropping, it sounded like the sky was falling. The acorns would ping off the roof, sounding like gunshot if you were sitting in the living room (we don't have an attic to muffle any of the sound). Out on the patio and under the gazebo, Skip and the pups were constantly assaulted by loud pings and bouncing cones and acorns. They so freaked out Ruby, who is prone to chickenshit-tishness, she eventually begged to go in the house!

6 comments:

Lisa Emrich said...

We're having a bumper crop of black walnuts. It's going to be nasty trying to keep the driveway and entrance to my studio clean. Once they start rotting, they get really messy.

awb said...

Beautiful setting. We had a red house when I was growing up. I remember this because I got in trouble and had to paint it! I like yours though, even with the memories.

Andy

Cranky said...

Lisa - we're fortunate that acorns are small in comparison to black walnuts. No problems with the rotting you describe, which sounds nasty.

Andy - thanks! The house is stained redwood. When I was kid (this is where I grew up), my father would mix his own stain with paraffin wax and such. I just make sure whoever is going to stain the house uses good quality stain. :-) More power to you for actually painting a house.

zoomdoggies said...

We're infested with black cottonwoods, which are really more weeds than trees -- really really tall weeds, with a tendency to shed large limbs onto our roof. But they do keep the house cool!

Anonymous said...

LOL that you have contributed a great word to the English language, chickenshit-tishness, ha ha ha....I laughed really hard while I was reading your post because I remember last fall when I walked the mountain trails, I kept getting pinged in the head with pine cones, lol. The first time it scared the bleep out of me, but I finally got used to it, now that's something huh? Getting used to a barrage of pine cone attacks!!!

Cranky said...

Zoom - I have to confess that big branches do cause me concern, as I wonder what they might do to our roof. I'll have to check out the cottonwoods.

Rain - I do my part to keep the English language alive! Hope those pine cones didn't make your hair sticky. Would have scared some bleep out of me too.