Heh -- send some of those red squirrels my way. I haven't been able to
harvest walnuts from my tree in years. :-P It was kind of funny -- last
year or year before (can't recall which offhand), the squirrels were MUCH
later harvesting the tree in the front yard. At the time, this was the only
walnut tree we were aware of on our lot (only 50'x200') and every year they
had it stripped bare before the walnuts started dropping.

We were doing some late yard work in the back yard that year and found a few
walnuts. Figuring they were taking around back and forgotten by the
squirrels, we thought nothing of them...that is, until a walnut dropped out
of the sky. At first I thought the squirrels were protecting their stash --
you know, targetting me with a walnut or two to save the larger batch.
Then I looked up and realized that over the years some of the buried walnuts
had taken hold and that the trees had matured enough to start fruiting.
Grin

We now have 2 or 3 additional black walnut trees along the fenceline in
back. They're not as nicely shaped and such as the one out front (fairly
dense thicket of trees in the back) but they're pretty good sized and
already dropping walnuts by the bazillion. For the first time, we've
actually had to clean up the sidewalk/street in the front -- I put all of
the walnuts into a plastic bin (about 10 gallon I suppose) and set them
around back -- the squirrels had it mostly empty in about a week.

Now they're hitting the birdfeeders -- as if they don't already have enough
stored away for winter!

James