Raining Pine Nuts

Piñon Nuts ready to soar, bypassing the sticky mess of the sap.

We have giant Piñon Trees - the most glorious I've ever seen.  Many are 20' - 30' and a few reach around 35'!  The front half of our property is Piñon/Juniper with a few Ponderosa's, the back ridge is covered in more Ponderosa with a meadow in between.  We have a "Grandfather Tree" so old two people cannot get their arms around it's trunk right behind our house.  One of the boys' Godfathers is an art director in Hollywood and he wanted to build the boys a treehouse in the Grandfarther Tree.  We agreed with these conditions; No nails in the tree and the materials were a pile of scrap lumber - so no money either.  He agreed and he and Max, our oldest boy, worked on it for 9 days - the length of his visit.  Kevin P's fingers wiggle when he thinks so they were a flyin' during that time.  I would send peanut butter sandwiches up there in a bucket with the pulley. 
 
It remains to this day and our 3rd son Wulfgar enjoys it now.  He is not alone, I love it up there too.  It is two teared and very stout and safe.  The bulk of it is cleverly set in the branches but a few anchor places are bolted to dead limbs. The first level is very small but the second level is amazing - right in the middle of the mighty branches with places to sit and look.  
The best thing about it and the part I never even considered, was what it would be like to sit there in dappled September sun on a nut year and have a cool mountain breeze shake loose Pine Nuts all around me and on my head.  Food raining down from above - it's unbelievable!!!  I sit there and crack nuts with my teeth - I love them raw - fresh off the ancient tree, and delivered by our waiter the wind.  
Cord is convinced they fling their nuts with all their might as they are often heard zinging and cracking their way down the tree to the ground.  We have a picnic table under a fat and juicy tree and it certainly flings them at us as we sit there.  Those nuts are particularly big too.  

The Grandfather Tree.

For many years the trees in this region were on a 7 year cycle but they recently broke and started bearing nuts every 3 years.  Happy days - 7 years was a long time to wait.  Wulfgar told me the upper platform was covered in Pine Nuts, I need to get up there and fill my pockets.  What a luxury it is to harvest these beauties, with some trees giving superior nuts than their neighbors.  
Okay -  tomorrow morning, I shall climb up with my coffee cup to see if the squirrels got there first.  Mmmm, Piñon Nuts with coffee sounds great!