granola bars for wood ducks

our house sits deeply surrounded by 30 acres of dense woods, much of it oak. we’ve been in this house for 13 years. on occasion over those years, but not every year, the acorns will all fall from the trees in great profusion in a very short span of time. if i dug into it, i assume i could find some kind of correlation between rainfall, average temperatures, and early or late arrivals of spring that would unravel the mystery of why some years this happens and not others. in any case, this is one of those years. acorns have been raining down so hard, and so fast, that i can literally shovel them from my deck with a snow shovel. two days ago, during the thunderstorm, i said to my son “hey joe, i think it’s hailing”. he replied impatiently “mom, it’s the acorns.” they fall from such heights, that they hit the roof and sound like ping pong sized hail. as in most things in life, there is an upside and a downside to this phenomenon. while we can’t enjoy sitting on our deck during this week of hail, on the other hand, just as the hailstorm ends, we are almost always rewarded with humorous hordes of invading wood ducks marching across our lawn as they gorge themselves on the abundant feast before heading south. like energy bars for wood ducks.

bur oak acorns at the end of august