Off topic but it hurts my shooting time

[44man]

Where else to ask? No smarter guys anywhere! :drinks:
I have 2-1/2 walnut trees in the yard (one hangs over the fence.)
This is a bumper year and I have been raking and picking them up for weeks. I use a pooper scooper to get 5 or 6 at a time. I have moved tons and the trees are still full of them.
Any ideas on how to make a tool to roll them up into a container? I don't want to drive my mower over them first.
No, I don't want to cut the trees! [smilie=1: No stock wood for you fellas!

[BABore]

Rake them into piles and scoop them up with a grain shovel.

We used to rake all of ours into the driveway. The vechicle traffic would peel off all that green hide that turns into black goo later on. Used to have to crack a bunch of them rough buggers every year for my mom's christmas baking.

[oneokie]

Where else to ask? :drinks:


You did ask [smilie=1: Savage Equipment Co. has this little jewel;

http://www.savageequipment.com/products.asp?pk_CatID=1&pk_SubCatID=8&pk_ProductID=18

It will work behind an ATV or larger lawn tractor.

Lockwood Equipment Co. at one time made a self propelled, walk behind harvester.

Have you thought about one of the rear attached landscape rakes for your mower? Would still require some stoop labor to load the nuts in a cart.

:drinks:

[KCSO]

IF you can find one anywhere a cob fork is just the right tool for this job. I have had a lot of folks try and get mine away from me.

[halfslow]

Grand kids or neighbor kids.
They work cheap, and sometimes for free.

[Avery Arms]

I would find out who you can con into picking them up for you, if your local paper charges for such ads you could try craigs list.

Some people like to sit and shell them, or do it to sell the meat at farmers or flea markets.

I like to eat them but after I've shelled 5 or 6 I'm done:wink:


PP

[StrawHat]

My trees produce a bumper crop every three years or so.

I use a small basket fork (compost fork) and a rake to scoop them.

So far this year I have three 55 gallon drums full. They feed the squirrels all winter.

[scrapcan]

You could also see if you can find a golf ball picker and see if that will work. Do you know anybody at the local driving range that likes to also shoot!

[mikenbarb]

I use my kids to pick them up(With gloves cause their stinky)and then their dried and smashed for tumbling media that I mix with corncob media(About 50/50). It works great and you just have to sift the larger pieces out and smush em again.
Try posting a free walnut add and see what happens because lots of people eat them and would be more than happy to come and pick them up for you. Black Walnuts are delicious!
I have also used my quad with a small york rake and it worked great.

[44man]

Some good suggestions but no kids here. I use a leaf rake and shovel a lot too. But after 5 or 6 times under one tree, it gets old as me.
The harvester costs too much just to clean the yard. There are so many trees in this area, I can't even give nuts away. My daughter takes bags to her house to feed squirrels.
My pasture and rifle range are so full of them it is like ball bearings on the ground, but they can stay there.
I do have a leaf rake but the lawn mower runs the nuts over first and mashes them into the ground. Maybe I can rig it so I can push it in front or drag it off to the side.
I have a 2 HP Briggs engine. Maybe I can rig it to turn the brush instead of the wheels driving it.

[carpetman]

get a walnut magnet. Don't know where you might find such or if they even make them.

[Echo]

I think I saw a walnut magnet once. It was made of unobtanium, I think...

[Junior1942]

Ed, that unobtanium is some expensive stuff. Asperly Aimless barrels were made from it, which is why they were so expensive. Elmer Keith, I heard, made SAA cylinders from it.

Re: walnuts. They also make a good dye for clothes and deer hides, I have read several times.

[StrawHat]

My Mrs bought me a new #7 wood.

To try it out I swung on a dozen or so walnuts. If you try this with a golf club of your own I recommend using only the green nuts. The ones that have started to go black make a real squish when you hit them. And what Junior 1942 says about the stain, it works on human skin also. I had "beauty marks" for quite a while.

Hogs seem to like them, if you don't mind hogs in the front yard. [smilie=1:

[Bret4207]

Do you have a good sized shop vac? 'Nuff said.

[44man]

I have a lead magnet! [smilie=1:But just have no luck with walnuts.
However, I have an air powered potato gun and 100# of pressure will blow a walnut out of sight. I shot at a tree once and it took the bark off and damaged the wood underneath.

[TCFAN]

Where else to ask? No smarter guys anywhere! :drinks:
I have 2-1/2 walnut trees in the yard (one hangs over the fence.)
This is a bumper year and I have been raking and picking them up for weeks. I use a pooper scooper to get 5 or 6 at a time. I have moved tons and the trees are still full of them.
Any ideas on how to make a tool to roll them up into a container? I don't want to drive my mower over them first.
No, I don't want to cut the trees! [smilie=1: No stock wood for you fellas!

Here in Missouri walnuts are selling this year for 13.00 dollars per 100 lbs.

It is not a problem to get some one to pick them up.

There is a tool that they use that has a handle like a broom stick with a wire cage shaped like a ball that turns as you push it along the ground.As you run it over the walnuts they pop in the wire basket ball and when you get it full it is emptied over a 5 gal. bucket.You just give it a good shake.......Terry

[Scrounger]

Had a Citrus Picker when I lived in California. It is a wire cage on a long aluminum tube. You can get maybe 3 big oranges in it, probably half a dozen walnuts or more. Not too expensive. Guess it didn't make the move with me. Oh well! Only thing I grow now is Russian Thistle.

[PatMarlin]

http://www.baganut.com/

You can thank me latter.

[RP]

Oh it looks like all you need is some golfers and beer.

[Chunky Monkey]

Tack some tarps down. Pick them up every day or so and dump into buckets or wheelbarrow. Then replace tarps but just be sure to tack down each corner so they don't blow away!

That's what I used to do when I had walnut trees. You'll still have to rake just not as much!

[Scrounger]

I've seen some hardeners that could herd a whole tree full of walnuts into a small corral with a leaf blower...

[Shepherd2]

We've had a bumper crop of walnuts and hickory nuts this year too. My shooting range out back is ringed with walnut, hickory and oak trees and it's like walking on golf balls and marbles. Makes it hard to find your brass too. The only bright spot is that the deer are keeping the acorns clean up.

[oneokie]

I've seen some hardeners that could herd a whole tree full of walnuts into a small corral with a leaf blower...


Is that anything close to a gardener?

[44man]

It didn't work! :-? I put the engine on and it started right up, ran super, but when I started to engage the broom, the engine would not turn it and stalled every time. 2HP in an old Briggs is like 1/8 HP. I rebuilt the engine years ago but it will do NO work.
The broom spins easy unless grass is touching it.
I put the gears back in and pulled it around. It picked up hundreds of nuts but any that I ran over with the mower wheels needed picked up with the pooper scooper.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Are you anywhere near the ocean? When I lived on Long Island, we used clam rakes for this. They look like steel garden rakes with long blade-like teeth, and a welded rod basket on the back. maybe you can get on on evil-bay. A beach comber's rake might also work.
Morgan

[44man]

Sounds like an idea. I will have to look.
One thing nice about the pooper scooper is that if I am near the fence or road, I can pick up 4 to 6 and fling them away. They really fly hard. I try to hit the tree but it gets mad and will drop a nut on me. :bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:
I have 2 acres of lawn and all around the edges are piles of nuts and leaves. Squirrels will get fat.

[carpetman]

Yes if near the ocean just hook up your water hose and raise the ocean level a little and the walnuts will float off.

[PatMarlin]

Need a permitt for that.