Eat them... http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/acorn-nuts-zmaz84sozraw

Don, unless the technical aspect of rendering acorns ediblr by the natives is better than the process which was used in Germany in 1945, I rather feed the pigs with it. Oak flour was added to rye flour to stretch the later in the spring of 1945. What a soggy mess. Besides, I don't need extra carbs, am pre-diabetic. My little mini pig neighbor likes them and gobbles them up when they fall in her enclosure (with a little help from me).

Thanks for the interesting reading.

The oaks around Joann's place are very fruitful this season, deer come and dine on them, so do bears. We know that there are cougars around to dine on deer, so one has to be careful after dark, you don't know what sort of "neighbors" hang around

We are seriously thinking of getting one of the critter-cams to set up to see who hangs around in the middle of the night.

Fortunately leaf-raking is not in our job-description, they fall and decompose wherever they land or the wind takes them.

The oaks here had a mast year too. one of the most productive years I can remember. I doubt very seriously there is a connection to long cold winters, but we might have one anyway. last year we got to 32 twice for about an hour each time

Todd, it's 29F, windchill 20 right this moment. (7:08 EST)

After years of drought it's balmy and wet here, I don't complain