Monkey Cheeks are eatin my nuts

For years, I have watched this awesome tree grow in my backyard, it produced a "fruit" or something but we (meaning I because Todd doesn't care) had no idea what it was. I couldn't figure out what these strange green things resembling an unripe kiwi were that were growing on this tree. I knew there was no way that kiwi would grow in Spokane and they didn't ever change color. Every year they would fall off the tree and then just disappear. I really didn't have time to figure it out before, but this year it became an obsession. The easiest method would have been to take a branch of this tree to Northwest Seed and Pet and ask. They always know. Again, that would have been the easiest and not my style. What do I do? I dig through some Western Gardening book that my mom has (Similar to a medical dictionary only for plants if you get my drift) and hope that I stumble on some picture that looks like what's growing in the backyard. Scary thing is, I do. I convince myself that it is a Walnut tree. Why? I cut one of those "fruits" open while it was still soft enough to cut and saw what could have been something in the shape of half a walnut. It also hit me that all those walnut shells I was finding in my lawn were from my tree and there was a force of nature at work.

Preston and I decided to test the Walnut tree theory. We removed a couple of the green "fruits" and placed them on a large lava rock we have in the backyard. I knew my theory was correct when Preston ran in the next day and proudly exclaimed.."Mom, come look. The squirrels are eatin' my nuts!!" Oh yeah, we went there.... and laughed until our sides hurt. There you have it...true science at work in the Devenish household. My niece Piper calls the Squirrels "Monkey Cheeks", like chipmunks only not. Now if you want a good laugh at our house, just come in and say the Monkey Cheeks are eatin' your nuts.