Necessity Truly is the Mother of Invention



We have an oak tree in the backyard. About five years ago the root hit ground water and it grew exponentially. It now prolifically produces acorns.

The last couple of years I would pay my grandkids a penny for each acorn they picked up. I would shell out about $8-10 each season. It's good for them to learn how to earn money and it was good for me to not have a forest growing in my lawn (which the lawn mower will keep at a height of about three inches).

Well, I haven't had any eager beavers this year who want to earn money by picking up my acorns. So, whaddaya do, eh?

Pick them up yourself. However, those grandkids are a LOT shorter and therefore closer to the ground so the bending over isn't so hard for them.

I could rake them into a pile and pick them up. Yeah-that's kind of like what we did to pick up the kids' Lego's when they were little. The acorns are about as pesky to walk on in the lawn as was the kids Lego's on the carpet.

Now, wait a minute. Carpet? Stuff you don't care about? Indoor/outdoor? Hmmmm...

Dove had really wanted a shop vac. I couldn't see a need for it-he didn't do that much woodworking stuff. But child number three KNEW he needed one so bought him one for Father's Day one year. Well, I couldn't say much about it and it wasn't too long after that that Dove built the kitchen cabinets and really did need it. A couple years later he burned the motor up in it so we replaced it with a newer, bigger, better, whatever, model.

Hmmm...

So I used Dove's shop vac in the backyard and vacuumed up all the acorns! I emptied the canister three times. A wheelbarrow full of acorns. Wow!

Only took an hour. That was awesome. I guess I'm really glad Dove has a shop vac.

So what do you do with a wheelbarrow load of acorns?

I guess the answer to that question is the same to the one, "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino?"

Elef-ino!

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