Care to take a guess.

[Redoverfarm]

[Squirl]

Chestnut?

[Native_NM]

Chewbacca finally got neutered, I see. 

[MaineRhino]

Sea urchin?

[NM_Shooter]

Porcupine nuts.

[Redoverfarm]

Porcupine nuts.

  Would make mating an interesting thing to watch.  I assume that is what you were referring to Frank.

[considerations]

Tribbles, don't feed them.

[peternap]

Too fuzzy for gumballs...

chinkapins?

[trish2]

Some form of cactus.

[Gary O]

OK, serious
I'm with Squirl and peter
chestnut or it's cousin the chinkapin
...or the reason cousin itt had such a high pitched voice

final choice is chinkapin...
what do we win?

[Redoverfarm]

Well Squirl is the winner.  Sorry Squirl no actual gift but take pride that you were first and right.  The chestnuts are now opening and falling to the ground.  The trick is to beat the worms to them.  They were not really prevelent in different parts of the state where I grew up but are common here.  My wife says she used to fill their pockets with them and take them to school to snack on.  I asked her where she put the hulls and she said " in the opposite pocket silly".  The hulls are extremely sticky similar to a cactus but the thorns are more rigid.

Here is some that have already fallen and some that are about ready to fall.  

[Don_P]

I was talking with my state forester the other night. He was saying we have a bumper crop going and the worm population seems to be lower or slower than normal.

Can you imagine when this was the dominant tree and all a body had was a pair of worn out moccasins 

I was thinning in the beech grove the past couple of weekends, they were falling like rain.

I'll take a stab and say chinese?
http://www.vatacf.org/treeid/TreeIDcards.pdf

[Redoverfarm]

I was talking with my state forester the other night. He was saying we have a bumper crop going and the worm population seems to be lower or slower than normal.

Can you imagine when this was the dominant tree and all a body had was a pair of worn out moccasins 

I was thinning in the beech grove the past couple of weekends, they were falling like rain.

I'll take a stab and say chinese?
http://www.vatacf.org/treeid/TreeIDcards.pdf

My son said they were Chinese.  I just know they are chestnuts.   I guess he is learning someting in Forestry class 

[peternap]

I haven't seen a Chestnut for years John. The mountains were covered with them before the blight or so I'm told, but none left now.

[Don_P]

Actually there are plenty left, they are mostly stump sprouts but a few trees make it to bearing age, I know of several around here. The blight gets them about the time they start to mature and bear. The forest we were in has several experimental plantings of various crosses and hybrids.

Your son might get a kick out of this. The foresters had borrowed this Forcat mini skidder and invited our landowners group out to take a look. It isn't a high production machine but will work well on small trails and for selective cutting and TSI work. At 4200 lbs it can be pulled by a pickup. I took it up a small road, spun it around on a dime, hooked to an 18" oak, winched it in and was away in about 5 minutes. Fun little machine, safer and more stable than a tractor or a bobcat. Mickey's left hand is on the joystick for the tracks, in his right are 4 levers, front blade, back plate, winch, aux.

[Redoverfarm]

     Nice machine.  I can see it would be benefical to get into tight places that would otherwise need a bigger machine and disturb the surrounding area.  Is there a winch? I can see something on the back but can't make it out completely.

[Don_P]

Yes there's a 8,000 lb winch with 80' of cable. With the back plate and blade down it does a good job winching. The tracks spread out the load and compact less than a larger rubber tired skidder. They also demonstrated it with a small fetching arch behind it that elevated the log off the ground.