Walnuts

I have a black walnut tree in my yard with which I have a love/hate relationship. It's a pretty tree and the leaves smell awesome when you brush against them. The juglone drives me crazy - it's a chemical released by the tree that kills nearly all plants underneath it. A healthy, mature black walnut is unusual this far north in my gardening zone which I like to think of as zone 4 but is probably closer to zone 3. This year the fecund tree has blessed (cursed?) me with hundreds of walnuts. I'm sure the squirrels are happy. Usually I pick up the walnuts as they fall, smell them, and throw them across the yard as far as I can throw. They are SO many! I thought my maker was giving me a sign with this unusual walnut crop. So today I gathered black walnuts. I gathered 225 black walnuts. (Is it weird that I counted?) There are hundreds still on the ground for the squirrels. I used some plastic bags and the extend-a-reacher I bought for myself after back surgery. I didn't feel like bending over 225 times. I see there are another hundred or so still hanging in the tree. As I picked them up, some walnuts fell. I could hear them tumbling through the branches so I had time to hunch up my shoulders and prepare for the knock on the head. I put the hood up on my sweatshirt. I thought if my maker hits me in the head with a walnut, that would be a different sign than the one I thought I was getting. I got no knocks in my head so now I have 3 bags of walnuts to deal with. My first step is to remove the husks. I'll have to wear some sturdy gloves because the last time I tried this I had black hands for two weeks. Then I have to cure them for a couple weeks before storing them. Before I open the walnuts they have to be soaked and baked. We'll see how it turns out. There is something about using the free bounty nature gives me that feels right.