Buckeyes!

 We discovered a couple of buckeye trees this past weekend in the woods at our campground.  We had a surprisingly fun time collecting them.  It was like a treasure hunt!  We collected over 100 with plans to make Ohio State buckeye necklaces with them.  Ashleigh even had plans to sell them, so when we got home I researched how to make buckeye necklaces that are so popular here.  The first step was to dry the buckeyes in the sun so that they won't mold.  Monday morning I laid them out in the sun to begin the drying process.

 Throughout the day I kept seeing this little chipmunk sticking his head out of his hole in our front landscaping.  The hole has been there for some time and we hadn't been sure what was living there, so I was surprised to see the little creature for the first time.  What was even stranger was that I kept seeing him ALL day long.  I thought, maybe he is enjoying this cool day since it has been unusually hot.  It puzzled me though why I was seeing so much of him in one day when I hadn't seen him at all in the month that the hole had been there.  It wasn't until Ashleigh got home and I was showing her the chipmunk who was now sitting on our front porch, that the puzzle was solved.  As we walked outside to place acorns, which we had also collected at the campground, next to his hole that we noticed the tray of buckeyes was half empty.  The cute little chipmunk is a thief!  He had been swiping buckeyes right from under my nose all day long.  Luckily Ashleigh handled the news well and we figured out that we still have enough buckeyes left to make five necklaces.  Not enough to sell this year, but this will give us practice for next year.  Nathan dug up the chipmunks hole hoping to find the stolen nuts, but it tunneled under our front porch.