Amazing discoveries

Today while the kids were at school, I attacked. Their bedroom. My kindergartener was home most of last week with a virus, so I hadn't had my chance to nefariously cut through their insane collection of toys and books and winnow it down to stuff they really play with in anticipation of this move. (Doing this while they are present is not possible--see blog entry below).

I had noticed recently that there was an oddish smell coming from their room--not bad really. Not an I-peed- in -my -clothes- and -have -hidden- them -in- shame kind of smell. Not an I-left-an-open-container-of yogurt- under- my- bed-two-weeks-ago smell. Those smells I would have been able to readily identify. This was sort of a sweet, nutty kind of smell. As if a house gnome were drinking Frangelica in the walls somewhere.

I was halfway to the bottom of the dress-up box when I came across a white plastic garbage bag. It was full of something heavy and the smell had grown especially strong. Dreading what I might find, I pulled the bag open. . . . . and discovered at least two hundred moldering buckeyes. The kids had collected these last fall when the buckeye trees in the park up the street were dropping their autumn load. I had allowed them to play with them for a week or so and then told them it was time to throw them away. They protested. I insisted. They agreed to pick them all up and put them in the trash. I saw them pick them up, but I did not actually watch them put the bag in the trash. My mistake.

Can you make liqueure out of fermented buckeyes??