Pine cones, Anyone?

I have this gigantic pine tree in my front yard that likes to leave me presents - pine cones! Each week, I walk around my front yard filling up a sack of the pine cones that fell during the week. I know - I could probably leave them on the grass to be mulched by the lawn mower, but I think that all the brown pine cones make my grass look browner, so I like to pick them up. Anyway, last week I was babysitting a friend's son and decided to give him a job - I would pay him 5 cents for each pine cone he picked up off the grass. I figured there were probably 50 pine cones or so, 100 at most, spread across my front lawn. Well, after just a few minutes he informed me that he was tired and that he didn't want to pick up any more pine cones. I looked at the few pine cones in the bottom of the sack and began counting. The 108 pine cones he had picked up hardly scratched the surface! I couldn't believe it. I was glad he got tired of picking them up or else I'd have gone broke :-) So this week I decided I was going to count as I picked up my pine cones - 394! I'd say that my sack was as full as it was any other week. Can you imagine one tree dropping close to 400 pine cones a week? Crazy! Anyway, the entire point of this post (besides letting you all know that I have assigned myself this weekly chore) is to say if anyone needs pine cones for anything, please let me know! Want to spray them with cinnamon and put them in a basket for air fresheners at Christmas? They're yours. Want to smear peanut butter on them and sprinkle them with seeds to make a snack for our feathered friends? Have at 'em! Come get as many as you want as often as you want :-)