Winning at the Nut game

[Alwese]

My three macaw have a water bowl, a fruit bowl, a pellet bowl and a nut bowl. I buy nuts in the shell from Sam's Club and keep them all year in the birdroom refrigerator. I also buy pecans in season separately. Each year the bags get smaller and the price gets higher. It was a terrible year for both pecans and peanuts due to drought in the south. Paper shell pecans are all dried up inside and peanut product prices have skyrocketed. I noticed the Sam's Club nut mixes are getting stingier and stingier on Brazil nuts and it makes sense; you read the package and it says "walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans and almonds product of the USA, Brazil nuts product of Brazil. Brazil nuts are imported and more expensive. For years Wal-Mart has had mixed nuts in the shell you can scoop up and buy by the pound. After New Year's I wait for the price to drop after everyone has picked over the assortment and virtually nothing but the almonds are left. I accost the manager and make an offer to buy 50lbs of what's left for $1. a pound, which is a steal. This year I have been proactive and have been getting about a pound of the more expensive Brazils picked out of the assortment every time I go in. They are worth at least double the asking price of the mix. I wish I could find nuts in the shell in a 50lb bag, but until then, this is the method of getting nuts for the year that are impossible to find at other times... Al