Foraging in my own backyard - What Tree is this in my Neighbor's Yard?

Do you see it in the picture?  The tree just behind the fence line...  it belongs to my neighbor but clearly hangs many of its branches over my fence line.  Do you know what kind of tree it is?

 You probably can't recognize it from this view but it is a Walnut tree that has been growing behind my back yard for many years and at the end of every summer it delights the squirrels by dropping big mower-damaging green walnuts all over our yard.  I asked the neighbor if she would allow me to cut it down but she declined the offer.  I really wanted it away from my gardens as walnut trees will cause growth issues to other plants that happen to root in the same ground as the walnut tree roots.  That may have been one of the problems with my tomato plants this year, as this is the first year I put them in the back corner garden and the definitely did not do well.

We also had to be very careful where we put the fruit trees... especially the apples.  Walnut trees will cause damage to the nutritional root system of apple trees as well as tomatoes so our apple trees are as far away from this walnut as possible. 

So what do you do when life gives you lemons??  You harvest walnuts.  English, or Black Walnuts are very expensive in the store and delicious, not to mention nutritious but they are a bugger to open and obtain the nut meats.  (no wonder they are so expensive).  Since there were dozens of them in our yard we picked them up and started to research how to get the nuts out of the layers of shells.

The green hulls on the outside have to be removed.  Make sure and wear some rubber or latex gloves, or you will wear a black stain on your hands forever.. LOL.  Mike removed the hulls of our gathered nuts.  Then they have to rinsed and left to dry and cure.  Here are ours in a laundry bag hanging in the garage.  They are almost ready to crack.

It occurred to me that I was, again, fighting squirrels for their winter food when I hung them high in the garage to keep the critters from stealing my winter nut stash.  I am surprised I don't have any nightmares about giant squirrels coming after me and my food supply!

They have been drying for over 2 weeks now so as soon as it warms above 65 degrees outside next week we will take a sunny afternoon and a hammer outside on the cement and try to open those shells.  I envy the squirrels who seem to be able to do that so effortlessly because I have heard it is quite a challenge for humans!  Once the nut meats are picked out of the shells, I will soak them, sprout them, and dehydrate them just like the store bought nuts.  But no matter how much work it is, it is so satisfying to know I harvested a nutritious organic staple from my own backyard!!