You know how I know?
I saw it. I actually saw it with my own eyes.
Not in a good way.
We have a half-dead maple tree in the front yard that I've been refusing to cut down. I've left it as a snag for the Red-headed Woodpeckers, and it worked. Every spring, when they've finished emptying the matted mess of leaves the squirrels have packed the holes with all winter, we get to watch (and listen) to them situate the place to suit them.
Yesterday was a shock.
While I was out messing with the front flowerbed edging, I kept hearing something that sounded like a waterfall, but I knew it couldn't be ours as we haven't started up the pond one yet. I have ear problems, and most of the time I only have partial hearing out of one ear or the other, and lately my right ear has been plugged up completely, so I figured it was just an echo from the creek as all the snow melt and rain have turned it into the rapids.
But, even an echo from running water wouldn't sound like falling water! I walked a few yards away and didn't hear it anymore, shrugged and went back to the edging.
There was that sound again! Honestly, I thought I was losing my mind.
Then this dummy finally looked up.
Sap waterfalling, and I DO mean really waterfalling from one of the holes in the tree! There were gallons and gallons pooled at the bottom of the opposite side of the tree I was working around.
I have never seen anything like this in my life! Yeah, droplets rolling down bark, or drips from small winter wounds, but this was as if someone had turned on a bathtub faucet. It was so unreal! I swear it had to be at least (at the very least!) a gallon a minute! A true waterfall of sap.
Man, oh, man, I wish I had a freaking camera. I figured the hubs would never believe it. The flow had slowed down by at least 3/4 by the time he got home, but he could still see the big puddle at the base of the tree.
It was the strangest thing I've seen in a long, long time. I think the poor thing is a total goner this year. Bummer.
And no - I didn't think to grab some buckets. ~sigh~
2 comments:
I can't believe you didn't think to grab a bucket! Haha
Hiya, Christine,
thanks for stopping by.
Yes, I'm an idiot! I could have handed the hubs a bunch of 5 gallon pails full of sap and told him to get out his Dad's old sap boiling kettle. Pfft - he probably would have thought it was an April fools joke. lol.
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