It’s been a week to say the least. And while I count the tears, I also count our blessings - that all is well, it really is. Sad days are just a part of life and we must take them in stride.
Many years ago when we built our little house, moved here with our two baby girls and commenced to making this our home, we planted two trees in the back yard. One was a tulip poplar tree, the other a sugar maple tree. They seemed like nothing more than 5 or 6 ft. twigs at the time. That was in the spring of ’87 - way back in the 1900’s.
I’ve posted several times about this sugar maple tree and its beautiful fall display each October. It reached full maturity some years ago and the bark has turned black from the running of the sap each spring.
On Wednesday of this week we were having one of our usual spring storms. (As I type this several days later, we are under yet another thunderstorm warning.) We were under a tornado warning at the time, sirens going off and the television full of instructions to get to our “safe place”.
For me that was to stand at the window and look out on our little farm, praying for us all to be safe, including our little two-day-old baby goats.
As I was watching the sky above from a bedroom window (instead of being all hunkered down in the closet - my safe place) suddenly our beautiful maple tree snapped in two and the middle and tallest part of it just fell to the ground, smashing the chain link fence separating our back yard from the farm yard. It was all over in a moment - all but the crying.
I stood there in disbelief, but grateful it missed the little goat shed just a few feet away in the opposite direction, or the house even closer. I guess it was a good thing it was just a strong wind and not a tornado, or I would not likely be here to tell the story.
After an all-week illness of most likely salmonella, the husband was feeling just well enough so he thought to get out an tackle the sad task of gathering up the pieces of our beloved Sugar Maple. So that we did, separating the burn pile limbs from the logs that one of our very nice neighbor friends was so kind to cut up for us.
The fence was temporarily placed back up to keep the critters from roaming the yard, and we just kept looking at the sad remains of the standing maple tree. Now the question remains of whether to leave the tree as it is, or take the remaining part of it down so it doesn’t fall on the house (a few feet away) during another storm, in it’s weakened condition.
I guess that will be another story for another time…
Thanks for the shoulder to lean on!
~ Gwen of IRISH ACRES