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We have a black walnut tree in the back yard, 75’ or maybe even 100’ tall. When we bought the house, our sexual intellectual neighbor said, “you are going to have to take that tree down..been dead for years. And it’s going to be expensive..seeing how it’s really big and tucked in behind the house…”
His logic, sadly, seemed sound so we factored that into our financials. Maybe, since there was at least a 25’ run of straight trunk with no knots or branches, we could barter its removal with a lumber yard. But we had more important things to deal with. The seller claimed he did indeed have an oil tank in this small back yard but that he had filled it with sand in the 80’s. No, there was no paperwork to confirm that. $15,000 off the purchase price and 19 tons of oil saturated clay later and the yard was clean.
The following year, in mid July, the black walnut sprouted leaves. He promptly shed them about two weeks later. Every year since, he puts out his leaves a few days earlier so that now, 25 years later, they are starting in early May. He has also grown new branches and shed some that were not worth keeping.
But the back end has not extended as far and is much more variable. He has been known to wait until deep into September but never ever into October. The other day, I noticed his leaves making a mess of the back yard and loud BANGS! of his walnuts falling on the roof. Hmmm…it’s 90-plus degrees and humid and it’s early August. What does he know?
Sure enough, a week before the 40 degree temperature swing brought us down to the 50’s at night and a week before Hurricane Erin started to churn away in the eastern Caribbean, the black walnut had pulled the plug on summer! So much so that by the time the nor-easter made it “unseasonably” chilly for so many yacht club cruises in the third week of August, there were hardly any leaves left.
Honestly, it’s sort of awe inspiring. If our predictive powers were so good…
See you on the water and at the Boat Shows! We will be at all of them.
Publisher
Benjamin V. Cesare
ben@windcheckmagazine.com
