Revisiting Our Birch "Sap-Cicle"

If you saw my post on last Saturday, the 11th, you know about the "icicle" forming on one trunk of the twin birch tree outside our window.

A couple of days ago, the temp was just warm enough (after a dusting of snow the night before) that the bottom of the birch sap formation was dripping.  We placed one of my big stock pots on the ground to try to catch some of the sap.  (You can just make out the formation in the picture above immediately to the left of the apple tree in the distance.  This perspective also gives an idea of how high up on the tree it is.) 

But it was a gray and cloudy day with a strong wind blowing that sent the droplets of sap just about everywhere except into the pot on the ground.

The formation of the birch sap coming out of the tree has continued every day and our sap-cicle, as it's now known, has been growing by leaps and bounds.  It's currently more than five feet long and is quite the spectacle.  (I tried to get Papa Pea to get out the extension ladder and climb up next to it for perspective, but that idea didn't go over well.)

So very interesting, the ways of nature.