Unfortunately it was not me doing the feasting…
I keep my more tender trees (trident maple, Japanese maple, azalea, mimosa etc) in an old well pit. The well was dry when I moved into my house so I pulled out the pump and the water storage tank and use the pit to store trees for the winter. The pit is approximately 8 feet deep and 6 feet square so it is below the frost line and never freezes. I put some of my trees in earlier this week in anticipation of some very cold weather coming our way later this week. I left the cover off the pit because it was not cold when I put them in. While feeding the horses this morning I went to check on my trees in the pit. I climbed down and saw that my large trident maple looked fine but I saw a chinese elm tipped over, I put it back upright and was happy that it was not damaged. I thought: oh no something got in here (thinking maybe one of my chickens got in and flew out). Then I looked to my left and saw a rabbit sitting there. I darn near stepped on him coming down the ladder. The tender side of me said: oh no the poor bunny fell in the hole and can’t get out. I did not want to get bit so grabbing him was out of the question. I got a large dust pan (more like a large box) and a pooper scooper and gently prodded the thing into the dust pan. I scooped him up quickly which caused him to freak out and jump out of the box. The next time I went very slowly and was able to get him out of the pit. I took him into the pasture and kindly let him go; after all it was not his fault that the cover was left off the pit and I did not see any damage to the trees that I had looked at. Feeling pretty good about myself for my quick thinking and getting him out alive and in tact without causing my trees any harm I walked back to the pit. When I looked at the rest of my trees my heart sank. The little f*&^!$ ate all the branches off probably 20 of my trees. I was furious, I jumped out of the pit grabbed my pitch fork and went looking for the thing. Alas he was already gone. All those years of work just chomped off in one bite, many of the branches were just laying on the ground. It would be one thing if he ate a few to survive but it looked like he was just biting them off for fun. I think I am going to take up rabbit hunting now.
I try to be an optimist and through those eyes I can say: at least he did not eat the trunks so I can always re-grow the branches. In addition he did not touch my trident maple which makes me happy because it is finally ready for a nice bonsai pot in the spring. I did not put my large amur maple (see pic below) in the pit this year (they are supposed to be very cold hardy so I am going to winter in my garage this year) so thankfully it is still intact. I am thankful for those things but that is not how I wanted to start my day!
Happy Turkey Day Everyone!!!
