I was working in the yard the other day sawing down more trees (surprise!).  I came across a huge turpentine tree that we have been jokingly referring to as the “tumor tree” due to a huge break in the base of the tree where termites had setup shop.  The huge black nest and resulting area where the tree tried to grow around them was pretty ugly.

Due to the size of the tree I had decided to hold off on cutting it down until one day I got the motivation to do the deed.  So I started sawing into it with the chainsaw.  I was sawing away and all of a sudden I saw a huge gush of what looked like tobacco spit coming out from the cut.  When I say gush, I mean GUSH.  There was literally many gallons of this nasty liquid pouring out.  It really caught me off guard.  My first thought was something along the lines of “Wow…That is a lot of…sap?  No no…That can’t be sap…can it?  Maybe it is really porous honey?  I don’t see any bees….hmm..This is really gross. It’s still pouring out……wow.”

Once the tree was down on the ground I inspected it a bit and it actually appears to be water mixed in with the termite nest.  The termites had done a good job of hollowing out the dead parts of the tree and rain water had filled the cavity.  It was pretty disgusting to see especially since I wasn’t expecting it.

Tumor Tree Down

We also noticed the other day that the avocado that we cut down when we first started clearing the property has shot up a few new sprouts just as some of you had predicted!  I think it may turn out that we did the avocado tree a huge favor by getting rid of all the termites and vines that had plagued it and given it a new lease on life.

Avocado Sprouting Back to Life

We also received our shipment of turkey poults today!  We will have more updates on them soon.

Day old Royal Palm Turkey Poults