Apples are wonderful to see growing on trees, and they are so beautiful to see as you walk down the produce aisle at your favorite store. We consume them at great pleasure, in forms such as apple pie, apple sauce and cider. As a culture we like apples and are taught to eat an apple a day.
Now that we have covered the positive ground on apples, let us now discuss where apples should not be found.
Finding the occasional apple while driving the banks of our beautiful canals across the Snake River Plain is kind of fun. These red orbs are adept at floating and bobbing in the water. They tend to catch ones eye and hold interest as they float by and get stuck at the occasional grate or dives downstream.
A problem arises with Apples when they multiply exponentially. This has been an epidemic at times as several hundred apples are sometimes floating against the grates and in our dives. Clogged grates do not allow for the passage of water, and must be cleaned much more regular than preferred to prevent flooding.
On one such occasion, I decided to try and solve the mystery of the Apples and put on my best detective hat.
For days I had been watching the clues as they floated by. The once singular viewing of the rogue apple was now a grouping of the little devils. I started at a dive downstream that had been cleaned out by removing too many of these apples. As I drove the canal I watched for the bobb-ers, and as I would find them, I knew that I had more distance to travel to find the launch pad.
I watched for possible apple trees hanging over the canal but found none. I then deduced that the apples could not have arrived in my canal by natural means, someone had to put them there.
I remained puzzled for a few days as to where the launch was and who the culprit could be. Then one day I turned a corner and drove a stretch of road along a canal and spied the culprit. A young boy had a mostly empty basket as he walked to his home from a bridge. Left in the basket was an apple and leaves. I stopped and looked in my canal and apples were headed down stream.
Knowing now that I had caught the trouble maker I approached him and asked what he had been doing. "I was told by Grandma to dump the apples from the ground under the tree into the canal!" He said. I then frankly admonished him to cease and desist this evil and to throw them into the garbage and not my canals.
The case was closed, and hopefully a lesson was learned!
Please keep garbage out of the canals. It creates a mess for the lovable ditch riders. Thank you!