Apples!

I have an apple tree (I used to have two but I got rid of one this winter because it was too big too close to the house) and I've never eaten an apple from it. I've watched it bloom, I've watched tiny apples form, I've watched them grow,  and slowly, slowly, I've watched small amounts of red creep across them. Just when I've thought it's time to try picking, they all disappear. I've known it's deer and squirrels - the highest apples are well above the reach of deer. But I've always timed it wrong. This year, I've been able to watch it much more closely than in other years, and the apples are growing bigger, slowly. Few have any red - interestingly, the reddest ones are the smallest.

Earlier this week, Rocky and I came back from our stroll around the block to find a deer grazing on the tree. Grrr! She was very bold and hard to shoo away. (I should note that Rocky's only interest in deer is their poop they leave behind - yummy!) "Shoo!" made no difference to her. "Woof woof!" (from me) made no difference to her. She seemed very big when we got close. She sidled a few feet away, and she kept an eye on Rocky, but she decided to sample the dahlias and mums that were closer. I grabbed my deer-chaser I keep on my front porch: a metal coffee can with a few nuts and bolts inside. I shook it at her, and finally she wandered across the street to eat Betty's flowers. Hat-tip to my neighbor Bill for suggesting that was a noise that was likely to work - I've used it several times this year, to good affect.

A couple of nights ago, I was down in my basement gym (yay me!), flat on my back, and I looked up and out the huge window well there, and I saw a squirrel on the tree. What he seemed to be doing was sampling every apple by taking a single bite! Grrrr! I finished up the workout briskly instead of lingering over my stretches, and went out there. The squirrel was not in sight, and I took the moment to harvest a few apples even though they are still green. I carefully positioned them for the photo with best side forward, because they all have flaws (but no actual squirrel bites). The largest one is about the size of a peach, small for an apple.

I'm contemplating my next move.  Will the picked green apples ripen or rot? Harvesting a lot more apples requires hauling out the ladder. I want to delay that as long as possible, in the hope they will continue to grow and eventually ripen. But will they all be gone by then? Yesterday, I saw a squirrel perched atop my fence enjoying one.

In other news, the yellow jackets are not gone. They have opened a new nest entrance about six inches from the old one. The specialist says he'll be back Saturday. Grrrr!