THE OLD APPLE TREE

There was a ragged old apple tree on our place when we moved here.  We had a tree mover dig it up and replant out back, in a cut out of the deck.  Jim trimmed and shaped it nicely and  it flourished there for many years (almost 18 now).  It was a prolific producer of apples, which made lovely applesauce if you were patient enough to wait until a good frost had gone over them.

This year it was well on the way when disease struck.  At first we thought it was wind damage as we had had some very heavy winds.  Leaves turned brown and curled up.  But, wait, the damage was all over the tree, not just on the windward side.  It was a disease of some sort.

Today Jim got to work on it, cutting off the branches one at a time with a hand saw.  When he had a few cut off he loaded them onto the tractor bucket and took them out to the corner of the triangle field where we have a brush pile.

There's one big branch to go, but he decided to let that wait for The Helper, Craig, who comes to do jobs that are too heavy or big for us to handle.  He really is The Helper!

We'll miss the shade provided by this good old tree.  We had a bench there to sit and enjoy the shade and the breezes.  But a diseased tree must be cut down before the blight spreads to our other apple trees.  Fortunately, the best "apple sauce" tree is way down by the #1 greenhouse, presumably still safe from whatever killed this tree.

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Craig showed up about 30 minutes ago and finished the job: