When we were thinking about buying this house one of the things to consider was the apple tree in the backyard. I thought of it as a positive thing: having free fresh fruit. I could make apple pies, apple sauce and share them with our friends. To Joseph the tree was very negative; he thought of all the bad fruit that would fall on the ground, make a big mess and be a pain to clean up and we didn't know if it would even produce good fruit. Well, obviously we got the house and have learned more about our tree. It has not been pruned or sprayed for a long time and we estimate it has about 700 apples on it (they are all very small). Anyway, we have had a ton of apples fall on the ground and I would rake them up, but had allergy problems from all the dirt and whatever else. One day a neighborhood kid came knocking at our door asking for a job because they were trying to earn money. I asked what she could do and she said anything. I told her I would have to think about it and consult my husband. So, I really did want to encourage her to "earn" money, but also wanted it to be helpful to my family. My biggest concern was that once we paid her for a job, every other kid in the neighborhood would also come expecting a job. Within about 24 hours I was able to come up with a brilliant solution. The job that I decided we could hire out labor for is picking up apples in our yard. When there is not a sufficient amount of apples to pick up, we have no job to offer. We were also very impressed when our "hired labor" even picked up all the apples in our rose bushes (something I had not gotten around to yet) and the apples that had fallen outside our fence in the common backyard. We ended up paying her more than we agreed upon since she worked for an hour and exceeded our expectations. (The apples she threw away filled up a third of our garbage can!) I think we were both very pleased with the situation. I'm actually looking forward to hiring kids to pick up more apples as more fall.
We had seen several neighbor children eating the little apples that had fallen off our tree, but I had never tried one. They were just so little and I thought they would be gross. So today for no reason I just thought, let's go try an apple. And they are DELICIOUS!!! YAYAYAY So, I think I would have to say that I love our apple tree.
4 comments:
That is such a cure picture. Wow, slave labor from the neighbors huh?
I remember when we got apples from a friend. They made wonderful applesauce! I'll have to show you how to make it sometime. Cute picture! (Of course, what do you expect. All our grandchildren are so cute!)
totally reminds me of picking up walnuts. i wish i would have thought of paying off other kids to do that for me.
Great story. Sounds so yummy to have apples in your backyard. Sounds so wonderful to have a backyard period.
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