I did it!  I grew an apple!  Ok, so technically my William’s Pride Apple Tree grew the apple.  But it’s my tree and my apple!  The Deer didn’t win!  Earlier this summer the Delinquent Deer not only ate the leaves off my little tree, they snapped some of the branches completely off.  I thought for sure my sapling was doomed.  How could it survive such a mean-spirited act of vandalism?  Truth be told, as the summer went on I lost faith in my little tree and even stopped checking on it.

Fast forward to yesterday, when patrolling the perimeter of my yard I noticed my tree looked extra pathetic.  I assumed it was dead.  But no!  My William’s Pride Apple Tree, which looks more like a stick stuck in the ground, was drooped over due to the weight of the small but mighty apple it grew!  If you need a visual, picture that scene from A Charlie Brown’s Christmas, when he puts the ornament on the tree and it slumps over.  Yep, it was a similar pathetic sight.  Hence why I assumed the tree was dead.

However, without hesitation Dad picked the precious fruit, and the tree immediately sprung back into place, straight and tall.  Ok, tall is relative because it’s still just a sapling not much taller than me.  Hence why Dad picked the tiny apple before it was ripe, so as not to stress the tree further.  I’m proud of my William’s Pride Apple Tree for overcoming the odds.  Just you wait and see Deer, next year it is going to grow an even bigger apple…maybe even two, and will serve as an inspiration to our other fruit tree saplings!