Thursday, March 02, 2006, 19:59
An Apple a Day (Someday?)
I can hardly believe how big my apple tree is getting!
Last spring, every time I cut open an apple it seemed, I found seeds that were sprouting. I finally decided to plant some of the seeds in pots. By the end of the summer, 8 little apple trees were growing in pots outside the back door. This past fall, I brought all of the pots into the basement.
Unfortunately, that's when the trouble started.
For some reason -- and I don't know who is responsible because I've never caught them at it -- the inside/outside kitties who come into our walkout basement (Gilligan, MaryAnne, Rocky and Juliette) -- have decided it would be fun to dig up the apple trees.
I'd come downstairs, and there would be an apple tree, lying outside the pot.
One by one, I replanted the apple trees when they got dug up. After I had replanted them a couple of times, I brought them upstairs. I put two of them on top of the coat closet, and one is on top of the china cabinet. Several trees are still in the basement and have not been bothered (go figure!). Several of the ones upstairs are not doing anything and look dormant. The ones in the basement look dormant, too.
But one of the apple trees on top of the coat closet is growing gangbusters.
I am hoping that the others will come back from the roots or will start sprouting leaves from the top someday soon.
Of course, I have no idea what kind of apple any of them are. I found sprouted seeds in Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Pink Ladies, Braeburns, Granny Smith's and Macintosh apples. I suppose I should have been more meticulous and kept the seeds separated and then labeled each of the pots so I would know which is which. But I did not do that.
I also don't know which of those apple varieties need a pollinator. I am hoping that whatever is growing is a self-pollinator.
Then again, if the little apple trees grow to be big apple trees and then eventually get apples on them, the whole thing will be one great big surprise! (Surprises are fun!) I won't have the vaguest idea of what kind of apple until the fruit is on the tree. It reminds me of Forrest Gump -- "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." "LeAnn's apple trees are like a box of chocolates. She has no idea *what* she's going to get, if anything."
One thing I do know for sure, though. When we plant the apple trees outside this spring, we are going to have to heavily fortify them with rabbit wire. Rabbit wire around them. Rabbit wire over the top. Otherwise, the rabbits, and the deer, too, will make short work of my apple trees. And we can't have that. Not after I have worked so hard to get them *this* far. It's bad enough that a deer (or a rabbit) ate off all of my little wild rose buds last year. (I'm not sure how long I'm going to be dismayed about my wild rose buds, but apparently, I'm not done yet. . .)
So far this year, I have not found any sprouts in the apples. But if I do, of course I am going to plant them. It's too much of an opportunity to pass up.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, March 01, 2006, 19:35
Tweet! Tweet!
As I put Kajun's grain into his feed box this morning, a strange sound from the rafters overhead came to my attention.
"Tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet!"
I looked up, and there, sitting on one of the rafters were a couple of sparrows -- the little brown and white variety that are known as house sparrows.
The sparrows have not been in the barn since this time last year. They always show up in the barn in late winter. They will have two months to enjoy the barn, and then the barn swallows will return in early May and will chase them out.
It has happened this way for the past ten years, so I don't imagine this year will be much different. Just when the house sparrows think they've got a place to nest, the barn swallows show up.
Of course, when the house sparrows are chased out of the barn, they will simply go to one of the bird houses around our place and set up housekeeping. I have also seen them attempting to nest in the cliff swallow nests under the eaves of the house. The sparrows are nothing if not adaptable to their environment, which -- I would imagine -- explains why they are so successful as a species.
When I was a kid and used to go to the feed mill with my Dad, hundreds of these little sparrows would be hanging around the feed mill and pecking around in the street in front of the feed mill to eat some of the spilled oats.
I must say -- two of the barn cats -- Tippy and Little Sister -- were enthralled by the sparrows. The cats were not born yet last year when the sparrows showed up, so I guess this is the first time they've seen them. Tippy and Little Sister huddled together on the tractor seat, staring at the ceiling. When the sparrows flew around, they would crouch down, as if to hide themselves so the birds wouldn't know they were there.
Sparrows showing up in the barn is not the first sign of spring, of course. Last week, I heard the chickadees singing their mating whistle! The chickadees always sound so mournful, it seems to me, when they are calling their mating whistle. I want to say to them, "Cheer up! Spring is on its way!"
Because you know what?
Spring *is* on the way!
It's March 1, and it will be spring in 19 days! By the calendar, at any rate. Winter never goes by the calendar, I have noticed. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
