This fall I’d been anxiously waiting for the half-dozen or so apples on the little Dwarf Macintosh to ripen up. Most folks with any experience assured me that when the apples were ripe, they’d begin to fall off the tree.
One day, I was away all day. When I returned home it was dark, and I gave little thought to the apples outside. In the morning, I opened the front door to let in some fresh air and light.
Just outside was this little buck, eating something from the ground. When he saw me he raised his head and I could see a very robust apple in his mouth. I realized that the apples must have started to drop, so I went out to have a look. Of course the buck started and trotted off, dropping the apple as he left. Looking around, I could see that it was the only one; none in the tree, no more on the ground.
The apple was nearly pristine, and I thought about just leaving it for the buck for if he should return. Since he’d obviously already gotten the other five, I decided to bring it inside instead, where I washed it up, cut around the barely-noticeable tooth marks, sliced it up and ate it with much good humor.
This blog will be a collection of images from approximately one square acre of the land around my house. Periodically, I’ll discover some little item–a leaf, a rock, a piece of rusty metal, weathered wood perhaps–and will record such with my camera. I’ll upload the image here and comment upon it: what it is, genus, species, composition and tell the story about it. I hope that you will rejoin me with comments upon these subjects.
My Little Firmament 
This last year we had so many apples that none of our family and friends wanted, so most of them fell on the ground and rotted. We ate as many as we could and made a lot of applesauce. The local deer also ate quite a few. When one young buck was first spotted you could count his ribs but after several visits eating apples and shrubs he looked much healthier.
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This little apple tree that I have was something my grandmother planted nearly three generations ago. It’s only two and half inches at the thickest part of its trunk, and has been called by members of my family a Dwarf Macintosh, so that’s what I continue to call it today. I suppose I should really research the thing, take a cutting in to the county extension agent, see what I actually have. The six apples that came to fruition this year are as many as I’ve ever really had. There doesn’t seem to be much pollination going on: bees, flies, wind, neighboring apple varieties, so I’m always surprised to see it bear any fruit.
That’s pretty funny about fattening up a deer on apples. Locally, there’s quite an onus on feeding them. The watchword is, ‘they’ll get diabetes!’. But who would actually know that, be able to make that determination? dunno.
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