We purchased our house a little over a year ago, a corner lot, located in a quiet area. On our side lawn are 2 mature apple trees. As the apples ripened last summer I tried the apples but didn’t like how they tasted so I collect them in buckets and take them out to the farm where I board my horses daily. One is a Transparent apple tree, mush yellow apple that bruises easily when it hits the ground. The other tree I’m not too sure about. It’s a red apple, similar to McIntosh, but doesn’t taste as good as one. This house had been rented for several years and the garden was badly neglected and overgrown, and likewise the 2 apple trees, badly neglected and not pruned for years.
Last summer a neighbour came over with an apple pie for us. She confessed to having picked apples so she could do some baking, and we invited her to help herself. Sad to say the apple pie wasn’t very good. Darned tasteless, mushy Transparents!
Over the winter we hired a gardener to prune the trees and as spring rolled around we put in fruit tree spikes and made sure the trees were well watered and we’re dealing with a bumper crop this year.
A couple of months ago we extended our fence line along the side of our house, putting the apple trees on the street side of the fence. Technically they are on city property but our responsibility. Therefore the apples fall on both sides of the fence. I’m constantly seeing apples with a bite taken out of them or even just the core left dumped on our lawn.
A couple of weeks ago I had just arrived home from work and was getting into my barn clothes when someone came to the front door. I heard Kerry talk to him and then he told me that the man who was pruning the neighbor’s tree saw our apples and asked if he could have some for his horses. Kerry told him to help himself. I was ticked. I hadn’t yet filled a bucket of apples for OUR horses. Not only did he clean us out but I saw him picking apples off the tree too. And those branches are quite high up due to our recent trimming. Nothing too close to the ground but he was a good sized man and was able to reach a branch and pull it down closer for picking range. And here’s the kicker. The man is trailering his tree chipper. One of our apple branches broke off and was lying on the ground right there in front of him. He's got to walk around it to get to the apples. The considerate thing for him to do in exchange for the apples would have been to toss that tree in his truck and then put it through his chipper the next time he was using it. But no, he didn’t. I told Kerry if he comes back wanting apples tell him no.
Today Kerry told me he caught a lady picking the apples off the ground and she told him she was making applesauce. Help yourself he told her. No problem there. I really don’t mind if the neighbor’s help themselves for their own consumption. There’s a bumper crop this year.
On Saturday night at 11pm I heard voices outside on the street. I peeked out the window and saw a group of teenage boys talking loudly and kept an eye on them. One of them stopped off the street onto our lawn and picked up an apple and started eating it. So OK, he’s hungry. Then another boy picked up an apple, took a bite, and apparently didn’t like it too much. He threw it at our house and it made a good thump against the siding. Then he picked up another apple and threw it against the house. Fortunately the siding again and not through a window. Kerry was downstairs and heard the noise and came outside. Ended up getting into a verbal battle and the boys took off down the street and he went back inside. I don’t think that was too smart for him to get into it with the boys because we park our truck on the street, and the car and motorbike in the driveway and those little buggers could have come back and vandalized any of them while we're sleeping. Then I watched the boys come back and the same boy picked up an apple and threw it against our house.
I know the police aren’t going to do anything so no point in calling them, so I grabbed my camera. I know its too dark to get a focused shot but the boys probably wouldn’t know that. All they'd see is the flashbulb going off. Then I heard 2 men down the other street yelling at them and the boys started running. I ran out to the sundeck and started snapping the shutter making the flash go off so the boys would know the camera was taking their pictures. And then one of the men yelled: “Good! They’re taking your picture.” The 2 men caught up with 2 of the boys with me continuing to snap a blurry documentary. I heard one of the boys yell: “Quit taking our picture. It wasn’t us.”
Kerry went back outside again and another neighbour across the street came outside. Apparently the boy(s) were throwing apples against his house too, though I hadn't seen that. One of the other men came back to talk. Apparently the boys had just been done their street and were throwing rocks at his neighbor’s house. As if that wasn’t enough one of them (probably the same apple thrower I observed) punched in the van that was parked on the street. That house/van owner is a biker. He caught up with 2 of them, and I believe he knew at least one of them, and found out who the other boys are, so it looks like he’ll take care of them.
In the meantime I now pick up those apples as soon as I can and do one final sweep before going to bed at night. Just trying to eliminate the ammunition.
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