[RKDinOKC]

Had fruit trees, apples, plums, pears, peaches, one cherry, and one apricot at our last house. In the 25 years we had those fruit trees all except 1 year there was one last hard freeze just after the apricot tree bloomed. Typically it was a wet rainy freeze. Despite my efforts to keep the blossoms from freezing, that one year was the only year it produced apricots. Put a huge plastic tent over the tree and lit smudge pots under it. Pretty much could tell freezing winter weather was over once it froze the blooms on the apricot tree. No such indicators at the home we've occupied the last 18 years.

Kinda glad I don't have to take care of those fruit trees any more. Pruning, spraying, cleaning up the fallen fruit, and having to mow around them with a push mower because all the limbs were too low to get under with the riding mower. Then there was the whole canning and freezing at harvest. And trying to keep the thieving neighbors from stealing ALL the fruit after we spent our time and money taking care of the trees.

One lady kept sending her young kids over to fill up an ice chest. Walked them home a couple of times and threatened the lady that we would report her for contributing to the delinquency of minors for the theft. The first time she said she didn't know anyone owned the fruit tress, lying b. Two days later found her kids picking fruit again. Then she told us if we reported her she would just say she didn't send her kids and told them to NOT pick our fruit. We watched for the kids when the fruit started ripening, wait until they filled their ice chest, then take all the fruit except for 7 or 8 of whatever they were picking and send them home. After 3 or 4 times, I took the fruit and filled the ice chest with the rotten fruit under the trees. The rotten fruit hauls and she finally stopped sending them. Well, until the next year and had to do the rotten fruit thing again.

Had one apple tree that someone, we never saw or found who, was picking the apples as soon as they ripened. We never got one ripe apple from that tree. One year we spent the entire evening until dark picking the cherries as far up as we could reach. It was about half the tree. Went out the next evening right after work with our ladders and there was not one single cherry left on the entire tree. And no it wasn't birds or an animal because we had a huge net over the tree with bricks all around the bottom. Freakin birds would crawl under the edge of the net, pick at the cherries and crawl back out unless the entire edge of the net had bricks and/or rocks they couldn't move on it.

At one point tried to find something to spey on the fruit that would make the neighborhood thieves sick when they ate the fruit. Was planning to spray the entire orchard and put up a sign warning that the fruit was accidentally contaminated trying to control the bugs. That year we weren't getting hardly any of the fruit anyway. Everything I found that would cause an immediate reaction washed off.

The last time I drove by the old place there were two habitat for humanities homes on the lots where most of the orchard and huge garden were and not one fruit tree left standing anywhere.