Use What You Got
The neighborhood where I live was originally built in a pecan orchard. The trees are getting pretty old and are beginning to die out. I grew up five doors down from the home where my husband and I live and have raised our children. I bought this home as a single woman, desiring to raise children some day in my awesome neighborhood and just down the street from my parents. When I married, my husband agreed to live here, mainly because of the amount of equity I had accumulated already in this home. When I first bought this house, there was a poor, sad, neglected apple tree in the backyard. It took me years, but I fertilized, pruned, watered, nurtured, talked to, and even sang to this little tree. Within a few years, it began paying me back for my attention and producing beautiful apples. After I had children, my daughter and I would go out about every two weeks in the Fall and pick a bowl full of apples. We’d peel them, core them, slice them, season them, and make a coup...