I too have been fascinated by apple trees since I was a kid playing in an old overgrown pasture with a scattering of old mostly hollow apple trees. Their all gone now replaced by seedlings from their fruit with my house sitting in that old pasture. Good for you Appleseed for wanting to try to keep the genetics of that old tree alive. Me too...I used to play army as a little kid in a pasture that was probably just like you describe. I remember old hollowed out apple trees there as a kid too. A few weeks ago I was alone and took a drive to that place...it is all different now with a new subdivision built and all those old trees are gone. I'm hoping the owner knows something of it. I was too busy to stop today and to be honest judging by the place I'm a bit intimidated of these folks. Can you count any rings on the half that is cut off? Love the tree. Good luck I thought about that, but the cut is old and I'm guessing dark and deteriorated enough to make counting rings difficult. Seems to me I tried that as a kid and it always came out way younger than the tree could possibly be. I guess I wasn't doing it right or something. I didn't want to go up in their yard without knocking first either and today I was short on time. You can just tell by the place that this isn't a where you are welcome to freely roam around.

My previous house had wetlands behind it, which were beautiful and full of life (I miss them). Someone planted a row of Silver maples and Red maples along the edge of the wetlands, probably for wind break. They were at least 50 years old and large. Anyway, one evening a storm blew through and an incredible wind came through the yard. It was either a mini-twister or a down draft or something, the wind was easily hurricane force. After it passed, I went out to check if anything had blown around. I looked into the back yard and saw the sillouhette of a very large "shrub" that had appeared in the yard. At first I thought it was a large branch, but then I looked up at the silhouette of the maples - and oddly, there was a gap in the canopy where the largest tree used to be. It dawned on me that the tree had blown over. Did it ever! This tree was HUGE. 50-odd year old Silver maple, with 5 large trunks. The biggest tree on the property! Completely blown over, the canopy fell about 10 feet short of the deck and smashed a small fruit orchard to smithereens. There was a 20 foot rootball sticking up out of the swamp. My boyfriend at the time cut up the canopy. I had a tree guy chip the brush and cut the trunks, and watched the rootball flop back over into the swamp. I was so bummed to lose this tree and that my lovely fruit trees were ruined. There were a couple beautiful Yellow delicious apple trees and they were full of fruit that year. With all the apples strewn about, it was like trying to walk on marbles to cut up the brush. The upside was, that the gap in the treeline opened up a gorgeous vista of the wetlands. I've got plenty of pictures, but they are all on print, no digital.

You could also take some of the less-ripe pears and grind them for a relish. Here's an old Farm Journal recipe that uses hard winter pears. You can always count on country cooks to come up with ways to use everything. Pear Relish 4 pounds firm winter pears (4 cups chopped) 3 cups 5% acid strength cider vinegar 3 cups sugar 2 T. canning/pickling salt 1 1/2 tsp. celery seeds 1 T. Allspice berries (optional) 6 medium onions, peeled (4 cups choppped) 15 large green peppers, seeded and stemmed (5 cups chopped) 4 hot red peppers, seeded and stemmed Wash pears; peel, core and slice directly into salt water solution (1 T. salt to 1 qt. water) Note: could also use ascorbic acid crystals or Fruit Fresh Combine vinegar, sugar, salt and celery seeds in 5-qt. kettle. If desired add allspice tied in cheesecloth bag. Bring to boil. Put pears, onions and peppers through food chopper; add to kettle. Simmer, uncovered, until onions and pears are translucent, about 40 minutes. Remove spice bag. Ladle into 6 hot pint jars, pressing down as you pack so syrup covers relish. Fill to within 1/4" of jar top. Wip rim; adjust lids. Process boiling water bath 15 minutes. Makes 6 pints. I'm sure you could find lots of other Pear Relish recipes through a search if you're interested but would like different seasonings or combinations of vegetables. Carol

Hello, everyone. I thought of you all during the storm and hoped and prayed that everyone would be all right. Our storm hit about 6:15 AM and the power went out immediately. The rain was horizontal, or all over the place, hail, and very big wind. I guess the Silver Creek siren sounded but it was so noisy (train sounds YIKES) I didn't hear it. The all clear blew at 8:00 AM but I didn't get power until 5 PM yesterday. I had small stuff all over the yard, but no trees or big live limbs. They were just hanging limbs that fell harmlessly. All my little beautiful plants were out on the driveway and lived through all of it. I was so sorry for them in the hail, but the wind and rain was so hard there was no damage. My daughter in Duquesne had three large oaks down (away from house). It was a tornado. And power was out so she came to stay the night with me and brought my two little GCs. They didn't get here until Midnight and we were all so stoked I don't know what time we made it to bed! My DSIL is a paramedic and he was on duty. One good thing -- all that wind and water sure brought down the oak bloom! Yea! Some of my neighbors still don't have power. There are some very large trees down all around me and I'm so grateful everyone stayed safe. It was bad to have Internet Withdrawal! CableOne was out until this afternoon. That was a terrible picture of the storm in Springfield, Violet. All those yellows and reds -- scary. Bonnie, I know how you feel about getting your power back. Christie, I saw the schoolbus going out of the village during some bad stuff. Glenda, sorry about your spruce. Please do just rest and get over the cold -- most things really can wait. Helen, I'm glad you're okay. I hoped you would be. Marian, you are sooooo lucky! Where is ceresone? I can't get back to see if she checked in. Hope she's okay. Take care - Sunny, who cannot, for the life of me, write a short message -- lol