Wow! It is 10,000 degrees f right now. Okay, just 100, but still! 
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We didn’t intend to have 3 trees but one that we really wanted seemed to need two pollinators. Few years ago so I don’t entirely remember. Ashmeads is the tastiest.
Gosh we rarely even get to 80.
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I touched something while I was gardening this weekend and now my right pinky is all blistered and swollen. Could have been a cucumber vine, says the interwebs. Has this happened to anyone else?
My husband is having a similar problem with that this week, on exposed parts of his arms after working in the yard last weekend. A contact dermatitis that resembles poison ivy, but none of that around here. We were blaming Photinia.
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This?
Sorry for what your husband is going through. I’m not having a lot of fun myself! Sitting here icing my poor pinky.
Yes. He was working around one in our yard, and apparently some are sensitive to something about it.
Here’s a picture, but in a different season.
Hugs, or maybe just air hugs. 
ETA “Contact dermatitis from a Photinia plant is typically a phytophotodermatitis reaction, where the skin reacts to chemicals in the plant after sun exposure,”
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I will take your air hug. It’s also possible that I was yanking out some Queen Anne’s lace and got the sap on me. It also causes a rash.
Yeah, the sun thing. This could be where part of the vampire lore came from.
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I lacerate myself with cucumber vines almost every day. Horrible sharp things . The blistering suggests a different culprit to me…
I do not have a garden, just a single apple tree that is a mere 2 years old, but it is giving a yield of sorts and i am pretty happy about it. And one of my deer was wandering about in the meadow so i took a picture of both.
I picked the apples because they were over weighing the branches they were on and thought they would be way too tart but surprisingly they were moderately crisp and slightly sweet.
I really like them.
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The apples look great - do you know the variety? Are there apple trees nearby (neighbor, etc.) to help pollinate?
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Yes, could be the Queen Anne’s lace. It does not feel good!
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Pollinate? I am an apple tree tyro. I think i am raising the only apple tree youngster within a couple hundred yards. So any propagation is all on this one salpling. Do i need to plant a couple more to keep it producing?
No idea of the variety. I bought it from a platoon of assertive 10 year olds at a stop light in front of Ronan True Value Hardware, so it is probably a variety that is typical for Montana.
Any ideas on its variety would be welcomed.
On edit: I may go on a mini road trip to the hardware store to ask if they have any idea of the variety they usually sell. Good excuse to take a drive down to the Mission Mountains. This is how small my apple tree was this spring.
This is a view of the Missions.
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very nice!
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Beautiful!
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Be on the lookout for one of many stinging caterpillars. Droppings on the ground or chewed leaves are clues. They often hide under foliage.
I’ve had phytophotodermatitis before and it can be a terrible rash, often taking months to clear up. I don’t recall what my doc gave me. The rash was all over my face, except a perfect spot where I had been wearing a respirator; that area was totally OK and left a perfect pattern, which helped with the diagnosis.
Though not in this area yet, Giant Hogweed causes severe phytophotodermatitis, with terrible blistering and skin death.
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Gorgeous view!
Yes, your apple tree is young! Here’s where I would start:
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Thank you for the link! I have some reading to do!
Given the rapidity with which it bore fruit, the second link says it must be a dwarf variety of one sort or another, so that helps already.
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Gorgeous bounty!
Must have been exhausting to harvest.
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