It was one of those things I didn’t see coming. One of those events that fell into place and inevitably caused a smile as I watched it play out.

You see, twenty some years ago, my parents had a vision: build an apple orchard in the back acreage. It could bring some fun times for the family and kids. At least, that’s what I imagine they thought.

It was a lot of work – for mom especially – who cleared a large area of its natural sumac and brush. She spent hours, days… weeks  —along with anyone who would help her– clearing the area. And, her then houseful of teenagers did very little to help her. Then, finally, on the other side of the sweat, grit, determination and a bad case of poison ivy, the future Stoneburner Family Apple Orchard was officially cleared.

Mom and Dad selected several varieties of apple trees and planted about 10 trees in the orchard. Then waited.

Coming years brought more work. Not for the Stoneburner family, but for Mom. Work went into keeping deer away, bugs off and maneuvering the mower around the trees. Picking, peeling, baking, storing, delivering – an abundance of apples and not always a plan for what to do with them. The apples did bring some joy… but the work never disappeared.

Years went on, the kids moved away, my parents split up and the orchard – now in Dad’s care – has been almost entirely forgotten. Some of the trees didn’t make it, and the orchard is now down to about four sturdy trees that haven’t produced much in a number of years.

Until this year.

A few weeks ago, I took a stroll to the back woods with my furever companion and noticed a sight I hadn’t seen in years: Apples. A lot of apples!

I immediately wanted to round up the apple picker and get to work, but this was a joy to share. I called mom, informed my older brother, and made sure to get as many involved in a picking event as possible.

I then stood back and watched my mother, the woman behind it all, enjoy the moment. Mom shared memories from the past 20-plus years of how she used to pick, who she used to give the apples to, how the entire thing got started. She diligently instructed her grandkids on her best picking methods – which is often resorting to shaking branches and picking the fruit off the ground. The kids, originally bored with the idea of the work that would go into picking, eventually found that climbing the ladders, shaking the branches or swopping the apple picker around was quite fun. Immediately rewarding… and, obviously, very fruitful. Before long, we had picked enough apples for everyone to take a few bags home and bake or eat.

Mom deserved to see this play out. I don’t know what her motivator was 20-some years ago when she dedicated her afternoons to clearing and performing what likely felt like an unending, impossible mission at times. Maybe she loved apples, wanted to see her kids enjoy the orchard, or maybe she saw into the future, decades later, to the moments of giggling grandkids sharing a joyous afternoon of eating and picking apples.

Either way, the vision and work were well worth it. And, if life is really like the saying, we can be grateful that apples don’t fall far from the tree.

Shootin’ the Wit is a sporadic blog about everyday life that should never, ever be taken too seriously.