*cry*

I am very sad right now. I know I mentioned it before, but I'll talk about it again. My apple trees are most likely going to die.  Over the winter, all the snow prohibited the rabbits in the area from eating.  So they ate the bark off my apple trees, without me knowing.  When the snow melted, I found that almost all the bark from the lower half of each tree was gone.  I've been watching and waiting, to see what would happen.  Almost all the advice I was given said to just leave the tree alone.  Don't cover it, don't do anything but let it heal.  Sadly, my trees are still young and scrawny, and I just don't think they'll survive.  Everything I've read said they won't.

Bark is like skin...

So they aren't dead.  The small area on the bottom that does have bark is still green.  But as of yet, not a single bud has appeared.  It has no leaves.  I just don't see how it could survive.  Some of the ends of the branches (not that there is many...) even look a little gray and sickly.  Sigh.  And looking at these pictures, and the previous pictures, I'm pretty sure the rabbits ate off branches as well.

Damage is pretty severe on this tree...

I'm angry enough that if I could, I'd go rabbit hunting.  I don't know how my vegetables are going to survive.  According to our neighbor, the shed next to our yard has a family of like 12 rabbits living in it.  Maybe I should make my yard more owl friendly...