I have four apple trees in my backyard. They’re old, and overgrown, and today I went out and scalped them. Pruning doesn’t quite describe what I did out there — I cut off everything that was sticking straight up into the sky. I cut off everything that was bigger than an inch and a half in diameter. I cut off everything I could in an attempt to take what was four scraggly trees that, granted, did provide good shade, but which also didn’t produce very well and when they did produce, the apples were 20 feet in the air where no one could get them.

Is it a sign that you’ve gone too far when you’re looking at that photo and thinking, hmm, those two last water sprouts could really go?