Today we planted a new Golden Delicious apple tree.

About thirty minutes later, a goat that had slipped its collar found it and scraped the young trunk up before we could stop him. That is the kind of homestead lesson that lands fast. You can do a good job on the planting itself and still get punished by a weak point somewhere else in the system.

So the tree is bandaged, the protection plan just moved higher on the list, and the goat is in the freezer.

That may sound harsh to people outside this life, but it is part of the plain truth of keeping animals and building something that has to last. Fences, collars, cages, guards, and routines matter. A young orchard does not get established by good intentions alone.

We are hoping the tree pulls through. The damage does not appear to go all the way around the trunk, which gives it a chance. Either way, the lesson is clear enough: if you want fruit trees to live, you had better think about goats before the goats think about your fruit trees.