Let there be apples!

I've been trying to grow apples for probably 5 or 6 years now. The first plantings arrived bareroot and just did NOT do well - they sat in the ground barely growing for the next few years. I also got a 5-in-1 grafted apple tree, which critters (voles) chewed around the based of the trunk over winter that year. Grrr!

I think it was two years ago I dug up the original apples and moved them to where the former blueberry bed had been (I also haven't had luck with blueberries).  In their place I put newly purchased apples, and crossed my fingers.  Well - check it out!

That's the biggest of the apples so far, but of the 7 trees, 5 (or is it 6?) have small fruit forming on them!  YAY!

Now most of the trees aren't LOADED with baby apples, so I'm guessing I won't need to thin the fruits off the trees.  I do think I'm going to try bagging some of the apples while still small, stapling a brown paper lunch sack over them.  Yeah, it'll look weird, but I know this method is often used for Asian pears, and have read it can be used on other fruit.  I'm just hoping to ensure at least some of the fruit have a guarantee of zero pests getting to them.  The rest I'll take a risk with - and then assuming they're all harvestable in the fall, we'll see how they compare.