I brought Nancy’s grapefruit tree inside yesterday (Sept. 17). The nights are getting cooler now and fall is just a few days away. Nancy planted a seed in the early years of our marriage. For the first several years it was just another plant filling up the window of the house along with a lot of other plants on a shelf across two windows.

Over the years it just quietly grew taller. At first it lived in a flowerpot for a few years; then in a succession of bigger and bigger pots. Then we moved it into a plastic bucket. A small wooden barrel came next, as it was now 3 feet tall.

We moved it outside during the summer and inside on a short table in front of the eastern windows during the winters. Those early winters we were together were cold inside the house; we had to find the right distance between the wood stove and the window, yet the tree survived.

I moved it into a small 30-gallon white plastic barrel and built a round creeper on wheels for it to be moved. The trunk of the tree was now 3 inches in diameter and 5 feet tall. About that time, I became aware of the thorns on its branches. They hurt!

Every summer around Memorial Day I would wheel it outside and shortly after Labor Day, when the nights became cool, I’d wheel it back inside. One windy summer day I returned from work and the tree was gone! After walking the entire length of the porch, I found it off the side. The width of the branches had acted as a sail, the wind had blown it the width and length of the porch and off its edge. Retrieving it was like a wrestling with an unhappy cat. At that time, I built a bigger round creeper as well as cutting off the top of a 50-gallon blue plastic barrel to put the now 6-foot tree into. During the winters I had a grow light overhead on the ceiling for its light.

One Christmas we used it as our Christmas tree complete with lights. Looked great! The only problem came when I attempted to remove the lights. My hands became pincushions from the thorns. I used wire cutters to remove the lights. I had to build a screen over the dirt to keep the cats from using it as a litter box. The tree kept growing and gaining weight with enough height that I now have to trim the top before I move it inside. The trunk is 5 inches in diameter. Nancy’s tree now fills the entire window.

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