Struggling Apple Tree

There are some varieties of apples that only bear fruit every other year.  Maybe you've got one of those.

For what it's worth, we also live near Hartley and our apple tree is not happy this year either. It did have blooms and has some apples but is sickly looking this year and the crop is way down. 

Water it really good this fall, mark branches that look like they are dying so you can trim them in early spring, and consider fertilizing it pretty much when buds are starting in the spring.

No worries! I have three apple trees, and all bear fruit every other year. Last year two gave fruit, this year it's only one. The deer and mama bear seem to get most of the apples, and I never have to pick any off of the ground!

Some apple and pear trees can get into a cycle of overproducing one year and not producing the next. Next year, when the tree blossoms, give it a good shake every day or so to make it drop blossoms/fertilized apple buds to help reset its production cycle.

Check to see if there is green lichen on the branches. I didn't notice that it had taken over one of my apple trees until it was too late. It causes the bark to fall off the tree and thus kills the tree, but isn't noticeable from a distance. I caught it in time on my other trees and have to spray them with fruit tree fungicide three times per year to keep the lichen at bay.

A lot of apple and crab apple trees suffered from late frosts this year, which can kill the flower buds and the leaf buds. If that's what happened, the tree will likely recover. But given what you've said about how abundant the crop was last year, the tree may just be resting this year. From   Extension's site about apples : "[H]eavy crops can cause a phenomenon known as biennial bearing, in which a heavy crop is followed the next year by little or no crop. Fruit thinning can minimize biennial bearing."

We have an apple tree in our yard that must be over 50 years old.  It only flowers every other year, which I guess isn't unusual for some kinds of apple trees.   See how it looks next year before you panic.