ok cover your eyes.

 

I'd have to disgree.

Ever had a Honeycrisp apple? Mmmm. Tasty. Even tastier when you work on the orchard and get them free when everyone else pays 1.99/lb for em. And that's cheap. Most places would be 2.49+/lb

People would go nuts over those things. I had a guy that came in every other week and bought a bushel box of them. Near thanksgiving he bought 2 bushels of Honeycrisp and a bushel of Pink Lady apples.

If you like grocery store apples then you should never work on an orchard. Once you get used to having your choice of thousands of apples from a couple dozen varieties grocery store apples lose their appeal.

I wish you guys were around here. I think you'd be pretty interested in some stuff around the orchard.

The CA (Controlled Atmosphere) rooms are very neat. They hold 13 tractor trailer loads (Approx. 13,000 bushels) of apples. They are reduced to 3% oxygen. Eric (owner) told me that you'd only last 30 seconds inside a CA room. They are latched shut and bolted with huge warning signs on them.

When they open them up again they set up big fans and then open them up and scoot out of there quick then wait 45 minutes or so before they go back.

I was supposed to be running a forklift there on Saturdays and working in their store on Sundays. Unfortunately the kid they hired for Saturdays was completely useless and I had to work in the store on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm hoping I can get some work mowing between rows of trees there this summer.

They have 316 acres of Apples, Peaches, Pears, and Plums.

They have 12-14 coolers and CA rooms that I know about. It seems like every time I turn around I find a new cooler that I didn't know existed before.

They actually want another 4 or so CA rooms. They've got the largest packing house east of the Hudson river valley.

 

Sorry, but I believe that is a Chevy.

 

Yea, I know.

Someone else pointed that out too. Going more for the shock value then the Ford pic. lol

Ed

whoa, I was able to fix it in photobucket. cool

 

This was 1989 dollars. Might have been expensive back then. The land was like 15K for 8 acres. I was raised in it...def was nice to have a lil more land to screw around on!

They wish now that they wouldve gone with something other than vinyl in the kitchen though. Im having to fix all the squeaks in the NAILED subflooring.

Oh, and the funny thing about that picture...the land assessor took that picture. They still dont have it listed with an extra bath or bedroom even though we pulled permits. Dads not complaining about it though! Stupid real estate taxes!

 

Nice Pete, I want to hang out on a nice big orchard like that. Sounds like a lot of fun. I agree, fresh apples off the tree are the best, you cant beat the taste.

Tristan- Nailed subfloor is about all we do here, but it's with ring shank gun nails. I can only think of a handful of times someone would pay for screws. I have ring shank nails here, with lots of glue, and then I went back and screwed it down after to be sure, but thats my house...

We just got our new assessed value this year after the big remodel/addition.. My taxes tripled. Thats gonna hurt.

 

OUCH. That really stinks about the taxes. Especially when construction/remodeling is as slow as it is now.

 

yep....it's going to cut out toys for the truck as well as a vacation or two. Probably be wakeboarding in Eastern Washington all summer since we stay for free, and it's my buddies boat. Just gotta buy gas now and then but there's about 20 of us so we split the costs up nicely.

 

Right around the time I was selling my house in Colorado, I caught two mice in my mousetrap...twice! I caught two in a trap and thought that was amazing and then it happened again.



I USED to think that was cool until I saw that other mouse picture.

lol

 

Good afternoon everyone.

I have to agree with Pete, Honeycrisp are good apples. A close second for me is the Braeburn. I really don't care for Red Delicious anymore, too soft. Developed at the University of Minnesota too. I planted a Honeycrisp tree last year, along with 2 cherry trees(forgot the variety) and actually got 2 apples off of it. I hope that is a good sign, they are great apples. I have another apple tree (variety unknown) that was here when we moved in and it finally produced a few last year too, first time in 5 years.

Lisa, nice looking gardens! I'll have to get some pics of ours this spring. We plan on doing a vegetable garden this year, as soon as I clear out a spot for it. We did a flower garden/retaining wall project last year that should look really good this year, hopefully.

Tristan, that's a pretty nice looking place your parents have, and the 8 acres is nice too.

Brent, that sucks about the taxes, not much you can do though. My taxes actually went DOWN this year, about 2%.

 

Still pretty cool to catch 2 in one trap, especially twice.

 

Sounds awesome Pete. Come to think of it I think I've had some of those apples you talk about.

I used to live in Palisade, Colorado. Google it. Orchards as far as the eye can see and some of the best peaches on the planet.

Ever since then, I am disappointed with the fruit I buy. I want my own mini orchard someday.

 

Well I dont think he used ring shanked considering it looks like a common nail, let alone glue!

This year I actually helped my dad with his taxes. The value had gone up nearly 80K in the last 2 years. I filled out the appeal form for dad and they lowered the assessed value to what it was before the 80K increase. Hes paying me half the difference in that just for filling out a form. I knew my degree would payoff somehow!

All they use here is almost a standard % increase and I guess they didnt think anyone would know about the real estate market being lousy. The good thing is the tax rate went down to .80 per 100 in value. Petersburg has it bad...1.35 per 100 and no protection against gun battles!

Well remember, yours were caught, mine was just something I found online! Never know about the things you find online!

Thanks, I think they wouldve sold it a lonnnnnnnnng time ago if they didnt have me to help them out. Both my parents are in their 60's!

 

YouTube - Presidents of the USA - Peaches - Kick out the Jams (2008-08-31) moe.down 9 Lisa you made me think of this damn song....It's your fault I posted it...lol

 

yeah, kinda like a few of us....