I don't know about dreamy, more like overwhelming! Yes, it's way too young to be a homestead orchard; know a local guy that used to do lots of searching for pioneer orchards - once he figured out that they all had fruit from the Leuelling (I'm probably misspelling it!) nursery collection and they were pretty much all old varieties with certain redeeming qualities...but good eating usually wasn't one of them; he lost interest in that! How many Ben Davis apple trees do you really need, anyway?!

The entire orchard is all somewhat trellised, basically posts at each end and and at intervals within the rows; though hard to see them there; the trees are pretty thick - can't even walk down some of the rows without ducking under or around branches; much less be able to get even a small tractor down them! And too thick to be able to duck between rows, though the deep grass was part of that reason. Looked like it only had one top wire strung through the posts; at least only one showed at the ends where it came down to anchor in the ground, most other systems I've seen had 2 or 3 and they all came down to the anchor - why not, it'd be more stable! But there might be a couple more wires in the rows, I'll look tomorrow when I'm out there with a realtor, since it's vacant I could go walk around on my own - if it had been fall, I'd have been picking like crazy! Has a total of 24 rows of trees, ranging from 13 trees to 63 trees in a row - with NO access across the rows! The longest rows go almost the length of that part of the property - if you went in with a tractor, you'd have to keep going or back out:) It also has underground irrigation with raised sprinkler heads every few rows.

Though I wanted some apple trees and in fact grafted & planted some this year in anticipation of the lady friend finding land to move them to in the next couple of years, wasn't expecting to find a place that had too many apples! She needs grazing land for her 2 horses, and I sure have no inclination to get into the commercial apple business....so if we end up getting it; probably most of this orchard will have to go; sad to say. Have to wonder what the story on it is, know that it was a foreclosure & a bank's owned it for a while now; and there's still chemicals & apple processing equipment left there; as well as a fruit storage cooler. So kind of think someone's already gone bust there trying to be an apple & pear farmer......

I talked on the phone to the realtor handling it, he didn't know anything more about the orchard than I could see with my own eyes; in fact I could tell him more than he knew! Probably not cider apples, since there's a real mix of fruit in it; could see it was mostly apples - but what kinds?! And some pears, from the tree form; also cherries from the visible ones forming - not many, but surprised to even see them mixed into a orchard like that.

Hopefully I'll know more on Saturday!
Dave

Saturday (& also Sunday!) tour went well, probably spent 7 or 8 hours out there wandering around or just pondering stuff - so far, lots of pros but one big con: Noise! Highway 99W is about 1/4 mile away mostly direct line of sound, and during the day isn't too bad; noticeable but bearable; when we went back around sunset was noticeably louder, though not inside the house. Okay with me, but it's a bigger issue for the lady friend; she's been living near the end of a gravel dead-end road with only 5 house beyond her for the last 10 years! So she's not used to traffic noise - but does say this is by far the best place she's found in the 2 years she's been looking for land...so she's back home now agonizing over what to do!

Yes, the apples would almost certainly pay better than the horses; but it's a given that the horses will be there, that's the whole reason for wanting pasture land! Besides, the horses cost money; not expected to earn money! And neither of us wants to get into the commercial orchard business, though we did want some apples - but not 750 trees!! Talked about keeping a couple of the longest rows just for noise reduction, since they're the ones most in the way of the highway noise; and maybe adding some kind of noise barrier on the other side.

So far have no idea what kinds of varieties are in the orchard, but did find a name - an application for permit renewal of "Individual Pesticide Applicator", from the USDA dated early this year to Warren Webb; so that's probably who had the orchard last.

We'll see, out of my hands for now - I'm ready to buy, GF's thinking about it and her mom the architect will probably come down and take a look at the place! At least found out that there's an additional lower 2.5 acre section which isn't fenced and not planted with orchard, so there'd be less pressure to rip out trees for pasture first thing; besides, GF has work commitments through the end of the year - her fault, she's self employed and scheduled it herself!
Dave

This place is at least far enough away from the highway that pollution isn't a huge factor, just the noise which carries well! The house is up on a mild hill, so mostly line of sight; the orchard dips down the hill a bit - actually quieter down at the bottom of the property nearer the road a bit, more terrain & vegetation in between.

And just discovered yesterday that there's another 1 1/2 acres which is part of the property but we hadn't found earlier, being farmed by someone else on the other side of the creek which we'd thought was the property line - it's not! So more pasture not planted in trees right now.
Dave