Sept. 7, 2015: An Orchard in Old Mission

Aside from when the cherry orchard at my parents’ house in Old Mission was between plantings, I can never remember a time when there wasn’t an orchard there. But the orchard was getting old, and the trees had to come out.

I’m not sure another orchard will go in there, and here’s why: my mom is in her 90s now, and as my cherry farmer brother explained to me, the trees take seven or eight years to bear fruit. So by the time the trees are producing, well, my mom might not be here anymore.

And when she’s not here anymore, we’ll likely have to sell her house, partly because we all have our own houses on the Peninsula and partly because no one can afford to pay taxes on her prime piece of real estate in the heart of Old Mission with frontage on East Bay.

It’s a common conundrum for Old Mission kids my age who are losing their parents. If given the chance to move to her house, I’d probably jump at it. Leave our house to our kids and move back to Old Mission, where Tim and I were both born (our house is down the shore towards town).

But we’d have to buy out my siblings, which, you know, we’re not getting any younger either, so that’s not likely to happen. Who wants to be stuck paying taxes on a piece of property that’s probably worth a million or two – when you’re in downsizing mode?

And so the old homesteads are sold off, and life moves on.