Part-time neighbor trouble, stealing signs

I still just want to say if you are that isolated you are inviting trouble by having a you-pick. THere are people who troll rural areas "looking for houses for sale" or whatever, checking places out and robbing them. Before we moved here there was a group of teenage boys that went around knocking on doors, if someone was home they said they were gathering money for the marching band, if not they broke in. Since you are older and not in such good shape I think you might need to reconsider this angle of inviting strangers to your place. I understand your need to make money from your apples--but what exactly are you putting on your plate by doing this? alienating your neighbors, opening your door to God knows who, etc.

Maybe you can hook up with a CSA or few in your area--when it comes time to pick apples their customers will know to come and you do have a bit of screening on who is coming to your place. I just have the heebies jeebies about this u-pick thing for you, from what you have described.

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THE BEGINNING IS NEAR
5-star double-rated astronavagatrix earth girl

The next times your signs end up missing make up several of the same style signs and write on them "log cabin" "open house" with an arrow pointing to the cabin(s). You got to make them think that there is going to be consequences for stealing your signs.

Why not just get out of the apple business? Sounds like you are of the age/condition ready to retire.
Or
contract another farm to come and harvest the apples and pay you a lump sum for them. If they bring illegals, take the money or let the apples rot.
Or
Pay US workers the bare min wage you can and still make a tiny profit and not waste the apples.

No offense but you are getting up there and your condition is going to get worse, if you have no family to operate the farm, at some point you will have to retire the orchard to the mountain critters.
A shame I know, Ive seen lots of beautiful orchards here (one is right next door) fenced off for running cattle or just abandoned.

Now you see the value of illegals in this country to do the dirty work the citizens wont do, and the result. You, a citizen will be forced to abandon your orchard and quit. If there were NO illegals, you still wouldnt be able to find US workers to work for what you can profitably pay.

I feel for your situation, but honestly, I think you need to toss in the towel, or, reduce your harvest to what you can pick yourselves and sell at farmers markets or local organic stores.

If you look around there may be some hippy organic group that would be happy to come harvest the whole orchard and pay you a flat price for it all, and let them go market the 'organic' mountain grown apples.

In another 5-10 yrs, you wont have much of a choice but to shut down and give it up, unless you find someone else to take the produce and do all the work.

As for your signs, it's obvious people do not want the signs up.
Advertise elsewhere locally and more extensively. Instead of putting the expense into cameras and worry, put the energy into advertisement and exposure.

That's the best idea yet! This way you can get a word of mouth deal going and not have to rely so much on the signs.

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Trisha in WA
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Diamond Belle Ranch

What else does a man have to do in his short time here on earth than build soil and feed people~Forerunner

I hope you catch them and get satisfaction. I wouldn't give up selling you apples, you put the time into them now you should get to enjoy it. Burns my backside to hear folks tell you to give up or let it slide. Wish I was one of your neighbors, I'd find the guilty party for ya and beat knobs on their thievin heads. I wish you a bountiful harvest.

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"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

I completely agree with this post, getting involved with a CSA and protecting you and yours is the best idea yet! Otherwise, it might be time to think about getting out of the Apple business, seems you are bringing danger to your and your neighbor's doors!!

Emmy

Could be. However the ranger thinks it is the cabin owners, based on statements they have made when complaining about us and our signs.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

I would place an ad in the local paper that said " to who ever is moving/ sealing my signs... watch for the cameras this time. I will be prosacuting anyone who vandelizes my propery/signs as I have permission to have them posted" List your address and name in it too.

Belinda

Hide it well

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Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
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Enforced tolerance is oppression

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

I'm sorry, I don't have any advice outside of the game camera... a dear friend of mine is having neighborhood hoodlum problems and just recently did the same thing... she mounted hers high on a tree in the front yard, disguised in a birdhouse her son made for just this purpose.

Off the subject... but I am *over the mountain* from you and would love to put your information out to our homeschooling group. I looked at your website and got your addy and open hours and contact info. The information I didn't find was types of apples and prices. I know that the group goes to Riley's Farm annually, but for the historical experience and activites, not for apple picking. This might be really wonderful for the group... or just for individuals to come with their kiddles!! I know we are going to planing a trip in the next week or so... we NEED to get out of here for a day and have FUN... and forget about Idaho bankers who don't think our pole barn is as wonderful as we do!!!

Carmen

see CT--you got a customer and all you did was post here on HT. I think you need to do some creative advertising and looking for pickers(I would think/hope homeschoolers would be good pickers and want to make a little money). I don't think the drama over the signs is worth the hassle nor the ill will you'll only reap from your neighbors.

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THE BEGINNING IS NEAR
5-star double-rated astronavagatrix earth girl

stealing is stealing..call the cops

Great! We have another homeschool group coming up on Saturday!

We have Romes, Winesap, Stayman, Red Delicious, and few Macs, and a few odd trees we haven't identified yet. Our prices are as follows:
1/4 peck is $5
1/2 peck $10
1 peck $15
1/2 bushel $20

PM me with the name of your group, and I'll give them a 10% discount. They will need to tell me they are with your group when they are buying the bag from us.

Oak Glen had very few apples this year. I think it must have been a late frost that got them. A customer just called and said that she called Rileys, and they are no longer doing you-pick for the season. I hate to see any small farms suffer.

Rileys survived the Oak Glen fire because of our wonderful firefighters. They amaze me! Rileys also survived because of the Rileys, who didn't evacuate. They stayed and kept filling their water tanks so the firefighters had the resources to fight the fire. They fed the firefighters and did everything humanly possible to assist. I was there a week ago and saw where the fire had come directly across the street from the parking area near the Hawks Head Public House.

For those of you not familiar with the Oak Glen, or Rileys, Oak Glen is a small apple growing community in an area where apples don't usually grow. Southern California for the most part is too warm to grow apples. Our ranch is at nearly 6000 feet elevation and so we do get cold winters and lots of snow. Oak Glen is lower than us, about 4500 feet and they also get cold winters and can grow apples. Another area that I believe grows apples is Julian. There are many millions of people in Southern California. Most came from other areas, and many came from areas where they loved picking apples in the fall. There are plenty of customers to go around, and very few apple places.

This is our third year offering You Pick, and most of our customers from the first year, came back and brought friends the second year. Last year's customers are coming back and bringing friends. They love the place once they see it, and the apples are soooooo good!

For those concerned with my health and hubby's age, we aren't going to be putting the picking bags around our necks and hauling those 45 lb bags of apples around anymore. Nothing in our health or age precludes us from letting others hand us perfectly good money to let them do the picking! And while I have this very bad back, I can and will defend myself. I am a former federal law enforcement officer and hubby is still one.

I also want to mention that my observation of the type of customers that we get is this. We are open Fridays, Saturday and Sunday. On Fridays we get mostly retired couples, and homeschool moms with kids.

Saturday and Sunday we get families with kids (lots of grandparents with kids) , couples, women who do home canning, and groups of people who work at some of the summer camps in the area. We are on the "back way" to Big Bear, and we get mountain residents who are happy to have found us, and may not have gone picking otherwise. As a Customs Inspector on the Mexican border, I became quite skilled at reading people. I could tell who was looking for trouble, and I could tell when someone was being deceptive. My customers are not trouble makers. That is not who goes out for You Pick.

We won't be going out of business because a few cabin owners are stealing signs. We aren't so feeble that we can't let others do the picking, however I do appreciate the concern. I have posted on two mountain area websites and the locals, the ranger and the Sheriff will be helping me to look for the thief, and of course, when the game camera gets here, that will certainly help.

The Forest ranger sent an email to the cabin owners telling them that if we ever do sell the place to any of the developers who have offered, it will be a camp again (was a Boy Scout Camp, and then an equestrian ranch) and then they will have carloads, truck loads and bus loads of people going up and down the road all year round like they once were.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

Have you owned the place for along time? If not, I wonder if before you moved in there were alot of people eating free apples that are now stealing signs

That is exactly what happened. We have owned the place nearly 10 years. Before we owned it, it had been owned by absentee owners who didn't intend to restore or maintain the place. The cabin owners picked apples at will, fished in the pond, hiked and hunted the place, and took what they pleased. Some of them are the descendants of the folks who built the cabins in the 30's, and some of them knew the pioneers from our ranch.

Some of the attitudes we ran across were hard to understand. I knew the cabins were there, and thought we should all be natural allies, looking out for each other. Imagine my surprise when I would hear voices in the orchard and find a group that was picking apples without asking. They would identify themselves as cabin owners, and said they had ALWAYS gotten their apples from our orchard, as had their parents and grandparents, who knew the Stetsons (pioneers). Then they would proceed to tell us that we were to stay on the main road and not take any of the small side roads leading to their cabins because those were *private*. And they were trespassing and stealing apples as they told us this. We have only found this attitude among the folks who inherited their cabins. Then they would disappear for another year without visiting their cabins. The next year they would come back, and once again assume they were in charge and could roam our place and take at will. They were unhappy to find us there, with a locked gate and a large dog to alert us of their presence. However I have always found the time to talk to them and be pleasant. I have tried to exchange contact information with those I met.

The newer cabin owners, that actually bought and paid for their cabins are pretty decent for the most part, and have been friendly. Some of the cabin owners, we have never met. In the nearly 10 years we have owned our place, we haven't seen some of them visit their cabins in all that time. I have stayed off the *private* side roads as asked, and I believe there are a few cabins I have never seen. I say they are *private* roads, because the owners say they are. The forest Service says they are *public* and the cabin owners have no right to bar the public.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

well wait till they come back to pick apples without asking, take their pictures and call the cops.

After all, they are trespassing and stealing. How long have you let them do it?
If to long, they might have a valid point, we pick here for yrs and the owners have never filed a complaint.

If I was a Magistrate I would tend to agree with them, if its been several yrs, and you saw, and never filed complaints.

Funny thing about trespassing laws. You have to actually file trespassing complaints and serve the trespassers with notice, written or verbal.

Do nothing for too long, they can cry you knew, you agreed (by your silence) and therefore they were not trespassing, but visiting.

This makes me so sad
If I inherited or otherwise acquired a cabin in the remote forested area of southern California, I would be delighted to find that my kindly "neighbors" operated a You-Pick apple orchard! In fact, I would plan my vacations around the orchard's open season so that I might travel back home with loads of fresh apples for baking and canning.
Some people just can't see the beauty in life. I'm sorry that you are dealing with that.

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"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

During about the first year this happened, and we NICELY explained that we were the new owners and we would be selling the apples. We posted the property and were there so that they no longer wanted the embarrassing situation of us finding them in the orchard uninvited again. We didn't let this go unchallenged, ever.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

Thank you! That is exactly what I would do!

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

If the offenders were smart, they wouldn't steal or damage the signs.

They would just caefully fold up the sandwich board, and lay it on the ground.

As they are posted on public property, you would have very little recourse.

As to the problem at hand, friendly neighbors get friendly neighbors.