Welcome Ty. Lots of great people here. I hope you enjoy the site.
Welcome Ty, I lived in Metroplex for almost 30 years before moving up here to KY five years ago. Lots of good folks on here. @k8tpayaso, @chadspur, @FlatlandHillbilly, @Bhawkins are among those on here in north/east Texas.
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Welcome. You must be south of me with your zone. I am in Athens. Nice to have more close members here. You may be close to @insteng. And then there is @EastBexarWilcox
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Hey everyone, my name is Derek. We’re located in Southeast Idaho (5b). I grew up in an agricultural setting but had limited experience with fruit trees. My wife and I always talked about planting a few when we bought a house with some land. Instead of approaching it like normal human beings, we bought a place with 180 or so apple trees of various varieties, and scattered peach, plum, apricot, pear, hazlenut, cherry, etc. This was April of last year and we managed to survive the first year without killing any of the trees. We actually had a great crop and ended up selling several thousand pounds of apples and around 500 gallons of raw cider. My now 5 year old daughter was in heaven all summer which makes it worth it for that reason alone. We tried to mitigate the Dunning Kruger Effect by consistently reminding ourselves that we were in way over our heads but everything seemed to go fairly well last year. This is a hobby farm that my wife takes care of during the week and I help with on weekends and we’re having a lot of fun with it. I look forward to reading through the many topics that have already been posted. I have a lot to learn in terms of grafting and such.
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Welcome aboard, Derek.
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Wow! That’s a big jump. Sounds like you’re swimming instead of sinking though. I hope one of these days someone will want to jump in and take care of my orchard and etc. Welcome to the forum!
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Welcome Derek!
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Welcome Derek! Great story…best of luck! Sounds great so far…
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Welcome Derek. Sounds like you have jumped in with both feet. Good luck to you and your family.
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Welcome, Derek. That’s a really happy fruit tree intro!
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Thanks so much for the warm welcome everyone. This seems like a pretty awesome forum so far.
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Welcome to the forum! I have both Shanxi Li, Li, and Honey Jar (Jujube’s), but all are too small for cuttings this year. I planted whips last year, and they put out just a bit of growth.
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You already have a great start with a market for all those apples!
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Wow, what a story, sounds like y’all are off to a good start. Welcome to the forum. I don’t want to derail the thread but was wondering if you could tell us what varieties of apples and stone fruit you are growing. Perhaps in another thread? Good luck and continued success.
I think there are a couple other folks on here from Idaho and nearby areas as well, like @Phill_Boise_7a, @ChrisL, @NuttingBumpus, @Seedy as well as @SpokanePeach and maybe some others.
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And I’d be interesting in hearing about what equipment you’re using to process your cider/juice, perhaps in the Cider category.
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Just to properly introduce myself, I’ve been reading the GF forum for a year or so when I find time, thanks to @fruitnut mentioning this site on another forum.
My wife and I have 3 quiet wooded acres in NE Texas with 5 cats, 4 dogs and 16 Guinea fowl.
I am self employed, which means I’m always broke despite working 350 days a year, but the life I get to live is awesome. I have a wood shop here at home where I spend most of my time, and I rarely leave my little shady oasis.
I have lots of plans for planting over the next few years, but 4 years in I have just a few young Peaches, Plums and Chinquapins in the ground. This spring I started 50 new Figs, a dozen Mulberries and a handful of Elderberries.
I will be doing a lot of Hugelkulture as I get around to it, as one thing I have in abundance is wood!
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@subdood_ky_z6b I updated my profile to include a description of the varieties of apples we have. I lack some specifics on the other trees but hope to figure it out this year. I appreciate the welcome as well as the heads up on my fellow Idahoans.
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@AndySmith I’ll have to start a thread and post some pictures. We have a decent setup and do about 60 gallons in a two hour session every other week or so in the fall. We have one customer who stops by and buys 80 gallons for his own hard cider adventures.
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Very nice pics, and good looking dogs. Is the first one a blue heeler? I can’t figure out the second one, though.
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Yep, she is half Heeler. All of my dogs were unwanted puppies or from the local Shelter. That one is half Blue Heeler and half Dalmation. She has the shape of a Dalmation but the size, color and attitude of a Heeler. She’s 10 pounds of bull in a 2 pound sack 
The second one is not a common breed, outside of hunting or working dogs. She’s half Catahoula Cur and half Bulldog. They’re traditionally used for catching wild hogs and motivating rough Cattle. Mine keeps my birds safe and makes sure nobody ever rings the doorbell 
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