@hungryfrozencanuck4b - your condolences are much appreciated. In fact, the empathy from the people in this thread have really been the most valuable thing I could have asked for. No one except fruit growers truly understand the time, work, and most of all love that we all put in and take out of our trees. Just like you, I walk through my little orchard AT LEAST once every single day. I stop and inspect every single tree, to the point I can tell you where each scar or blemish is and how and when it got there. And just like you, I get more excited every year knowing that tree is more likely to fruit or fruit better and bigger the next year. Looking forward to the future of every tree is indeed a big part of the fun, and to have those trees and that future ruined on AT LEAST 14 trees is very painful. Non-fruit growers do not get it. They think, well, just go get some new trees and stick them in the ground and wait a few years and they will look bigger and therefore be better. But you obviously understand that this goes much deeper. And btw…I have several trees- probably 10 or so- that ended up surviving (so far) but growing in extremely weird, curly growth. In other words, I am almost certain they will end up being very deformed if they live at all. And I am not claiming a penny on those, because I know that will end up with them saying “they will be fine” and me saying “they are ruined forever” .
@Tylt33 - Ryan, I should have also said something like it’s nice to meet you since I don’t think we’d exchanged posts before either. And not only was I not offended by the minor points we didn’t completely agree on, but I feel very strongly that this forum is indeed the kind of place that is a “friendly and supportive environment” as you said, and different view points and hashing them out is how we all learn. Its one of the many things I love about this site. Disagreements are fairly common, but they almost never end up even a tiny bit uncivil, and in many cases just like this, one side or the other concedes that the other point of view is the better one. But before a brag too much on how well people here handle differences in opinions, I want to point out again that I am almost entirely in agreement with every single point/suggestion that you made. I accepted, agreed, and/or came around to your point of view on 95% of everything you’ve said. In your last post I was really impressed with you pointing out that I might be in error by equating “cheap” with “defensible”. GREAT POINT, and one that moved to closer to your recommendation of getting some independent quotes, at least on the hourly rate of a landscaper.
One other thing, though, that might even account for much of that 5% difference in the approaches each of us thinks is best. Both you and @hungryfrozencanuck4b approached this situation from the perspective of how me and insurance adjuster will negotiate all this or how an insurance agent might view some of my claims. And I know that is because I mentioned it as a potential insurance claim. But the reality is that I am approaching from the position of presenting this and discussing it with the farmer himself (who happens to sort-of be my boss to further complicate it). I have no control over whether he decides to pay it himself or turn it over to his insurance, and I suspect he will have at least a $1000 deductible so its pretty likely that insurance will never come into play. Of course I would prefer that because it would take the personal awkwardness out of it and because I think they would be much more generous and more accepting of things like a nursery company price for planting a tree. The mayor/farmer, on the other hand, would probably look at a quote from a nursery and say "well that is just crazy…it wouldn’t cost you that much to pull up one of those little trees and put a new one in the same hole and cover it with dirt. So while if it were an insurance matter or a court-room matter, some of these quantifiable rates would be less controversial. When you are talking to a neighbor/farmer/boss its just harder to convince him to write a check based on what some “big city” business would charge when he has farm workers who do this kind of work every day for $12 an hour. You and I know its not the same, but he won’t. Don’t misunderstand me…I’m not saying he shouldn’t have to pay a fair price because he doesn’t use his insurance, and I’m not saying your proposed pricing methods are not the most accurate. I’m just saying that I have to approach this a lot different, and probably a lot more forgiving (financially speaking) than I would if was almost anyone else. So yes, this whole scenario is very complex!
You have 100% convinced me to remove all charges for loss of fruit. But for what its worth, I didn’t have that in there as much due to the money I would have to spend to buy fruit as just to loss of fruit that had value. If someone ran off the road in a big semi truck and completely destroyed my corn crop, I would think his auto insurance would probably have to compensate me for the loss of my corn. Even though I wasn’t going to sell the corn, it did have value to me. I was going to eat it, give it to family, etc… I would think I’d be entitled to more than just the cost of the seed since I’d spent a year tilling, fertilizing, spraying, it and so on. So that was the logic I used in claiming that the loss of an entire orchard worth of fruit had some value beyond the cost of the tree. Remember, this last paragraph is purely academic because whether or not I could collect some money on that lost fruit, you and the others have convinced me that it would be more controversial and just isn’t enough money to give them something to argue about. But I’ve enjoyed your logic and point of view and just wanted mention that corn example to get your thoughts…as if these posts haven’t been long enough anyway!!! haha
Thanks again for all the input.
kevin