Louie, if you've been in Roseburg that long, you must have known Walt and Evalyn Watkins, who had a pear and filbert orchard out in Garden Valley on the South Umpqua (Watkins Fruit and Nuts). I bought Walt's house and orchard and lived there for a year; U-picked the pears! The river made a right-angle bend and formed two sides of the property. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen...and that includes here in Hawaii. We had a neighbor next to us, I can't remember his name now, he grew walnuts, mostly, and he was one of the finest people on earth. We'd harvested our filberts and didn't know how we were going to get them to the processor in Eugene. Our neighbor loaded them all onto his flatbed the night before he had to go up to Eugene, and drove up and made a detour to take our nuts to the processor...and never asked for a dime. Good people there in Douglas County! Welcome to the Mudcat.

Aloha,
Mark