My Wife and I Visited my 93-year-old parents in California over the past 5 days.

[MineralMan]

8. I didn't grow up there.

They bought a small (15 acre) citrus farm in Ventura County after all of their children were on their own. Turned out that was a dream of theirs. We spend most of the visit talking about old times, like we usually do. Their children, grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. I've heard most of the stories before, some of them many times. But, that's typical of visits.

I ask a lot of questions and listen to their long stories. My father was a B-17 pilot in WW-II, so he has stories. My mother was a homemaker and children raiser who took that very seriously. There are so many stories that are interesting. They married when they were both 19 and during my father's training to be a pilot. They traveled to all of his training bases. I was born a week before the Hiroshima bomb was dropped, and met my father three months later, after the war was over.

So many stories.

My advice about owning a farm in California? Don't do it. If you want to farm, do it somewhere else. Really. Regulations, water availability, taxes, and high costs make it pretty much infeasible in most cases and in most areas there. Their citrus and now avocado farm hasn't really made a profit for 10 years. It pays for itself, but that's all. Neither of the two remaining children want the farm, so it will be sold after they're gone.