Hi John,
Amen brother
Many consumers truly don't realize how much weather plays into the success of orchards and farms. Here is California, we are jsut coming out of what was supposed to be the mother of all El Nino's and it just barely surpassed the 30 year average for rain in my neck of the state. Overall, it was an average year, except that I didnt get the tractor out to plow snow a single time. That makes it three years in a row that I have not had plow snow. Rain we are getting, at least this year (finally), but the deeper cold is not taking place.
I have a close friend who has had a home in Truckee, CA (consistently one of the colder pocket areas of the western USA, historically) for the last 31 years and he said it was one of the milder winters he can recall. Even though some snow did fall, the temperatures didnt . . . it should drop below zero regularly there in winter and this year at his house, it didnt hit zero once.
Strange things are happening with the weather, is it just par for natures course . . . or something more dire.
Time will tell.
In the meantime, cheers to 10+ times snow plowing for you next winter!
Gopher Hill ApplesZone 8 in California