I like the hills too
We live in the hills currently, and perhaps I'm just used to it, but to me it seems easier to manage water flow on hills. Do you guys find that's the case? I mean, you have to use the special dropper nozzles on your irrigation and design it for the slope and all that jazz, but I have no idea how to manage water on almost flat land.
Equipment is definitely a consideration though. On our half acre, the only equipment we have is a lawn mower and a spade. I have always read that for traditional monoculture-type orchards you don't want a slope >10% because a) the soil at the too of the slope is more eroded and deficient, and b) it's difficult to get your machinery up and down the rows. But since we wouldn't be using sprayers or harvesters or anything, and would be able to manage erosion with swales and guilds, I wondered if that would matter to us? What sorts of equipment do you guys use on your farms?
I like that with hilly country you get built-in microclimates. It gives me something to work around. I don't know what I would do with all the freedom to design a sunny flat block, hahahah. Where would I even start?!
Also, I was wondering if you actually get more plantable surface on 10 acres of hills than 10 acres of flat land? Like, when the council/queen/whoever came along to mark out the property boundaries, do they just draw a square on a birds-eye view map and say "I dub thee lot number 10" and then the area is calculated from the dimensions of your little square? Or does a surveyor actually come along and map the land in 3D and figure out how much surface area exists within your square?
Lots to ponder!