My daughter 12 and the neighbor girl 7, just helped me build the new grape arbor and plant the new strawberry patch. The grapes are heirloom,my mothers people brought them from Sicily before WW1 I got mine started from asking the new owners of my grandparents farm if I could dig some up;they were very nice and let me take lots of diggings and cuttings,three years ago they were almost wiped out by rabbits during the hardest winter in memory,couldn't see under the snow that the rabbits were eating them off at the ground! Well I saved what I could and they came back and this year should be a good crop!
The strawberries are a new type planted in some new ground using the old straw and manure from the rabbit hutches as mulch and fertilizer as nothing around here goes to waste! I told my daughter that if we property care for this patch of berries and this arbor of grapes,in 20 years her children will be picking and weeding and watering them! Also our asparagus patch was transplanted from the farm my wife grew up on; it sure makes me feel connected to our past;our people the land and to God! Getting dirt under the nails working in the soil and planting seeds from fruit with a seed of its own kind inside itself which HE called good! And I can't help but be proud of my girl,standing bear foot in the dirt helping her old man plant when I'm sure that's the last thing on the list of fun things for a almost teen girl!