The sweet sound of children's laughter and the occasional, "I wanna dig this hole!" floated through the winter wind. It was a warm day, the almanac had been right. Warm February days are meant for making memories down here in the South. Our nephews, G & W, they raced up and down the small but growing orchard laughing and trying to dig the holes anywhere there was soft dirt as fast as they could before Uncle Ken and Pawpaw got there to dig the real holes.
I watched them racing and thought to myself, How lucky am I to be able to raise my kids up here, in this farming lifestyle? One day my children will run down this same orchard, but the trees will be bigger and fuller with leaves that seem to touch the skies to their little minds.
I snapped photos of the boys helping to plant the trees and curious G asked, "Aa, why you taking photos?" and my husband joked with him, "You didn't know you were going to be famous, did ya buddy?" I laughed at how my husband seems to view my simple little blog. I looked at G, as he was still waiting on an actual answer and I told him, "Don't you want to remember this?" We have just a couple photos from the first year he helped us with the first trees we ever planted.
W held my hand as we walked back towards the trees and he was so excited to be able to carry trees a.k.a. me carrying the trees with his and G's hands on them. I said, "You having fun yet?" He nodded excitedly as he grabbed onto the first tree he saw. I laughed as I carried two trees with two littles on each side holding their plants. They felt like grown men carrying their trees and it was such a warm thought that one day when they're so much older they'll look back at this orchard that is fully grown and maturing and say, "We helped plant that." My children will have the memories of picking the fruit off the trees but for now, these children get the memories of building this place up just a little at a time.
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