After enduring three months of the bitter cold, the end of February brings us a week of sunshine and warmth. Coats and overalls are shed and some of the youngster Harris kids even brave going without shoes. It's the beginning of a new farm year and farmers anxiously await spring and have high hopes for the season to come.
At the Harris Farm we begin taking soil samples to see how we can aid our land where our corn, beans, and tobacco will be planted. Contracts are signed, new parts and plants are ordered, equipment repaired, and a new calves are brought to our farm. I can't help myself from placing an order for chicks at the co-op store and maybe ordering a few new flowers for the garden, I guess it's spring fever.
The strawberry plants have survived the winter and also call for attention. I start the "winter cleanup" process by removing the row covers, cleaning all the dead leaves, runners and weeds. We have thirty rows and after doing eight with only one other helper (ea. row taking two hrs) I convinced my the family to have what my mom would call a "family fun day" in the strawberry patch, needless to say, this speeded things up just a little haha  |
