Chickens and Pigs

“Today I’m going to pull down the hay barn,” Father announced as the family finished breakfast. “John, you can help me,” he continued.

“David and Scott can feed the chickens and the pigs and help me weed the garden,” said Mother.

“We’ll feed the chickens first,” suggested Scott.

“Don’t forget your hats,” Mother called after them as they raced outside.

“Chook, chook, chook, chook, chook, chook, chook,” called David. The chickens came running. Scott poured the bucket of feed into the feeder.

“Let’s get on the tramp before doing the pigs,”  Scott suggested, leaving the bucket behind and running towards the tramp.

They both raced toward it. Suddenly they heard a loud “moo—oo” and a CRACK! from the direction of the chicken house. There was the cow, who had just stamped on the bucket. Large footprints lead through the gateway, which had been left wide open.

“You were the last through,” said Scott.

“You left the bucket there,” accused David

He went and gathered up the scraps of plastic and threw them in the bin.

“Let’s go and feed the pigs,” he said.

Scott went to and got the bucket of slops. Splishlshsplattersplishysploshy went the slops into the feeding trough. The pigs came running.

David took the bucket back. “I’ve got a good idea,” he said.

“What’s that?” asked Scott.

“Let’s go and get in the sandpit,” he replied.

“OK,” said Scott.

“David! Scott!” shouted Mother from the garden ten minutes later. “Come and get these pigs out of here!”

Quickly they ran over and tried vainly to get the pigs out of their meal of lettuce and silver beet. After a long chase, they finally got the pigs into their pen and closed the gate.

“Come and help me weed around these broad beans,” instructed Mother.

“OK,” said Scott.

Meanwhile, Father and John were taking the iron off the old hay barn.

“We can use this iron, but most of this timber is rotten,” said Father.

“But some of the iron is rusty,” observed John.

“Well, we can take that to the dump,” replied Father.

“And this timber will burn well in the bonfire,” stated John. “Do you think we could have it this afternoon?”

“Maybe, but for now, we have to get this iron down.”

“David, you and Scott weed around those remaining lettuces while I go and put this plastic bag in the bin,” said Mother.

Mother came back with a puzzled expression on her face. “I saw a broken bucket in the bin,” she said. “I wonder how that got there.”

“David left the gate open,” said Scott.

“Don’t forget,” said David, “it was Scott who left the bucket there.”

“And, by the way,” she continued, “I wonder how the pigs got into the garden.”

Father got the tractor out and decided that he would just pull down the stripped hay barn.

“It’s gonne go to the fire anyway,” he said.

“The gate didn’t shut properly,” said Scott.

“Because you were careless about the gate,” said Mother, “you will have to stay inside and vacuum the house while Father pulls down the hay barn.”

CRASH!!   went the stripped barn. Father piled it onto the trailer and took it to the fire. Then he took the rusty iron to the dump.

“Can we light the bonfire?” asked John.

“Why not?” said Father.

Soon a warm blaze was roaring. John threw pieces of cow dung into the flames to watch them explode. Crackle bang!

The End