Never too old for floor farming fun

Last night, I did some serious farming.
Santa Claus had brought me a silo filled with farm animals and fencing and it had not yet been opened. So, I drove to my niece’s house and asked if anyone there would want to play with me and my new toys.
“I will!” Blayne hollered. “I will, I will!” his younger brother, Brayden, shouted.
It seemed I had chosen the right place to beg for little farmers filled with big enthusiasm.
Decisions. As soon as we had the silo unloaded, there were big decisions to be made. Who was best suited to be the pig farmer? As soon as 3-year-old Brayden saw the bright pink mama pig with babies attached to her, he squealed with delight and said he wanted to be the pig farmer.
Blayne decided that since he is almost 6, he was probably the best guy in the room to be the cattle farmer.
“Cows are lots bigger and sometimes you have to be really strong to make them do what you want them to,” Blayne reasoned.
And since Blayne had more fencing and a bigger farm, he offered to take the sheep, too.
That left me with the goats and chickens. It was obvious that I needed a second income, so I offered to be the feed store manager.
Getting supplies. Included in the mix of animals was one cart that could be pulled by a horse. We agreed that the boys would take turns using the cart to come pick up feed and supplies at my feed store.
“Hey, when you need to call me to come pick up feed, my name is Bill Cameron,” Blayne said.
“No! My name is Bill Cameron,” Brayden shouted.
“Wait a minute! I wanted my name to be Bill Cameron!” I said.
Bill is a neighboring farmer who is a joy to know. Because the boys look up to him so much, we’ve had this argument before.
Brayden very thoughtfully said, “There can be two Bill Camerons.” But both boys agreed that I needed to have a different name. My name would be Joe.
When Brayden wasn’t looking, I helped one of his baby pigs escape from the fenced-in area.
“Brayden, you better get your dog to help round up that pig. It’s on the road!” Brayden called for his dog to come save the day.
His dog’s name? Bill.
One wealthy farmer. We had a livestock sale barn and Blayne sold his sheep for hundreds of dollars. He had so much money after that transaction he was giving me, the feed store manager, huge tips every time he came for feed and salt licks.
He came home from the sale barn with a horse that couldn’t stand up and he offered to give that to me for zero dollars. It was obvious I was going to be extremely challenged in my farming venture. I was most certainly going to have to rely on those tips!
I then decided to sell a few of my goats on the next livestock sale day. Brayden corrected me when I said they were all boy goats.
“No, sir. That one right there is a girl, not a boy.”
I asked him how he knew it was a girl goat. He thought for a minute and said he could tell by looking at its ears. Plus, it had yellow hair. That made it a girl.
Ah, there’s nothing like floor farming. I can’t wait to do it again!