George Helps Bananas and Farmer Jones
- Inspired by my grandson -
Bananas’ little brother George came home from school to spend his summer holidays on the farm with Bananas and Farmer Jones. George wanted to help but he couldn’t lift the heavy bales of straw or drive the tractors because he was still a very small gorilla!
“Cheer up George!” said Bananas, “you may be little but there are many things you can do on the farm”. George got a big mug of hot chocolate and went outside to sit on a bale of hay to think. “What can I do? I am good at discovering things”, he thought to himself.
Before too long, Farmer Jones came by and said “George, can you go into the hen house and bring some eggs for our breakfast?” George took the basket and went in to the hen house. It was dark and very smelly. There was hen poo everywhere! He quickly gathered the eggs and took them to Mrs Jones. When he came back to finish his mug of hot chocolate, he sat back on his bale of straw and stared at the barn in front of him. George saw that the barn had lots and lots of pigeons roosting all along the roof.
He also noticed that they were making a real mess of Farmer Jones lovely red paint work. “Those pigeons are naughty” said George! His eyes lit up and he knew he had found a way to help Farmer Jones. “I am going to make a bird toilet! The birds will use it and the barn will stay clean and shiny. The hens will use it and the hen house will smell nice and fresh. This will be my greatest discovery!”
For the next three days, George worked in secret in the barn, hammering and sawing and nailing until he had built his first bird toilet. He then painted it bright red and left the paint to dry.
When it was ready, he took it into the barnyard and went to find Bananas and Farmer Jones. They both laughed when they saw his invention and heard his idea. “How will you get the birds to come down and use it”, asked farmer Jones?
“Well, I painted it red because that is their favourite colour”, said George. “I have put a comfortable perch along the top for them to sit and I have given them a little bell to peck when they are hungry. Then a little seed drops into a food tray for them.
I have made it big enough for five or six of birds so they can sit with their friends and chat. While they are there, their poo drops down into the bottom tray and keeps everything nice and clean.
Once a day, I can empty the tray in the compost heap”. It will be so much fun for the birds, that they will tell all their friends and they will all queue up to use it.
If this works, we can make a brown one for the hen house, I think that is the hens’ favourite colour” said George.
Farmer Jones scratched his head and said “Bananas, I do believe this will work! George has made a great discovery!”
For the next two weeks, George filled the seed tray and emptied the poo tray every day. He soon noticed that there was a growing line of pigeons waiting for their turn. “I think you have to make some more George” said Farmer Jones. “This idea of yours is really working!”
And that was how George spent his summer holidays. He made lots and lots of bird and hen toilets and even sold them to other farmers in the area. Bananas was proud of his little brother. “What will you discover next George?” George thought hard and said, “Now if I can get pigs to sit on a long pole…………”
Bananas laughed so hard he nearly fell out of his tree - George was so clever and very funny!