What Would You Do...

Years ago, sitting around a fire in the evening while camping with friends, we used to go around the circle asking, "What would you do if you won the lottery?"  My mother's definition of wealth stated that one would never have to ask the price of anything.  What must it be like not to have to worry about the rising cost of alfalfa?  Down in the barn yesterday, milking and letting my mind free-wheel, I started daydreaming about what I would do if I suddenly found myself with abounding riches.

The first thing I would do would be to sink a second well so that I would have enough water to irrigate.  Water lines would be placed and thick grass sod put in the front and back yards so there would be real grass and automatic sprinklers and I could go barefoot again.  I wouldn't be limited to the once or twice a year when I sneak off my shoes at Joel and Judy's just to feel grass tickle my toes again in their lawn.  I could expand my garden areas and maybe have the English garden I'd once hoped for.

I would build a "real" barn, a barn where all stalls open into a central hallway so they could be kept clean by driving the little tractor and trailer through and not have to haul heavy buckets of poop out by hand to dump in the compost pile.  This barn would have electricity and running water, and the milking room would have a cement floor.  There would be space to store grain and alfalfa so I wouldn't have to trundle the sacks and bales one at a time down the hill on a hand cart.  The windows would have sliding covers instead of hastily nailed boarding every year.  The stalls would be big and roomy.

I would tear down the board fencing that always needs painting and the wooden posts that rot and fall over, as well as the sections where there is only barbed wire now.  It would be replaced with white vinyl, lined with square wire where needed to keep the goats from squeezing through.  I would line the long driveway with colorful pistache trees for the wow factor.  I've thought about deer fencing, but rejected it.  As much of a nuisance as they can be, I still get a thrill at catching sight of these beautiful animals so close, and that fencing would stop the daily visits from the turkey flocks.  No, no deer fencing.

Jewelry, clothes, cars, travel...I don't need 'em.  I do wish for a lawn though.  I guess one of these days I'll have to buy a lottery ticket.