Episode 1 - The Silo of Gloom

Life can be great! Here I am. Billie Bean - the luckiest bean on earth. "Why?" you may ask. Well... it's friends, it's family, it's life at Downsanup Downs. Downsanup Downs keeps me on my toes. There's heaps to do, so many friends to hang out with and lots of challenges to face. We're a happy bunch here.

The Jones, our farm family, think they run the place. But it's us plants and animals that really make things happen. Come back and see how hard we work to grow into food, no matter what life throws at us. And of course we need to look after our land as well. After all it's the home we all live in.

 I'll introduce you to one of my best friends. His name is Wally Wheat and he's the star of the farm. You know how many yummy foods wheat can be made into - it's no wonder he's so sure everyone admires him. Wally Wheat is one confident crop. He and his gang are in the silo at this time of year; pushing and shoving, bragging about how plump and full of protein they were last season and itching to get into that soil and star for another season. I'm sure you can hear them from here, have a listen.

Hey! What's going on? That's not what I expected to hear!

"If you'd read the paper you'd know what was wrong," came a voice from near my feet."I don't know why I write this stuff if you never bother to read it!" It was Albert Annelid, the earthworm reporter from our very own 'Downsanup Downs Underground News'. He gave me a harsh look and pointed to the headline, "Gloom in the Silo as Wheat Fails Protein Test".

I felt terrible. Poor Wally Wheat. He's always been so good at making protein, and proud of it too. I was going to climb up the silo and try to cheer up Wally and the gang when I heard Mr and Mrs Jones deep in discussion.

"I don't know if we can afford to send Jason on his school trip to Japan. You know, the wheat cheque was worse than we expected - with the protein level being down and all."

"Jason will be so disappointed. Hmm... We don't have to pay until after our next wheat cheque. Why don't we book him in? If things don't get better, we can always cancel."

You see what I mean about farmers depending on us? It's up to us to find an answer. What can we do? Who can help out? Now that's another story...