Blue Acres

Episode 6 – Bee Careful

Jake has become a “go to” attraction for friends and family. First there is his auto mechanic friend Andy who found some bee hives at an Uncle’s place in Indiana and has brought some up to Blue Acres to help with spring pollination. Jake is afraid of the little stingers but knows he needs them. Next to appear is Peter, Jake’s brother with his wife Iris, all the way from California. Peter, an expert in offering advice and hoarding his money, starts right in on how the farm could be better managed. Iris has no intention of getting out of the truck and walking the farm. Jake reflects on happier times when he and Peter were kids.

Episode 7 – The Intern

Fast forward to June. The work load is ramping up, Jake is getting really grumpy. Twinkle demurs on adding to her workload and suggests he look for an intern. While they are discussing this in their beat up lawn chairs over some alcoholic kombucha, a hippy-looking Johnny Appleseed type named Delbert shows up looking for a place to stay overnight as he bicycles cross county. His long term plan is find a plot out west to grow weed. The three hit it off over a campfire stew dinner. Jake feels he’s found his intern, but Twinkle makes him test the market while Delbert is off visiting his sister nearby. Compared to the others, Delbert looks like a standout.

Episode 8 – Hooping it Up

Thanks to a grant, Blue Acres now has a giant new hoop tunnel. Jake enlists father, intern and family friend Kevin to do the erecting. Father Mike insists on standing in the high tractor bucket to do the bolting and Jake expresses concern, Mike alleges age discrimination is at work. Afterward, at the local tavern, Kevin remarks on bartender Honey’s fine looks as he has noted on a men’s room calendar. She says it was for a fundraiser and that she was also featured for a few other months due to too many husbands’ objections to their wives participation. Asked why he seems a bit mute, Mike complains that old folks can never say anything about sex without getting into trouble.

Episode 9 – A Frost

All of a sudden, a late season frost is on the way. Not only that, but the little farm tractor is not working. While Harry the local mechanic checks things out, Jake is on the phone with Mark, the county agent, looking for a miracle to keep his crop from freezing. Since Jake doesn’t have irrigation to help protect the bushes, Mark tells him to light a few fires in the field and spray water with hoses if he can. “...In farming we work at the margins,” says Mark. “Mother nature runs the show.” Harry gets the tractor working while Jake frets about the cost and scurries with Delbert to fix busted hoses. Luckily, it didn’t get as cold as predicted and Jake is relieved, for now.

Episode 10 – The Menagerie

There’s trouble in paradise as Twinkle comes down hard on Jake for wanting to increase income with the addition of farm animals. She tells him she was feeding animals at her family farm from the age of 5, but they never had to deal with u-pickers stepping over poop. With Twinkle back in Chicago, Jake gets some mail-order chicks to apply his maternal instincts to. At the same time, he rents space at the Amish farm nearby and talks Honey into moderating a goat-yoga session for paying customers. Things are fine until a loose ram barges in on the session. Mayhem ensues.