FARMING FOLLIES

The farm was in its usual state of barely controlled mayhem. Old MacDonald’s prized tractor—"Ol’ Reliable"—had finally given up the ghost, sputtering out in the middle of the field with a noise that sounded suspiciously like a death rattle. Meanwhile, Dave, the overly optimistic farmhand, was attempting to herd sheep with a drone, which would’ve worked great if the sheep hadn’t declared mutiny and stampeded straight through Mrs. Henderson’s prize-winning pumpkin patch. Over by the barn, Gary was locked in a losing battle with a rooster named Tyrone who’d developed a taste for human dignity (and shoelaces). And let’s not forget Karen, the city-slicker intern, who learned the hard way that "free-range eggs" don’t just magically appear in cartons—especially when the hens are on strike. The only one thriving? Geraldine the goat, who’d just figured out how to unlatch the feed shed. Another sunrise, another round of rural reckoning.