It's the first day of school, and Kate, on the most part, is having trouble getting her daughters motivated to go, and when they finally do, are more concerned about other aspects of the experience than academics. But Kate has a larger problem when Betty Jo brings home something from school: a dog. When all the family dogs were collected at the dog waiting area at the end of the school day by their respective student owners, there was one dog left over, a small mutt, that just followed Betty Jo home. Kate refuses to let Betty Jo keep the dog, despite it being cute and well trained. It's the well trained aspect that makes Kate realize that he must belong to someone. Try as she may, Kate is unable to get the dog to leave and stay away, the dog to who Betty Jo in particular is getting attached. Kate decides to let the dog stay until the owner claims him or until the dog starts to cause problems for the family. Despite being well trained, the dog does end up causing problems, largely ... Written by Huggo

Henry Barton is dropping his pregnant wife Elsie Barton at the Shady Rest just in case while he needs to go away. He will be gone for three days, while the baby isn't due for another two weeks. While the women, including Elsie, aren't the least bit worried, it's the men - Henry, who doesn't want to leave her, and Uncle Joe - that are in all a panic. Uncle Joe gets in even more of a panic when he learns that most babies arrive in the middle of the night. As such, Uncle Joe devises an elaborate scheme involving most of the men of the valley to get Doc Stuart to the Shady Rest if and when Elsie does go into labor in the middle of the night. What Uncle Joe doesn't tell anyone is that he implements a trial run at 3am just to make sure the plan works. With Uncle Joe crying wolf, will the disgruntled men come to action if Elsie does truly go into labor in the middle of the night? Written by Huggo

Uncle Joe doesn't like the idea of of turning the Cannonball's baggage car into a mobile library, especially since he has to do the work of building the library shelves. He changes his mind when he meets the new librarian, Phyllis Marsh, with who he is immediately smitten. Despite them being a mismatch in more ways than one, Uncle Joe makes his intentions toward her quite clear. However, she has to find a way to let him down easy without hurting his feelings, that letdown due to her own personal circumstances of which Uncle Joe is unaware. Kate, who can see what is happening, may have a plan that will show Uncle Joe how inappropriate he and Miss Marsh are as a couple. Written by Huggo

With Sam, Charley and Floyd's help, Uncle Joe is rehearsing what he believes is the reenactment of the signing of the treaty between the Umquaw Indians and the CandFW Railroad that provided Indian land in the vicinity of Deadman's Curve to the company. Uncle Joe is basing everything on sketchy documentation. He wants to use such to bring in tourists to the area and thus guests to the hotel. Meanwhile, Norman Curtis is arranging for the company's next stockholders' meeting to be held at the Shady Rest with Homer Bedloe presiding. Norman's theory is that any votes at the meeting will be held after one of Kate's meals when no one would dare vote for anything that would harm her. Learning about Uncle Joe's plans, Bedloe, who had no scheme to destroy the Cannonball this time around, believes he may have stumbled onto a way to shut the Cannonball down: the Umquaw never signed the treaty according to CandFW files. Bedloe decides to let the Umquaw know, and sets up a shady deal with them to take... Written by Huggo

The state elections are coming up, and like every year for the past twenty years Hooterville is aiming to be the first town to get its election results to the state capital, the town opening its poll at one minute past midnight and having a get out early to vote campaign. However Pip Winslow from Crabwell Corners is taking bets at 2-to-1 odds that they will beat Hooterville this year, with some people not knowing that it's because they have a new automatic voting machine. Even without their machine, Hooterville's twenty year reign is threatened by a disagreement between Kate and Selma Plout, the latter who threatens to cast her ballot late in the day just to spite Kate. With an official commendation from the Governor on the line, Kate believes she has a way for Selma to change her mind on the matter which involves the newly formed Hooterville Chamber of Commerce (which is comprised of Joe, Charley and Floyd), that is if Uncle Joe can resist hogging the limelight for himself which he ... Written by Huggo

Betty Jo wants to enter Dog in a contest to make a commercial for Tailwagger Dog Food, with a $500 cash award that goes to the winner. Kate tries to dissuade Betty Jo if only because they can spend what little money they have on more practical things than on preparing the entry, and Dog doesn't have a chance against purebreds, like the collie belonging to Henry Brewster, the local photo-finisher. But with some favors provided, Betty Jo is able to send in an entry by the deadline, that entry which includes a photograph of Dog. Everyone in the family is thrilled when they receive a letter informing them that Dog is one of the five finalists, and that Mr. Talbot with the dog food company will be coming for an in-person inspection. Uncle Joe in particular sees his next career, managing Dog to stardom. What they all are unaware of is that Henry, who sent in both his and the Bradleys' entries, got the photographs interchanged, with Mr. Talbot really naming Henry's collie one of the five ... Written by Huggo

When Kate sends Uncle Joe to the grocery store to buy some meat for the stew she's making for dinner, she expects he may forget. What she doesn't expect is the type of meat he comes home with: a real live buffalo he purchased from the government, all sales final. He did so when he read that Lord Harold D. Faversham, who has just returned from Africa, has hunted for every type of big game worldwide except for the great American buffalo. So Uncle Joe wrote to him extolling the greatness of the wild buffalo hunting at the Shady Rest Hunting Lodge, he who has made a $50 down payment for a $175 week stay at the Shady Rest complete with hunting guide i.e. Uncle Joe. The problem may be that the buffalo is as wild as Dog is, with the girls wanting to keep him as a pet. A further problem arises when Uncle Joe spooks the buffalo, who runs off, leaving Lord Faversham nothing to hunt for. So Uncle Joe has to try to stall Lord Faversham's want to hunt, while making him think he really is in the ... Written by Huggo

The girls are trying to learn some Japanese to make Betty Jo's long time Japanese pen pal, Nobuko Takamura, feel at home for her visit. Beyond visiting with Betty Jo, Nobuko has come to the US to attend college to improve her English so that she can teach it back in Japan, and also in the process learn American customs. The most difficult American custom for Nobuko to learn may be how to make an American man feel useful by helping the helpless American woman, after growing up learning that it is a woman's place to serve the men. Written by Huggo

Bedloe is told by his psychiatrist that he should change his ways and he should love the Cannonball because he having nightmares of the train. When Bedloe visits the Shadyrest Hotel, Kate is not fooled by the change in him when he says he loves that train. They find out Bedloe is planning remove old damaged tracks instead of replacing them to shut down the Cannonball, it is up to Kate to stop him. Written by RCW

It's that time of the year that the apples in the valley are just ready to be picked for Kate to make her bachelor butter: apple butter she gives to the bachelors of the valley like Sam, Charley, Floyd and Doc Stuart to show her appreciation for all they do for her over the course of the year without expecting anything in return. All the said bachelors stop what they're doing to pick apples and wait for Kate to make and jar the butter. Jack Crandall with H-D-L Food Products, he who was inconvenienced while trying to get to Pixley on the Cannonball while Charley and Floyd picked apples, can see what all the fuss is about when he tastes it, and as such he wants to buy the recipe for H-D-L for $500, $250 of it in advance, the remaining $250 upon Kate showing them how she makes it and them replicating it in their laboratory kitchen. It may be more difficult to translate Kate's smidgen and pucker face and more importantly Kate's country love into a precise recipe for commercial ... Written by Huggo

Kate doesn't have anything against Dan, Billie Jo's serious boyfriend, that is except his mother: Selma Plout, Kate's nemesis for seventeen years, the two who are always at each other's throat. Their latest battles are at the Every Other Wednesday Afternoon Discussion Club, which Kate founded and has chaired ever since. Kate doesn't even have issue about the general talk of Billie Jo and Dan perhaps being at the stage of thinking of marriage. But when that general talk turns to signs that it may be truly reality, Kate figures that she and Selma have to become friends, which may be easier said than done. So when the next step occurs and it looks like Billie Jo and Dan have eloped, will Kate and Selma survive the calamity? Written by Huggo

While in town at Drucker's, Kate learns from Sam that the US Army is conducting war games in the vicinity of the Shady Rest. Kate knows this means trouble with a bunch of GIs who can hone in on her three beautiful daughters, especially now that they are scantily-clad swimming in the water tower. Indeed, three privates from the Blue Squad - Hank Benton, Tod Langwell and Stu Howard - descend on the Shady Rest when they spot the girls. While the three GIs and the girls want to spend time alone goofing off from the wars games, Kate doesn't mind as long as their time is chaperoned. But their fellow army mates - GIs and officers - don't know that they have unofficially officially suspended their war games. After all is said and done, it may be the Kate Bradley rules of war that supersedes all else for all comers to the Shady Rest. Written by Huggo

Uncle Joe has formed the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department Volunteer Band to perform at fundraisers to raise money to form an actual Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department. However, with Uncle Joe as leader with no musical sense, the band would probably get paid not to perform. As Kate kiboshes at least the band rehearsing in the hotel as it is driving paying guests away, Kate is then tasked with coming up with a way to raise the money instead of a disgruntled Uncle Joe. Beyond asking for donations (which nets $62), Kate figures they need professional help. A Henry Phillips who works for a company that manufacture fire equipment did such work for Squaw Creek. Calling in an outsider irks Uncle Joe even further. So it becomes a battle of putting together all the necessary pieces of a fire department between Uncle Joe and Mr. Phillips, the former who says he can do it all with the $62 raised. Written by Huggo

It's a dark and stormy night and everyone in the family is battening down the hatches of the hotel. However, Uncle Joe, during major storms around this time of the year, can't help tell any guest that will listen that the funny things that happen at the hotel this time of the year are because of the curse of Chester W. Farnsworth, a guest at the hotel fifty years ago. He was a traveling drummer and notorious hotel towel snatcher. On a night much like tonight after he stole the Shady Rest towel in his room, he went out into the night never to be seen again. Since, Chester has been haunting all the hotels from which he stole towels to return them before he can end up in his final resting place in peace. He has haunted the Shady Rest, but has not yet returned the towel. Although she does not believe the story or the curse, Kate admits that many unusual and inexplicable events have been occurring lately. And news of the story starts to spread amongst the regular salesmen - the Shady ... Written by Huggo

Uncle Joe has obviously been receiving and in return sending a series love letters, about which he is evasive. Kate eventually learns that the reason he is being so evasive is that the letter writer is Mary Alice Perkins, a woman who stood Uncle Joe up at the altar several years ago and ran off with his best man, George Perkins who apparently has recently passed away. Uncle Joe admits he never loved anyone but her, and that he has now forgiven her, she in turn who is coming to the Shady Rest to marry Uncle Joe. And if Uncle Joe has forgiven her, Kate figures she may as well and go all the way on this ride with Uncle Joe. Kate may have a quiet change of heart upon the arrival of Mary Alice and her highfalutin ways. Words and actions may also mean different things to Mary Alice. Written by Huggo

Winning a contest at secretarial school leads to Billie Jo being offered her first job, that of private secretary to author, Oliver Fenton. World traveling Fenton is coming to Hooterville as he is basing his next book in a small town. He is not going to be working in an office, but rather has rented one of the houses in town. Kate's elation about Billie Jo's first job takes a turn the more she learns about Fenton, who writes those kind of books, and whose book jacket cover photo is of a handsome, suave man who she surmises is a Lothario. Kate decides to let Billie Jo take the job and trusts her... to an extent. Billie Jo, upon meeting Fenton, knows that her mother's worries are ill-founded. Billie Jo decides to test just how much her mother does truly trust her. Written by Huggo

The girls are lamenting not having a telephone at the hotel so that they can easily communicate with their friends, as opposed to the current method which is to get all their telephone calls at Drucker's Store. But unlike the nominal installation fee that all their friends paid for their telephones, it would cost Kate $800 as the telephone company would have to install two miles of line just to get to the hotel from the main line. Things get worse for the girls when Sam refuses to take any more calls for them as the constant messages are disrupting his business. So Uncle Joe decides to get the hotel a telephone... by starting his own telephone company, using the barbed wire fencing surrounding all the local farms as the primary communication lines. He figures that subscribers would only have to pay a one time charge of $10.50 for the special army surplus telephones. He also plans to tap illegally into the Hooterville Telephone Company's line so that Carson subscribers will get access ... Written by Huggo

As volunteer fire chief, Uncle Joe has designed a new nighttime alarm system. In addition to the skyrockets each valley resident has which they are supposed to blast in the event of a fire, there will be a volunteer every night standing watch for those skyrockets who will fire off a cannon. Joe implemented this change to show up Bink Sharfells, Crabwell Corners Volunteer Fire Department Chief, with who he is often unfavorably compared. Besides Kate, there is much opposition to Joe's plan if only because of the destructive nature of the cannon blasts, even when firing blanks. When an incident occurs that requires the Crabwell Corners Volunteer Fire Department to intervene, Joe issues Bink to a challenge to see which volunteer fire department is the best, and by association who is the best volunteer fire chief. Written by Huggo

Uncle Joe, a member of the CIA (Criminal Investigators' Alliance), accuses Sam of running a lax and inefficient post office for not posting photos of wanted criminals, who Joe believes he could have captured and for which he could have gotten the reward money, despite the fact that there is no crime to speak of in Hooterville... until now. Sam receives word from the state police that two of the toughest criminals around, Barney Dawson and Max James, escaped from the state penitentiary and were last seen headed to Hooterville Valley. Despite there being no reward money for their capture, Uncle Joe believes he still has the skills to keep Kate and the girls safe at the hotel, which has had no guests in five weeks and none scheduled to arrive, purely because he's a member of the Alliance. When Barney and Max show up at the hotel, the mettle of the Uncle Joe and the CIA are tested. Written by Huggo

The Cannonball is stuck outside of Drucker's in Hooterville, as Kate and Uncle Joe discover by taking the handcar into town. The reason for the Cannonball's immobility?: a bird has built a nest on top of the smokestack and has laid five eggs, and Charley and Floyd, feeling like new dads, refuse to move the train until the eggs have hatched when they can move the nest and the birds in approximately two weeks' time when it is safe to do so without risking the lives of the yet unhatched birds. When Homer Bedloe gets wind of this news, he is all in support of what Charley and Floyd are doing, which he even contacts the media to publicize. Kate is still suspicious of Bedloe's motives, especially when he shows up unexpectedly in Hooterville to make sure the birds are well taken care of, compliments of the CandFW. Kate has to figure out what he's up to, specifically within those two weeks, with they perhaps having to make the difficult decision between the life of the Cannonball or the lives ... Written by Huggo

O'Donnel's, a new supermarket with all the modern conveniences, has just opened in Pixley, which is driving down business at Drucker's. Even Uncle Joe goes to O'Donnel's to check it out, in the process buying a lot of needless items just because they have them available. Kate and the girls are among the few of Sam's truly loyal customers, but the situation is driving Sam into a nervous anxiety which he isn't even aware is happening until... Kate and Doc Stuart are able to convince Sam to take a two week vacation, while Kate and the girls look after the store for him. In the process, they decide to organize the store for him. But Uncle Joe left alone in the store could cause irreparable damage both to the store's financial health and Sam and Kate's sanity. Written by Huggo

The Governor has announced that he will be making a grassroots tour of the state's hinterland. In Uncle Joe's mind, that means he is coming specifically to see them, and as such they have to make a big fuss for his arrival to put Hooterville on the map. However, no one else in the valley is one bit excited, especially as Joe made them all make a fuss when he once thought the President was visiting, with not a President in sight that time. The Governor has also not yet announced his itinerary, although he has said that he is welcoming invitations from interested communities. Uncle Joe has ulterior motives in getting the Governor to visit Hooterville, including being able to advertise after the fact that the Governor slept at the Shady Rest, and being able to unload a bunch of pennants he was going to sell for the President's supposed visit. With all Uncle Joe's maneuverings, the question becomes whether this situation is another President's visit all over again. Written by Huggo

When Uncle Joe sees some surveyors down by the railroad tracks next to the hotel, his first assumption is that the county is building a road, which would only increase business to the transformed motel. What Kate eventually learns is that the county does a survey every twenty-five years. The current surveyors have found that the last survey was incorrect, and that the center of the hotel is smack dab on the border between Hooterville County and Pixley County. Having lived all her life in Hooterville, Kate is at first alarmed, until Mr. Craig, one of the surveyors, tells her that it really will make no material difference in her day-to-day life... at least on the surface. She finds that there is a plethora of red tape in operating a business in two counties with the associated licenses and fees required which will cost her in the thousands, money which she does not have. When Kate's problems start affecting the entire family, she knows she has to come up with a more permanent ... Written by Huggo

Uncle Joe wants Kate to play the stock market, she vehemently rejecting Uncle Joe's advice based on the disaster the last time he convinced her to buy stock. Meanwhile, the hot water heater in the hotel springs a leak with Kate not having the money to buy a new one, even with Sam selling it to her at cost at $97.50. Kate believes she has no other choice but to heat water the old fashioned way until she can come up with the money by getting a loan from the Pixley Bank. Conversely, Uncle Joe believes the answer to their money problem is for the hotel to go public by selling shares in the Shady Rest Hotel Corporation, much like the major hotel chains do. Knowing that Kate will not go along with the idea, Joe proceeds to raise the funds as Sam, Charley and Floyd buy all the shares issued which solely covers the cost of the water heater, they and Joe knowing that Kate would not accept the money as a loan otherwise. Upon learning what Joe and the boys have done, Kate believes she has a way ... Written by Huggo

The competition between Hooterville and Crabwell Corners rises to the next level when the Town of Crabwell Corners sues the Town of Hooterville for possession of the Spanish-American War cannon, which Hooterville currently has but Crabwell Corners feels is rightly theirs. This competition takes a more personal turn when Tad Winslow of Crabwell Corners challenges his dog, seemingly a blood hound named Speedy (who is anything but), against Betty Jo's dog to an obedience contest. What Betty Jo fails to mention to her family until after she accepts the challenge is that if Tad wins, Betty Jo has to get Billie Jo to go with him to the upcoming Pioneer Dance, even though Billie already has a date with her steady, Henry Brewster. Although they don't agree with Tad seemingly taking advantage of Betty Jo, Kate and Uncle Joe intervene, their actions which only ratchet up the bet, with the ultimate stakes being Crabwell Corners' fire engine and the Spanish-American War cannon. But still, Dog ... Written by Huggo

Kate and the family's annual spring cleaning regimen coincides with the US Air Force doing maneuvers over the valley. Part of those maneuvers, which the public is not aware, includes testing out a new high powered camera, which looks like an ordinary black box with wires coming out of it. It is set to explode twelve hours after any unauthorized removal from the aircraft just in case the camera gets into enemy hands. Less than adept Colonel Millbank, who is flying the aircraft in question, accidentally loses the camera in flight, it landing on the Shady Rest property. While Millbank and his commanding officer, General Elmer Loomis, search for the camera, the hoarders among the Bradley family want to keep this new find, despite they being in the process of throwing everything else out and despite they not knowing what it is. The question becomes whether the Air Force can find the camera, or whether Kate and the family will dispose of it safely before it blows up. Written by Huggo

Kate's financial situation is worse than ever, having a few outstanding debts beyond not having paid anything on her mortgage in six months. Making matters worse, Mr. Guerney, the President of the Pixley Bank who has always been as accommodating as he could toward Kate, informs her that there is a new majority shareholder of the bank, which means that Kate has to pay $138 on her mortgage within two weeks or the new majority shareholder will foreclose. What Mr. Guerney does not tell Kate is that that majority shareholder is Homer Bedloe, who has taken this measure solely to ruin Kate. With this $138 deadline, everyone at the hotel chips in to earn money anyway they can, even Uncle Joe and Dog. Kate will however not accept charity, despite many of their closest friends wanting to help when they discover Kate's dire straits. Wil they raise the necessary money in time? Written by Huggo

Now that Homer Bedloe has controlling interest in the Pixley Bank and has fired its President Mr. Guerney who had always been sympathetic to Kate's financial plight, he has decided not only to foreclose on Kate's mortgage on the Shady Rest to ruin her life, but foreclose on all the bad mortgages in the valley, effectively rendering the Cannonball's services useless as those bad mortgages encompass most of the valley's residents. The Shady Rest is hosting one last shindig the night before the Bradleys are to leave the hotel: a Monte Carlo night as a modest fundraiser for the Every Other Wednesday Afternoon Discussion Club. They will sell tickets for packets of fake money to be used to gamble that night, with the person winning the most fake money by the end of the evening winning the secret grand prize. One of Betty Jo's classmates, Willie, who couldn't lie even if he wanted to, seems like a sure winner as he gets vibrations off of the roulette wheel and can guess the number every ... Written by Huggo

Despite the town not having one or anyone asking for one, Joe wants to be acclaimed Mayor of Hooterville, his rationale being to save the town the cost of an election. However, what he really wants in being mayor is the all expenses paid trip to the state capitol to attend the state's mayors' convention, and the free haircut that goes along with it. Sam, Charley and Floyd think that having a mayor isn't such a bad idea - something that Crabwell Corners has - but that the mayor should be anyone *but* Joe. So that Joe won't be acclaimed, they are eventually able to convince who they want to be mayor to run against him: Kate. However, Kate had no idea Joe was running until after she accepts. With neither backing out of the race, Joe decides to move out of the hotel all in an effort not to fraternize with the enemy. The campaign rhetoric has the potential to get all out of control when Joe is backed by the one person who doesn't care who wins as long as it isn't Kate but who has other ... Written by Huggo

Wherever Uncle Joe goes, bad things seem to happen to those around him, giving him the reputation of being a jinx. The most superstitious of people begin to avoid him like the plague, while those that don't believe in either him being a jinx or in jinxes in general also start to stay clear of him when bad things start to happen to them when he's around. Although initially bothered by all the talk of being a jinx, Uncle Joe decides not to fight it, but rather embrace it by offering his services as a jinx for a fee. But when Uncle Joe needs to be a jinx, will he be able to make bad things happen? Written by Huggo