Helen, T.D., and Martha are in a car driven by an old man, and Martha is annoying the kids by singing a parody of "99 Bottles of Beer" called "99 Slabs of Beef". They talk, and it's revealed that the kids are vacationing on a farm, and this is Helen's first time she's visited a farm. The man says that the kids needn't do any chores, but Martha likes the idea of doing chores on the farm. At night, they arrive at the farm, but Helen and Martha are scared by a howl. The old man assures them that it's only the neighbour's basset hound, but Martha isn't so sure.
Martha dreams that she is riding on a tractor and doing the farm chores, then is woken up by the farmer. He has her accompany him to do the farm chores despite it being earlier than her usual wake-up time and their first chore is to herd some sheep. Despite the farmer's warning that the sheep are stubborn, Martha just tells them to move to the pasture and they comply. He then puts her in charge of guarding them while he feeds the chickens. Martha (revealing the farmer's name to be C.K.) tells the sheep not to stray away, but they do so anyway, with one of them tricking her into thinking that the woods and house are part of the pasture.
While T.D. teaches Helen how to fish, Martha, while looking for C.K., asks the chickens if she can do any jobs. They have her sit on their eggs, and while sitting, she sees a newspaper on the floor that has a picture of a scary-looking, doglike animal.
About an hour later, Helen, T.D., and Martha are all getting bored, with T.D. getting the idea of using granola as fish bait when the fish steal Helen's granola bar. Martha remembers the sheep and decides she should check on them, so she runs toward the pasture, only to hear a cow mooing. She thinks the cow is calling for help, so she runs to the barn, where three cows are. They explain that they're hungry, so she feeds them hay from a cart, but then the cart moves out of the barn with her still on it. She enjoys the "hay ride", but C.K. is shocked when he sees her whizzing past the window and notices the sheep and chickens in his house.
Meanwhile, Helen is frustrated that the fish have taken her worm without being caught for five times in a row. T.D. tries begging them, then Martha arrives on her hay cart and lands in the river. Back at the farmhouse, C.K. explains that the pasture does not include the house, while Martha explains that the sheep tricked her and the chickens had her sit on their eggs. Despite C.K.'s assurance, Martha feels guilty and decides to stay in her room all day so as not to cause trouble.
That night, Martha is woken by the sheep, notices they sound afraid, and informs C.K. They walk into the night, then C.K. goes to check on the chickens, while Martha watches the sheep. Just then, the creature from the newspaper starts stalking them, so she herds them into the pasture again. The creature then approaches Martha, revealing itself to be a coyote, and she scares it away by growling and barking.
The next day, C.K. drives T.D., Helen, and Martha home.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Martha wears a straw hat and a bandana in her dream.
- Anthropomorphic Food: Martha dreams of a talking stack of pancakes saying what C.K. is saying in real life.
- Cock-a-Doodle Dawn: A rooster is heard crowing when the sun rises in Martha's dream. Justified, since it takes place on a farm where chickens live.
- Crashing Dreams: When C.K. tells Martha to wake up, it enters her dream as a stack of pancakes talking.
- Crying Wolf: Downplayed. Martha is willing to watch the sheep when they bleat fearfully, but is suspicious that it might be another trick since they previously tricked her.
- Department of Redundancy Department: In Martha's dream, Helen lists bacon several times when listing the components of the breakfast.
- Dogs Hate Squirrels: Martha lists chasing squirrels as a chore.
- Don't Be Ridiculous: T.D. thinks that getting angry at the fish is unhelpful... so they should beg them to bite instead.
- Don't Go in the Woods: Downplayed. The woods near the farm are home to the coyote, however, the coyote only poses danger to the sheep; Martha scares it away easily by growling and barking, and it shows no interest in the humans.
- Dream Tells You to Wake Up: Martha's dream ends with a stack of pancakes telling her to wake up. Justified, since it was caused by C.K. telling her to wake up in reality.
- Facepalm: Helen puts her hand to her face after Martha suggests swapping out one parody of "99 Bottles of Beer" for another after Helen complains of the song getting monotonous.
- Fishing Episode: Downplayed. A subplot of this episode is Helen and T.D. struggling to fish.
- Foreshadowing: The coyote's presence is foreshadowed by Martha noting that the howl doesn't sound like a Basset hound despite C.K. saying it was, and a pair of eyes looking ominously out of the woods.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: Zigzagged. Martha sings a version of "99 Bottles of Beer" about meat instead of beer, but it's unclear if this was done to avoid mentions of alcohol in a kids' show, or just because Martha is a dog and thus would dislike the taste of beer.
- Heroic Dog: Martha saves the sheep from the coyote.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Martha likes the idea of doing farm chores (though she does find sitting on chicken eggs boring).
- Job Song: In Martha's dream, she sings about being a farm dog.
- Joke of the Butt: The chickens convince Martha to sit on their eggs, saying she'll be better at it since she has a bigger bottom.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Upon realising that the sheep tricked her, Martha feels that she's to blame, that she's incompetent, and decides to stay in her room all day so as not to cause more trouble.
- Oh, Crap!: After herding the sheep into the pasture but being trapped in the pen with the coyote, she says, "Everyone is safe!", then nervously adds, "Except for me!".
- Shout-Out: Martha in her dream sings, "I'm a farm dog, I work all day. I rise in the morning and I pull the hay. There's a lot to do, but that's okay, 'cause I'm a farm dog and I like it that way!" to the tune of the Lumberjack Song from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- Slapstick:
- Martha falls out of bed at one point.
- Martha crashes into a river on a hay cart, drenching Helen and T.D.
- Spooky Animal Sounds: Zigzagged. When the group arrives on the farm at night time, a howl is heard, scaring Helen and Martha, but C.K. then that it isn't a wolf; just the neighbour's dog. However, Martha notes that it doesn't sound like a dog, and eerie eyes are seen staring out of the bushes... but then it turns out that, while it wasn't the neighbour's dog, it wasn't a wolf either — it was a coyote.
- That Cloud Looks Like...: T.D. points out two clouds and thinks they look like a potato and his twelve-toed cousin J.T., though Helen just sees clouds.
- Vacation Episode: This episode follows T.D., Helen, and Martha vacationing on a farm.
- Who's on First?: When C.K. tells Martha that he and she need to herd the sheep, she says, "But we already heard them; they said, 'baa'."
