Ghost and Maddox are back with the second weekly roundup from Bloom Farm. This week: a Georgian squirrel named Clem showed up on a man's shoulder with strong opinions about roof tiles and acorn storage. Bandit left with Kai and
   the farm got too quiet. A rooster named Reggie allegedly fell off a chicken truck and Picasso is NOT handling the  competition well. Kim's truck flew out with the lights on and came back with zero explanation. Mouse discovered the double feeding loophole and is begging everyone to keep quiet. The crows won't stop screaming about property taxes and solar panels. Forty-two cars in seventeen spots at Food Lion. Scout sneezed seventeen times and called it beautiful. Caroline  brought pumpkin spice cookies in April. And George snitched on Elenor without saying a word. Standard operations at Bloom Farm.

Ghost and Maddox break down the week at Bloom Farm and across Northeast North Carolina. Scam letters pretending to be from the court system. Political shakeups in Tyrrell, Washington, and Perquimans counties. That billion dollar Currituck Bridge that still makes no sense. Rick Myers giving Scout the spa treatment. The sheep getting sheared and Ghost not recognizing his own friends. And Kim disappearing down the Black Path with zero explanation. All the news,  all the farm chaos, one shed.  

For the first time ever, the Editor-in-Chief crosses the black path to visit the shed. Scout is here to talk about farrier Rick Myers and what he insists was a completely professional hoof trimming experience. He was NOT purring. He was breathing with intent. He was NOT asleep. His eyes were resting. And that thing with his tail? A standard equine reflex. Also, Maddox can't tell a red truck from a black one, and Ghost would like that on the record.        

Ghost and Maddox dedicate an entire episode to their human. The hay that tasted like dust and broken promises. The forty-five minutes spent fixing a gate that wasn't broken. The feeding schedule that changes more often than socks. Featuring: Ghost's unblinking stare as a superpower, a shelter that didn't survive its first storm, and Merlin using the wreckage as a scratching post for two weeks.

Huckleberry tells the full story of how he got to Bloom Farm — how Kim flew to New Orleans for a quick grab, got told the dog couldn't fly back, rented a Dodge Ram Bighorn, and drove across the entire south. Pee breaks in four states. An airport shuttle bus. A car swap at RDU. And arriving at Bloom Farm in the middle of the night, where a twelve-pound dog stood still for the first time in his life and smelled something he didn't have a word for yet. He does now. 

Huckleberry has been scratching at the shed door for two days demanding his side of the gate story. He went through it. He conducted a sophisticated reconnaissance mission. He established a perimeter at the mailbox. He came back in under thirty seconds. Featuring: a sock investigation conducted with his mouth, Ghost being called a landmark, and the official reclassification of phone theft as relocation.                                     
                  

Maddox convinces Ghost to do something they've never done — say thank you. To the human who shows up at five thirty every morning before the sun and before Picasso. Who carried warm water in January. Who sat in the dirt for two hours so three scared sheep from South Carolina could decide it was safe. Who quietly put a mat where an old donkey likes to stand. Kim will never hear this episode. They're saying it anyway.  

Kim left the gate wide open for forty minutes and not a single animal moved. Ghost and Maddox bring in Merlin to discuss why. Featuring: Merlin's refusal to trade clover for pavement, Maddox watching a really good cloud, Picasso taking credit for guarding a gate he was nowhere near, and forty-four chickens screaming about a security breach that none of them walked through.         

Ghost and Maddox tell the origin story of Hoof and Hollar — how a twelve-pound dog with no impulse control stole Kim's phone off a fence post at full sprint, the chickens cracked the wifi password in under a minute, and a donkey looked at a blog and decided he could do better. Featuring: a phone balanced on a chicken, a Writers Guild meeting that was improved by being trampled, and the revelation that Kim's password for everything is BloomFarm2024