Synopsis
The Back 40 – Freddie (the dad) is cutting firewood with the children, but decides to provide a little context by getting them lost in the woods behind the house. On their travels they discover and abandoned farm and Freddie gives a little history lesson about this once agricultural community.
Thermostat/Snow Day – The children are cold while playing in front of the woodstove, so their dad suggests turning up the non-working thermostat which is only there “to fool the code-inspector-guy.” Through the night the dad plows the driveway again and again to keep up with the accumulating snow. Arriving at work and looking forward to a well earned nap, he is startled by a call from his frustrated wife who is stuck home alone with the kids.
Snow Bank – Freddie attempts to impart to the children the folk tradition of repairing your own carburetor. However, one of the children would rather be a robot, a robot that says “Beep!”
Trespassers Will Be… - The mom (Neenie) vetoes a plan to drive the broken truck to Town in neutral to buy truck parts. Freddie (in his mind) is forced to take a drastic alternative. He walks through the forest, under the barbed wire fence and across a not-so-frozen lake to take truck parts off his brother’s long abandoned truck, and he brings the kids. He is caught by his mom, who convinces him to tell his brother and ultimately drives him to the auto parts store.