Henry Barton is dropping off his pregnant wife Elsie at the Shady Rest. While the baby isn't due for two weeks, Henry still wants someone to watch Elsie as he will be gone for three days. The women aren't at all worried, but Uncle Joe is quite concerned. Joe gets even more panicked when Kate tells him most babies arrive in the middle of the night. He comes up with an elaborate plan involving some of the men of the valley to get Doc Stuart to the Shady Rest if Elsie has the baby in the middle of the night. Without telling anyone, Joe has a trial run of his plan at 3am just to make sure it all goes smoothly. Everyone is quite mad at Uncle Joe. To make matters worse, Joe does it a second time. When Elsie does actually go into labor, it looks as though someone else will have to help with the delivery

Uncle Joe has formed the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department Volunteer Band. The band is so bad that it is driving paying guests away from the hotel. Joe hoped to raise money with the band to form an actual Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department. An upset Joe tells Kate she should come up with a better way to raise the money. After asking for donations only raises $62, Kates decides they need professional help. Kate wants to contact Henry Phillips, who works for a company that manufacture fire equipment, and ask his help. Calling in an outsider irks Uncle Joe and he says he can get all the equipment they need for the $62 they have. Joe winds up buying a bunch of junk. Mr. Phillips arrives and after a plan gone wrong by Joe, Kate finds a way to have Mr. Phillips get them what they need. Another plan of Joe's goes wrong and the Hooterville train station winds up burning down.

The girls are upset that they don't have a telephone at the hotel. They can't communicate with their friends and are social outcasts. Kate says it would cost $800 for the telephone company to install two miles of line just to get to the hotel. The girls have to get their calls at Drucker's Store and it's starting to disrupt his business. Sam refuses to take any more calls for them. Uncle Joe decides to start his own telephone company. He plans on using the barbed wire fencing surrounding all the local farms as the primary communication lines. He also plans to tap illegally into the Hooterville Telephone Company's line, but Sam doesn't let him. Joe comes up with a really complicated alternative. It's not long before the whole plan falls apart.

Uncle Joe is excited about a new capital works project for the valley. The plan is to dam up Bleeker Creek which will create a new lake in the area. Kate points out to Uncle Joe that the location of the new lake does not mean that the hotel will be lake front property, but rather be under water in the middle of the lake. When she sees how this project will devastate her and the Cannonball, she knows Homer Bedloe is behind it. Kate needs to collect two hundred signatures for a restraining order petition. When Kate comes up two signatures short, Mr. Fletcher the Commissioner of Conservation, says nothing will stop them from putting in the lake. Uncle Joe's dog winds up saving the Shady Rest.

Steve's plane is still sitting damaged where it crashed near the railroad tracks by the hotel. Henry Sharp, from the finance company, comes by because Steve has missed a payment. Steve has barely enough money to repair the plane let alone make his regular payments. Trying to get Sharp to give Steve some time fail. Steve decides to cut corners in repairing the plane. Kate, the girls and Uncle Joe try to help him raise some money, which ends up not being easy. Sunday at church, Reverend Jones enjoyed Steve's singing so much, he starts a contribution drive. They raise enough money to fix the plane and Steve decides to stay in the valley.

Charley and Floyd derail the Cannonball going around Deadman's Curve. They believe the reason for the derailment was that Floyd had removed too many of the railroad ties to stoke the engine. Uncle Joe calls the C&FW Railroad, who agree to pay the necessary $300 insurance deductible for the repairs. Homer Bedloe shows up and finds out that a railroad employee's negligence caused the accident which in turns means the insurance company will not pay. Kate comes up with a plan where she gets some valley residents to put up the money and become stockholders of the train. But the Hooterville residents, taking over operation of the Cannonball, demand so many changes that the train's crew decides to quit. Kate finds a way for everyone to get their money back and to have Charlie and Floyd back at their jobs.