Fallon rejoins Dross but Ed is left out in the cold; Clarrie fears that she will be too, plucking turkeys.

Radio Times: A lovely birth for Ruth.

Characters: Clarrie, David, Ed, Eddie, Fallon, Jazzer, Oliver, Ruth

• Ed is helping Eddie gather mistletoe on Grange Farm and, before you ask, no – they haven’t asked permission. So when Oliver Stirling comes into view, Eddie leaves Ed to talk to him alone. Of course, Oliver was not born yesterday. He has some surprising news for Ed: there is a band practice in the barn which he has come out to escape.
• Ruth is supposed to be relaxing and enjoying her pregnancy. How does she choose to relax: with a spot of welding. She convinces David that it is not heavy work and she is happier than when doing nothing. However, on hearing that her favourite cow Bluebell is in the first stage of labour, the welding is forgotten.
• Fallon finds that only Jazzer has turned up at the appointed hour for the band practice. She is not surprised because she already knows that Dermot has been told to come at half past. Jazzer clearly wants some time on his own with Fallon and she has a new song to try out. Ed has left the mistletoe collection to come and see what is going on – he hasn’t been told at all about the practice. He gets the message that he is not wanted and storms off; Fallon is for going after him but Jazzer is not.
• Bluebell has done it again: another fine heifer delivered with no effort from Ruth. Bluebell is very special to Ruth because, alone and in the middle of the night, Ruth delivered her from a breach position; since then she has overseen the birth of each of Bluebell’s calves but now she is tired and a mere male nurse is allowed to finish off.
• Eddie is planning to kill the turkeys on Friday 14^th so he needs all the family to arrange their affairs to help. But where? Clarrie is not going to pluck turkeys in an open-sided barn in the middle of winter: he will sort something out. And where will they hang them? He will sort something out. Meanwhile, he will take his gun for a walk and, unless he is losing his touch, there will be a brace of pheasants in the kitchen by morning. Poor Clarrie, Ed is in for the evening and she is worried about him, Eddie is out and she is worried about him.