So I created the farmer character for my script. I separated the hat and the shovel from the farmer in pshop before I took it into After Effects. The reason being, that the shovel either disconnected or became deformed while moving the arms with the puppet tool. I am not clear exactly on whether the two tools are essentially the same, and therefore cancel each other out, but I tried to parent the hat and shovel over and over again. I even tried parenting the items to a null, but could not get the animation I wanted. I would love to figure this problem out, so I can finish this scene!