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Farm life in Henford on Bagley
Heathertibb
Posts: 153 Member
I bought Cottage Living a while back and think it is a beautiful EP. I would like to participate in farm life (having cow/llama, growing crops, having chickens). However, I am having a difficult time keeping a balance between taking care of the farm and participating in my sims' other interests. It is very overwhelming for me to the point where I shut down and end up living in the world without having a farm. Does anybody have any tricks or suggestions to better balance this out in my game or make farm life easier to manage? I would really like to get my money's worth out of this EP. Thank you!
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Comments
I enjoy playing with bigger households so that's definitely a great suggestion. I could rotate the farm chores between family members. Putting a limit on how much "farm life" stuff I have should help also.
However, I pose another question: Who has time to make friends with the birds, foxes, and rabbits with all of this going on, LOL?
Yes, turning off aging while I get into the pace of things would be a great idea as well.
Even with a dedicated Sim to do JUST THAT, it's a LOT, especially if you are doing poultry AND dairy or wool. Befriending wild bunnies, and placing the Burrow on your lot, and befriending your bunnies to get them to help garden helps (they'll do the weeding - birds help, too, and will eat bugs). But that's also a time investment. Doing all the things takes a number of Sims, and is in fact challenging.
I tend to pick & choose just a few. Added a Toddler to my poultry-and-garden household, because both my sims wanted a baby, and my one sim is already sad from missing socialization with his furry friends. It's definitely a balancing act.
My advice, learn one thing at a time - how to keep a cow happy & productive, for example, and learn JUST THAT first, and you'll have time for other interests. If you try to do it all, there will be no time at all for anything else.
Thank you so much for your response @Sindocat! Learning one thing at a time does take a lot of stress out of learning about the EP. I always tend to overwhelm myself by thinking I need to do everything at once, LOL. I am glad Maxis took the time to add so many features to this EP and do a really thorough job, but wow, it is a lot of stuff! Very helpful!
All the sims err'day
Another small farm has one coop but focus on growing crops. Another grow apples only, but also have a chicken coop for own consume.
Other houses might have 1 llama because they use the wool for cross stitching, or just a few chicken because it's cool to see them walk about the place. Limitations are good, but then I play on rotation so I get to them all eventually, anyway
PS: Might also help to assign various tasks to specific household members. On my cow farm kids clean and feed one cow shed each, while an adult do the milking. If one sim should do it all, that sim would be consantly in a bad mood (I tried, lol).
That's what I've always done with my huge garden, but most recently the family had chickens as well as a large garden. The eldest son took care of the chickens in the morning, and then went to help water the plants. Usually by the time he finished it was time for school, and then his mother would harvest or sell the crops depending on the day. The animals definitely take a lot more time then you think they will.