New Farm - The Third Week
Seeds. Water. Crops. Repeat
Day 15 started off well: I had crops to harvest, good luck, and rain to save me the trouble of watering my fields. I also had the start of the main foraging event for the Spring: salmonberry season. This was the opportunity I needed to collect 10 salmonberries to complete the Children’s bundle in the Community Centre, so a trip out foraging was on the agenda before Pierre’s opened for seed shopping. Once all that was done and dusted, it was back to the farm to plant the 11 new seeds I bought to replace what I harvested. That left me with most of a good luck day left, so I headed up to the mines to try to explore a little deeper. I broke through a lot of treasure boxes down there – one of which contained a glow ring! – but it was clear that I was going to need to buy the new larger backpack from Pierre’s soon. By the time I reached mine level 14 I had completed my current monster slayer goal from Gil, but I was still in the mines at level 30 when 1am rolled around. Getting back to the farm in time was going to be a bit of dash, but I knew I wasn’t carrying much money or many valuables, so I wasn’t concerned about the possibility of passing out on the way home again. Once I did get to sleep and close out the day, I had levelled up both my mining and my farming to level 3 – you gotta love a double level-up day!
Day 16: I had lost 90g to Harvey, having passed out on the road home as I feared. But the day’s luck was still decently good, and 90g wasn’t all that much to me. I set to watering my crops, noting where I was going to need to build more than the one sprinkler I already had. Most of my day was spent on the farm, clearing more space for crops and livestock and giving me the raw materials to get my barn and coop built. But the big break of the day also came from clearing trees: I gathered what I needed to complete the sap bundle at the community centre. Once I had turned that in, it unlocked the vault. The farm was only just over two weeks old and I had already opened every room in the community centre. My path to completion was set. I took the rest of the day to do some foraging around town, reaching level 5 in the process. Level 5 in SDV professions come with a choice between 2 perks; in this case, because I had spent plenty of time gathering useful forage like spring onions and salmonberries, I opted for the Gatherer perk.
Day 17 was another sunny day, with more forecast. The spirits were displeased: no point in doing anything that would benefit from good luck today, so that was the mines off the plan. I started with my usual watering routine, hoping that the Speed-Gro I had applied to my strawberries would kick in soon, as the sales from one of the game’s most lucrative crops would go a very long way. By now I had 2000g in my wallet, which gave me a choice. I could upgrade my either my backpack or one of my tools. But Pierre’s is closed on Wednesdays before you complete the community centre, so I went to Clint’s smithy shop to drop off my pickaxe for upgrading. I had him process some of the geodes I had gathered in the mines – one contained enough iron ore to smelt the bar I needed for a community centre bundle, so I dropped that off before the end of the day, and foraged mixed seasonal seeds and planted those.
Day 18 was sunny again, but rain was forecast for day 19. My cauliflower crop came in but with only one of the five gold-quality cauliflowers I would need for the community centre bundle. I put the one aside for now. I picked up potato seeds from Pierre’s to fill the space left behind, then spent the rest of the day on foraging around the valley: salmonberries are relatively cheap to sell but plentiful enough that they would help defray the cost of the potato seeds. And so it was; I made enough that I could afford the backpack upgrade, so that was top of the to-do list for the next day.
Day 19 was eventful. I got the promised rain, a parsnip crop to harvest, and word from Clint that my pickaxe was ready for pickup. I had two special jobs either in my quest log already or on the job board in town — a cauliflower for Jodi and a wild horseradish for Pam — so I decided to get those done by the end of the day. I got my remaining stock of potato seeds planted, then took advantage of the rain and the spirits’ good humour to go down the mines. My route for the day took me from Jodi’s, to Pierre’s, to Clint’s, to the mine. 15 mine floors later, the night drawing in, I caught Pam in the Saloon and gave her the horseradish before I turned in. Overnight I received my first mystery box from Mr Qi, opening up a new quest line that would reach into endgame.
On day 20 the sun returned but with rain in the forecast for the 21st. The spirits felt neutral, which didn’t affect my plans for the day. I headed up to the mountain lake and fished up my first bullhead! I felt luckier than the spirits suggested so I took a chance on the mines again. It paid off: I scrounged up both Combat Quarterly and the Monster Compendium. Two levelling books in one day for free! By the end of the day I had earned two levels in mining and one in combat – a good day’s work all round.
Day 21, the Sunday, brought the travelling cart back into the valley. I had passed out in the mines and lost some money. Cue the note from Harvey in my letterbox telling me off for pushing myself too hard again! I knew it was going to rain both today and tomorrow, so the opportunity to upgrade my watering can was there; but I was going to need to sell some strawberries immediately, instead of shipping them, if I was going to afford to drop the can off today. On my visit to the travelling cart I found a quality sprinkler in stock, so it was off to Pierre’s to sell strawberries, then Clint’s to start the upgrade job, then back to the cart for the sprinkler, ready for when I needed it. I took the rest of the day to clear more farm overgrowth and ended the day at level 4 farming.
