Time to meet the Akers family, our first (and so far only) Subsistence Farmers. They've got a cute little basic farmhouse to start their lives in, modeled after a house from SimCity Societies.
I've really been looking forward to getting into this part of the challenge to do some proper farming. Because it is a challenge I'm also mostly attempting to stick to farming as it is in the game.
Daisy and Patrick seem to be quite smitten with each other from the start, so hopefully they'll have a happy life together. I'm picturing all kinds of country idyll.
Patrick Akers is a family/popularity sim. He's a 4-5-7-2-8 Pices (kind but serious) and his LTW is to marry off six children which might actually happen since I gave both him and Daisy the fertility perk. I'll have the orphanage standing by for this family in case the kids threaten to eat them out of house and home. They're not allowed to buy groceries, only eat what they grow or catch.
His traits are loves the outdoors, social butterfly, family oriented, loves the heat, and hopeless romantic
Daisy is a family/pleasure sims and a 7-4-1-8-5 Capricorn--neat, playful, and quite lazy. Her LTW is to graduate three kids from college which will never happen, but I think it means she values her children's education.
Her traits are family oriented, couch potato, bookworm, natural cook, and green thumb.
According to the rules, Subsistence Farmers are only supposed to make money from farming etc, but I really wanted to have livestock as well to explain where the community gets milk and cheese from. They purchase two llamas; Thyme and Rosemary. (Never mind the wolf in the picture.) This does mean that the Akers have almost zero funds left to make do with before the first harvest. No dresser, not tub, no crib or changing table.
This is very much an experiment. There are a bunch of custom content farm animals to download out there, but I wanted to see if it was possible to simulate animal husbandry with the features available in the game.
I also want the Gentleman Farmer family to have livestock at some point, so it seemed wise to try things out on a smaller scale first.
The dog--uhh, llamas, get to procreating right away. Caring for them will be a chore, but pets sell for quite a lot of they're well-trained and taught their manners.
It's so nice to get back to basics and living off the land after going through the misery of the poor families. Patrick starts by planting on a 4x4 plot and we'll see whether that's enough to see the family through winter and earn them a bit on the side. I think he'd struggle to keep up with more.
He also does a bit of digging on the side which is allowed, and finds a vase that's enough to afford them a better bed and a bath tub. I don't want to abuse digging so I'm only doing it once a day or if the llamas have started digging a hole.
Only wealthy ladies are allowed to paint for money, but Daisy can use the easel to up her creativity skill as long as she doesn't make any money off it. I'm hoping to get her started on flower arranging.
Well, we can't say this was unexpected. Daisy gives birth to twins; two girls unfortunately so no heir yet. That takes us up to four girls born in the hood so far and not a single boy.
The first born (on the floor) is Lily. She has her father's s2 skin, with brown hair and eyes that the children will all probably have.
The younger is Rose who has her mother's skin, hair, and eyes.
Around the same time the llamas have their first litter! They have a boy, Rocky, and a girl, Minty. Unfortunately they've both inherited Rosemary's aggressive pigpen personality, so they're hardly good breeding stock. All because I forgot to check her personality when they bought her. We want smart, mild-tempered llamas.
Speaking of the llamas, they really need a proper pen built. There is a serious wolf problem in this part of town and I think they're running some kind of protection racket.
It's a sorry state of affairs in the household. With winter approaching the family is all but broke, the girls have to lie on the floor the first day until Patrick manages to bring home enough simoleans to buy cribs. Daisy's mood is constantly in the red. I use a breast-feeding mod which drains the mother's motives just enough to make twins even more challenging.
Thankfully mutual love and support sees Daisy and Patrick through their hardship. Despite the rough life they're living, Daisy got lucky with a kind and caring husband who rolls up wants to take care of both her and the children.
They sell two of their three apple crops for money and some of the tomatoes. Next round we'll see if that leaves them with enough food to see them through winter.
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