Tag Archives: farmtown

I must commit to quit!

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I’m not one to set New Year’s resolutions, mostly because I know I’ll never follow through with them.

Typically, setting a resolution is only setting myself up for failure. At my age, I ought to know better!

This year, however, I’ve decided to set just one goal. I’ve decided to officially quit farming … virtual farming, that is.

Earlier this week, I announced to all my FarmTown friends on Facebook that I quit. No longer will I plant beet seeds and harvest them every four hours on my days off. No longer will I plant asparagus at night, only to get up in the morning and harvest the crop before work. No more potato plantings, strawberry seedings or pumpkin picking.

Said one of my Facebook friends, "I’ll believe it when I see it!"

That’s as good as a double-dog-dare, so I must, I must, I must commit to quit!

I’ve told my friends to quit sending me FarmTown gifts so that I’m not tempted to sign in, accept gifts and plant seeds just "one more time!"

Just to show how much they listen, I’ve received three fuel tanks in the last 24 hours. Oh, I know they’re trying to tempt me, but I’m not taking the bait!

After seven months, I’d made it to Level 41 in FarmTown … midway through the rank of Absolute Farmer. I don’t quite know what that means, but it’s a higher rank than virtuoso, which I didn’t think was a very good name for a farmer anyway.

I’ve tried several times to quit farming this year, but then the makers of FarmTown added goats and, well, I just had to have some. I almost quit a while later, but then they added Halloween decorations. The third time, it was the addition of a pretty red combine that I just had to have parked on my farm.

Then it was patches of snow, wrapped gifts, snow-covered pine trees and poinsettia plants. Pretty soon I had so much stuff on my virtual farm that when I tried to do anything, a little window popped up on my computer that said Low Virtual Memory. And then there were the computer crashes.

Enough! Enough, I say. It came to the point that farming wasn’t fun anymore. It was frustrating, it was time-consuming and I never accomplished anything. It’s not like being able to finish a good book or complete a stitching project. I was racking up coins that I couldn’t spend because my farm was already full of stuff, and I was throwing away hours of time that could have been spent more productively.

Now that I’ve shared my New Year’s resolution, I must stick to it. My Facebook friends are watching!

You been FarmTown farmin’ long?

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When someone asked me recently if I was still farmin’, I knew that he was keeping tabs on my FarmTown farm through Facebook.

“Yes, unfortunately!” I said with a roll of my eyes. How long ago was it that I admitted my addiction and vowed to quit?

I appreciate the e-mails from fellow FarmTown addicts, hailing from who knows where, who have stumbled upon my blog. Apparently one FarmTown addict found it and forwarded the link onto loads of other FarmTown fanatics. I’m now getting thank-you e-mails and invitations to visit other farms. It’s all just a little too much fun!

So much fun that my FarmTown status is now “Extraordinary Farmer.” Gee, and I didn’t even have to grind corn for the cattle, milk the goats or shear the sheep! Oh, I do remember those days on the farm … the good, the bad and the ugly.

I haven’t posted a photo of my FarmTown Farm, “The Back Forty,” for a while, so here is a new picture showing some of the work I did last Saturday.

A river now runs through my goat yard, providing a water source for my milking herd. (It looks like all the goats have piled up on the bridge.)

I’m still waiting for the makers to come out with tractors though … specifically red tractors.

I’ve been involved in a friendly Facebook banter with a certain Iowa farm boy about green versus red. He posted a few words to “John Deere Green” on his status, to which I promptly found the lyrics to “International Harvester” and sent them right back to him.

I think we are going to have to call a truce though … especially since he recommended I check out this YouTube clip of The Wurzels singing “Combine Harvester.” It’s definitely an entertaining must-see!

I appreciated a good laugh, especially after my water heater debacle Monday night, but what was that green thing in the background Iowa farm boy? Just one more little dig at my preference for red!

What I really want to know is how can I get this great tune uploaded to my MP3 player? I think it would offer a nice change of pace between my Chesney, Paisley and McGraw faves … I might even want to start skipping around the lake!

Friends don’t let friends quit farming

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Despite my best attempts to give up a nagging FarmTown addiction, my friends keep sending me gifts for my farm. Over the weekend, I had more than a dozen gifts to accept. I sent my friends gifts in return because, well, I’m a polite neighbor.

It’s a vicious cycle!

Tonight, I logged onto Facebook to share the good news about our Relay for Life team here at the Daily Globe (we reached the $2,250 mark as a team after Bank Night tonight … blowing away last year’s efforts!)

Anyway, I logged on only to discover I had another eight gifts to accept for my farm … three goats, a pine tree, a peach tree, a lemon tree, a bunny and a Hyacinth. In a week’s time, I’ve accumulated nearly 20 bellering goats and a beautiful flower garden.

Meanwhile, the back yard (the real one outside my home office window) looks like it will need to be baled the next time I get to it. There’s a good reason … the rain … and the fact that my mower is still out at the farm. It will be coming back Tuesday morning though, and with an evening meeting to cover for work, I may just stay home in the morning to get it taken care of … that is if it isn’t raining.

And if it is raining, well, I’ll probably log into FarmTown, accept a few more gifts that arrived overnight, send some goats to my FarmTown friends, plow some more fields and plant some more seeds … all the while muttering to myself about all of the productive things I could be doing with my precious spare time.

Addressing my FarmTown addiction

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I must preface this blog post by first explaining FarmTown, this silly little application on the Internet’s social networking site, Facebook.

On FarmTown, I have a little plot of land filled with many plowed fields where I can plant corn, wheat, sunflowers, grapes, rice, and a whole host of other crops.

I collect gifts from my FarmTown friends, including fruit trees, livestock and poultry.

I can earn money by harvesting the crops of other FarmTown players, and selling my own crops to the Marketplace.

When my mom calls me these days, her first question is, “Are you busy planting or harvesting.”

Yes, it’s sad. Even Mom knows I’m addicted!

But, I’m going to quit. Some day. Pretty soon, I think…

Actually, I was going to quit last weekend, and then the makers of FarmTown added goats. I want goats. I need goats. I’ve begged my FarmTown friends for goats!

I now have five goats, a house, barn, dog house, cattle yard, pig pen, goat and sheep yard, an orchard and lots and lots of crops.

I’m prepared to give it all up this weekend. On Wednesday, I went to the Internet for help with my addiction.

I found the original 12 step program for Alcoholics Anonymous, and have adapted a few of them to meet my FarmTown problem.

1. I admit that I am powerless over FarmTown — that my life has become unmanageable. (Actually, I’m getting less sleep because I have to harvest before work in the morning and before I go to bed at night!)

2. I have made a list of all FarmTown players whom I have annoyed by sending countless gifts of trees and animals, and wish to make amends with them. I’m sorry!

3. I continue to take a personal inventory of all the work that has gone undone at home, and I am willing to admit that I have wasted too many hours on FarmTown.

4. I have made a decision to turn my lack of willpower over to those who have resisted the temptation to join FarmTown. I will strive to be as strong as they are!

5. I will humbly ask my non-FarmTown playing co-workers to forgive my FarmTown conversations and the wish to covet my FarmTown neighbors’ farms.

OK, I think I can quit now. Just let me have a few more days to say goodbye!

Coveting my neighbor’s farm

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For the past several days, I’ve been spending a portion of my spare time planting and hoeing and planting again as one by one, my little plots of land are filled with potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, corn, wheat, rice, sunflowers and grapes.

I’ve plowed up so many plots of land that it now requires me to make multiple visits to the farm daily to check on the progress and eagerly anticipate the harvest.

Harvest? Already?

Well, that’s how it works in the virtual world!

Last Thursday night, the sister of my one-time college roommate sent an apple tree and a baby chicken to my Facebook page, requesting that I send her something back.

Well, I logged into FarmTown and was completely hooked.

You could say I’m a FarmTown addict! I’m now begging my Facebook friends for fruit trees and delighted when they send me a cute little Holstein cow or a fluffy white-faced ewe.

This morning I woke up thinking about FarmTown and, even though it was an hour before my alarm went off (6 a.m. – yikes!), I got up, turned on my home computer and started harvesting my potato fields.

I’ve since learned that I can make a lot more money planting grapes. They can be harvested every four hours … which means that I can grow several crops a day if I plant my crop at 6 a.m. each morning, harvest and replant at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Oh yes … I’ve thought about this. Sad, isn’t it?

I have now convinced some co-workers to have a farm, and a friend of mine from Green Bay showed up in the middle of my vineyard tonight … another new convert.

My farm isn’t anything spectacular – yet. As a farm girl and farm reporter, I have great plans that it will be some day. I have virtual farm envy for Amy’s plot, and when I earn a gazillion more coins I will try to make my farm look just as nice.

And Tony’s farm … it’s sooo Tony – plowed from end to end and seeded entirely with onions. He had the farm surrounded by a picket fence, but has since started putting up stone walls. He must be selling all of the fruit trees and livestock he receives as gifts, because there is nothing roaming in his field.

I like to visit my neighbors farms and covet what they have. I know it shouldn’t be done … it being one of the 10 Commandments and all … but is it really wrong in the virtual world?

I mean, isn’t this wrong on so many levels? I could be doing something productive like working in my REAL perennial garden, pulling weeds, landscaping … so much to do, and so little time because the latest timekiller has completely enveloped my life! Arrrggghhh … just let it out and breathe … and then go back and harvest those grapes before heading off to sleep! (Yes, I talk to myself … it’s OK, no one else hears me, and I don’t answer back!)