The Beauty Shop and Christmas Festivities

The Beauty Shop in Family Farm is one of my favourite recent additions to the game.  There are a number of crafting buildings in Family Farm now but it is the Workshop and the Beauty Shop that allow one to make items that actually can be placed as decorations on the farm.  The others basically offer the option solely to create items to be sold.  The values may be very good, but it is far more fun to make pretty decorations that can be enjoyed on the farm.

For Hallowe'en, both the Beauty Shop and the Workshop offers a number of decorations.  At Thanksgiving, there were a couple of gorgeous candles with an Autumn theme  that are suitable to be used throughout the year.    For Christmas, there are some fantastic candles, including a darling ring of angels and a very elegant silver deer.

You will need to collect a fair number of ingredients to make these candles.  In most cases, it is a two-stage process, requiring the creation of a basic candle first before you can make the elaborate decorated item.

The basic candle that is needed most often is the Ivory Candle.  To make this, you will need the following ingredients:

Ivory Candle:
  Ingredients: 5 Beeswax, 10 Vanilla, 10 Milk

The Ivory Candle is an Ingredient in many beautiful Decorations, including:

Beautiful Fall Candle:
  Ingredients: 10 Violets, 4 Ivory Candles, 10 Eucalyptus Leaves



The secondary Candle that is required most often to craft a Decoration is the Citrus Sensation Candle which requires the following:

Citrus Sensation Candle:
  Ingredients:  2 Ivory Candle, 5 Mandarins, 5 Oranges

With the Citrus Sensation Candle, you can craft:

Elf on the Shelf Candle:
  Ingredients: 2 Citrus Sensation Candles, 10 Cranberry Sauce, 10 Cantaloupe

Reindeer Candle Holder:
  Ingredients: 3 Citrus Sensation Candle, 10 Iron Sheets
  N.B.  The Iron Sheets are produced in the Workshop with Horseshoes

Other lovely Candle Decorations include:

Happy Harvest Candle:
  Ingredients:  10 Pumpkins, 2 Dazzling Daisy Candles, 10 White Grapes


There are many other Decorations that are not Candles but can be placed on the Farm to add to its beauty and charm.  One of my favourites is Rose Water.

Rose Water:
  Ingredients: 2 Black Roses, 5 Purple Roses

The only problem with this Recipe is that the Black Rose requires RC to purchase.   When unlocked, you will be able to grow it only for three days before it will become 'locked' again.  One therefore should grow as many Black Roses as possible within that time period and save them for crafting.

Two of the items that appear often as ingredients in the Crafting buildings are Beeswax, previously mentioned, and Mud.  Beeswax is produced in the Bee Box.  You can purchase an unfinished Bee Box for 7000 Coins.  You then must obtain materials to complete it before it will produce.  Mud is produced by the Pie Train Pig Coop.  You can purchase an unfinished Pie Train Pig Coop for 9000 Coins.

The Amazing, Wonderful Toy Machine

Family Farm is a game that makes me happy.  I love to plant and harvest Crops and Flower.  I love to watch my Trees mature to bear fruit or nuts.  Although, like Tolkien, there is a part of me that is Luddite in nature, I do enjoy some of the machines.  In particular, I love the machines that make pretty things.  I like the Weaver and the Hat Machine but one of my very favourite Macines is the Toy Maker.

The Toy Maker once was the Teddy Bear Machine and simply made Red Teddy Bears or Blue Teddy Bears using Alpaca Hair and Wool.  It then was revised to embrace a myriad of different yarns and feathers and became the Toy Maker.

It is a single ingredient machine which means that one needs only one Item to produce any product.  The list of items it will produce is quite amazing:

Red Teddy Bear: 77 Coins
  Uses Wool from Sheep
  Feed Sheep Wheat

Blue Teddy Bear: 105 Coins
  Uses Angora Hair
  Feed ordinary Rabbits Carrots to produce Angora Hair

Alpaca Toy: 214 Coins
  Uses Alpaca Hair
  Feed Alpaca Lettuce to produce Alpaca Hair

Rabbit Toy: 119 Coins
  Uses Fuzzy Rabbit Fur
  Feed Fuzzy Rabbit Carrot

Witch Bunny Toy: 180 Coins
  Uses Witch Bunny Fur
  Feed Witch Bunny Enchanted Carrot to produce the Fur

Parrot Toy: 40 Coins
  Uses Parrot Feathers
  Feed Parrot Walnut to produce Feathers

Stork Toy: 40 Coins
  Uses Stork Feather
  Feed Stork Shrimp to produce Feathers

Scarecrow Toy: 25 Coins
  Uses Rubber from the Rubber Tree

Swan Toy: 65 Coins
  Uses Swan Feather
  Feed Swan Daisy to produce Swan Feathers

Camel Toy: 213 Coins
  Uses Camel Hair
  Feed Camel Nitraria to produce Camel Hair

Silky Chicken Toy: 129 Coins
  Uses Silky Chicken Feather
  Feed Silky Chicken Corn to produce the Feathers

Glow Horse Toy: 120 Coins
  Uses Glow Horse Hair
  Feed Glow Horse Carrot

 Golden Boa Snake Toy: 114 Coins
  Uses Golden Boa Snake Skin
  Feed Golden Boa Snake Bird Eggs

Raccoon Toy: 34 Coins
  Uses Raccoon Fur
  Feed Raccoon Walnut

Penguin Toy: 44 Coins
  Uses Penguin Feather
  Feed Penguin Salmon
  N.B.  This is the Salmon caught in a Bear Habitat when Bears are fed with Honey

Owl Toy: 206 Coins
  Uses Owl Feather
  Feed Owls Mole Meat

Wolf Toy: 175 Coins
  Uses Wolf Fur
  Feed Wolf Rooster Meat


Beaver Toy: 165 Coins
  Uses Beaver Fur


White Raccoon Toy: 34 Coins
  Produced from White Raccoon Fur

Flamingo Toy: 22 Coins
  Uses Flamingo Feather
  Feed Flamingo Blue-Green Algae from Algae Pond

Shelduck Toy: 85 Coins
  Uses Shelduck Feather
  Feed Shelduck Wheat

Cheerleading Poodle Toy: 38 Coins
  Uses Pom Pom
  Feed Cheerleading Poodle Beef

Armadillo Toy: 140 Coins
  Uses Armadillo Armour
  Feed Armadillo Bird Egg

White Parrot Toy: 40 Coins
  Uses White Parrot Feather
  Feed White Parrot Walnut

Zebra Toy: 36 Coins
   Uses Zebra Print
  Feed Zebra Pasture

Puffin Toy: 40 Coins
  Uses Puffin Feather
  Feed Puffin Salmon

Heron Toy: 50 Coins
  Uses Heron Feather
  Feed Heron Firefly




I was prompted to access my Toy Maker and the list of Items it produced by the acquisition of the new Raccoon Habitat as the final Reward for 'Darryl's Pipe Dream'.  I had hoped to find Raccoon Fur had been added to the list to produce little Raccoon Toys.  In fact, as of January 2014, there are three new Toys, including a Raccoon Toy!

The Marzipan Machine and traditions of Yuletide

I personally love the fact that Family Farm incorporates regional traditions in its Quests and Missions.  The most recent time-restricted Quest is that of 'Darryl's Pipe Dream'.  It involves Black Peter in the form of Zwarte Piet and the White Horse Amerigo.  This is not the first Quest to be centred on the White Horse that usually is the property of St. Nicholas himself and not his companion Black Peter.

A very close friend of mine from Germany, now deceased, remembered Black Peter from his childhood and sent me a copy of a book of poems about the character.  He had hunted down a reproduction of a very old, formerly out-of-print book in order to renew his own acquaintance with the tradition.  Both he and I were rather astounded by the actions of Black Peter towards the naughty boys and girls at Yuletide.  One poem involved the consumption of children's fingers!

Cannibalism is not a rare topic in folktales and fairytales.  Every one is familiar with the tale of Hansel and Gretel and the Witch who fattens them in a cage in order to make a feast of them.  Their ultimate revenge is to shut her inside her own oven.  The whole business of cannibalism is related to ancient rites of fertility, of making grand sacrifices in order to bring fertility to the soil.   'The Golden Bough' includes an entire chapter on human sacrifice.  It originally was more of a barter system that anything else.  Crops and Animals were considered to be as valuable as human beings and the sacrifice to the land of the latter was the price paid to gain a good harvest and have good hunting.

In any event, part of the new Quest is the placement, completion and use of a Marzipan Machine.  It is a delightful little machine with the figure of a toy duck upon it.  Almond Flour, added to the list of Flour types that the Mill can grind some months ago, is one of two ingredients that make Marzipan.  It is the second ingredient that determines the type of Marzipan that is produced.

The types of Marzipan are:

Marzipan Pig Candy: 89 Coins
  Made with Lychees
Marzipan Koala Candy: 128 Coins
  Made with Chocolate
Marzipan Cow Candy: 86 Coins
  Made with White Chocolate
Marzipan Frog Candy: 85 Coins
  Made with Lime
Marzipan Duck Candy: 78 Coins
  Made with Pears
Marzipan Hippo Candy: 150 Coins
  Made with Blueberries

Being a Good Neighbour

There is a political controversy of some magnitude with respect to this topic.  Some players believe that a good neighbour is one who regularly sends Gifts, visits the farms of his/her Neighbours and responds to all requests in a timely manner.  There are others, however, who become EXTREMELY CROSS with Neighbours who send unrequested items such as Special Delivery Boxes or even the item that is worth 30 OP if they did not request any such item.

The fact of the matter is that there may be a limit to the number of items any single Neighbour can receive on any given day.  If you send the Neighbour an item he/she did NOT request, any actual request he/she made may not reach you.  This is important usually if a Quest/Mission requires a specific Item that only can be obtained through Neighbour Requests or if the player needs to complete a building project and needs specific materials.

This situation may be determined by the number of Neighbours that a player has.  I have been able to request an Item from a Neighbour and receive not only THAT item but the one he/she sent unrequested on the same day.  Furthermore, I have been able to receive a Special Delivery Box from that player as well.  I have few Neighbours, however, compared to Players with over a thousand.    Initially I had posted that the number of items any signle Neighbour can send to another specific Neighbour on a given day was limited but I changed that to declare there was a limit to the number of Items a Farmer could RECEIVE on any given day.

It is interesting to note that the Players who complain of unrequested Gifts tend to be at very high levels and have significant numbers of Neighbours.  I would be interested in the experiences of other lower level players like me who did not appear to have the same problems.

The game itself may encourage you to send 'free gifts' to all your Neighbours as well as 50 Special Delivery Boxes to a random group of Neighbours.  If you do not know that the Item you send in effect may replace an Item that your Neighbour actually may have requested, you may be considered a less than sterling Neighbour by players who fail to receive the Items they need.

On the other hand, as previously indicated, the Players who shun and avoid Neighbours who send gifts to every one usually are those at very high levels with over one thousand Neighbours.  Most of us are not at those elevated heights and the number of Players who will delete you as a Friend simply because you sent an unrequested Gift are in the minority!

Soutions with Respect to lack of Space on your Farm

Any farming game I ever played on Facebook presented ongoing problems with respect to the amount of space allotted to the player.  Essentially, one of the goals of the producers of any 'free' game is to persuade players to invest real money in the game at every possible opportunity.  Special items that can be obtained only with 'premium' cash are one method by which players are induced to spend money.   A more subtle method is to offer new free options in the form of buildings, decorations and other items.  Invariably, there is insufficient space on the original farm to place all of these.  The player then either must sell or otherwise rid himself/herself of some of the existing items on the farm or EXPAND the farm.  The need to make Farm Expansions in order to accommodate new options probably is the most successful marketing ploy in any farming simulation game. 

Family Farm is no exception in this respect.  Although it is one of the few farming simulation games that actually GIVES players premium cash on a regular basis as a reward for logging into the game daily, the constant release of new animals, machines and crafting buildings, not to mention decorations, make it very difficult for any serious player to resist the lure of a farm expansion or two... or three.

Farm expansions can be purchased with Coins as well as premium cash in the form of RC but the ability to do so is limited by the player's own experience Level.  As his/her experience Level increases, the ability to pay for more Farm Expansions with coins will be unlocked but of course, the amount of Coins required will increase with each expansion as does the amount of RC required for the same expansion.

Veteran players avidly watch for sales on farm expansions.  One usually can see an announcement of a reduction in the price of any expansion on the margin of the Farm itself.  20% reductions in price are the usual sale that is offered and it usually will last for two days.  Reductions in the price of premium cash are offered at least once every month as well.  Again, the veteran player will purchase his/her premium cash at the sale price, then wait for the land expansion sale before expanding his/her Farm.

Apart from Farm expansions, however, there are some ways to conserve space within the game itself.  The Warehouse, the Tree Storehouse and the Animal House are different ways by which space can be made on the Farm.

The Warehouse is purely a storage building, but it can house Animals, Buildings, Machines and Decorations.  It will not accommodate Trees.  The Tree Storehouse is another storage option that is restricted to Trees.  Obviously both buildings must be placed on the Farm but ultimately, they do free space on the Farm.  In particular, the Warehouse can be upgraded to house more Items.  At Level 13, for example, it can house a total of 140 Items

The Animal House is a fairly new option in Family Farm and it differs from the Warehouse and Tree Storehouse insofar as it is an 'active' building where Animals can be housed and yet used at the same time.  In fact, it is a very useful option as it allows automatic collection of products from the Animals placed within its precinct.  The essential difference between automatic collections from an
Animal housed in the Animal House and the same Animal placed on the Farm is the requirement of Gasoline to trade for 'Time Points' for the Animal House collection and OP for any Animal on the Farm.  Another difference is the ability to choose the price number of products one wishes to collect from any Animal in the Animal House.  If one chooses the automatic option for any Animal or Machine on the Farm, the mechanism will continue until one shuts it off manually, one exhausts all OP or one exhausts the material or materials required to produce the product.  In this sense, the Animal House is far superior, provided always that one has sufficient Gasoline to trade for 'Time Points' to use for the production.

OP or Operation Points sometimes are confusing to a new player.  One acquires them in a number of different ways.  OP can be given as a Reward for completing a Quest.  One can trade Items from the Gift Box for OP as well.  Materials that are used to build Machines as well as unused Items requested from neighbours for Quests can be traded for OP.  One of the most profitable trades is that of the Sail, a material used to complete construction of a Brick Mill.  Often Farmers will request Sails from their Neighbours because one Sail can be traded for 30 OP while all other materials or items can be traded for a maximum of 10 OP. 

Using Special Materials

Perhaps I am particularly dense where some aspects of gaming are concerned, but there is what I feel is a rather overly complex situation in Family Farm with respect to special materials that are used in crafting, whether in the Workshop, Beauty Shop or Dessert Shop.  In the Recipes found in these buildings, most ingredients or materials can be obtained from the player's farm.  In some specific cases, however, a Recipe will require an ingredient or item that is not found on the farm, nor  found anywhere in the Maeketplace.  The player has an option to 'Ask' Neighbours for the item or material or purchase 1 for 1 RC.  Usually a fair quantity of these special items is needed to complete the Recipe, making purchase impractical.

Here is where the game system is overly complex.  After you request the item or material from Neighbours, you will have the usual option to accept it when you go to your Requests menu.  It will NOT show up, however, in your Crafting building, even if you have accepted scores of this item or material.  You must complete an additional, to me rather pointless step by going to your Gift Box, then choosing the option to 'Use' the item or material.  Although I know this, I find myself going to the Craft building after accepting the requested Item or Material and, seeing that the count remains at zero, becoming frustrated, until I remember that I have to find the Item in my Gift Box!

Halloween Machines, their Ingredients, Products and Product Values

Frustrated by the need to experiment on these machines to find the item that a quest is demanding, I decided to post a few results to help other players as well as myself:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pumpkin Totem Machine:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

All Pumpkin Totems require Halloween Pumpkin as the primary ingredient.  It is the second ingredient that determines the type of Totem made.

Happy Pumpkin Totem: 137 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Pumpkin, White Pumpkin?

Frightful Pumpkin Totem: 140 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Pumpkin,

Proud Pumpkin Totem: 554 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Pumpkin, Bell Pepper

Sneaky Pumpkin Totem: 219 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Pumpkin, Cantaloupe

Sunburst Pumpkin Totem: 244 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Pumpkin, Enchanted Carrot

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Halloween Candy Machine
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

All Halloween Candy needs Halloween Sugar as the primary ingredient.  The second ingredient determines the type of Candy made:



Pumpkin Treat:175 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, Halloween Pumpkin

Smile Teeth: 97 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, Apple

Witch Finger: 101 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, White Chocolate

Spooky Owl: 115 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, Cherry

Chummy Mummy: 149 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, Wheat Flour

Ghost Candy: 109 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween sugar, White Pumpkin

Chocolate Spider: 130 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, Chocolate

Cheesy Bone: 110 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, Milk Cheese

Popcorn Ball Monster: 263 Coins
  Ingredient: Halloween Sugar, Vanilla Popcorn

Halloween Eyeball: 132 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, Olive

Black Cat Pop: 120 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, Truffle

Tombstone Truffle: 280 Coins
  Ingredients: Halloween Sugar, White Truffle

Jack-O-Lanterns and other Carved Pumpkins
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It is important only for purposes of completing quests, to distinguish between the Jack-O-Lantern Machine and the Carving Machine.  I came to Family Farm rather late, at Yuletide last year, when the Halloween Quests no longer were accessible to new players.  I nonetheless received parts for building the Jack-O-Lantern Machine from Special Delivery Boxes and therefore believe that this machine predated the Carving Machine.

The Jack-O-Lantern Machine makes only one item, using Halloween Pumpkins.  It make the classic Jack-O-Lantern.  The Carving Machine, on the other hand, is not limited to a single festival, theme or seasonal item.  It makes special carved Eggs, Pine Cones and two types of Carved Pumpkins.  The only products included here at the Halloween Pumpkins.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jack-O-Lantern Machine
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack-O-Lantern: 115 Coins
  Ingredient:  Halloween Pumpkin

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Carving Machine
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Halloween products made in the Carving Machine are:

Carved Pumpkin: 106 Coins
  Ingredients; Halloween Pumpkin

Carved White Pumpkin: 27 Coins
   Incredient: White Pumpkin

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Halloween Costume Machine
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Note that a completed Halloween Costume Machine is given as a reward for completing a quest although a player can purchase an incomplete machine in the Market as well.

Mummy Outfit: 30 Coins
   Ingredient: Silk

 Skull Mask: 56 Coins
  Ingredient: Ostrich Feather

Pink Prince Outfit: 112 Coins
  Ingredient: Angora Hair

Scary Pirate Outfit: 90 Coins
  Ingredient:  Wool

Angry Bird Mask:
  Ingredient: Peacock Feather

Other Machines that make Halloween Items

You will find that there are a number of special Halloween Crops, Tree Fruits and so on.  They can be used in a number of the ordinary non-festival machines as well as the special Halloween Machines.  Inter alia, you will find that you can make Halloween Pudding, Halloween Ice Cream, Halloween Cookies and Halloween Jewelry in the form of Halloween Earrings.  The Glow Stick Machine now makes Halloween Glow Sticks using Halloween Pumpkins.

Pollination on the Farm or Secrets of the 'Birds and the Bees'

Many Players appear to be confused with respect to Pollination and the methods by which Honey and Nectar are made in Family Farm.

You need a Beehive to make Honey and a Butterfly Home to make Nectar.  There are many different types of Beehives and each has its own rules.  Some are interested in a single Crop in the form of Clover or Lavender.  Others are interested in amny different Flowers and can produce Honey by pollinating any of the Flowers on the list. 

As far as Nectar is concerned, there is a list of Trees that the Butterflies will pollinate in order to produce the sweet substance.

Where ANY type of Honey or Nectar is concerned, however, TIME is the key.  You cannot harvest the Crop or Tree as soon as it is mature.  If you do so, you will not obtain the benefit of pollination and the Honey or Nectar that can be produced afterwards.  In some cases, you will see a prompt to the effect that the Crop or Tree has been pollinated but even if you do not see this prompt, there is an easy way to judge whether or not pollination has occurred.  Any pollinated Crop or Tree will change colour.  If the Crop or Tree remains its original colour, it has not been pollinated yet.

Remember always the 'Rule of Three'.  The maximum number of products that can be made is three.  If you fail to collect these products, no further products can be made until you clear the collection area.  Where Beehives and Butterfly Homes are concerned, it is easiest to set them to the Automation Mode and then you will obtain the maximum number of products from them.  If, however, you do not have sufficient OP, simply make certain first that you WAIT until pollination has occurred before you harvest a Crop or Tree and second, that you clear the collection area to allow more Honey or Nectar to be produced.

The Dessert Shop

There are plenty of excellent guides for the original Family Farm, but I thought I would post the Recipes for the new Dessert Shop for my own convenience and perhaps other players will find it somewhat useful.

Note that any Item made in the Dessert Shop, unlike those made in the Workshop, requires time to complete.   The selling Value of the Items are high, but the actual Profits may not justify the effort in every case. 

Dessert Shop Recipes:

Buttermilk:  351 Coins, 3 XP
  Ingredients: 3 Cow Milk, 3 Goat Milk, 3 Buffalo Milk
  Time: 1 Minute

Buttermilk Cake:  1868 Coins, 5 XP
  Ingredients: 2 Buttermilk, 5 Cornmeal, 5 Bird Eggs
  Time: 5 Minutes

Summer Berry Cake: 5527 Coins, 8 XP
  Ingredients:  10 Blueberry, 10 Cranberry,  2 Buttermilk Cake
  Time: 20 Minutes

Green Sugar: 834 Coins, 2 XP
  Ingredients: 3 Sugar, 3 Baobab Juice
  Time: 3 Minutes

Yellow Sugar:  604 Coins, 3 XP
  Ingredients:  3 Sugar, 3 ORange Juice
  Time: 8 Minutes

Red Sugar:  838 Coins, 23 XP
  Ingredients:  3 Sugar, 3 Pomegranate Juice
  Time: 15 Minutes

Buttermilk Cookie:  1918 Coins, 4 XP
  Ingredients: 2 Buttermilk,  3 Rye Flour, 2 Sugar
  Time:  10 Minutes

Chocolate Nut Cookie:  2332 Coins, 32 XP
  Ingredients:  1 Buttermilk Cookie, 3 Chocolate, 4 Macadamia Nut
  Time: 40 Minutes

Frosted Buttermilk Cookie: 4994 Coins, 6 XP
  Ingredients: 1 Buttermilk Cookie, 2 Green Sugar, 2 Yellow Sugar
  Time: 1 Hour

Speeding Crop Growth in Family Farm

 The Water Well

In the original Family Farm, the Water Well costs 10,000 Coins and requires four different materials.  Two materials, in the form of a Water Pump, requiring 10 RC. and a Drill Gear requiring 15 RC, require premium Cash.  The remainder can be obtained through Requests to Neighbours.  You will need a total of 10 Stones, 10 Wood Beams and 8 Irrigation Pipes.  At a minimum premium cost of 25 RC, the Water Well is an expensive build.  At Level 1, the Farmer can place a total of 50 Sprinklers.

The Water Well by itself has no effect, but when a Sprinkler is placed on a tilled plot, it will reduce growth time on that square by 15%.

Once completed, it can be upgraded with an eddition of 10 more Irrigation Pipes and 10 more Stones.  A total of 75 Sprinklers then can be placed.

Family Farm Troubles and Tips

There are many Farmers who have played the original Family Farm game on Facebook far longer than I and who have been active in the FF Community since the game was released.  I do not pretend to be an expert and therefore probably will not write a comprehensive guide for the game.  I only wish to share a few tips on aspects of the game that have proved troublesome or difficult for me.

Perhaps another word for it would be 'venting', but in any case, I will share my experiences in the hope that they may prove helpful to some one.

Automation is very much a part of Family Farm and always has been.  As some one who secretly is rather sympathetic towards the viewpoint of J.R.R. Tolkien and shares his dislike of the industrial revolution and the 'ugliness' it brought to the English countryside, it came as rather a surprise to me when I developed a liking for Family Farm.  The graphics, however, are charming.  I was seduced by the charm of the game and gradually became involved with the various quests.

Like the old adage by Virgil that declares that 'Facilis descensus Averni' (The road to Hell is an easy one), I found myself using the various machines in order to complete Quests and then, allowing the automation option to perform the tasks when necessary.

Is it ever necessary to set the machines in motion on an automated basis?  Probably not, but not to do so means that quests may not be completed within the time limit given or that one will be forced to engage in endless supervision of each machine.  As I declared at the start, I am no expert here, but I have found myself again and again at a point where the machines have ground to a halt and I have been at a loss to comprehend why...

The problem, of course, is that more than one Animal or Machine uses the same ingredients.  I tend to believe that Milk, Eggs and Wheat Flour ALWAYS are necessary staples and therefore have the Chicken Coop, Holstein (Milk) Cow and Mill set to produce these products automatically and constantly.

Enter the Cereal Machine that requires Corn as one of three ingredients in ANY type of Cereal.  I had been growing Corn on a daily basis but discovered that my Cereal was NOT being produced.  Why?  The Chickens were the culprits.  It was they who were busily consuming every kernel of Corn I harvested!  Thus, I had plenty of Eggs but no Cereal!