Harvest Moon: Back To Nature Taking Care of the Farm and Yourself

The farm doesn't just take care of itself, after all!  Here's an overview
of what you need to do to keep it in working order.


The Field: Since it starts as such a mess, you obviously need to clean it
up to be able to use it.  10 to 15 weeds pop up per day, and if you don't
take care of them, they can quickly take over your field.  Weeds are only
really annoying when they block access to crops or take up space where you
want to plow the earth, so feel free to ignore them if they're not doing
this.  Once Winter hits, all weeds vanish from the farm, and the cycle
begins anew in Spring.

The Crops: Crops are probably the least complicated thing on the farm to
tend to.  Once the seeds are placed, just be sure to water them daily, and
harvest the fruits and vegetables once they're ripe.  Crops are seasonal,
so unless they're grown in the hothouse, they'll wither during any season
other than the one that they're meant to grow in.

The Hothouse: Just like tending crops in the field, only time doesn't flow
since it's indoors.  Weeds don't pop up in the hothouse, either, so you
don't need to worry about clearing it up like you do the field.  You still
need to water in here on rainy days, because it is (of course) an enclosed
area.

The Dog: The dog is with you from the start.  Taking care of him is easy.
Just be sure to pick him up once daily, and whistle to him once daily.
Once he grows up, Won will sell you a dog ball.  By playing fetch with your
dog once daily, you can slowly raise his intelligence (which helps if you
plan to win the Dog Race on Winter 10).

The Horse: The horse is one of the first animals you'll get, and the only
one (other than your dog) that's free.  Simply brush the horse and whistle
to it daily to keep it happy.  When your horse grows up, assuming Barley
lets you keep it (it needs to have at least 8 hearts), you can start riding
it.  By riding your horse at least once daily, you can get his stamina up.
This stamina will help in winning the local Horse Race on Spring 18.

The Fish: Once you have at least 2 fish in your pond, you can start to
breed them.  Just put 1 unit of fish food in the pond daily (fish food can
be bought for 20G a unit at the Supermarket), and they'll grow up and
eventually spawn more fish.  This isn't the best way to fill your pond,
though; it takes about a five days for a fish to become a larger fish (and
about ten days to make new fish, if they're already adults), and the number
of fish that get spawned is always low.  The maximum number of fish the
pond can hold is 99.

The Chickens: Chickens are usually the first animals you actually buy.  To
tend to the chickens, you need only feed them (be sure to do this before
noon), and deal with their eggs (either sell them, make them into
Mayonnaise via Saibara's Mayo Maker, or, if there's room for more chickens
in your coop, incubate them).  If you get a chicken's affection for you
high enough, it can win the Sumo Chicken Festival on Summer 7.

The Cows: Cows are expensive, but the biggest money-makers on the farm.  To
tend to the cows, you need to feed them and talk to them daily (brushing
them is optional, and has no benefits).  Once they become adults, as long
as you keep feeding them daily, you can milk them with the Milker tool, and
sell their milk or turn it into Cheese via the Cheese Maker (which you have
to buy from Saibara).  A cow with high affection has a shot at winning the
Cow Festival on Summer 20.  You can impregnate a cow with the C.M. Potion,
which will produce another cow 20 days later.  This is not an advisable way
to get more cows.

The Sheep: Sheep are less expensive than cows, but also much less valuable.
To tend to the sheep, you need to feed them and talk to them daily
(brushing them is optional, and has no benefits).  You can clip their wool
off with the Clippers tool, and sell it or turn it into Yarn Balls via
Saibara's Yarn Maker.  A sheep with high affection can win the Sheep
Festival on Fall 21.  You can impregnate a sheep with the S.M. Potion (that
sounds vaguely erotic, doesn't it?), which will produce another sheep 20
days later.  This is not an advisable way to get more sheep.

 Try to keep your animals healthy, too.  If you ever have an animal die,
the entire village will think less of you (and the little halo with wings
icon will gain a number; that's how many dead animals your farm has had),
so be sure to keep them fed daily (and if they do fall ill, be sure to cure
them of their sickness with Animal Medicine).


Taking Care of Yourself [GGCARE2]
-=-=-

Of course, your character has his limits, too.  He starts with 100 stamina
at the beginning of the game, and most tools pick away at it slowly as you
use them.  Once stamina falls enough, your character will start complaining
about how tired he is via pantomimes.  Once he passes out and gets back up,
he starts getting fatigued.  When this happens, he only has 100 more
stamina to work with, and this extra stamina drains twice as fast.  As
well, as he continues to work, he gets sick, and eventually passes out,
losing the rest of the day.  You can double the time it takes for fatigue
to fill up completely with Kappa's Mystic Berry, but it's still a big
problem.  The simplest solution is to keep your stamina above 0 at all
times, and restore it in the hot springs when it starts to get low.  The
hot springs will reduce fatigue, but only at half of the pace that it
restores normal stamina; it takes 1 hour and 45 minutes of game time to
restore fatigue from 99 back to 0.

When it's raining or snowing, the situation is even worse.  Your character
starts getting fatigued immediately as he uses tools, and his regular
stamina drops along with his fatigue going up, so he can basically only use
tools 49 times before he gets sick.  Fortunately, the Mystic Berry
completely removes this problem, and once you've gotten it, you can work on
rainy and snowy days as long as you do on normal days (and that's taking
into effect the Mystic Berry's bonus of slowing down how fast fatigue
rises!).  These effects also apply after 11:00PM on normal days.

Other methods exist to restore stamina and reduce fatigue, of course.  You
can eat food items to restore stamina and reduce fatigue, as well as use
Bodigizer or Bodigizer XL medicine.  Fatigue can be reduced slightly during
the winter by placing a log in the fireplace of the second house extension.
And finally, Turbojolt and Turbojolt XL can be used to reduce fatigue by 20
and 50, respectively.  Try not to go to bed with more than 49 fatigue, as
this will cause the next day to start later (and as you fill your fatigue
up more, you'll start the next day later if you go to bed like that).

You can increase your maximum stamina by 10 with each Power Berry you
find.  You can never increase your maximum fatigue, but if you eat enough
Power Berries, you won't really have any need to, anyway.