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The following was written by We Farmer ArtGecko about his creative use of We Farm to recreate his past. Enjoy!

At your indulgence, I want to show you a bit of my life, as shown through We Farm.

When I first started playing We Farm, I thought I’d play it like We Rule, getting a lot of businesses and moving through the levels, increasing the property size as I went. But when I got to the Country Manor, something struck a chord with me, and I stopped to reevaluate my plans.

You see, I grew up on a small farm on the edge of town in rural Ohio. My grandparents bought it in the 1920s, expanded the land, and farmed in the summer while Grandpa taught school the rest of the year. The farmhouse had been moved to the farm property. Previously it had been a school about ten miles further south. My Dad grew up there, and Mom (btowngma here on Mojo-Farm) spent a lot of time there growing up, as well. First I lived in a small travel trailer on the farm, and then we built a house out in the field when I was just a kid. Mom still lives in that house today.The farm has changed a lot over the years. Grandpa raised a few sheep, enough chickens for eggs and to eat (I got to gather the eggs), and a few cows. We had the 1958 Grand National Champion Polled Hereford cow. Grandma always had a big garden, and there were a few apple and pear trees scattered here and there. When the sweet corn was ready, Dad and I would put a bunch in the trailer behind the tractor and sell it door to door through the neighborhood to the west. Eventually part of the land was sold to build homes, and after Grandpa stopped farming, he and my Dad rented out the tillable land for crops.

Then my youngest brother lived on the farm for several years. He raised a few chickens, too, and put in a more modest garden and new fruit tress, since the older ones were long gone. They put in a nice little fish pond with herb gardens around it to relax by.

There used to be a chicken house that was used to store stuff. I’d lay on the roof of it to shoot rats under the corn crib. There was a sheep barn that we’d climb around in. That’s where the chickens were, along with the sheep. It was fun watching the sheep get sheared. The cows were in the big barn, and there was a big rope for a hay hook hanging from the top. We’d get on ladders suspended from one mow to the other and then jump off, hanging onto the rope. We’d swing WAYYY out the door, and then back again.

There was a big oak tree right by the house. It had a swing from a high limb, and you could swing in huge arcs! On Sundays, we’d have home made ice cream in the shade of the tree. Another tree nearby was my climbing tree. No treehouse, but it was fun to climb in. There was a workshop with a wood shop upstairs. It was a fun place to learn to make things and fix things. And there were two bee hives out by the orchard.

Here’s the farm today from Google Maps. As you can see, it has grown up a lot. I’ve marked what was the farm when I was little, and then the even larger property when Mom was young.

So, what I did, was build my We Farm as a stylized version of the farm where I spent my youth. I sold all my blue ribbon animals and only included buildings and decorations to remind me of the farm through the years. I wish the house was a little closer to the front so I could arrange things better out back, but it gets the idea across. The farmhouse was a white two-story building with a big front porch. I think it even had green shingles. Across the road used to be a farm, and there were bramble bushes all along the edge. I put lilies, since there are no brambles. I’ve included the weeping willow and a few oaks that are long gone now, and put the apple trees in where the pear trees used to be. I used the silo for the corn crib, and the water tower to represent the fuel tank we had up on a rack to gravity feed. Yep, we had an outhouse out by the big barn. It was in poor shape with a loose door and wasp nests, but I used it on occasion.

I added the fruit stand to represent selling the sweet corn. We didn’t have a well. But the cows had a pasture way at the back of the farm. In one corner was a pile of rocks with a little seep of a spring. There were some odd shapes on the rocks, and we’d call it the Indian Burial Ground. That’s what I’m symbolizing with the well. My brother’s pond is there to relax by. I figured the playhouse fit perfect for a kid in a work shop. And the treehouse works to represent both the climbing tree and the big swing. That empty yard in front of the spruce trees was where we lived in a little trailer. It too is long gone now, so there’s just a yard there.

So, that’s my little walk thought my memory. I don’t plan to make any changes to my farm unless they add things that fit in with my stylized childhood.

Thanks for reading my sappy tale,
Steve (ArtGecko)