• Estate : Hamdun (Darkfire)
• Networth : $81,000
• Jobs : Farmowners
  • Business – Veg shop – $35,854
• Names : Edmund (age:20), Esther (age:17)
• Tax’s – $400
  • 2 x Adults ($200)

This apartment is huge, it’s a really nice family sized one, it’s only 4 bedroom’s but the rooms are huge. I married Edmund off to a townie last round, it was a difficult decision but i decided the farmowner needed a wife and a whoohoo early in the round gets pregnant giving birth on the final day to Noll a little boy.

The shop it’s self is ran by Edmund while Esther says at home and farms (and eventually looks after their children) had has Felix and Laura as employee’s earning their keep.

Out of curiosity i did just one day of the round, sending Edmund to the shop i called in Felix and Laura and ran the shop till about 9pm at night in that time Edmund earned about $15,000.

I then logged out quickly logged into Laura/Felix’s house to see what the earned for the days work, baring in mind they have an outgoing of about ($500tax) + ($322 rent) = $822 Total.

For the days work they earned £1779 meaning that it really looks like this system will work!!! YAY!!!! im soo happy.

Now Laura is a manager which means i “could” run the business remotely however this really isn’t an option for playable sims as i have the no-double dip hack which means the sims only get paid when they are called into work. But really as long as i go to the lot every day there is no reason why this can’t be a successful system.

Because this apartment is so large, the baev’s would be a perfect family to take on apprentise, unfortunately looking around there really aren’t any peasant sons in need of work and the Orphans on coming out of the orphanage will immediately be considered indentured to which ever lord they get assigned.

However looking sideways the Gawen family (Kaiden/Dorothy) is somewhat struggling at the moment and getting the oldest boy’s apprentiships as they turn 12 might not be a bad idea. Still oldest doesn’t turn 12 till next round but ill bare it in mind as a possibility.

• Estate : Hamdun (Darkfire)
• Networth : $3,512
• Jobs : Fishermen
• Names : Felix (age: 34 ), Laura (age: 34)
  • Mary (age:10 )
  • Niall (age:8 )
• Tax’s – $500
  • 2 x Adults ($400)
  • 2 x Children ($100)
• Rent – $2,257

Laura married Felix a townie last year 4 years after the death of her previous husband and moved in as “farmhands” into an apartment on Laura’s eldest sons farm. Harvesting/growing veg on the farm and then working as employee’s in his shop.

Making this the first real full round, seeing if my new system works, the idea is that i play this family first handing over the produce on the last day of the round, then play Edmunds round as the farm owner calling them in as staff so they get their wage.

Laura is still quite young however surprisingly their first whoohoo isn’t a try for a baby, in fact they don’t even “roll” to see if they do try for a baby which means if Laura’s going to provide Felix any children it will be an accident and one that doesn’t occur this round.

The round for the Beav’s is a hard one, with no real income they struggle frittering away their only savings so the real question here is will they earn enough from what they earn as employee’s in Edmunds shop to pay their way?

• Estate : Hamdun (Darkfire)
• Networth : $26,690
• Jobs : Fishermen
• Business : $12,547
• Names : Calin (Age:18)
  • Acker (Age:8 ) (worker)
• Tax’s – $250
  • Adult x 1 ($200)
  • Child x 1 ($50)

This Household ticks along nicely, Acker is now a settled member of the family, earning his keep though fishing. The plan long term is to keep Calin in this house till Acker turn’s 15 or until the house get’s too small to support them.

There are a few girls aging into teen next round so the options will suddenly open up for Calin. There are no girls available in Darkfire but the options in Grimstead are Erin and Marta Talon, both are Peasant girls who would suit Calin well.

• Estate : Hamdun (Darkfire)
• Networth : $22,000
• Home Business : Fishing
• Names : Calin (Age:16 )

• Acker Miller (Age:6 ) (Worker)

• Tax’s – 1,050

Calin took in one of the Grimstead Orphans Last round to help him with his fishing business. This isn’t something i plan to happen frequently in that i don’t plan many children from Grimstead to land in Darkfire mountains but it was the only option this time around.

I’ve been fairly busy in the last couple of weeks having completely re-organised my tax system, Firstly I’ve switched from using Monques rent mod to using Inge’s Morgage bushes/Rent mod.

This makes life easier as rent only leaves the lot when the lot is played and i no-longer have to account for rent going out on the lords round as well, im still using monques mod for school fees / Birth control fee’s as it is a good mod which i like alot, but for my current needs Inges is better.

However…. Ugh… this has ment i needed to re-write the whole tax system and then convert over EVERY household which was a big job.

Anyhow first thing to note is that i no longer have different tax rates for peasants / merchants i figured now that i had capped the earning’s of the different class’s i didn’t need to also have different tax rates, as peasants will literally be able to afford the homes they can afford.

Basically the plan is simple.. haha … I have used the rent mod to automatically work out a rent for apartments which is based on the size of the apartment, this money simply go’s straight to the owner of the lot.

For houses i have used SimPe to alter inge’s morgage bush mod, increasing the payments so that $50 is paid per day for every $1000 bush, $500 per $10,000 bush.

I have then placed one bush on the lot for each $1000 value of the lot, meaning that sim’s can basically move in for free, the main thing to note is that i won’t be allowing sims to Buy out their morgage, everyone is stuck paying rent.

For now i have left everyone the same and i plan to play a few rounds as it stands before debating increasing the rent on some lots (ie as some lords have higher tax rates) however raising tax’s is a simple matter of adding more bush’s while lowering taxs (ie for miltary tax’s) is a simple matter of removing tax’s.

Anyway back to this lot, eventually this family will be one of the first multi family working lots i plan to have basically what i mean by that is that im going to build large apartment lots for both farms and fishers, one family will be the owner, in this case Calin and the others will all be workers living in separate apartments working the lot via fishing and gardening and giving the product of their hard work to the owner to sell in a small business.

The owner will then provide the workers a “wage” using Moniques payment mod, which will allow them to live and pay their own rent etc, I’ve performed some tests and I’ve worked out how i can get all this working sadly it’s going to be several rounds till either Grimstead or Darkfire can sustain these lots (ie i have enough workers)

Anyhoo back to this lot, this lot is pretty steady tbh, Calin has savings way beyond a normal peasant fisherman, i could move them into something bigger, and i could possibly consider setting up my first “working lot” however i don’t really want townies moving in besides the lot he currently lives on is sufficient for his needs, at least until he start’s having children, but of course i still need to find him a wife for that.

Speaking of wives ive been looking at my age’s sheet and tbh it’s not as much of a problem as i thought i have number of peasant girls on the Grimstead estate who will age to teen in about 4-5 rounds, this seems a long time in game time as rounds seem to go very slowly but it will still make Calin only 19 when he marry’s which is not too bad and it gives him time to focus his attention on earning money ready to provide for his family when he get’s one.

• Estate : Hamdun – Darkfire
• Networth : $32,000
• Jobs : Farmers
• Names : Edmund (age:17 )
  • Edmunds Mother – Laura (age: 32 )
  • Edmunds Sister – Mary (age: 7)
  • Edmunds Brother – Niall (age: 5)
• Tax’s – 4% Peasant + 2% homebusiness Tax = 6%
  • 6% X 25,000 = 1,500/2 = 750 daily

Edmund struggled for a while after his father died leaving him a new farm to setup and his mother and younger brothers and sisters to take care of. However the family are fairly stable now the farm has started to produce crops and the home business is ticking over.

I did have plans to marry Edmund to Tariks live in maid Heather Thayer (ex-townie) However ive finally decided against it, i like the live in maids at Tariks and Peters houses. Besides im not sure many maids to the king would give up that honor to marry a peasant farmer though choice.

However their are not many other options for poor Edmund, living in Darkfire mountains i do not allow them to marry townies as they are too cut off and even looking at Grimstead there are not many marriage option as most of the young girls are either spoken for, too old or out of Edmunds league.

Sometimes i find it very easy to get obsessed with finding my sims partners as soon as they are old enough to marry and sometimes like this time i have to just sit back and take a deep breath and remind myself that it’s not always the case in real life that people find their marriage partners so soon as they are old enough to marry, and though it may seem like I’ve been looking for a partner for poor Edmund for ever, in reality he’s still only 17 and even if he doesn’t find someone for 10 more sim years it really doesn’t matter.

Besides so much can change in my world in a few sims years, the death calc could kill someone off leaving an available woman or even kill Edmund himself i could start a new story line which brings in a match …. really in the world of Grimstead anything is possible and a wife is bound to turn up eventually so for now after many deep breath’s I’ve decided to focus on running the farm and raising his little brother and sister.

• Estate : Hamdun – Darkfire
• Networth : $38,000
• Jobs : Fisherman
• Names : Calin
• Tax’s – 4% Peasant tax + 2% home business Tax = 6%
  • 30,000 x 6% = 2000/2 = 1000 per day

Calin Beav is in much the same situation as his cousin Edmund, in that i don;t yet have a wife planned for him and the options in Darkfire Mountains are somewhere slim, I don’t want to pair him up with Kendra Harper because i want her to start the new “servants” class so i need a none hier boy who can move in with her to the castle.

However like Edmund im not gonig to worry about it just yet, he’s young and things can quickly change in grimstead for now im focusing on catching and selling fish.

• Estate : Hamdun (Darkfire)
• Networth : $25,636
• Jobs : Teen Jobs
  • (Edmund – Adventurer)
  • (Katherine – Teacher )
• Home Business – Farm
• Names : Edmund (age 15)
  • Laura – Edmunds Mother (age 30)
  • Katherine – Edmunds sister (Age 13)
  • Mary – Edmunds sister (age 5)
  • Niall – Edmunds Brother (age 3)
• Tax’s – 4% Free Peasant Tax + 2 Home Business tax = 6%
  • (25,000 X 6% ) = $1500 per day

Nathaneil died on route to the mountains leaving his 15year old son Edmund to run the house, this is especially tricky because Moving farms is always tough.

Just after you move a farm there is a period when the new crops are planted that they earn no money while they wait for them to grow, and in this case this seriously depleated the family funds, meaning they ended the round on less money than they started on.

I have two teenagers on this lot, both of which I have plans for. Edmund the oldest will inevitably stay on the lot as the heir. Marriage wise I do have plans for him to marry Meadow Thayer who is currently Tariks live in servant. She’s actually a year older than Edmund and started life as a townie however she was made playable by becoming the Darkfire maid and is in Darkfire mountains atm so she’s eligible.

I did debate Kendra Alduns Illegitimate daughter however I really want her to start the servant class for Darkfire mountains, and that means finding hr a husband who isn’t the heir of a house and can move into the castle with her…. * sigh* an easier job said than done believe me.

I also have plans for Katherine, she’s just hit 13 which means she’s old enough to consider marrying off, and I plan to pair her up with Fransis Gawen, Kaidens oldest boy this means the heir’s of both these families are secured. However I do want Kaiden to send Fransis off to university if I can possibly stretch it on Kaiden and Dorothy’s income. So that might have to wait a while.

Either way nothings happening this round, both families aren’t the types to force marriages so I want all the crazy kids, to actually get to know each other a bit and at the moment they are all strangers.

I’ll introduce them all this round and see how they get on and see how things look next round after ive played all the family’s involved in the two couples and decided who is and isn’t going to university etc there’s certainly no rush at the moment.

Anyway getting back to the Baev’s, Long term once the farm is settled and the shop is running it should tick over nicely they have plenty of help to tend the crops etc. This round was tough for them but next one should be better.

• Estate : Darkfire mountains – Hamdun
• Networth : $41,427
• Business’s : Home ( fisherman )
• Names : Calin (age 13)
• Tax’s – Free Peasant = 4% + Home business Tax 5% = 9%
  • 9% X 22,399 = $2015 per day

This is not only Calins first Year in darkfire mountains but also his first year alone, Cenemin his father died on route.

Having sold up in Grimstead Calin came with a fair amount of money, buying a small peasant hovel its not as nice as the one back home but its a good start and left him with a reasonable amount of money to begin with.

Being aware I’d struggle financially with him, especially considering his age he spends much of the day still in school, i didn’t go mad furnishing it to keep the rent / and bills down.

Sure enough this first year has seriously depleted that starting money he had, i could really do with getting him married off asap and get a second income into the house, however at only 13 i still consider him abit young.

I often marry off girls at 13 but i like to wait till at least 15 till i marry off boys after all… not putting to fine a point on it their bodys tend to develop abit later, so ill struggle on for a few more years.

I have however started to look for a wife for him, there are tbh very very few options in Darkfire mountains, the only girl he isn’t cousin or closer with is Peter Hamduns little sister Ailith who is 8 and tbh not only is she a bit young but she’s a bit out of poor old Cailins class range.

Looking towards Grimstead ive got Persia 12 (vince bendetts daughter), and Ebony 12 (Orions little sister ) both merchant class and lastly Asha 9( Tarik and Bellari’s daughter ) none of these seem like a very viable option storyline wise, which means looking to my very very last two options.

Give up Calins home and become one of the first soldier of Darkfire mountains, or look towards townies ( shudder) … i have a hack that stops them re-spawning but i still have quite a few to get rid of yet via death or marriage.

However i have debated being mean and not allowing the Darkfire crew marry townies because lets face it they live in almost total isolation and don’t get very many visitors.

Anyway marriage wise things are not looking good for Calin.