My Farm(ville)

On a trip to my friend Erv's house in Loves Park (IL), he introduced me to Farmville. Farmville is a game played primarily through the social networking site Facebook. While you grow and harvest your own crops, you depend on friends to help fertilize your farm, purchase your products and send you gifts.

As with most things that become popular, The Haters Hate. Farmville is now the subject of scorn from 'true' gamers, among others, and has been parodied online.

Oh well. I like it. A LOT. Not only is it fun to play, it really does encourage socialization online. Moreover, it relaxes me. Sometimes, as dorky as it sounds, I imagine this is a second home of mine, one where nature and hard work trump the noise and bustle of the city.

Here's some pics I took of my farm over the summer.

Here's my farmhouse, as it appeared when I first bought it.

My FV home. I love the clothesline and cat, I think they're just the right touch.

So . . . is the mammoth statue too much? {actually, because I like to relax on 'my' farm, I try to make it relatively realistic. I plant crops native to this region, avoid things like banana trees, and put the mammoth there just to get the pic.}

I wanted the greenhouse forever, but when I finally earned enough to buy it I was disappointed to learn it was merely a prop and not functional.

Eventually, I'll get a shot with the crops full grown. I didn't realize I hadn't. Here's my farm as it appeared earlier this month. The barn is to the right, the dairy barn to the right front. The brown building near my home is my bakery. Behind it and to the left is the chicken coop. My pigpen and horse stable are on the bottom right, and the yellow building is my nursery. My beehives and garage are located in the upper left, out of the shot.

Notice my blimp?