NLiHP chapter 005

Well, it's been about 5 years now, or should I have started '5 years later?' I didn't think so. Let's just say that the Dursleys and I don't get along, and that would be putting it nicely. It took about a year for me to get the hang of the farm, I still don't have access to any of the large equipment. I'm just not big enough to operate it, and the less said about the factory world the better. From my memories of that place in my past life I thought it would be fairly simple to start. It was. I just can't last more than 15 minutes before something kills me. Mostly it has been the armored hogs that get me. Just one and I can get away, but they don't come in a group of one. Let's just say the 10th time I died was the last time I went there. I now just concentrate on the Farm.

I will say that first day back in the real world was one of the worst. I made so many mistakes from being as tired as I was. Got another beating from the walrus. Over the next month I got better. I was no longer starved, I no longer cared what the Dursleys did, I got myself a camera. That took a few weeks.

I will admit that finding out where to sell grass in mass took way too long. You have to buy it. Now that was supper annoying. It even said so in one of the tutorial videos. But it cost a total off 100¢ as it was so there went another 4 days. Once that was done my life started to look better and better. The price I was getting also went up to 2¢ per cubic foot. It was going great until I tried to cut grass that was part of a purchasable area. No matter what I did my by then scythe went right trough it with out cutting a thing.

That was wen I found out about the purchase able areas and that they are the only places that you can plant, harvest, or alter the fields in any way. The places that I was getting grass from was considered public lands. I could harvest from them but I could not modify them in any way… well that's not true. I could modify them once I unlocked all the lands in the map. The cheapest plot of land was 102,000¢ and it was just a little under two acres. If I hadn't unlocked the new sales point it would have taken me over 10 years to unlock. Once I got that new sales point unlocked I was able to make a few hundred credits per day on a school day. No I wasn't carrying stuff by hand any more. I bought a push/pull cart. As long as I was touching it, it became part of my inventory, how wicked is that.

Speaking of inventory I found an inventory hack. 1 I can transfer items between my inventory's. Remember that grass I put in my dimensional inventory? Well once I put a back pack on I was able to put it in the back pack, which I could then open to pull it out. Oh boy was Dudley surprised to find that in his bag after school one day.

So yeah. That first year all I did was cut grass, sell it at the sales point, buy military rations at the general store, go to sleep, wake up, Dursley's… well that's all I'm going to say about them. Once back in my cupboard rinse and repeat. It took a whole year before I was able to afford that first plot of land.

And that's where my life began to really change.

Remember that camera? Yeah so do I. Each time the Dursleys used me as a punching bag. Well at first I went to the teachers, the principle, then the local police. I would get documented. My name, what happened, my condition, the works. The first time I didn't ask for a copy of the paperwork. Every time after that different story. Thing began to look up the first time that the Walrus got picked up by the Bobbies… unfortunately he was back in an hour, he was a little out of it as if he had thought to run a marathon. The next day when I went to my teacher to inquire, that's when I realized that something was wrong. She couldn't remember a thing from our last conversation, and all the pictures she took were now gone. I kept trying. After the police documented me for the 10th time just to forget I quit going there. I got my own camera and kept my own documentation. And as the saying goes, 'a picture is worth a thousand words', well now I have pictures, dates, and a thousand words. At this time I have 6 3inch binders full of my history of abuse.

And before you say anything about staying in the farm world. I can't. My body is not there. If it gets moved I get brought back, if I get beat while there the damage transfers to both. That was not a nice wake up.

During that first year I found a lot about my area, one of my favorites was the farmers market and the summer and fall fair, the spring one was OK the winter… well I will leave you with one word. "rain." that's it. 35 degrees F and its raining cats. Seriously 1 fell from the sky while I was on my way…

OK it fell from the tree I was under when it was spooked by the thunder. But it was still raining when it showed up.

The best part of the summer was the hay harvesting. They had an acre of field that they were harvesting with scythes. It was 5$ to enter but if you got a better time than the Weed Eater (string trimmer) then you got 50$. one of the judges was kind enough to spot me the 5$ as I was 6 at the time and she just thought that I was so cute. Boy was she surprised when I came in 3rd place over all. I will just say that was one of my best days followed by one of the worst evenings.

I didn't realize that I had lipstick on me from when she kissed my cheek. Dudley being the shit he was ratted me out, then comes petunia yelling at me, then Vernon whipping me with his belt up one side and down the other before I passed out all the while yelling at me for being a freak. Woke up the next day a bloody and scabbed mess. My 50$ was also gone. My camera got a work out. Unfortunately I was locked in the cupboard.

A few weeks later I was able to get a chance at some money again. I found a neighbor a few blocks over off of the direct rout that the vermin Vernon would take to get to any of his usual destinations. There was an elderly gentleman who was having trouble with his lawn mower, so I offered to mow it for him while his machine was getting fixed. He agreed and the price was set at 10$ so I came back the next day with a large beat up sea bag that was on its last threads, I found it in a trash bin. If you stretched the opposite corners a bit you could just get my scythe in the bag, toss the sickle on top and we have my needed tools. It took awhile but I got it done. It wasn't the large area that was the problem. No it was the freaking yard gnomes. They were all in the back yard holding court around the back patio. In total there were 76 gnomes each one staked to the ground. Not. Fun.

Of course it was when I was on the last one that he came out with a string trimmer. Boy was he embarrassed. He thought I was just going to do the front and side yard. He ended up giving me an extra 20$ and would allow me to take pictures so I could use his yard as a referral. This time the money went in to the bag and then in to the spatial inventory. That was then followed by the scythe and sickle which also got placed in the inventory, and then just to mess with a certain whale, I stuffed all the grass I could fit in to the bag. The rest was placed in the yard debris can.

The first place I thought to use my hard earned wealth was the local garden store. It was currently fall so I figured I could get some discounted seeds. I ended up getting some

green beans

corn

okra

a partial pack of strawberries

turnips

mustard greens

radish both white and red

aubergines/eggplant

cherry tomatoes

and then I was broke. So I placed my items in my inventory by way of the bag. Did you know that you can use grocery bags? Well I just found out that it was possible. Latter that day when I was locked back in my cupboard I jumped to the farm. And that's when I found out I have to unlock the field before I could modify it. The cheapest field was 102,000¢ and I currently had 1,200¢. Now that I had my first sale point unlocked I could earn about 100¢ an hour. If I could stomach the K-Rations which tasted a lot like flavored cardboard but would give me enough food for a Full day at 3¢ add 3 bottles of water for another 3¢ total brings my daily food costs up to 6¢ the longest I was currently willing to work was 2 hours unless the Dursleys left for a weekend then I could work all day long.

Currently that's 1000 hours for that first plot. Ugh. I'm not going to be getting much sleep. If I work at 5 hours a day I could get my first plot in about 7 months.

That's how I started. Use the scythe to cut the grass, pick up the grass and place in cart. Empty cart at sell point. Rinse and repeat.

It wasn't until my second week of doing this that I found my saving grace. The small equipment store. The holy land was in sight. But it cost 5000¢, and then I knew some one out there hates me. Fear not for by this time I was able to save just over 8000¢. So I went to the general store and bought the small equipment store and placed it in the same shopping complex as the general store. Upon entering the first thing I heard was. "Heaven, I'm in Heaven..." a song by Leslie Howard. There were so many different types of powered equipment that you could find at a residential garden store. There was 13 different powered mowers with several different attachments that could assist you in your yard and garden care needs. Unfortunately nothing was in my price range, sure I could get a 30 inch mover for 350¢ but its base was set up to much the grass. The cheapest one to cut and pile the grass was 500¢ but you needed to purchase fuel for it. The Gas/Petrol station was 25000¢. that bummed me out.

So I went back to my standard work routine for a few more days. Through watching several more tutorial videos while eating I found my a new answer to my problems. Apparently there is a counter off to the side that deals with rentals. So lunch forgotten I'm back at the small equipment store and head for the little alcove off to the side. And that's when I found it, the 60 inch self propelled reciprocating field mower that rents with an always full fuel tank at 136$ an hour. Now if I was paying for fuel it cost at 1/3 that amount. I then found the yard broom with catch. The yard broom acts a lot like a push pull floor sweeper but it has the ability to pick up an area 60 inches wide and can hold up to 1 cubic yard. The yard broom was push propelled so I bought it out right at 1900¢. Which leaves me with about 10 hours of rental time.

So I spent the rest of the day just using the scythe as there was only an hour and a half left before I needed to leave. The yard broom was awesome!!! ready, set, GO! 15 seconds the basket was full and needed emptying. 50¢ in my account it goes. 1 minute round trip and 15 seconds of running and its full again. I was able to pick up 7 yards of grass. Some of it was from areas I had already gone over.

So the next day went and evening came again. I went to the small equipment area and rented the mower. And I was off! Vroom! Vroom! I spent 3 hours mowing public areas before I got the yard broom and started picking stuff up. All I can say was up to this point was, Epic! I picked up 113 cubic yards of grass. That's 5650¢ to me and 408¢ to the shop. Leaving me with 5242¢. WHOOO!

Before I was only making 500¢ a day and now I making 5200¢ a day. That means that I only need about 20 Days before I can purchase my first field. That means 20 Days before I can plant and grow actual food! No more flavored card board. Actually to day I am going to splurge and get an MRE. It was great in comparison to a K-Ration. A K-Ration was cheap and filling but taste like saw dust with flavoring, while an MRE was expensive and filling and taste like… over cooked pasta. Every thing was over cooked, but it tasted Really good after several weeks of cardboard. I don't think the Dursleys have even noticed I have stopped complaining about food.

So that's what I did. I took my time and saved credits before I bought my fist plot, and unleashed heavens and all their glory. As I didn't have a lot of seeds I purchased a set of hand equipment from the general store which cost 876¢. I got:

a 3 rakes

a spring tine rake 20''

a flat garden rake 16''

a leveler rake 36''

4 shovels

narrow 4'' wide flat nose

round 10''

flat 10''

multi shovel. 6'' wide can be configured in a number of ways

a mattock

a hula hoe

6'' tine aerator/cultivator.

string

8oz carpentry hammer

several wooden posts

and several pounds of fasteners

I then marked out and made my garden. The total planted area was equivalent to a quarter of an acre with a path between the rows. By this time I realized a flaw in my plan. I for got to get some kind of watering system. But it was late and I was tired.

The next day changed my life.

Now normally plants can take any where from 30 to 120 days from planting to harvest depending on what you are planting. Here I was 20 hours later. And every thing was ready for harvest. Now I wont say that it was supper full or any thing. But a pound of green beans on every bush. An ear of corn on every stalk. A half pound of okra per plant. Five strawberries per plant. 3 eggplants per vine. And 3 pounds of cherry tomatoes per plant. I had 125 green bean plants, 400 stalks of corn, 75 okra, 50 straw berries, 25 eggplants, and 50 tomatoes. For a total 125 pounds of green beans, 400 ears of corn, 35 pounds of okra, 250 strawberries, 75 eggplants, and 150 pounds of cherry tomatoes.

For turnips I had about 500, mustard greens were 300, and red radishes were 600 while the white ones were only 200.

my mind was blown. Once I was done I went back to the cupboard and went to sleep again. The next day every thing but the turnips, mustard greens, and radishes was ready for another harvest.

Lets just say I spent a few minutes laughing my ass off and leave it at that. After that harvest was done I went back to the general store to sell a selection of 10 from each crop type to the store and made just under 200¢. low and behold I earned a few more achievements. I got achievements for planting a crop, harvesting a crop, selling a crop. Planting my 10th crop, harvesting my 10th crop, and selling my 10th crop. I was riding high. As time went by I got better and better at taking care of the various plants. For the most part it was just trimming the vine and bush plants back to a manage able size.

It took a week before I realized that I was getting a diminished harvest, several tutorial videos later I find that you need to spray fertilizers to keep your harvest high otherwise it could diminish to 1 harvest able item per week. The good news is you can purchase it at the general store. The bad news, it comes in a bulk container with enough to revitalize a whole acre. So I bought a bulk container of fertilizer, a transfer pump, and a back pack sprayer.

The next day my harvest was back to normal.

Now in some areas there is this thing called a farmers market. Can you guess where I went? If you said the farmers market you are correct. Now the one in the area was hosted every even Friday and Saturday in the Catholic church parking lot. So I took my giant bag, my camera and a cheep blanket I purchased from a thrift store for 3$ and went to the market to sell the aubergines, corn, and turnips. Although I limited my amount to that which I could fit in my bag.

And that's how I made my first 100$ over the years my display went from a blanket and a shitty bag to a push cart that could be expanded in to a display. It could hold around 500 pounds of produce. I ended up having to pay Vernon 100$ every month to store the push cart in a shed in the back yard other wise it would go missing and I would have to go and find it, or I would find Dudley trying to break it. The great news. Because it had enclosed areas it acted like a bag. Can you say Cheese or hack or maybe it was an unintended feature. I don't care it was the biggest work around I have found so far.

Back to the present.

So that's how my life started. I still haven't unlocked a lot in the Farm. I currently have the sell point for produce unlocked but you have to have every thing appropriately packaged to sell it. I also unlocked a fueling station, a car sales point, a tractor sales point, and a tractor equipment sales point. I also built a house and a large garage that could fit 10 cars or all my stuff, a tractor and a truck. The truck was a pain in the ass to move as my legs were to short and when my legs touched I couldn't see where I was going or the other way around. The tractor was a bit more manageable. As it was on the cheaper end it had a lot more lever controls and with the seat way back I could stand holding the steering wheel and operate the different levers at the appropriate time. Never got out of first gear. The first time I hit an embankment I got thrown off and spent an hour trying to get back on. After that incident is when I bought the garage and spent over 4 hours parking the tractor and truck. Currently the house is 2 and a half stories with a basement, the half story is a light house style look out. The house is 3000 feet, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, an informal dining room off the kitchen and a formal dining room in the basement. There are several living rooms which are still a work in progress. So far I have spent over 3000000¢ on the farm.

Achievement points wise I am saving up for the full transfer ability, the ability to bring over trusted individuals, the ability to access my full inventory in the real world, and a few others. They are not a priority at this time.

Well it's another day time to do stuff, and if my calculations are right I should be getting my Hogwarts letter today.