It pays to always keep a semi-recent backup of your hoods. I found this out recently again as my fingers were a bit faster than my brain and I accidentally deleted Harvest Hollow. Thankfully I had a recent backup and was quite glad that I've started to remind myself to save my progress often.

Harvest Hollow is slowly growing and branching out! While I started on the maxis terrain Three Lakes, I decided I wanted a bit more room and to spread out certain areas of the town. I didn't like the fact that the camping area was located so closely to what was going to be the main street of houses. It seemed cramped and not like a very good camping experience. So, I delved into SimCity 4 and, after a few hours of playing around, produced an expanded terrain so Harvest Hollow could stretch a little.

For comparsion, here is the old, maxis version:

I simply took out the lake on the left and at the bottom (which you can't see here), expanded a road out to the left where I could place my campsite away from houses and added a small lake road. What I came up with was this:

After some time, the core residents of Harvest Hollow have now been moved in. All the stores that need owners have them, leaving only the Post Office and the community center the only ones not owned.

I'm very pleased with how things are slowly coming together and how I'm really enjoying the characters as they start to really take shape in my mind and within the game. I have not played much yet with any of the families but I plan to start soon and begin the process of building relationships and businesses up.

I've also renamed most of the stores in Harvest Hollow as before I had just labeled them with general names such as 'clothing store'. So, the following are now the new names for all the stores in town.

• The Thread Box - clothing store
• Pancake Parlor - pancake restaurant
• The Pumpkin Patch - pumpkin and pumpkin crafts store
• The Book Nook - local book store
• Attic Treasures - used goods store
• Candles and Crafts - which I might rename to Scentimental Gifts etc.
• The General Store - no change
• Woodberry's Fresh Produce - grocery

I've finally started to move in families into Harvest Hollow and have thus far managed to make and place at least five. Each own a store in town and so far I have owners for the general store, the grocery, the pumpkin market, Candles and Crafts, and the Pancake Place.

The story and backgrounds of my sims often take me a little while to fully form in my head. I start out with a vague, general idea of how they are like or if they have lived in Harvest Hollow their whole life and slowly build onto that as I go back to play them or write about them. It is a fun process and I enjoy getting to know the characters in my head.

I'm using a simple spreadsheet in word to keep track of names, children, pets and who own what. Nothing fancy or complicated, just something for me to look back at until I get to know the town better.

I've also pretty much finished up the other side of Main Street, although there is still some space for future shops to be placed, which I like. Directly following main street are a few sets of single and family town houses I plan to use for residents who either don't have a lot of money or are just striking out on their own.

I'm rather excited to build more and watch how things will progress.

I recently finished up one side of Main Street, or at least close enough. I went ahead and constructed the Candles and Crafts store, although I did leave it open to being changed later to another kind of store if this doesn't work out. I also edited a lot to make way for the Second Hand shop and I'm looking forward to playing that and seeing how it will go.

To finish up that one side of Main Street, I built a small post office, which requires no npcs nor playable sims to run. It is mostly just a space filler but can be used as well.

It is likely that soon I shall start to move in residents and also begin to play a bit. Mostly I want to go ahead and play perhaps an entire round of seasons with my farming sims. This is so they can have plenty of produce stock piled and the struggle to supply to other residents won't be so steep. I do enjoy playing farming lots a lot and really like the game play it brings along by having my sims rely upon one another for items like food. It is one of the main draws for me in my medieval town and I plan to carry that over to Harvest Hollow.

Today's task was to create the first npcs that would inhabit Harvest Hollow. Using a tutorial found here, I created the Newspaper and Mail deliverers as well as the Hobby Club heads. I didn't use the default yellow newspaper uniform because, quite frankly, it is awful. So I made a somewhat poorly modified new outfit for my female teen to wear. It is simply a recolor of the jacket/jeans outfit that came with H&M stuff pack with a mailbag added to it.

I've been thinking of all the businesses and other types of places I would like to have in Harvest Hollow. It has been a bit challenging to me because I often get many various ideas and I want to do them all. However, then I get overwhelmed and bored and soon after loose interest. So, I'm trying to take it slow and really plan out the details. Below are some of the ideas I've been pondering but I doubt I'll do them all.

• Community Center- I've actually already built this. It is a simple community lot with two small buildings, one for weddings and one for other parties or for the reception. This is mostly so I don't have to worry about having enough space on my home lots to host weddings or buy a wedding arch just to turn and sell it.
• Boarding School- I do not have uni so I often treat my teens as if they are young adults. I've been contemplating having a school setting although I'm unsure of how I want to play this out. Before, I simply used a home lot and used simlogical's school hacks to make it a school. I might do something similar except have the teens move in the boarding house until they graduate. I've also been pondering making a small subhood later just for the boarding school. I would move the teens out into dorm-like houses and they would attend community lots at scheduled points where they would be able to skill towards their career and hobby goals.
• Doctor- I'm very unsure if I shall try to have a doctor's office or hospital in Harvest Hollow. I often find it useless as my sims rarely get sick and I do not have anything worthwhile to sell in such a community lot. I like the idea of it as an addition but I would like to stay practical and not clutter up my small town with lots and places they don't really need or can use.
• Police station/jail- Much like the doctor's office, I don't see much need for this lot. I've made some before but never really got into playing them. Also, like the doctor's office, it is a nice idea as an addition but not very usable for my town at this point.
• Dance studio- With the addition of ballet with Free Time, I've toyed with the idea of starting a dance studio. Since BV comes with new dances and the ability to teach them to others, that might also be interesting to play around with.
• Crafts and Candles- A shop I believe I am for certain going to try to do. Free Time came with many crafting options and I would like a place for my sims to sell their crafts. I also have quite a bit of candles in my game and I've always wanted a candle shop in one of my neighborhoods but never felt justified to make one before. Combining the two would be fun.
• Bakery- I love bakeries but all the ones I've had before in game have been difficult and highly time consuming. However, I'm determined to make this work as the idea of a small shop filled with the scent of cakes, pies, and coffee is very appealing..
• Second hand shop- I enjoy the atmosphere of second hand/junk shops. This would be a fun way of letting my sims get rid of any items they no longer need.