I've played quite a few amazing farm challenges, but none were particularly what I was searching for. Thus began the Grow As You Go Challenge! The premise is simple. You begin life as a down on your luck young adult, stuck moving back into your rundown childhood home. As each generation passes, you gain new expansions to your cozy little farm.

To Begin:
-In CAS, build a YA, any gender. Give them any appearance and traits you like, but try to stay away from skill traits like Handy and Green Thumb. Later generations can have those, but your first sim lived in a big city and didn't know they would be stuck on a farm after all.
-Start off with the biggest lot you can find in your particular town. Appaloosa Plains is a great one for this challenge, but any town will do as long as it has a huge lot.
-Build a small farmhouse, with just two bedrooms, a tiny living area, a small bathroom, and a kitchen. Make it as rundown looking as you can manage, with bad wallpaper/paint, ugly furniture, you name it. ONLY the worst appliances to begin with. You MUST have only a clothesline in the beginning, no dryer, but you DO have to have laundry on the lot. Cover the lot in weeds and rocks if you like.
-Once your done with your ugly masterpiece, lower the household funds to 500 simoleons (NRAAS Master Controller is a great mod for this).
-Start farming! Gain seeds from anywhere, either planting what's in the fridge, seeds found, or produce from the supermarket.

Rules:
-The obvious, NO CHEATS unless you glitch out of course.
-Normal Lifespan
-No Inheritance/No Bills Ever/Young Again/Age Freeze lifetime rewards.
-You can ONLY make money by farming, no professions or real job (gardening career is fine). Sell all your produce and goods to the consignment shop or supermarket, no dragging and dropping from your inventory. Nectar, crops, eggs, beeswax, honey, anything you make on your farm is free game. No painting, sculpting, inventing, those sorts of things. You have too many chores to depend on that nonsense. Horse competitions are also fine.
-Build UP TO TWO expansions each generation (in detail farther down). The first generation can build any sort they like, but a garden of some sort is needed.
-Marry a cute townie! (If you hate all the townies, move in a cute sim of your choosing. I'm not judging you, but remember it's more fun the more challenging it is). If the townie previously had kids/pets, they don't count towards expansions/heirs. Keep the puppy/kitty for free!
-Have as many children as you want, the heir can be chosen as you wish. Make them help on the farm and with chores, but they still need to do relatively well in school. Only one will stay on the farm after all. Traits can be randomized or chosen.
-You MUST use the Clothes Line in Spring and Summer, swapping to the dryer in cold months.
-You can go to University and on trips
-The challenge ends when you feel like it, but try to make it to at least 10 generations.

The Expansions:
-Herb Garden for University Herbs (can be small, but at least five must be growing)
-Vegetable Garden (only vegetable crops, at least five)
-Fruit Orchard (trees and crops count, at least five)
-Nectary Shed
-Wine Cellar
-Barn (add horse stalls if you like)
-Memorial Garden for the Founding Sim and Spouse (includes their graves)
-A Stocked Pond
-An Expansion on the House (one room or expand pre-built rooms). Can be done more than once.
-Beekeeping Area (at least one hive)
-Horse Training Area
-Decorative Flower Garden
-Gazebo
-Wedding Grounds
-Wrap Around Front Porch (preferably when the house is to your liking)
-Adopt 2 cats/dogs or 1 cat and 1 dog
-Be creative! Add whatever you think is necessary!

-Optional (if you have the Store Content)
-Chicken Coop
-A Cow Shed
-A Tractor Course
-A Berry Garden
-A Greenhouse (make sure to flat roof it before adding the greenhouse roofs to make it work properly)

Daily Chores:
-Tend to crops daily
-Tend to animals and hives daily
-Make Nectar once per week once you obtain the nectary shed
-Clean up the house (beds made, clothes washed, etc)


Have fun! I hope you enjoy this little challenge, I sure am! Maybe post some stories for me to read if you're up for it.

Definitely excited to try this challenge!!

I'd propose having a laboratory attached to the nectar shed because testing of wines, etc. So to have it be part of the process, put in a chemistry bench and have sims make/discover potions once per day to simulate the SO2/turbidity, etc testing that goes on in winemaking. The potions don't make a profit when sold at the consignment store or in the inventory so they can be gotten rid of easily enough.

I do my usual games in a similar style except that they start on an empty lot and have to actually build their house and the town is empty and I also have to populate the town and set it up manually like Sims2 games.I've got a similar type of game to this challenge started in Sunset Valley2 and should get back to playing it.I would advise making sire there are no chess tables on any of the lots in the world and that no martial arts equipment is in place either to avoid the script errors these things can trigger if there's no inactive families besides your own household.

Oh thank god, other people still play The Sims 3.

I recently reinstalled and have been waiting for some second-hand expansions to get shipped my way, but I'm making some poor kid who got evicted from her apartment in Bridgeport and is stuck on a little microfarm on the outskirts~ She'll only get to move to a right-proper farm if she can afford to move to Appaloosa Plains later.

Haha, this is one of my favorite ways to play!!!

I've got fall starting up in Sunset Valley2 and my founders are currently starting to prepare for the coming winter as it's 14 days away now.They have a house partly built and just need an extension on it to be ready for winter.

I'm going to post a text wall of crud that happens in my Farmacy, sorry to anyone who reads it lmao.

my founder’s name is Chrystal Fraley. She used to live in Bridgeport, hunkered in the cha-ching from her parents, but they cut her off and sent her to Appaloosa Plains to get her head on straight. She had, of course, no clue how to live on a farm (and it isn’t even a farm!! What were her parents thinking,, smh) And everything in her house breaks all the time so she just. Screams. And of course she has to make her own food, she can’t just like. go out to the bistro anymore so she’s like “wtf!!!! what the eff.” And really just losing it. It takes her like. Two years to finally get a hold of shit, and that’s luckily when Aleister’s Elixirs opens up, and that’s where she meets Jasen. It takes her another year and a half of awkward flirting, super Soft(tm) dates, and inviting him over on sleepovers like she’s a kid to get things into the “going steady” area. And then she has her first kid. And she. Does Not Like That. Because she has this farm, and she has to keep fixing things, and now she’s pregnant and she doesn’t have any money and and and- She gets kinda high functioning depressed lmao. Like she’s still handling shit on the farm but she’s like crying while she does it. So for like 4 months she’s just constantly sad. And she goes to the massage place and they suggest a therapy place and she gets Help(tm) and starts feeling better and five months later, bat-ta-bing bat-ta-boom! Baby Maren, tiny, soft, and chubby. She loves him. And hates him. Because she wakes up at three am to change his smelly diapers and then wakes up for real at six to deal with the farm, and Jasen still won’t move in with her. So. She’s kinda of having breakdowns over it every weekend. And Jasen Decides they need A Break and then gets back with her like. A Week Later. The relationship kinda stale-mates until Maren is about... five, close to six. She’s been in Appaloosa for 8 1/2 years now, and she finally just fuck-alls and asks Jasen to marry her. He says yes and the only other person at their marriage is Gracie Loveland; coincidentally Chrystal’s only other friend. Anyways, shit is Hunky Dory even if Jasen is almost ten years older than her, they’re sickeningly sweet. Like. Constant rolls to romance interact w/ each other, autonomous hugs/kisses/cuddling on the couch sweet. Even after Maren is a kid and they send him off to boarding school. And what happens after they send him to boarding school but Chrystal gets pregnant again. Now she’s like. Twice the size she was her first pregnancy but shit’s easier because hubby is Here and he will Help, except not really because soon after their twins are born he hits 40, and a disk in his back slips when he’s helping her harvest produce while she’s tending Sarah and Justen. So now Jasen has to tend to them while Chrystal works, because otherwise they’d be broke. And of course, with the Occult mod I have, both Justen and Maren aren’t Human, so they’re out for Heirs. It’s up to good, friendly little Sarah, now. Chrystal just want’s grand-kids before she dies.

It's getting close to mid fall in mine in Sunset Valley2 and the food wagon just came into service for the fall though it will be taken out of service if the winter is too snowy as that would shut the roads down.It's almost that time for the ice cream cart to go out of service for the winter as it usually does by late fall.

This is a cute idea, having a farm but making money only with outside plants until there's a greenhouse, or making the plants more seasonal, etc.

I had my sims havesting from Garden House until they got a house built and they started working part time since fall arrived though they expect to be planting a few plants in the spring of 1526.

What do you do in the cold season? I know you can cheat your crops and trees inside with moveobjects but I'd like to avoid that... but then again I also don't want to do nothing half a sim-year. Would an indoors herb garden make sense since you can realistically grow most of them indoors in planters?
Also what about fishing and horse competitions/breeding, it's not farming but the expansions mention a stocked pond and horse stuff so I suppose that means it's okay?

I'll give it a go but I will steal 2 rules from the similar Country Livin' challenge to make it a little harder in the beginning: starting with 0$ instead of 500$, and paying an imaginary overdue water and electricity bill before using electrical appliances and plumbing.
Also I'm using the No Fridge Shopping mod so I start with 5 tomatoes, lettuces, grapes, and apples each (edit: and a tent) to not starve immediately (let's hope that's enough...)

Added some screenshots of my ugly abandoned farm. Inside the house are some WA rubble piles to dig through, trash, laundry, and a competely burnt kitchen, so my sim will have to clean up first before building anything new.

I'm so glad everyone adores this challenge! I've been having so much fun on it myself. I love hearing all your stories!

Nocriel: WOW! Your farm is so cool looking! As for horse breeding, it's fair game! Same for fishing. If you can get it on your farm, it's free to sell. As for winter, you must prepare! An indoor herb garden would be perfect, really. Planters are perfectly acceptable. Glad you're enjoying the challenge!

Alright, thanks. Another question then: exactly 2 expansions per generation or at least 2? I only have an herb garden so far but an expansion to the house will be pretty much neccessary for the 3 kids so that'd already make 2 expansions for my founding generation.

My progress so far:
Week 1: Not much happened. Farming has a slow start, stuff needs to grow plus I started with no funds and imaginary bills to pay. I did some fishing to have some paying work while plants are growing. At the end of the week I started a relationship with Calvin Riffin next door.
Week 2:
Confession: I stole harvestables from my boyfriend's garden. I didn't move him in yet for a bunch of reasons: he's not over his last relationship yet (2 day break up moodlet), he's the only caretaker of his teen siblings and I want to wait for them to grow up, and most importantly I don't want to move him in before I have a fully functional house.
Alouette Bird came to visit me in my super ugly house with unfinished walls (we're not even friends), just to go into labour ten minutes later. So I spent the night at the hospital for a stranger, my founder even got the +80 baby moodlet just for being with the mother at birth :O I had no idea that could happen. Guess I'm the god-mother to the baby now?
The good news is that I made a good bit of money so that I finally have a functional house (plumbing, electricity, double bed) at the end of week 2! The bad news is, winter starts now.
Also I caught a frickin shark. Forgot that was a thing in this game.

I've had my sims still working on getting their house build finished enough to be able to have a little room to use a few planters to grow lettuce plants over the winter and they'll grow more plants in the spring.It's currently entering the middle of fall in the year of 1525 in Sunset Valley2 which is serving as Salisbury Beach,Massachusetts in the 16th century.

Love this challenge! It has a nice Harvest-Moony feel to it, with the limited expansion time, I'm enjoying it a lot. You have to bide your time to earn things which is great. They really end up being able to skill up etc in the winter so the seasons feel very real this way. Plus sometimes I have to plant things knowing that they won't grow until the next spring.

Starting out with Phillip, the sim I made to look like the Protagonist from Tale of Two Towns a while back. Chose a big lot in Apaloosa Planes, limited starting funds so the place is tiny.

The first winter was tough, and at the end of gen one my family has five kids in a two bedroom farmhouse and an additional family from Philips stepdaughter who also moved in and not just got married. Uhm, she's pregnant, so there are ten sims with one on the way right now. I have not expanded the house, the first two expansions are the veggie garden and the fruit garden although I allowed for a beehive early on. Phil has had to make due by selling the honey from behind the Supernatural Consignment shop just to make ends meet on more than one occasion. He's also been caught raiding other people's gardens, because as I used starter funds for the house build there is not enough space for more than two plants in planters inside. I freaking LOVE THIS.

It's mid fall in Salisbury Beach,Massachusetts and the Jankowskys are starting to change their outfits for warmer clothing as they get closer to late fall.It's also about the end of the service season for the ice cream cart.The weather is still very warm and summerlike though that should start to change in a few more days.

I am loving this challenge! Still in the first generation but the second has been born. I used a Sim that had been hanging around from a previous thing, so there is a background for my starter Sim. I'm posting my progress over on Tumblr if anyone wants to check.

The main thing I've done was add sort of stipulations onto the expansions for each generation. I've called them city permits. Basically, each expansion has a monetary requirement and a length of time that that requirement must be held for, if the money drops below stated value the count would need to restart once it’s back up. Only one permit can be considered by the city at a time, meaning the $10,000 cannot be for a landscaping and a major home improvement, it can be used for landscaping then restart the count for the next—if the money is still there.

These “city permits” are:
*Herb Garden for University Herbs (can be small, but at least five must be growing) $1,000 for 2 days
*Vegetable Garden (only vegetable crops, at least five) $1,000 for 2 days
*Fruit Orchard (trees and crops count, at least five) $1,000 for 2 days
*Nectary Shed + Wine Cellar (shed) $7,500 for 1 week + (cellar) $3,000 for 4 days
*Barn (add horse stalls if you like) $7,500 for 1 week + $1,500 for 2 days (per horse)
*Memorial Garden for the Founding Sim and Spouse (includes their graves) $1,000 for 2 days
*A Stocked Pond $3,000 for 4 days
*An Expansion on the House (no more than two rooms, or expand pre-built rooms). Can be done more than once. $7,500 for 1 week (per expansion)
*Beekeeping Area (at least one hive) $1,500 for 2 days (per hive)
*Horse Training Area $7,500 for 1 week
*Decorative Flower Garden $1,000 for 2 days
*Gazebo $3,000 for 4 days
*Wedding Grounds $2,000 for 2 days
*Wrap Around Front Porch (preferably when the house is to your liking) $7,500 for 1 week
*Adopt 2 cats/dogs or 1 cat and 1 dog $1,500 for 2 days (per pet)

Store Content:
*2 Chicken Coops $1,500 for 2 days (per chicken coop)
*A Cow Shed $7,500 for 1 week (per cow)
*A Tractor Course $3,000 for 4 days
*A Berry Garden $1,000 for 2 days
*A Greenhouse $7,500 for 1 week

And bonus ones based on my lot and for my story:
*Remove old windmill or water tank $5,000 for 3 days (each)
*Clear all brambles or weeds or rocks $1,000 for 2 days (each)
*Dry out existing pond (it's just the one that came on the lot is way too big) $7,500 for 1 week
*Demolish and rebuild existing house $15,000 for 1 week (this can be repeated at any time through challenge)

My General Rule of Thumb:
*Landscaping $1,000 for 2 days
*Major Builds/Expansion/Addition $7,500 for 1 week
*Average Build/Expansion/Addition $3,000 for 4 days
*Minor Build/Expansion/Addition $2,000 for 2 days
*Adding a Pet $1,500 for 2 days

And I will admit that generation 1 has had a few extra "expansions" so to say, but they were just the removal of the windmill, the clearing of the brambles and weeds, and the demolition of the existing house (but only one floor was built of the new one to match the vague basic premise old house. I wanted to move where the house was on the lot and put it on a foundation). Oops, but then would most people count clearing the overgrown mess they made for their lot as one of these expansions or what I'm referring to with my stipulations as city permits? So maybe I'm still in the clear and then by that logic with the demo of the house as a house expansion, I still have one to go. Nah, I'll stop where I am and with what I have. After all, I do technically already have the stocked pond that by using the Madison lot in Appaloosa Plains coud be counted as a generation 1 add from what most people might have had.

Can you join the Gardner career. Curious since you don't get paid unless you sell produce.

It would be fine in my games to do that if they're about to start a family and I do allow part time jobs if they need that.
It's mid winter in my game and they've ben getting blizzards all season with work cancelled while farming is only happening in planters with the cold weather they've been getting so far.It's going to be a challenge for my family to survive the winter of 1525.

@MeraculasABlack I liked your tumblr, the lay of the land on your farm was unique, looks like it's going to need some work! (the permits are a great idea, but I don't think I understand the limits on days/ weeks?)

@DrowningFishie I'm not allowing my sims to have part time jobs because I don't think they'd need the additional money with farming (and I prefer poorer sims at first). But I don't think it's against the rules if the part time job has to do with the farm or it's expansion for the generation or whatever. I wouldn't allow a painter for example, but I may allow a fishersim or gardener or nectar maker in the future. The bonuses may be given a special use, or I may introduce penalties for them such as non-heir children have to go to boarding school (with the more expensive college mod) and can't help with the farm. Just to keep things challenging ;P

My game is into fall of the first year of gen 2! The house has been expanded, and we have a greenhouse. The goal is to make enough money to send the kids off with a good amount of money when they are older, or to send them to college. I'm struggling with putting in a nectar maker, as it's Touissant's life time wish. But I can't expand the farm now and there is no basement to age nectar in, so I may change his LTW with points.

I love farming challenges I'm having a lot of fun with this, I like the fact that my sims aren't rich in a few weeks. It's refreshing to play a game without involving a story.

My founder is Tanise Maddeus and the expansions of this generation are a vegetable garden and a beekeeping area, I chose the second expansion so that they can have income while the garden is dormant. Now she's living with her boyfriend, Hiller Flint, and is expecting her first child. I must confess that I rejuvenated Hiller to the first day of adulthood.

@Frogsnack there isn't really any value to the length of time (or the amount) for the permit limits. It's just to say that for, example, four days you need to have $3,000 in the bank/household funds, when that time limit has expired/those days have passed you can build whatever expansion you were holding that money for and if you go over that amount set aside, who cares (well, unless you don't actually have money to go over). Only one expansion/permit can be worked on at a time and if you drop below the simoleon amount the count needs to restart once the amount has been reached again. It's just kind of a way of saying that yes I am responsible enough to have this thing I want/need and I can take care of things enough to deserve it; I guess. But really, I pulled numbers out of thin air for the length of time for a permit and for how much was needed to be set aside, though the money I did try to make seem realistic to the need. Don't know if I explained it better but here's hoping it helps.

Now I just need for life to let up a little so I can get back to the farm. I left things in an interesting place if I remember correctly. My current head of the family it nearing elderhood and the third child is, I think, getting close to being a teen. And I still need to figure out who the heir is. And winter was starting, or about to start.

I have a couple of questions. If my sim marries a townie, do I reset the household funds to what they were before the new spouse contributed their wealth?

Also, my challenge took a silly turn. My sim became completely infatuated with a townie, so I got them married. However, I didn't realize that the townie had two underage siblings and a dog he couldn't leave behind. I've decided to roll with it and just kick the kids out once they are of age, but question is, since a dog is considered an upgrade, should I tear down my herbal garden to make up for it?

Made some updates. Hopefully it will answer everyone's questions! <3