Round 9: Days 41-45
This rotation started on a sad note for the Kirbys. Joanne passed away in platinum, aged 77.
This rotation started on a sad note for the Kirbys. Joanne passed away in platinum, aged 77.
Nathaniel has now officially transferred ownership of Kirby Market to his son, Brandon. He did it before he died, rather than leaving the lot to Brandon in his will, so he could enjoy his last few years and so he could spend some time passing on the benefits he's earned to Brandon.
Now that the farm is doing so well, Joanne has time to focus on her own hobby - tinkering. Apparently repairing stuff doesn't really build up enthusiasm that fast because up until now, she's had no more than 2 enthusiasm points for it at a time. She's right up there now.
The main point of this post is to show you Brandon as a teen. He is the perfect mix of Nathaniel and Joanne. He's got Joanne's mouth and hair but the nose is all Nathaniel's. I can't decide whose eyes he has. Not much happened on the Kirbys' lot this time, but Brandon was rather active on a community lot, so we'll see more of him later.

On their first day, I had Joanne plant some tomatoes. The plan was to have them alternate who tends the crops but Nathaniel seems so much more into it than Joanne. He's reached full enthusiasm for Nature, even though he's actually a cuisine Sim.
So he's done most of the grunt work. He's got a gold badge now (7 rounds later) so he's more useful anyway. Oops...you can see my "barn", where I put all my hack objects. That's the ACR adjuster in the background. I also have a dresser in there, the two teleport objects from DMA Sims, a Lot Sync Timer and the Lot Debugger. I am hacked to the gills.
Anyway, enough about me. Joanne's Tinkering enthusiasm is coming in handy, as predicted.
Here's Windy, their Australian cattle dog. I based her on my dog, dear old Jessie (RIP). She doesn't look exactly like Jess but she's way closer to the cattle dogs I see here than Maxis's version.
This was a first for me. They woohooed autonomously every night but never tried for a baby until the Thursday night. Joanne is Pleasure, so I guess she's not as keen for a tot as Nathaniel (he's Popularity but he has had the "Have a Baby" want since Day Dot). She did get pregnant, by the way.
The tomatoes haven't come in yet but the Kirby apple harvest is ready. They grow a whole 8 apples. Not even enough to crate! They're apparently "tasty" but they look pretty bland to me.
Nathaniel and Joanne are the first farmers in Sullivan. They own Kirby Market and work in co-operation with the Drapers to stock the store.
Unfortunately, neither of them have nature enthusiasm. I was hoping one of them would have that as their OTH and I thought Nathaniel did, for the longest time. But no. Nathaniel likes Cuisine and Joanne likes Tinkering. That will come in handy - my farm Sims are not allowed to call for repairs unless it's something that might be dangerous for them to attempt on their own. I figure it would be hard to get repairmen to come out to the middle of nowhere, so you wouldn't call them for just a leaky sink!
I made them both in Body Shop, the same way I always make my most favourite Sims - Google image search. In this case, I searched for "young male farmer" and "young female farmer" and prayed I didn't come across any porn. Fortunately, I just got two nice looking farmers to base Nathaniel and Joanne on. They don't look much like the pictures I found but that's not my aim. I'm after genetic variety and following a photo helps me "think outside the square" a bit.
Name: Joanne Catherine Kirby