Farmyard | Harvest Moon GBC

On your farm you have four buildings you can go into. Your farmhouse, cow barn, chicken coop, and tool shed.

Inside Home #1 Farmhouse:
When you first start working on the farm, your house is very small. After a while you'll have enough wood and money to have your house upgraded by the Carpenter in the Village. The house will always have a bed, tv, clock, table, and flowerbox. The bed is of course where you sleep at night! The tv will have the next day's weather report if you turn it on (press A while standing against the tv), and the clock will tell you the current date. The table will have a notebook sitting on it where you can see a summary about the animals you own and how much food you have. The flowerbox is empty when you first start the game, but when you find Power Berries you'll see a small flower appear in your flowerbox. The more berries you find, the more flowers you have in your box. There is also a white telephone you can use to call up the Ranch Center when you want to trade with a friend via your Gameboys.

Cow Barn:
The next building to the east holds your cows. More info can be found in the Cows section. There are 5 feeding bins inside the barn; four for your cows and one extra for any pregnant cows you might have.

Between the Cow Barn and Chicken Coop is the Silo. The sign outside will tell you how many pieces of fodder you own. Fodder comes from grass that you cut with your sickle.

Chicken Coop:
Smaller inside than the Cow Barn, but still holds four animals. You can't run through the chickens unfortunately and they're always in the way when you're trying to feed them. Picking the chickens up and moving them close to the door will help you. You can find more information in the chickens section.

Tool Shed:
The shed is where all of your tools and crop seeds are stored. To pick up a tool just walk up to it and press A. You can only equip 2 tools at a time so you have to press the Start button on your Gameboy to rotate between the tools and your empty hand. You can't unequip a tool but if you pick up a new one you'll put the old one back on the shelf automatically. In the upper left-corner of the shed is a notebook where you can see how many of a particular crop seed you own. Don't forget the door in the back of the shed!

Through the back door you'll find the Harvest Sprite cave. Three sprites live inside the cave. The cave has exits to the west, north, and east. The West exit takes you to the mining cave, which you can smash rocks once you have earned the Pickax from your Grandpa. The north exit takes you to the Harvest Goddess lake where you can fish once you have received the Fishing Rod. The west exit is where you'll find your Hot Springs. If you become so worn out from working that you keep collapsing, you can jump in and out of the Hot Springs a couple of times and you'll be good as new!

Since you can't bring any produce into the cave, you'll have to give the sprites a mushroom that grow on the posts inside the cave. Giving them mushrooms will make you friends with them. The better the friendship, the better they'll do when you activate the TIMER feature of your game.

When you press the Select button, the date and time will appear on the bottom of your screen. Pressing Select again will bring up an additional menu where you can whistle for your pet or horse. There is also the Memo feature that will make a picture of the tool you currently have equipped appear when you press Select (instead of showing how much money you have). The last option is the Timer. Using the Timer will force the Harvest Sprites to work on your farm while you have your Gameboy turned off! Even if you're not playing the game the Sprites will water and harvest your crops for you.

Be careful when using the Timer. Since it's the only way to have the Sprites work on upgrading your Sickle and Hoe, you do have to use it at some point. Just don't forget that you've turned it on! I made the mistake of forgetting and had turned on the Timer in the Summer in order to have my Sickle upgraded to the Golden Sickle. A week later I turned my game back on, only to discover that the Sprites and worked though the Summer and even past the Fall and onto the last day in Winter. Grandpa was right there waiting to give me my evaluation! I hadn't played during the Fall and Winter so I hadn't shipped any crops since the Sprites don't plant crops for you. Having the Timer turned on goofed up my attempt at becoming a Farm Master, but it was my own fault since I had forgotten that I turned it on.

Also the Timer doesn't turn off when you continue your game, so make sure you press Select twice and turn the Timer off when you are finished using it.