Last time around we had launched into summer with a rework of the crop layout and a mass planting of melons.
Stardew Valley Splash Screen
Melons were planted because we needed one more item for the community center bundle that would unlock the greenhouse, and the choices were melons or pumpkins. That wasn’t much of a choice, since pumpkins are a fall crop. So melons it was to be.
However, melons take some time. Twelve days would have to go by before we would see if our melon dreams would be fulfilled.
While we waited the annual trout derby came up as an event. Fishing is something I am still working on, but off we went because there was the promise of prizes.
The Annual Trout Derby
In addition to fish, you can also fish up prize tickets that can be turned in at the tent.
One of the rewards for us was a tent kit, which spawned a plan to go out to the desert to take another shot at the skull cave. The goal was to get down to level 25, which unlocks the desert casino. The idea was to put the tents outside in a chest, stored with our uneeded equipment, so that we could push on then quickly get to bed as 2am approached.
This was, of course, fraught with the usual issues, like simply dying in the cave again.
Another 1,000 gold visit to the trauma center
My daughter also lost a key item in the mix… the spirits were not favoring the RNG… and while you can recover such items from the adventurer’s guild, it is a next day service and it became a whole thing for a couple of days. Then, when we finally seemed to get our act together and almost made it to level 25, our time was running out and we didn’t get back to the chests in time to deploy a tent, so we passed out in the desert.
So close to the chest
We tried another run at it, this time deploying our tents before we went in. (Later I read that two people can use one tent, so we need not have spent both.) However, we succumbed again and ended up back in town and by the time we could get back the next day the tents were gone.
But I guess we kept Pam busy driving the bus rather than hanging out in the saloon.
So we changed up and went back to the cave in the quarry and this time I managed to get the golden scythe at the end of the cave. I wish I had taken a screen shot at the end, as the final statue holding the golden scythe looked kind of cool, but two of the skull monsters were busy killing me as I was stuck collecting the scythe and I had to get out. But still, scythe.
A golden scythe
The golden scythe is better than the normal, copper, or steel scythes, because video game tool quality is measured by the value of the metal being used and not its suitability for the job in question.
Meanwhile, the melons finally ripened and were harvested. My daughter turned in the bundle and during the night the junimos came out and repaired the broken greenhouse that had been sitting on the farm since we arrived.
Midnight greenhouse supply
And the next morning the greenhouse was there and ready to go.
The greenhouse rebuilt
My daughter set to work on that, starting off with some strawberry plants in one corner of it while she worked out a larger plan. The wiki page about the greenhouse has a whole thing about how to optimize your sprinkler layout for maximum crop planting and how to get fruit trees growing. So that will be an ongoing project.
Meanwhile, as summer began to fade we had Robin expand the barn once more and bought a sheep and a pig.
The barn expands
There was also a bit of a re-arrangement of the farm buildings and the addition of another silo for hay over the winter.
We hit the summer luau where, once again, the soup was declared merely “average” by the governor.
The governor pronounces judgement on our soup
There was also another green rain in there somewhere. We collected more fiddleheads.
Then summer came to a close. Fall landed and new crops were planted outside, save for the corn we had planted during the summer. Corn persists through the fall.
I took a bit of our saved up gold and splurged on the iridium fishing rod, then went out and did some fishing.
Fall fishing in the lake
I had picked up a task on the board to catch 20 lake fish, which turns out to be 20 specific fish and not just 20 fish caught in the lake. Chub count, salmon do not. I figured out after a bit that you get more chub without bait, and wrapped that up on the second day.
That also boosted up my fishing level.
Level 8 fishing achieved
Now that I have that and the iridium rod I need to spend some time figuring out which bobber I ought to be using to make catching smoother. The cork bobber, which just makes your catch bar a bit bigger seems like the most obvious one, but others that stop the bar from bouncing around or slow down your decrease rate when the fish is outside of the bar do have some appeal.