Farmville Tips: Week Seven

I didn't write any tips for Weeks 3, 4, 5 or 6 (so don't waste any time looking for them). I had wanted to write about ribbons, but I might wait until I earn a few more of them to start writing about them. I'm still mostly obsessed with the layout of my farm and expansions (06/15/10).

Neighbors:
The first obstacle I faced in expanding my farm was the neighbor requirement. I finally got tired of pestering my real friends to add me as a neighbor to the farm they never visit anymore, and I visited one of those FarmVille fan pages on Facebook. Those pages are filled with people asking for more neighbors. I didn't put my name on the page, but I did send friend requests to several of the people I found there. I had my 'celebrity' ribbon (50 neighbors) in less than a week, and I'm getting gifts like crazy.

Expansions:
This week (06/13/2010) I finally put together the 500,000 Coins I needed to purchase the final expansion for my farm. I wasted no time in using the extra space for placing 250 fences and earning my 'fenced in' ribbon. Next on my hit list is the architect ribbon and the bailed out ribbon. These are earned by purchasing building and hay bails. I plan to follow the example of one of my highest ranked neighbors and set aside the northernmost corner of my farm for housing, the eastern most corner of the farm for animals and the southern most corner of the farm for a village (post office, school, stuff like that).

Co-ops:
There are three co-op ribbons to earn. Most of the co-op crops have short harvest times of one day or less, so I try to start a co-op every Friday night, so I can plant on Friday and harvest on Saturday morning. It's a good idea to let your friends know what you're planning a few days in advance, so they can be sure to have all their crops harvested by Friday night.

Trees and animals:
I think I wrote before that it is my goal to have sixteen of each tree. I've decided that I'll match that with sixteen of each animal as well. Trees and animals are not as profitable as crops, but they are less risky. They don't whither, so if you can neglect your farm for a week, come back and still have a nice payday, if you have plenty of trees and animals. I finally leveled up to the olive tree. I think this is the most profitable tree, so after I collect sixteen of each, I might start replacing them all with olive trees, maybe not. I like the variety, too.

I have placed my trees on my farm according to availability. I think this probably corresponds to their profitability. I would like to do the same thing with my animals, but I haven't found an appropriate reference table. I'll probably have to make one myself. the trouble with that of course is that FarmVille is still in beta testing, so any data that I collect is subject to change without notice. Please report any errors you notice.

Tree	Harvest Reward	Days Between Harvests	Harvest Value Per Day	Available
Acai Tree	158 Coins	2 days	79.0 Coins per day	available for cash
Jackfruit Tree	140 Coins	3 days	46.7 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Ginko Tree	130 Coins	3 days	43.3 Coins per day	available as a gift after Level 59
Mango Tree	130 Coins	4 days	32.5 Coins per day	available as a gift after Level 40
Olive Tree	112 Coins	4 days	28.0 Coins per day	available as a gift after Level 20
Date Tree	69 Coins	3 days	23.0 Coins per day	available as a gift
Pomegranate Tree	108 Coins	5 days	21.6 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Mandarin Tree	80 Coins	4 days	20.0 Coins per day
Rainbow Apple Tree	60 Coins	3 days	20.0 Coins per day	available for purchase from the market for 500 Coins when using the iPhone or iPod application.
Banana Tree	56 Coins	3 days	18.7 Coins per day	available as a gift
Passion Fruit Tree	93 Coins	5 days	18.6 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Almond Tree	55 Coins	3 days	18.3 Coins per day
Breadfruit Tree	55 Coins	3 days	18.3 Coins per day
Guava Tree	55 Coins	3 days	18.3 Coins per day
Gulmohar Tree	55 Coins	3 days	18.3 Coins per day	available as a gift
Grapefruit Tree	50 Coins	3 days	16.7 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Walnut Tree	50 Coins	3 days	16.7 Coins per day	available from mystery gift
Durian Tree	65 Coins	4 days	16.3 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Starfruit Tree	65 Coins	4 days	16.3 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Lime Tree	75 Coins	5 days	15.0 Coins per day	available from the market for Coins
Apricot Tree	56 Coins	4 days	14.0 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Cashew Tree	41 Coins	3 days	13.7 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Lemon Tree	41 Coins	3 days	13.7 Coins per day	available from the market for coins
White Apple Tree	40 Coins	3 days	13.3 Coins per day	available as a gift from your friends using the iPhone or iPod application.
Yellow Maple Tree	25 Coins	2 days	12.5 Coins per day	available as a gift
Avocado Tree	37 Coins	3 days	12.3 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Peach Tree	47 Coins	4 days	11.8 Coins per day	available from the market for coins
Tamarind Tree	35 Coins	3 days	11.7 Coins per day	available as a gift
Fig Tree	33 Coins	3 days	11.0 Coins per day	available as a mystery gift
Orange Tree	40 Coins	4 days	10.0 Coins per day	available from the market for coins
Plum Tree	30 Coins	3 days	10.0 Coins per day	available from the market for coins
Apple Tree	28 Coins	3 days	9.3 Coins per day	available from the market for coins
Cherry Tree	18 Coins	2 days	9.0 Coins per day	available from the market for coins

Chicken Coop:
Now that I have chicken coop, I have learned that it can be expanded with a barn-raising. You just need to get 10 friends to click a link on your profile page within three days. The coop can be expanded twice: from 20 to 40 and then from 40 to 60. There are currently seven different kinds of chickens. My goal is to fill my coop with 15 chickens each of the golden, cornish, scots grey and rhode island red varieties.

Name	Harvest Reward	Days Between Harvests	Harvest Value Per Day	Available
Level 1 Chicken	8 coins	1 day	8 coins per day	available as a gift
Level 2 Brown Chicken	16 coins	1 day	16 coins per day	available from white and brown mystery eggs
Level 3 Black Chicken	32 coins	1 day	32 coins per day	available from brown and black mystery eggs
Level 4 Golden Chicken	64 coins	1 day	64 coins per day	available from black and golden mystery eggs
Level 5 Cornish Chicken	64 coins	1 day	64 coins per day	available from golden and cornish mystery eggs
Level 6 Scots Grey Chicken	64 coins	1 day	64 coins per day	available from golden and sctos grey mystery eggs
Level 7 Rhode Island Red Chicken	64 coins	1 day	64 coins per day	available from golden and rhode island red mystery eggs

Dairy Farm:
Now that I have a dairy farm, I know that in addition to making it easier to harvest milk from several cows it can also produce calves. Like the chickens, the cows produce milk of varying value. I got the values in the following table from web sites on the Internet. I'm not sure that they are correct, but if they are, then its my goal to fill my dairy barn with chocolate cows.

Name	Harvest Reward	Days Between Harvests	Harvest Value Per Day	Available
Cow	6 coins	1 day	6 coins per day	available as a gift
Brown Cow	12 coins	1 day	12 coins per day	available through adoptions
Groovy Cow	12 coins	1 day	12 coins per day	available through adoption
Pink Cow	18 coins	1 day	18 coins per day	available through adoption
Holstein Cow	18 coins	1 day	18 coins per day	available from the nursery barn
Chocolate Cow	80 coins	1 day	80 coins per day	available from the nursery barn

Stable:
Now that I have a stable, I have learned that it can be expanded. I have also learned that the horses in the stable occasionally produce foals. It is my goal to fill my stable with cream colored draft horses in order to produce cream colored draft foals. These are pretty hard to come by, so it will probably take me a long time to realize this goal. I have brown horses, gray horses and black horses. They all produce horse hair at the same rate: 84 coins per day

My fifth belt test

My seven-year old daughter and I have been studying taekwondo at World Champion Taekwondo in Scappoose, Oregon for fifteen months now. Friday night (06/11/2010), we had our fifth belt test. We leveled up from orange belts to green belts. We have about seven more belt tests before black belt.

The test was at 4:00 pm instead of 6:00 pm. I had to bring my five-year-old son with me. Master Jason was kind enough to provide him with his dry erase board and some marking pens to keep him entertained. My daughter's first grade teacher came to support her. That was very special.

Only Master Byong-Cheol Kim attended to grade our test. Master Je-Kyoung Kim usually attends as well, but he wasn't there. There were eight orange belts in attendance for the test. Jared (brown stripe) and Elsie (blue belt) are two students who usually test with us, but they were not able to test with us tonight. We warmed up with some stretches and calisthenics. Before we began, Master Kim drew attention to our instructor's new rank. Our instructor, Jason Letiski, participated in his fourth dan black belt test last month and now uses the title of master. Most of us had attended this test. Master Kim referred to him as "his favorite student."

We started with blocks and punches. Master Jason called out a lot of interesting combinations again this time. Dominic, a fifteen-year-old black belt candidate, assisted the instructor by demonstrating the combinations. We did our kicks in a slightly new way. We kicked twice towards the flag and then we turned and kicked twice towards the lobby. We didn't have anything new this test to demonstrate. We demonstrated low block, middle block, high block, single knife, double knife, double down, front kick, round house kick and axe kick. I was a little relieved that he didn't call out back kick. My back kick looks weak when I don't have a target to hit.

One of our students had a very bad day at school today, and he was very distracted and disinterested during the test. Master Jason had to pull him aside and speak with him for a moment, and then he was fine and able to finish the test.

The name of our form was tae guk yi jang. It's the second form in the tae guk series. It wasn't really any more complicated than our last form, but it did seem to take us longer to learn. Master Jason had us do it over about six times before he was satisfied.

By the time we were ready to demonstrate our self defense and one step sparring routines, the orange stripes had begun to arrive for their test which would begin at 5:00 pm. Master Jason was able to call on them to enter the mat and work as our partners. Our one step sparring routine included a high block, roundhouse kick, side-kick, hook kick and elbow strike. It was pretty cool, but I forgot the side-kick the first time, so he had me do it again. Our self defense routine started us in a full nelson. We stomped on our attacker's foot, broke his grip, hit him in the teeth with our head, grabbed his foot and kicked him in the face when he fell down. Self defense routines are brutal.

Just before we demonstrated our breaking technique, we read off a bad habit that we wanted to break. My daughter admitted that she bites her nails, and I admitted that I loose my temper. Another student promised to stop interrupting which turned out to be pretty funny a few minutes later when he interrupted Master Jason.

We used a jumping front kick to break the board which is a little tricky because we use the top of our foot in class when we kick targets, but when we break we need to use the ball of our foot. Almost everyone broke their board on their second attempt which was kind of weird. One student broke her board in two places which was very cool because the middle of the board when flying over Master Jason's head.

The final portion of the ceremony was the awarding of trophies and belts. Young students at our school are required to earn at least seven black stripes before they are allowed to take their test. A black stripe is earned by demonstrating a good attitude at home for one week. The stripes are stickers which wrap around the tip of the belt. If a student goes above and beyond the seven stripe requirement and earns ten stripes, then they receive a small trophy and a gold star at the belt test. The gold star is a patch which is worn on the collar of the uniform. At the end of a year, if a student has earned four gold stars, then they receive a large trophy. My daughter was the only student with ten stripes and three gold stars. She felt VERY special as she collected her large trophy. All the other children at the test had also earned their ten stripes, so they also received their stars and trophies.

Finally, we removed our orange belts, and the masters tied on our new green belts. The new belts always look so bright and colorful. After our test, the orange stripes, yellow belts and yellow stripes all tested together. They looked like a big group. Maybe the new orange belts will test with us next time. The next day, we all gathered together for a bar-be-que to celebrate. It was a beautiful day - finally. We've had a lot of rain this spring, but we had lots of sunshine this day.

Tae Guek Yi Jang

There are many sites on the Internet which offer instruction on performing the forms of taekwondo. They vary widely, partly because instructors refer to the same techniques by different names, but mostly because people just write things differently. I am intrigued at the notion that although we are all doing these forms exactly the same way, we are all talking and writing about them very differently. It's really easier to learn forms in class than it is to learn them from written text, but I think this is helpful. I wrote this out to help me study for my test, and I offer it up to anyone who might find it useful. If you note any errors, please let me know. Thanks.

Tae Guek Yi (2nd ) Jang is represented by the symbol for lake.

From the Joon Be (ready) position:

1. Turn 90* to the left, stepping with the left foot in front stance and perform a low block with the left hand.
2. Step forward with the right foot in front stance and perform a middle punch with the right hand.
3. Turn 180* to the right and step with the right foot in walking stance and perform a low block with the right hand.
4. Step forward with the left foot in front stance and perform a middle punch with the left hand.
5. Turn 90* to the left (facing flags) and step with the left foot in walking stance and perform an outside-in middle block with the right hand.
6. Step forward (facing flags) with the right leg in walking stance and perform an outside-in middle block with the left hand.
7. Turn 90* to the left and step with the left foot in walking stance and perform a low block with the left hand.
8. Perform a front kick with the right foot (fists at the belt) and land in front stance (right foot forward) and perform a face-high punch with the right hand.
9. Turn 180* to the right and step with the right foot in walking stance and perform a low block with the right hand.
10. Perform a front kick with the left foot (fists at belt) and land in front stance (left foot forward) and perform a face-high punch with left hand.
11. Turn 90* degrees to the left (facing flags) and step with the left foot in walking stance and perform a high block with the left hand.
12. Step forward (facing flags) with the right foot in walking stance and perform a high block with the right hand.
13. Turn 270* to the left (so that you are facing 90* to the right) and step with the left foot in walking stance and perform an outside-in middle block with the right hand.
14. Turn 180* to the right and step with the right foot in walking stance and perform an outside-in middle block with the left hand.
15. Turn 90* to the left (back to flags) and step with the left foot in walking stance and perform a low block with the left hand.
16. Perform a front kick with the right foot (fists on belt) and land in walking stance (right foot forward) and perform a middle punch with the right hand.
17. Perform a front kick with the left foot (fists on belt) and land in walking stance (left foot forward) and perform a middle punch with the left hand.
18. Perform a front kick with the right foot (fists on belt) and land in walking stance (right foot forward) and perform a middle punch with the right hand. KI HAP! (yell)

Turn 180* to the left (facing flags) into Joon Be (ready) position.