RKC: Peasantry: Merlotte

Last family of my RKC!  Welcome to the end of the first week of my RKC.  I was really looking forward to the next week with my families and although I enjoyed the Merlotte family a part of me couldn't wait to return to my Royalty.  So, here we go!

Now we get to our last peasant family, the Merlotte's, and our final cameo for the challenge.  See, I knew instantly upon making this sim that he would want to not be a peasant forever, he'd want to own a tavern. (a restaurant since I'm not sure I can actually have a place where they would be able to rent rooms to sleep in.)  Upon making this decision I thought, "Of course, Sam Merlotte from the Sookie books."  Thus we have Sam and Sookie Merlotte.  My roommate who got me into the True Blood tv series and the Sookie Stackhouse books (she owns them all) really wants Sam to end up with Sookie (currently hoping for a trio with Bill and Eric, but I know I'm demented) and so here I have given her her wish.  I think Sookie's spent too much time out sunbathing.
True Blood TV  and Southern Vampire Mysteries

As an aside, my other roommate hate's my sim Sookie, just because she's named Sookie.  It would totally be my fault because I think the name and just have to say, "Sookie!" out loud like Bill does in the series, all southern accent and spoken deep in the throat.

Alright, now, on to the real sims.  On Monday I got them in and got them set up with a house, hoping I had plenty of rooms for the bakery.  I knew I had to start with cooking because a true restaurant has cooks, so I have Sookie cook things to go into the bakery displays.  She gains cooking skill points pretty quickly in the early days.  Isn't that always the case?

Note where the stove and counter is.  Originally I thought that when the family became Merchants they'd need someone to be involved in the cooking and so it would make sense for the cooking stuff to be on this side of the walls.

While Sookie's cooking her fingers off Sam is outside in the sunlight (Take that Bill Compton!  Whoops, sorry.) tending the garden they're going to own.  By this time the Farmer's had already had someone become a plant sim and I really didn't want for Sam to become a plant as well.  This was also when I realized that I probably shouldn't have been having Robert Farmer spraying his garden because they didn't exactly have that sort of thing back then.  I felt rather stupid for that, and decided that Sam wouldn't spray anything (so long as I could remember, slippery memory.)

On Tuesday I was impressed that I was ready to open the shop.  It's immediately popular, all three counters filled with yummy foods that people want.

So busy that Sam was almost always bombarded by people either needing sales advice or wanting to be rung out.  I wanted Sookie to be involved in the business as well, but she was rather flighty in the early days.

Francis sent Sookie a nice letter that Sookie replied to.  (called... called... I have to believe it's all letters... or something.)

And then we find out why Sookie was acting all flighty, she was pregnant!  (No, I knew, but she never threw up so I wasn't certain I hadn't dreamed up the music.)

The customers in the shop have no interest in going out in the rain, so they proceed to do crazy things like jump rope in the shop... no, really?

Sam has no qualms though, and hops right out into the rain to tend his garden.  Free watering, thank you Mother Nature.

Look at that!  Even though Sookie made enough for Sam to restock the shelves, we still ran almost completely out before he closed the shop.  On Wednesday Sam got himself a Bronze Garden Talent Badge and when he opened the shop again he was so busy he didn't change out of his undies to wait on customers.  He also was so amazing he got a Silver Cash Register Badge.

Francis dropped by to visit just when Sookie needed it most, swooping in and providing her with much needed slapping fun.  Thank you Francis.

See the pillow floating in mid air?  See that there's only one couch?  Some random cat wandered in and because all my sims were sleeping he destroyed the couch.  I figure I can't really keep the animals out of peasants houses because they wouldn't have been able to keep them out with a door lock anyway back then.  Had to purchase a new couch though.

And here we see where the counter and the fireplace ended up.  Welcome to Thursday where I realized that it was tedious to have someone make food in one room and serve it in another and then walk back to place the rest on the counter, where anyone could reach it and eat it.

We needed food to stock and Sookie was a terrible mess so Sam rushed up to take over.  He did a fantastic job cooking, must have experience in the kitchen.

And now Sookie will give birth.  Please wait for the stork to untie those really tight knots now.

I have found that owning a food business uses a lot of food.  I make group meals to sell, and because of that I seem to be constantly cooking and calling for grocery delivery.  When I thought about it I realized that bakery shops would have deliveries all the time so I just smile and nod.  Smile and nod, universal rules to live by.

Daddy ran to see Sookie give birth to their beautiful daughter Tara, but he was a mite late.  Whoops.

Sam is good with his garden.  Way to go Sam, I'm pleased you're doing so well.

On Friday I opened the business again.  So far that means 3 of 5 days I had the place open.  I did pretty well with that.  We had a few comments that we were getting popular, which is nice, and Sam got Bronze Sales Talent Badge.  We sold out again, and the Farmer family came over just to remind Sookie that she was still pregnant, even though Sookie wasn't anymore.

I went a little bit nuts maybe.  I figured since they had no basement storage I would figure they could have two fridges.  It's just... I was getting food deliveries so much!

I also had enough money to purchase another case!  Excellent, now I can have 4 different foods available.

Amazing Sookie on Saturday decided she wanted to burn the pancakes.  She made them once to practice and did fine, but the second batch?  She had to burn those.

Whole thing goes up and the wonderful neighbors help her put the terrible blaze out.  Miraculously there was no permanent damage to anyone or anything inside the house.

As her neighbors leave they warn her to be careful cooking, (hadn't she been in the first place?) and she pulls the pancakes off the stove to put in the fridge.  A little water never hurt pancakes...

Sookie practically collapsed after that, so Sam decided he'd take care of Tara for Sookie, feeding her and cleaning her diaper, doing some cuddling and such before putting the little tyke back in her bed.

We finally had our first crop casualty on Saturday, poor thing.

Look at all that fantastic food!  Sam gets a Bronze Stocking Talent Badge for being able to cope with all those sold out shelves.

On Sunday we have our first crop of tomatoes!  Wonderful Sam, really wonderful!

It was good we were able to get those out before the first snow of the year.

Sookie had an idea that the baby Tara needed her, so she rushed up and took the child in her arms, to be there for whatever she needed.

Apparently she needed to grow up.  Which is just as well, a toddler is better than a baby any day.

They gave Tara a really strange hair, a custom red blonde but it suited her somehow.  I considered keeping it when she became a child.  As soon as little Tara was born, that was the end to the week, and it was time to move on.

And that would be it!  Sunday was over and it was time to move on.  Next up is week two of people, how much fun is that?  Hope you enjoyed and you'll come back for the next week.