SETTING UP YOUR LOT
First, you'll need to either create a lot according to my specifications, or download one of my pre-made lots. This is what you'll need to do:

• Choose a somewhat large, empty lot
• Add at least 25 trees (conifers/evergreens recommended for that foresty feel)
• Landscape as you like and include a pond/stream/etc.
• DO NOT LEAVE SPACE FOR A HOUSE! The aim is to fill up the lot with trees!
• You may have a bike rack if you like, but NO other furniture
• Make sure you don't go over $16,000!

You should now have a sufficiently wooded area suitable for your lumberjack.

*Note: the 2nd lot is only available for Sunset Valley in a specific location. You must bulldoze one of the 2 houses on the little cliff near the beach and place it there! I don't remember which one it was, so let me know if you have any problems. There is a mod available to give your lot the Beautiful Vista buff back if you want; just search here at MTS.

CREATING YOUR SIM
This will be your lumberjack. It can be male or female--no need to stick to stereotypes! Feel free to make weird Sims like aliens and whatnot too, but there are a few things you'll need to stick to:

• Young Adult only
• Your Sim must be at least of average buffness (in the center of the slider) since lumberjacks have to be strong!
• Try to keep the lumberjack theme going in their outfit (ie. red-and-white plaid or flannel shirt, overalls, suspenders, etc.) Basically have them look the part, at least somewhat. Of course, it's up to you.
• Traits must include Loves the Outdoors and Brave (felling huge trees is scary!)
• Traits CANNOT include Couch Potato, Kleptomaniac, Mooch, or Pyromaniac

Okay, so now you've got your Sim and your lot. Go ahead and move them in, buy them a bicycle (optional), then use the familyfunds cheat to put their money at $100. Time to get started! :D

• For every 1 point of Athletic or Handiness skill your Sim gains, you may remove 1 tree. Since there are only 10 points in each skill, you will only be able to remove 20 trees.
• A maximum of 3 trees may be removed each day. If you've gained more skill points than that, you must wait until the next day.
• Yes, you keep the money from deleting the tree. You're a lumberjack--it's your job!
• You may NOT move/rearrange ANY of the trees, EVER! So choose which ones you want to get rid of wisely!
• You may begin building once you have removed 3 trees.
• Any walls (including foundations) that you build must be AT LEAST 3 spaces away from any trees.
• Any basements you build must fit inside the ground level (ie, they can't be bigger than your house).
• NO CHEATS, obviously, except perhaps moveobjects on for decorating only.
• Your Sim may NOT get ANY kind of job!
• You can collect bugs, rocks, gems, etc. and sell them. Cutting and smelting is allowed.
• You can grow crops on your lot for food and profit.
• You may NOT harvest crops from lots other than your own, not even community lots.
• Buying crops from the grocery store so you can plant them (or just eat them) is fine.
• You may NOT go on vacation/adventures.
• You may buy a tent once your lumberjack has cleared 3 trees. (You can use the BuyDebug cheat for this.)
• NO taking classes to increase skills!
• Your Sim may participate in Opportunities.
• Once your Sim is an adult, he/she may get married, have babies, etc., but NOT before they become an adult. Spouses and children may NOT contribute to the household income beyond gardening or opportunities.
• The challenge ends when your lumberjack Sim removes 20 trees and builds a lovely home in the resulting space. There is no point system, but post pictures so we can see what you managed to build!!

That's it! Unfortunately, I don't play Sims 3 anymore since my computer can't handle it, so rules aren't going to be updated past WA, but I'm sure you guys can figure out how to keep the challenge balanced and fun. When in doubt, don't use new features from an expansion pack... or do, if you really want to! Heck, throw any of these rules out the window if you really want to. It's up to you. Just enjoy!

If you want to continue on to more generations, you can have the kid(s) plant trees back, one for each point of Gardening or Cooking skill that they earn (or Gardening and Painting, or whatever, basically 2 skills, one of which is Gardening). Maybe alternate between tree-chopping and tree-planting generations. You could also combine the Lumberjack Challenge with a legacy or other challenges as you go along. Be creative! :D

cute idea but, I'm not sure I like the idea of bulldozing a lot with a scenic moodlet. You can't get them back or get them with a downloaded lot.

Ah. Well, you could always just download the other one. I really just made the 2nd option because I wanted to try it on the cliff there.

Um... does nobody like this?

I like it but at the time i have to many other challenges going - but i will return some day!

But one thing i dont understand - what are you meaning up in the top with (girl version)???

It's just a pictorial representation of what the female version looks like. For fun, you know?

Yep, pyratus is right. lol Like I said, I kinda went overboard once I had the idea in my head. XD

I like the challenge and since I got bored of the "usual" sims 3 gaming and a lack of creativity what to do in my game I will try it. Thanks for the nice idea.

Yay, thank you so much!! Please post pictures when you get started! I'd love to see them.

That's a very creative idea. Well done. And, it's nice to see a challenge that's actually playtested before posting.

I'm going to try this after I've finished my current game (dilute the ugly gene v2) :p

i like this!! i'm actually going to use it as a "mini-challenge" in my prosperity.

:DDDD I'm so happy this is finally getting some interest! Perhaps I should do my own and show you guys how I play it. :D
The idea I have for the next part is for the 2nd generation heir to plant trees back according to gardening skill or something.

Ooh, fun! I'm going to try this right now! Thanks! <3

I know I'll do this one, and for every tree I 'chop' down, there'll be a neat stack of tree stumps, out in the garden.

Oh, that would be awesome! There are tree stumps...? Are they normally in the game? If not, could you post a link? lol I may have just missed them; I haven't completely looked at *everything* in the buy catalog yet...

I like this challenge. I might try this later.

They are only in your game if you downloaded Riverview since they came with that town map.

Yes the chopped trees are in the buy catalog, under decorations. I started yesterday, and sofar i've chopped 7 trees.

Ahhh okay, guess I just haven't looked in my catalog enough. I should do that today... go through and see all the stuff in the game. XD

@Simmahollic - Wow, that's pretty awesome! I'd love to see some pictures!

I'll try and figure out how to put pictures up tommorow morning.

I think there's a sticky around somewhere about that...

Okay, so I found the picture tutorial, and now I can tell my story so far.

This is my lumberjack, Jack Dahlumber. His traits are loves the outdoors, green thumb, angler, brave, andnatural cook.

He loves nothing more than to cut down trees, and carve the wood into furniture. So far, he's mastered his fishing, gardening, and athletic skills, and has cut down over a dozen trees(15 to be exact ). At first it was rough, seeing as how he was so very poor, but now he has enough to take a break and do the things he loves most, until he finds a family.

So far he has built himself a small log cabin, with all the amenities. He lives alone, though he hopes to marry Jaime, his girlfriend.

Right now, Jack is looking for a place to put the excess trees. Theres just to much for him to use it all.

I will continue to inform you of Jacks life, and his trees. Thank you annachibi for creating this challenge.

Hahaha, awesome!! *claps and grins* I love his name! Wow, didn't take you long to skill, did it? XD For the 2nd generation, you could have the heir plant 1 tree for every point of Gardening skill he/she gains. But whatever, at this point you can just keep building and making a life for your sim and future generations! ^_^

Just thought I'd let everyone know I'm still here, and maybe bump the thread up a bit. I've had maybe 10 downloads of the lot since I last posted, so it seems people are playing the challenge but not talking about it. Don't be shy! Heck, even if you fail epically, I still want to see it! XD