Description:
Blake Farm is a small farm based between Vassar and Frankemuth, Michigan. It also happens to be where I grew up. It's a 2x map based on my grandpa's farm. My grandpa had no interest in being a big time farmer, deciding instead to stay out of debt and live simply within his means. So I made it a point to keep this map as simple as possible.
My grandpa raised corn, soybeans, wheat and raised 10-15 feeder steers at a time. You start off with all the fields my grandpa owned in real life, 15 cows, hay, straw, silage, and a healthy bit of equipment. There is a working fermenting stave silo for silage. My grandpa also owned the farm to the north where you'll find the combine and some other equipment. There is a grass area here that I made sure was flat so it can be used for placeable grain bins, etc.
The map has chopped straw and is seasons ready.
Sell points are tucked into the SW corner of the map along with a paved area for placeables. I used as many local companies as possible. There is also a sheep farm, a pig farm, and an arable farm with a large shed and grain silos. The wood stove in the back yard of the cow farm does have a wood sell point in it and there are a group of pine trees in the middle of the woods directly south of Field 2 to recreate our winter activity of cutting wood. South of Field 3 there is a small open area. My great great grandfather had apple trees here and I left it open for those who like to use a fruit tree mod.
Animal load triggers are found at the entrance gates at each animal area. The animal dealer is across the road from the rest of the sell points. Here you'll find a silage clamp, a hay/straw trigger (by the bales) and a silage sell trigger in the back.
An additional hay/straw trigger can be found east of the farm at Kilborn's.
You'll find the same textures found on Autumn Oaks, including alfalfa and soybean row spacing to reflect what is typically seen in the U.S. In this area of Michigan the main crops are corn, soybeans, wheat, and sugar beets. There are a couple of potato farms and apple orchards in the area as well.
The machine shed at both the cow farm and the arable farm do have equipment triggers. Turn on your interactive zone markers to find the location of these triggers.
This map is dedicated to my late grandpa, Darwin Blake. He instilled in me a love of farming and while it wasn't in the cards for me to carry on as a the 5th generation of Blake Farm in real life, there's no reason I can't do it in a game. I've always wanted a map that makes me feel like home. After spending many hours on this map, I'm happy to say I've accomplished my goal. I went into this project only knowing how to edit maps in Giants Editor and I came out learning a lot more than I thought possible.
A huge thank you to cwj108 for giving his permission to use Autumn Oaks as my starter map. I also want to give a tip of the hat to BulletBill83. CPF was the first map I came across that was based on a real life location and it planted the first bug in my mind that this map could be possible.

Credits:
cwj108