If you stand still on the mountain, animals will run across the screen. Note that it is impossible to catch, or even touch, any of these animals, as they are much too fast (no, that's not a challenge - it's been tested and proved). Here are some pictures of the various animals.
Try to get the miracle gloves by trading treasure maps. It makes harvesting a LOT faster and is worth the effort.
You can not get married in this game no matter how hard you try, so give up now.
Likewise, you can also never enter the mayor's house no matter how hard you try. The only time you get to go in is at the very beginning of the game (the cut-scene) and the evaluation of your farm once the three years are up.
Which reminds me. Three years is plenty of time to get everything done, so don't rush yourself. Start out slow and build up, and you'll be rich sooner than you think.
Animals will eat the grass in the field if it's fully grown, but it's useless if you don't have a dog. Animals eat sometime during the night (if you notice, you'll put fodder in their bins at 6 AM and it will still be there at 6 PM). You can't put them out in the field with fully-grown grass at 6 AM and bring them back in at 6 PM, because they will not have eaten yet, so they'll still be unhappy the next morning. You have to take them outside in the morning and leave them and the dog outside all night, and they'll be happy the next day.
Fishing is a valuable source of income. The rod is worth the money and can get you 2000G a day (if you follow my day walkthrough) or up to 4000G a day if you have the horse.
Catching bugs gets you no money at all. The bug net is really not a necessary investment, unless you just like looking at the pictures of bugs in the library.
It's possible to control the weather. Once you get the TV, save the game the night before and check the weather every morning. If it says it's going to rain and you don't want it to, turn off the game and turn it back on, then load your game. If it still says it will rain, try again. This doesn't work in preventing hurricanes or snow storms. An easier way to do this is to talk to Ken and get him to give you an estimate the next day. You can still say no and owe nothing, it will just provide a clear day. This WILL stop hurricanes and snow storms - but, obviously, it won't work once you've gotten all the upgrades.
If you trade chickens with a friend, you will receive a gold chicken. The gold chicken in turn will lay golden eggs, and hatch gold chicks. So you can replace your entire chicken population with gold chickens that bring about 350G more per egg per day.
There is a secret passage in the mountain to the right of the hot spring. Just walk into the trees to the right of the spring up on the top level and you'll find it. It gets you right back to your farm much faster. Many places online say it's to the left of the hot spring, but that doesn't even make sense, so I guess they can't tell their left from their right.
Saddlebags on your horse make it possible to ship crops from anywhere in your field, and that makes fishing and harvesting much easier.
Be sure to stop harvesting once it hits 5 PM, because anything placed in the shipping bin after 5 will be wasted and get you no money at all - it won't carry over to the next day.
Run everywhere - time ticks by too fast to walk. Never let up on B. Keep in mind that time stops once you enter any building, but I don't think it stops when you're "walking" around town.
