A blog-of-sorts to keep track and post updates on the new realm I created with a few friends/family members.

This is a randomly generated seed and the realm is survival mode only. No cheats, no mods, no add-ons.
Bedrock edition - and I typically alternate between my PC and Xbox

I'll admit that I didn't think of doing this until about a week into the project so this first post will have a thorough 'start' to the world.

The first 'week' of in-game time was spent mostly wandering to find a nice spot to start - the ultimate goal is for this base to be a settlement around a large-scale orchard/farm.
I spawned-in, looted the starter chest, gather a bunch of wood and started mining. Picked up a nice chunk of coal, iron, cobble, and just enough diamond for a starter pickaxe.
I returned to the surface, smelted the iron into ingots, made a proper set of tools, and lastly, pressed forward in-search of a spot to call home.

Finally I came upon a large-scale island which has a smaller island within it, and I thought... this is perfect!



Next few in-game weeks were spent cleaning up the island, I have a habit of leaving the larger oak trees when clearing plots of land to see how the landscapes look with them. Sometimes I keep them, sometimes I don't, in this case (you will see in the next screens) you will see that I didn't keep them.

I built up a small starter wood cube south of the small island with a bed and a crafting table to help keep me safe. I shaped the island to the coastline and replaced all of the sand with dirt.
I also took the time early and used some fence to start a small herd of sheep / cows, and planted some scavenged sugar cane - faster I can get the enchantment table going the better.
Lastly, I plotted out the foundation of the primary home on the island - I don't know if this is ultimately where 'my bed' will be, but once it was furnished I certainly will call it home until otherwise

I included a separate screen of the two maps I completed (above this entire large island) so you can see my idea a little better - hopefully this helps.



Another in-game week or so spent searching the surrounding area for villages (easy starting supplies / trading) and broken portals.

Got the walls up on the first floor of the house and finished all of the windows.



This post was edited by Epiphany on Nov 25 2025 04:59pm

A lot of in-game time passed, spent a lot of it mining for more diamonds / upgraded tools - needed iron armor badly so I worked on that too.
* one thing to note early before this upcoming screenshot, I was in the starting phase of completing the enchantment table in the basement of the home when I noticed I could get Fortune I on the pickaxe, I didnt want to waste it on the diamond pickaxe, so I made an iron-spare and use it only for resource mining.
Nearly finished with the beginning home of the orchard homestead. Wanted a dark roof so decided to use cobbled deepslate, although, admittedly I dislike it - I may change it in the future.
Finished the second floor, windows, roofing, as well as a nearly full surrounding porch with overhang to match the roof.
Starter house comprised of birchwood walls, cobbled deepslate stair/slab roof, stone foundation, and all floors / deck are jungle-wood planks.

Additionally, notice tucked into the woods on the right I built a small stone and deepslate outbuilding - this is the head to my mineshaft, but I also might expand on the idea and turn it into a graveyard of sorts - a project for the future.



Finally have completed the entire enchantment table setup (two-layer) in the basement of the home, BUT, all projects currently on hold as the wife saw my original wood-cube home with the cows still fenced in, and she thought it was my farm. She verbally abused me and my 'farm' badly enough that I decided to put all projects on hold and work on building a large barn / pen for the cows and sheep, as well as start growing crops larger-scale.

There is a mangrove biome not-too-far away, and I think that wood with the pale oak growing (pictured above) will be a nice red/white combination for the barn... to be continued.

Current in-progress projects:
- Land leveling around mountain/island for better cropping and building platform for barn.
- Cycling lvl1 enchantment books at enchantment table until I can get Fortune III on my diamond pickaxe

Finished the landscape leveling job and spent some time farming mangrove to build the barn, freelanced it and very happy with how it came out.
Some more mining has been accomplished as well as nether portal has become established. Still no fortune III, but now that the enchantment table is fully setup and I am gaining levels steadily, it shouldn't be an issue.



Decided to break randomly and create a bridge going from the main island to the inner island. I think I will make one more bridge as well at a future date.

I also stenciled out where the grain silo (attached to barn) will go, and started work on the chicken coop (also attached).
While mining I came across a zombie spawner and I couldn't be more thrilled, time to get to work and make a zombie trap XP farm!!!

Been a few since my last update - I have been spending a lot of time mining collecting more diamond and iron for upgrades.
I have finally completed the zombie spawner xp farm which has allowed me to get a really nice basic set of diamond armor enchanted - I now have a complete diamond setup and can start exploring the nether more comfortably.

Not a lot of progress top-side, I finished the chicken coop and I have been working on more terraforming around the shoreline of the pond.
Planted trees on the smaller island to fill it in and finalize what the 'usable' land on the small island will look like - I still haven't decided what else will go there.

Once I finish terraforming the shoreline of the pond I will start the process of building the village houses - likely will start this around the 1-year in-game time milestone.

Barn is nearly completed at this point, need to work on some final touches and lighting, but otherwise it is looking solid.
- Roof made entirely of dark oak planks/stairs/flats
- Walls made of 96% mangrove planks for traditional red color, the other % is pale oak for the traditional white.
- Stone base 1x1 foundation

Coop is matched, but also has enclosed 'pen' made from mangrove roots to try and capture a cage-appearance

An insane amount of terra-forming has taken place over the last several in-game weeks worth of time.
I did have one unfortunate upset dying in the nether, however, I was smart and didn't have my fortune pickaxe or anything of extreme value besides my boots with me.
Starting fresh in terms of gears / tools, but that will give me an excuse to take a break from the nether and work on adding the village structures.



Central island is complete at this point with the exception of wanting to redo the entire roof system (still planned for a later time)
Cropping wheat started near the barn, this will eventually be large-scale wheat fields separating the farm from the orchard.

Some smaller details not-pictured:
- spent some time redesigning the entrance to my zombie xp-farm, floor made entirely of calcite, walls made entirely of polished deepslate brick and netherrock.

One year in-game day mark.

No photo update, unfortunately, I have been in turmoil and have died several times exploring the nether looking for a nether fortress.

Trials and tribulations. I have finally found one, but as I was building a platform to safely start entering, a blaze knocked me into the lava.
I have lost 3-4x sets of full iron armors, one full set of diamond enchanted armors, and several diamond/iron tools.

Time to dial-in and complete the entrance to the nether fortress so I can finally start harvesting blaze powder and skulls - the powder in particular, which I need to start transforming zombie villagers!

Brief update, one of my r/l friends decided to start up so I spent some time helping get his base/starting area set up.
Been playing intermittently as I have been enjoying ARC Raiders as of lately and spending some time watching a TV show with the wife.

Most recent updates to my main island include a massive overhaul to my primary house (finally) swapping out the entire decking and roofing.
Switched from cobbled deepslate stairs for the roof, to polished deepslate brick stairs - they are much darker and look more uniform, which I think goes nicely with the birchwood walls.

Other then that, I have been slacking... for now!