I didn't really restart, just started playing it at all (well, technically I did, my first try was with the standard farm, back when it was the only one available, but I gave up fairly quickly, deciding it's too grindy back then - for quite a silly reason, I saw I need 300 wood to build a coop, and not knowing about the trees, thus expecting to have to gather them by one from the ground-lying branches on the farm, stopped playing).
Anyway, I went with the forest farm to help with the wood problem (lots of trees, and with what I learned since, easy access to hardwood doesn't hurt, either). I've cut down the majority of trees by now* (cleared quite a large area for a pasture for my animals, they seem to eat through the grass faster than it can grow back, and I have only upgraded the coop to maximum so far, with my barn holding only two cows, I shudder to think how will it look with fully upgraded barn with 12 animals).
*With the stuff I have built up (I'm in second year's Fall), having unlocked the Greenhouse, and built a fair amount of processing tools (like Kegs and Jars) with more planned, I might just be able to buy the materials like wood/stone/coal/ores except for Iridium if I don't feel like going out to gather them, or have no time for it (I want to build two more silos** and upgrade my Barn to maximum before Winter, so might just have to do that, buy the materials that is).
**I have two right now.
Post edited November 03, 2016 by piranha1