On my Wilderness farm I reached Farming 1 on day 3, thanks to finding a skill book when fishing. Haven't spent enough time at night on the farm to see any monsters, but then again I'd rather wait until I've got a better weapon than the tools. Sure, the rusty sword isn't much better than the scythe, but I'd feel better about it. Restarted day 3 a couple of times after realizing there were no spring onions to gather, and then after noticing Robin put up a request for newly chopped wood, after I'd already cut down a few trees. Saw no reason to spend a lot of time and extra effort when I wanted to spend most of the time fishing.
Found a geode on my farm and got the Archaeology quest completed with the mineral from it. Of course it's old, Gunther. Most museum-quality crystals are, unless they're water soluble or artificially created.