I noticed this last year, and probably should have mentioned it at the time, but when playing the game with a "pet" activated, I often find my character gets stuck whacking a bush, and will sit for minutes with smoke at his heels. If I dont use the quick whack option he just continues to swing his sword.
It never seems to happen unless I have a pet out.

Just thought I should let you know although you are probably already aware of the problem. Love the game and love how well maintained you guys keep it! :D

I am getting it this year on a brand new 1 week old whistling clean system with 4 gb of ram and 500 gb hard drive. I would certainly hope I have enough to run the game.