questions about roads and iron

[vincent_vfx]

so i am about 120 days into this now. i am starting to think that

1. i must build roads? some stuff seems to respawn but some does not. resources are farther and farther away? i just kind of hate the current mechanic of having to hoe the ground and then after that make a road. ---- idea/suggestion just let us choose a begin point and end point (similar to how the hoe works) and the just let a villager work on making that road between those two points.

2. i 'cheated' and i created my village very close to a mine. i have been letting a villager do all of the mining for ore. i finally went inside, and i am beginning to think that the mine is a) either so deep at this point that it takes forever to get back and forth into it, or the villager just keeps on running into monsters and gets spooked. basically i am getting NO iron at this point. any suggestions.

thanks for any help. i enjoy the game but i am still finding some of the mechanics and strategies confusing. my goal is to basically create a village that i can just relax in and let my villagers do everything - including combat. seems once they hit about 40-50 in melee or bow skill they are pretty tuff against the invasions even without my help.