Since the game is only supposed to last 7 years, but comes with 8 years worth of seasons (and 3 more added in the expansion). How are the seasons supposed to be set up? Shuffle all of them together and then remove 1 (or 4) or shuffle them together and just keep track of how many years have passed and end after 7? The first time I played I made the assumption there were only 7 season cards and probably played into the 8th year...

To each is own I guess, nothing official about this.

What I do is simply shuffle all the cards and keep track of the year.

More cards = more variety...but you still only play 7 years

I think the "official" way to do it is to shuffle each season deck separately, and then play until you've gone through 7 years worth (or until someone wins before then).

The way I do it is to shuffle each deck, but then put 7 winter cards in different stacks; then I put a fall card on each stack, then a summer card, then a spring card. I then stack them all into one big stack, and it's all set up for the entire game. If someone goes for victory, we just put the victory card on top of the next season in the stack matching the current season.

The remaining card (or, in my case, the remaining 4 cards, since I have the expansion) just get returned to the box before the game.