1850 Part 1 | Story Info | 1851

Charlotte’s morning started very much like the mornings had back east. With a waddle to the outhouse. Sighing deeply, Charlotte rejoiced when she actually made it there, and headed back inside to get dressed for the day and make breakfast for her growing family.

She didn’t have more than a few moments of peace before the delicious smells of the Forager’s Stew woke everyone up with rumbly bellies.

1896 | 1897-8 Interlude

1897 (Winter)

Winter settled in, and the snows covered the ground. Abraham and Florence still managed to go to school each day without fail, even if it was snowy. Abraham managed to keep up with both his homework and helping out around the house, but it was definitely easier to do that with the farm being snowed in. At least Stefan had stopped complaining about the expense of schooling the boy.

Juliet peered out the frosty window and smiled to see Florence playing happily in the snow. She watched for a while, then sighed and turned back to the multitude of toddlers running pell-mell around the house.

Chapter Eight | Island Spirits Welcome page | Chapter Ten

Having Nork back home was a blessing Utel wasn’t about to overlook. He was now determined to master the Gardening skill, and was planting everything in sight.

Utel also asked him to make some new Garden Planters, but he was so busy gardening, she wasn’t sure he’d even heard her request. On the other hand, Gnaar had finally gotten out of his toddler pants, and was learning to be helpful around camp.

Chapter Seven | Island Spirits Welcome page | Chapter Nine

Nork was determined to finish his aspiration, so his stay back at the village was a short one. Before Utel could even protest, Nork had packed up and was heading back out on another long journey. This time, he was headed to a mysterious forest glade that supposedly had some other rare fish he was looking for.

After communing with the tree spirit (yeah, I know it sounds weird, but that’s apparently the only way to get there per the legends.) – which seemed receptive to his approach, Nork was rewarded with a gaping hole in the base of this massive tree. Tentatively, Nork stepped inside… and after a few wrong turns, he came out into the light of a mysterious meadow.

Story Info | 1850 Part Two

Charlotte walked up to their new home, trying to juggle two toddlers and a hatbox she’d kept with her on the coach. Her husband, Theodore, had traveled with most of their belongings weeks ago, and the smoke rising from the chimneys was a welcome sight. Back home, things had gone from good to horrible in the space of a few words from Theodore’s older brother. As soon as he had decided not to go to sea with his ship, and decided to, instead, take over the family farm… Theodore’s prospects changed from wealthy farmer to a homeless family man in moments. It was also very quickly clear that there was no talking Theodore’s brother out of his newfound wealth by birthright. Theodore and Charlotte had been working under the assumption that the plantation was all but theirs, and they found themselves out on their rears from one heartbeat to the next. Theo had found a boarding house that could take them temporarily, and had immediately begun looking for opportunities. The sad truth of the matter, though, was that back east, there just weren’t any opportunities to be had. However, the government was opening up the west, and there were claims of riches for farmers willing to take the arduous journey to the plains. Sadly, They had decided that, to assure their children the best future possible, living near their families was no longer going to happen. With the meager stipend Theodore’s brother had allotted them to “find their own way”, Theo bought a large undeveloped farm sight unseen. Before Charlotte was anywhere close to ready, and with a toddler and a tiny babe in her arms, Charlotte was left to her own devices while Theo headed west to prepare a home for them.

By the time Theo’s “all is well” letter arrived, signaling the start of Charlotte and the kids’ journey, that baby was a toddler, and Charlotte felt she needed four extra hands to keep both of them out of trouble on the journey.

Chapter Six | Island Spirits Welcome page | Chapter Eight

Nork was getting so close to finishing his life-long goal of becoming a master angler. All he needed to do was collect some more types of fish to be considered a true master. He’s heard all the stories about where to find these fish, and one morning, he decided it was past time to start hunting them down. Packing some food – mostly herbs and spices to cook whatever fish he caught, and a small package in case of.. well, whatever might happen.. Nork waved goodbye to a bewildered Utel and headed off.

Much of the journey was one he’d already undertaken, so he remembered the way and where to stop for food and rest. Granted, he was going the opposite way, but at least it was mostly familiar territory.

Finally, he returned to the land of his birth. The hot, dusty, inhospitable desert Utel and he had come from. He briefly considered going back to their old settlement area, but decided against it. Who knew what had ultimately happened, and seeing the bones of the ruined settlement didn’t sound like something he really wanted to do.

Chapter Five | Island Spirits Welcome page | Chapter Seven

Utel’s days were full of family life these days, but she certainly didn’t mind it. Young Saazul was learning more day by day, but she was still underfoot at nearly all times. She wanted to help in the garden, she wanted to cook, she wanted to follow Nork when he was leaving for the day – which had to be discouraged, because that wasn’t something girls really did, and she was just always busy. Utel disagreed with the gender roles in this tribe, but she wasn’t going to try to change things when she was so new to the tribe.

Saazul had finally learned to feed herself, at least. Utel could actually enjoy her own food without little fingers constantly walking across her plate. The chatter was never-ending, however. She had learned to just nod and agree with whatever babble was coming out at that given time.

Nork, on the other hand, had apparently had other things to do and had left camp practically at dawn. Utel assumed he was off fishing for the tribe. If she only knew how wrong she was….

One last thing to do before I actually start writing: introduce you to the families and lots I added to my game for this save. (Also, make sure you check the Challenge Home Page link below if you’re interested in game details like the ageing scheme I’m using.) All of the below lots and families are pulled off the gallery by searching hashtags, and I’m including item names and EA ids of each piece, so if you are interested in them, you can grab them, too.

The first thing I want to do before I start writing this new challenge is introduce you to the family and their house. Both are on the gallery, if you’re interested in downloading them. In fact, there’s also a smaller version of the cabin uploaded earlier, because I had to add room for their toddlers.

“Do I need a new challenge? No. Should I start a new challenge? No. But I want to get back to blogging in the worst way, and I’m afraid to jump back into existing stories until I get the hang of writing again… At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. I’ve started this particular challenge before, and didn’t get very far… so it deserves another look. Then I have this young family from yet another challenge that didn’t get very far (because I mis-read the rules and missed something rather massive)… and I am absolutely in love with them. So I figured, why not restart the Simerican Settlers Challenge… and bend the rules just far enough to allow me to start with an existing family instead of just the one founder.”

So, that’s the plan. I can’t promise that I will be updating this regularly, nor can I guesstimate how long I’ll play it before feeling confident enough to pick up my old stories where I left off… so don’t ask. I just don’t know.

Now, on to the challenge. The challenge I picked for the young McPherson family is the “Simerican Settlers” Challenge. It’s not one I wrote, nor have I done any updating to it…. so some changes may have to be made along the line, as I am approaching this mostly from a story standpoint.