March 1, Spring. Year 20

Muffy sure gives the weirdest presents. A journal? I haven't had one of these things since I was kid, where the heck should I even start?

Feh… I guess an introduction would suffice? I'll just pretend there's someone who'll read this at some future date.

My name is Claire. I've lived on the Sunshine farm for my entire life, with my mom, dad, siblings and Uncle Takakura. I just turned twenty last month, I have blond hair, blue eyes, and I'm… well I think I'm five foot four, but it's hard to tell.

(And he's not really my uncle, but he's been my family's friend since before I was born, so he's always been uncle to me.)

My other family includes Uncle Carter, who works over at the excavation site with my friend-and-distant—very distant—cousin Flora, and Muffy, a more closely related cousin, who doubles as my best friend. The rest of our family is pretty scattered. Muffy's folks live in Ming City across the waters from our island, and I've got cousins over in Mineral Town, beyond the mountains. Oh, and my sister Pony… er, Jill took over Grampa Evan's farm a couple years back after he passed away, so she lives over there too. Then there's my older brother Jack, who lives in Flowerbud taking over from Grampa Max. He left a year before Pony did.

Everyone gets together at Year's End, and for birthdays and things like that. Jack's got the farthest to travel, so we mostly only see him once or twice, for the Sowing festival if we're lucky. Since Mineral Town is closer, I spend a lot of my time over there, with their festivals. We have festivals here too, but no one actually orchestrates them, they just sorta happen by tradition.

Mmm… My parents died this past December, just before the Year End festival. Dad's really an avid fisherman in the winter, so he and Mom were out on his boat when a storm blew up. The boat capsized, and… well, that's all she wrote, I guess.

It still doesn't seem real, that I'm in charge of my Dad's farm. But then… I think I wasn't meant to be a farming girl. I sleep late and just looking at the cows, sheep, ducks and chickens makes me depressed. I kinda asked Uncle T to clear the place out. I haven't decided yet if I want to demolish the buildings. I probably won't, since I asked how much it would cost to rebuild them. Man that's a painful sum.

I guess it's a good thing Mom and Dad made the lumber sheds out of that golden lumber stuff too, there's no way either of them are coming down… And the maker shed! I can use that too, I guess… The canner, maybe? Mom and Dad always said that canned foods sold for more money.

..Man, It seems like so much effort to run the place. I wonder if I'm cut out to even try? Winter was easy, but now…?

Muffy says I'm holding it all inside, and I guess I really haven't mourned for my folks. I tried, at their funeral, but I just couldn't make myself cry. I don't feel particularly numb either, but then again, there's been… a lot happening. I mean, the guy I was dating in the city, Damien, hasn't called in forever! Then again I did land quite the punch when he said I should stick around for one more party before heading home. The jerk.

He can be nice, but sometimes, I swear! (It was a nice punch, considering my back still hurt from the new tattoo application.)

Anyways, the only animals left now are the dogs and cats. There's a lot of them too.

There's the two house cats, one outside cat, and two farm dogs. Then there's Serri the horse-barn kitty, who's the mommy of the other three cats on the farm. The two indoor cats are Clara and Tux. Clara is actually a long haired calico like her mommy, and Tux is a tuxedo cat. I haven't yet figured out how Serri gave birth to a tuxedo cat. (Both are girls). The outside cat is Coconut, because he's brown like one, and he's got the hardest head of all my kitties. Seriously, I've seen him run into the shipping bin and walk away with no stagger at all. I think he was chasing a mouse… I still grin thinking about it.

He comes in when there's storms though, and so does Serri. All the outside animals come in during storms, I'm too paranoid to let them out.

The two dogs are Puppy and his mother Ducky… well, Dakota actually. Ducky is the nickname Pony gave her when we were kids, and it kinda stuck.

Dakota was actually Mom's dog, but she likes me fine. Puppy is.. well, a baby. He follows me everywhere. Uncle T says it's cute (and he doesn't even like dogs), but it's sometimes annoying to step back and trip over the dog. I've tried chaining him up, but he just whines loud enough to be heard around the whole valley. Uncle Carter gave me unintentional proof last night, when he asked me if I was doing puppy torture.

I've never been more mortified… Uncle Carter just laughed.

I'm trying to train him now, but we keep losing the ball. Or he keeps following me indoors and messing with stuff in the kitchen. Bah. Dogs. I like my cats better, but if I can train Puppy up, he'll make a good guard dog. Dakota already chases wild dogs if they come onto the farm. But then again the dog-draw was the animals, and with them gone…

There used to be horses too, but my bro took Dad's old horse to Flowerbud with him. And since I don't race, I never really felt the need to get a new one. I've been thinking about it lately, though. It'll speed the time spent in transit between here and Pony's place.

Uh…. Oh, Uncle T's been making noises at me about getting married soon. My parents were doing the same thing before the passed away, and I gave him the same answer I gave them when ever the subject came up.

When I find someone I like enough, I'll get married.

Problem is, of the eligible guys in the Valley, there's no one who really attracts me. I've grown up with most of them!

Marlin adores Celia, though you wouldn't know it by the way he acts. Marlin's such a grump at times. A nice guy at heart, just… surly. He doesn't smile too often. But then, he's got health problems, so I guess I can't blame him. No matter what he's always going to be dependant on Vesta for farm aid.

Rock is far, far to self-centered for me to like in that manner. I mean, underneath the vapid idiocy I know he's got a good heart, but most of the time I end up smacking him on the head. And I think he's got a thing for Lumina. The poor girl.

Griffin… isn't half bad, but Muffy likes him I think, and she's had her heart broken enough that I'm not going to get in the way if she wants to pursue him. Even if she gives weird presents, I still want her to be happy.

I'm not even going to go into what would be wrong with marrying Uncle Carter… Scary thoughts indeed. Beside that there's Flora who helps him with excavations. She's good at self-defense, so I wouldn't want to do anything to annoy her. She's teaching me after all!

And then there's Gustafa, who's a bit of a wandering musician. His home's here, but he only recently moved back so I don't know a whole lot about him. He's alright I guess, I think he's Lumina's second cousin (His nose is way to similar to Ramona's to not be related, hehe.), but he's just… too focused on music. It's hard to get him to speak on any other subject, and while I like singing (Pony, Karen and I all sing for the Music Festival in Mineral Town) I really don't know anything about it. It's kind of boring to be honest…

Besides, he and Nami actually spend a bit of time hanging out. Nami's always got interesting stories about her travels. I wonder if she's thinking of something else while he talks, or if she's actually listening…?

Oh well. Not my problem I guess. Suffice it to say I like the gang, but not in a romantic sort of way. And the Mineral Town boys are roughly the same, the Doctor and Elli have a weird 'working' relationship, Ann's apparently hanging around a drifter a lot, Popuri has Kai—or she would if Rick would stop trying to control her…--I think Mary and Gray are an item, and when I'm not around Rick all but belongs to Karen. (She can have him, I don't really like the clingy type.)

Maybe I'll go to Harvest Goddess Pond tomorrow and ask her for help. She's usually pretty good about delivering on wishes. And I can hire the lumber team to help me clear all the boulders and things from the Valley thanks to the storms we had this winter.

Phew… my hand is starting to cramp, I think it's time to call it a night.