Disclaimer: I do not own Stardew Valley

...

It was difficult blaming my grandfather for how my life had upended and been flipped on it's head so quickly. After all, it wasn't every day that you inherited a farmhouse and the land it was built on. Most would consider it a great deal of fortune and be thankful for the opportunity.

I was not.

Before having found myself in Stardew Valley, the small quaint town absolute hours away from anything resembling a city, I had been an office worker. It had been a simple, yet unfulfilling, life. Day in, day out, I had stared at a computer and done what was asked of me. The opportunity for promotion was minimal and I had felt as if I was nothing more than a number in the system.

When the notification that my grandfather had passed away, I had been saddened by the news. While I hadn't seen him in what seemed like a lifetime, he was still family. When the Will was read some time later listing me as the sole inheritor of his property I had been in a state of shock.

I am partially ashamed to admit it but my first thought had been to sell it. After all, I was an office worker operating in a city hundreds of miles away, I didn't know the first thing about operating a farm. It had only been the persuasion of my parents which led me to pack up the life I had been living into all of two suitcases and take the leap into country life.

So, with a handful of dollars and two suitcases, I had boarded the bus to Stardew Valley.

Upon arrival I had been greeted by the mayor of the town, Lewis. My initial thought was that it was odd for the mayor of all people to be waiting at the bus stop for a new face to arrive. I had been fully prepared to wander aimlessly until I found a street sign leading me in the right direction.

Lewis was friendly enough although his speech had seemed well prepared in advance. I didn't know whether that was because of a number of people who had recently moved to the town and he had done it on a number of occasions or whether he had been rehearsing into the mirror for weeks on end. Maybe it had been something completely different but it was hard to tell.

The second person I had met had been a woman called Robin who worked as the local construction worker. Whether she was the sole constructor or whether she had a team of employees she was in charge of wasn't particularly clear.

She had explained that, when necessary, she would come and do construction or repair work; for a fee of course. Well, the fee wasn't really all of it. Robin had gone into explanation that if I had wanted, say, a chicken coop constructed, I would not only have to pay her but have to provide the necessary materials to have such a building constructed. There were two things about that statement which had taken me off guard. Firstly, I'd never had a pet of any description and the though of the first animals I would be looking after were chickens was laughable. Second, I was ninety nine percent sure that the construction companies in the city didn't require you to bring your own lumber, stone or metal.

Thankfully, or not depending on your point of view, the property I had inherited had seemed to garner quite a bit of thick vegetation in the form of a small forest a few hundred feet south of the farmhouse. On the topic of the farmhouse, on the outside it did look quite quaint and I was intrigued as to what it would be like inside.

I had been disappointed with what I had found. A single room was all that greeted me, complete with a bed with a worn out mattress, a big backed television that sat on the ground and a bar fridge that Lewis had filled with fresh produce. I only knew that it had been Lewis because there had been a handwritten note placed inside of the fridge saying so, otherwise it might have been rather creepy.

The main consolation was that the small house had a fireplace which seemed like something of a novelty. While it was still the earlier days of Spring, it did give me quite a bit of time to figure out how to actually build and make a fire. It wasn't exactly a skill that one picked up in an office role.

So, with the idea of living out of my suitcases until such a time I could afford a wardrobe, I had had my fill of veggies before going to bed, thankful that the mattress seemed more than comfortable.

That brought me to now with the sound of a rooster having woken me from my slumber. My initial fear after having gotten out of bed was that there was no running water. This was only half true. While there was no running water inside the house, there was an outdoor shower tucked away behind the house connected to a rainwater tank. Said tank was also connected to a small basin where I washed my plate from the night before, along with the bowl of cereal I had this morning.

Now that I had washed and cleaned myself, I tossed on some loose track pants and an old shirt and considered my first plan of attack. Arguably, there were many different things that I could do but picking one to start was harder than it looked. It wasn't as if my grandfather had left a manual on how to farm.

Part of me had debated about going into town and asking around but that would be an awful way to introduce myself to the townsfolk. 'Hey there, I'm the new farmer in town. Can you tell me how to plant seeds in the ground?' Yeah, I could tell that that wasn't going to end well.

Hence the first course of action I decided on was to clear some land from the rubbish that had devoured what some had considered a front lawn. Weeds had grown to almost knee height and there were a number of fallen branches and loose rocks littered about. Thankfully, while finding the outdoor shower, I had also found some of my grandfather's tools. While they looked relatively run down for the most part, they had looked capable of the necessary tasks. If I wanted to do some more heavy duty stuff I'd need to get them properly repaired.

Hence, with a scythe in my hands, I went to work. The horizontal slashes weren't pretty in nature, I'd never wielded such an item in my life after all. What should have been a rather clean swing was clunky in nature. An action which should have wielded solid results was barely able to do the bare minimal. By the time I had finished, sweat was pouring down my face as the late morning sun blared down my skin. Raising up my hand, I wiped away a good deal of the sweat with the back of my hand before gazing over what I had done.

I was glad nobody was around to see my disappointment.

Still though, it was a start and I had most definitely worked up an appetite. Given that my fridge consisted solely of vegetables and milk it didn't particularly make for much of a lunch option. So, begrudgingly, I knew that I would have to leave the comfort of my property and head into town.

I had really hoped to have avoided that today.

...

The walk towards town wasn't a long one, it was just tedious given that it was the one long stretch towards the heart of Stardew Valley. On the left of my walk there had been the road which I had been deposited at by the bus. There was another bus parked there but it looked inoperable, not a soul anywhere near it. It didn't even look as if there were any security cameras or anything of the sort to prevent the vehicle from getting vandalized.

Another small reminder that I was no longer in the comfort of the city.

Dirt tracks soon gave way to brick paths as I entered the plaza of Stardew Valley and I took in my new home town. Underwhelming was the first thing that came to mind but probably a more apt term would be that the town was quaint. There were street signs on the corner but frankly I didn't see the point in them. Nearly every building was visible on the outset. If my eyes were truly telling me what I could see, there was a blacksmith across the river. It seemed strange but arguably nothing I had seen thus far really depicted the town as being normal.

Strolling down the plaza I could see a few of the townsfolk going amonst their day to day business. Two women even laid eyes on me before speaking to one another in hushed whispers. I was probably the main topic of conversation given that new faces probably didn't come into town all that often. Still though, I didn't want to really go through full meet and greet processes today. I already smelled of sweat and shame, I just wanted to get what I needed and head back to the farm.

Walking past the medical facility, I found myself outside what I would describe as the local grocer. Given I just needed a few objects to get myself by over the next couple days it would be more than enough. There was a small chime as I entered the building and surveyed the surroundings. A few isles of necessities were located on my right while there was a display bench for fresh produce on the left. Said bench was looking rather measly at the moment.

The store clerk was currently engaged in conversation with another customer, one who was restricted to a wheelchair. Given the two of them were distracted by the ongoing transaction, it gave me peace as I picked up a shopping basket and made my way through the isles looking for my necessities. One of which was sunscreen; if I was expecting to spend hour after hour working my property then I wasn't going to be baking myself red. It might have only been the start of Spring now but UV protection was still important.

Gathering a few other things in order to feed myself over the coming days, I did stumble across packets of vegetable seeds. Parsnips, Potatoes, Cauliflower seeds soon found there way into my shopping basket as I did some numbers in my head. I didn't particularly want to get to the counter and not be able to pay for everything that I had picked up.

Finally making my way to the counter, the clerk gave me a beaming smile. It was a smile that I was all too familiar with in the city, one which basically pleaded for my services as opposed to shopping at a competitor. I wasn't even sure if there was a competitor in the town but given I hadn't really explored all that far yet I wouldn't put it past the possibility. After all, this was a small grocer. If some big company decided to basically come in and hold the town hostage by having the same products at more competitive prices, smaller businesses like this would struggle.

Still, wasn't particularly my problem.

"Welcome, how can I help you today?" he asked as I placed the basket on the counter top. I guess I hadn't particularly been one for small talk because by the time I'd managed to even consider responding he had already scanned half of the items in my basket and was starting to comment on them. "Bit of a green thumb are we?"

I had wanted to comment that it wasn't by choice but chose to remain silent as he continued. "If you ever find yourself growing more than you know what to do with, I'm always happy to take some off your hands. I'm always happy to provide the locals with fresh produce."

Given how empty his fresh produce display was, I imagine he was desperate for stock. "I'll keep that in mind," I said as I paid for my groceries. It almost looked as if the small talk wasn't yet over as the shopkeep went to speak again when a door to my right opened and his attention was drawn away. A quick peek saw a young woman with vibrant purple hair close the door she had just stepped through. Given the nature of the small community I found it odd that somebody had dyed their hair such a colour. Perhaps they were going through a rebellious phase? Regardless, the distraction was all that was needed as I took my purchase and made my way out, not even looking behind me as I was given a courteous goodbye.

I didn't give one back.

...

After having finished my lunch, I looked upon the patch that I was going to work on for the rest of the afternoon. There was still huge deals of clearing to do but given how I had spent the morning, I had decided to postpone that for now. My immediate objective was to put some seeds into the ground, something which still felt like such a foreign concept to me.

I knew the concept at least, as well as a couple of little things. From having watched my father grow tomato plants in the backyard, I knew that I couldn't sow the seeds too close to one another otherwise the plants would struggle to survive. They also couldn't be buried too deep into the ground otherwise they would struggle to sprout.

Whether this was the correct order or not I wasn't sure but, again, it wasn't like I was a green thumb. Utilizing the equipment my grandfather had left, I got to work breaking through the top layer of soil. It wasn't rock hard, we had just come out of winter after all, but it was still a bit of a surreal feeling. I imagine such a task had taken my father mere minutes in his heyday but here I was struggling away under the sun.

Again and again I struck the ground until I assumed I had enough space for all of my seedlings. Now came the meticulous part of driving my index finger into the soil at roughly equal intervals, deep enough to plant each seed individually. The moment I drove my finger into the ground I immediately knew that it would take me weeks to get the dirt out from under my fingernail. Still, I pressed on doing it as often as necessary before filling each hole with a seed.

Pressing the soil over the top of what would hopefully grow into a vegetable for the last time, I stood at full height and stretched out my back. I was going to be stiff in the morning, that was for sure. There was still one aspect left to do as I walked over to the small water source nearby. Calling it a natural dam would be the most accurate description and it was located just on the edge of the property. Kneeling next to it, I lowered the watering can I had found into the water before pulling it out once it was full. Small droplets littered the ground as I walked over to my soon to be crop.

Thankfully watering the ground was far easier than anything else I had done today.

Once that was finished, I placed the now empty can next to my front door before entering my home. I was hot, sweaty, dirty and in desperate need of a shower. As much as I wanted just to pass out in my bed, that wasn't the option right now. The land may have been tended to but I still needed to look after myself.

So with that in mind, I set about my routine knowing that my first day had finished.

Hopefully my second wouldn't be anywhere near as chaotic.

...

Hope you enjoyed.