Harvest Moon Anton’s Diary: Year 2 Autumn Part II

Day 15
The second harvest of carrots was ready today, and so once again the entire morning was spent harvesting and watering. There is plenty of time to replace the carrots, but I have worked so hard in the fields so far this season that I think I will give it a rest. The rest of the day was spent on the usual farm tasks and the never-ending foraging before I took some time out in the evening to tidy up the growing area.

Unfortunately, even as I went to go into bed at 10pm, I suddenly realised that I had neglected to feed the animals! Cursing my stupidity, I had to quickly rush out and make sure they were all fed, before finally collapsing into my bed.

Day 16
I had assured myself that the baby would not come until winter, so imagine my surprise to wake up today and find Popuri in the early throes of labour! Whilst the doctor and Elli oversaw the birth, I paced impatiently outside, with Lilia trying to calm me all the while. Finally, I was allowed in to see my newborn son, whom I have named Tony after my own father. Now that fatherhood has started in earnest, my life will be very different.

Day 17
Since Popuri never leaves the house anyway and I have farming tasks to accomplish, we have agreed that she will look after the baby during the day- although I have to admit that when I went in at lunchtime, she was pottering around in the kitchen whilst leaving him to cry in bed (I did try to get him back to sleep, but an invisible barrier seemed to prevent me from interacting with him).

Since I was unable to accomplish anything on the farm yesterday, today was spent checking up on the animals (although not unhappy, they did crowd around me for food) and giving the parched crops the water they needed, whilst in the evening I tidied up the farm. I also popped into Saibara’s to have my hoe upgraded- I won’t be using it for a little bit, and I am now mindful of wanting to have a farm that is beyond reproach.

Day 18
None of the accursed villagers have congratulated me on the birth of my son; I can understand that they do not have the same degree of involvement as I do, but even Lilia and Rick- Tony’s grandmother and uncle respectively- said absolutely nothing about him when I went over to buy chicken feed today.

Anyway, that aside, today was spent harvesting the latest crop of green peppers (thanks to the rain I only needed to water inside the hothouse), before tidying up the farm, tending to the animals and foraging could all be seen to. I also stopped into see Louis and Gotz in the afternoon, although I may as well not have bothered as they did not have anything new and interesting to say. I think I will have to go back to watching television if I want some fresh ideas.

In other news, I have decided to shear most of my sheep, keeping just Zonetrae prepared for the festival. I will not take the unnecessary precaution of having back up sheep when it could deprive me of precious profits.

Day 19
I know that autumn is the harvest season, but I can’t help feeling that my farm is pushing it a bit, for today yet another eggplant crop was ready, and I have a feeling the cabbages will be done soon. Once I would have been overjoyed by the profit this meant, but now that my fortune exceeds 450,000G, I have become jaded and even blasé about money. If there was somewhere I could spend it all on interesting diversions, it would be different, but all I can do in Mineral Town is buy snacks or plough it back into the farm- why can’t I at least go on a gambling trip to Vegas?

I have started chopping lumber again in my spare time (for what purpose, I cannot really say, but surely the man who has everything else could do with lumber), and whilst out this afternoon, I happened to bump into Karen by the hot springs. Since I was unsure as to whether I would have time to nip home and bring back some truffles and pizza for her, I opted for a quick chat instead; in the past, she has been quite cool towards me, but she is definitely beginning to open up to my manly charms.

Day 20
Happily, I was given a break from harvesting today, which gave me the chance to concentrate on other tedious and repetitive tasks, as well as kick start the revival of Project G by purchasing a further eleven bags of grass (I cannot plant them until the hoe returns, but it is important to be prepared). I also took some truffles down to the supermarket in the hopes of presenting them to Karen, but when she was nowhere to be seen I was forced to take them all home again.

I should also mention that Barley came over this morning to ask if I was entering a sheep in tomorrow’s festival- as planned, I sent Zonetrae with him. I must remember to attend the festival tomorrow, for hopefully I can win the prize and gain a sheep that somehow produces golden wool (will it be similar to steel wool, I wonder?).

I must also note that the Magic Red Flowers have finally come into bud, and disappointingly, most of them are the default blue with only a few red ones scattered here and there. Why are they even called Magic Red Flowers when a red specimen is so hard to obtain?

Day 21
Since I was mindful of the approaching sheep festival, my morning was spent rushing around the farm, although with a new harvest of Green Peppers having arrived I was unable to do anything other than attend to the crops before it was time to head over to Barley’s place. The festival itself followed much the same format as the cow festival, although once again I must wonder who the other entrants were, as aside from Barley (who doesn’t enter), no one else around here seems to be in the business of raising sheep. Perhaps it does not matter, as I was able to win the prize, and should now have a sheep that produces golden wool.

In the evening, I attended to the animals, but given that it had been a tiring day, I decided to forego foraging and head straight to bed.

Day 22
It is amazing how much time is saved on a rainy day, and so this morning I decided to put the hours saved by not having to water into harvesting the newly flowered Magic Red Flowers. I have learned that the red variety is so rare that there is actually a market to sell them, although now that I am a man of money I am not overly concerned about supplementing my already considerable income.

Once Saibara’s place was open, I made sure to go down and collect my upgraded hoe- impressively, it can now till five squares of land at once, although I must admit that I got so carried away whilst resuming Project G that I accidentally threw away a whole bag of grass seeds. Nonetheless, I have a vision for my pasture now, and it is one that I hope to eventually be able to implement.

In the evening, I got back to the neglected task of foraging; whilst out, I have begun smashing a particularly irritating rock that reappears daily with my hammer. My hope is that in time the hammer will be ready for upgrading to Mystrile.

I must also mention that since Zonetrae has returned, I was able to shear her and observe gold wool for the first time- oddly, the wool appears white when on her body, but immediately turns gold once sheared. At least the gold yarn produced from it is attractive.

Day 23
I decided to dedicate today purely to working on the farm, in the hopes that my newfound vision of the ideal farm can be brought to life. First, however, I had to get through the usual tasks, including harvesting the latest crop of eggplants and the long awaited cabbages. The hothouse has now been planted with two more plots of cabbages and two plots of Orange Cup Flowers, a rare and exotic plant that is said to produce highly prized fruits.

Once all that was taken care of, I was able to go outside and begin the process of optimising the pasture. After using the hammer to take away some troublesome rotted lumber, I began dividing the whole thing into two- one section for crop plots, and the other for grass, separated by a lumber fence. I am unsure as to whether to fence the outside and thus create a huge field- the effort involved means that I would probably never put the chickens or livestock out on it, but the horse could roam around there on sunny days. Speaking of which, I have barely interacted with my horse recently, so it is probably time to show him some attention.

Day 24
Just as I feared, my horse had lost a heart of love for me due to neglect, and so today I made sure to get him out and gallop him around the pasture. Afterwards, I got back to the usual tasks, including harvesting the latest crop of green peppers- once all that was attended to, I was able to get back to finishing up the plots, preparing the fence, and planting a little more grass. In many ways, this vast expanse of grass seems pointless (especially as I am disinclined to ever show my animals the light of day), but even so I cannot turn back now.

Day 25
Somehow, today I was able to complete the usual farming tasks by mid-morning, leaving me at a loss as to how to fill the rest of the day. After a round of foraging, I decided to take a bunch of flowers into town and see if I couldn’t work my magic on Elli, although in order to disguise the reason for my visit to her at the clinic I pretended that I was there to have a check-up. According to the doctor, my body has been getting weak- hardly a surprise given the amount of work I have to do on a normal day. He tried to persuade me to buy some of his Bodigizer medicine, but even though money is no object I decided to opt for the hot spring instead. Barley and May were there, as per usual for Monday, but whilst I hardly felt comfortable undressing with them around I felt even more disinclined to wait.

After my bath I took a refreshing walk up Mother’s Hill where I foraged a little more- I may never have any need for the items I forage, but I might as well collect what I can just in case.

Day 26
I had only just got up this morning when a worried Popuri came to me and said that Tony was ill! Since I do not want anything to happen to him, I agreed that we should take him to the clinic, where the doctor reassured us it was just a cold and gave him a shot to help him recover. Unfortunately, Popuri was so worried that she wouldn’t even let me go out to tend to the animals, and by the time Tony seemed to be on the mend, I was too weak with exhaustion to even want to go outside.

Day 27
Happily, the farm weathered my day off with little incident, although the hungry cows did refuse to produce any milk despite my most intense squeezing efforts. I was also lucky enough to catch Ann when I went foraging in the morning- she was about to leave but I whistled to her and she stayed long enough for me to chat to her and hand over a mushroom I had just found on the ground (being ill-prepared for our meeting, I had nothing better to offer).

In the afternoon, I decided to head down to the supermarket to buy more grass seeds for the final stages of Project G, but as soon as I set out on my way, I realised that I should take along some gifts just in case Karen should be there. Luckily, my trip back to the house to fill my rucksack with truffles was indeed fortunate, as I was able to curry favour with Karen by giving them to her. I also happened to see Elli there, and whilst I had nothing left over for her, I made sure to charm her with a quick chat.

Afterwards, I decided to take the opportunity to finally attend confession at church, but although I wanted to confess for littering, Carter tried to get me to admit to having been unkind to either a villager or an animal. Since I had no wish to confess to something I have not done, I merely left- perhaps it has been so long since I littered that I have automatically been forgiven anyway.

Since I felt rather exhausted by evening, I decided it was high time to raid the fridge and eat some of the dishes I have cooked over the weeks. In the end, I chose to down some Fried Noodles and a piece of Raisin Bread, although the bread in question was a little bit on the stale and hard side.

Day 28
With the exception of the two lagging plants, the season’s final eggplant harvest came in today (along with more green peppers), and so I collected them all up and cut down the eggplants- soon the days of outdoor crops will be over for a while. With that done, I went down to the supermarket in the hopes that my ability with autumn crops had impressed them enough to offer spinach seeds for sale, and luckily, my hunch was correct. After purchasing four bags of spinach seeds and chatting to Karen and Mary, I returned home to see to the animals and concentrate on the last leg of Project G. I can now finally confirm that the planting of grass is complete, and that I have more grass than I will ever need.

Day 29
I have worked so hard this autumn that I have decided it is time to take a well deserved rest. Therefore, after harvesting the last couple of eggplants and a few green peppers and of course attending to the usual tasks, I went back into the house at 8:40am in order to sleep until tomorrow.

Day 30
The lazy mood stayed with me today, but nonetheless I tried to do a little more than yesterday, including cutting down the last of the green pepper plants and tidying up the few weeds that had dared to sprout over the last two days. I also took my watering can down to Saibara to have it upgraded to Mystrile- it is hardly necessary, but gold seems so commonplace compared to high grade mystrile.