Week 13 Day 3 - Money is a curse

The Maccaroni Island residents never heard about a saying like "Money makes the world go around". Even so, a clear gap between rich and poor has developed. It's probably not a surprise that the Redwards hold the biggest values, while the fisher families up north belong to the poor group.

Lately several 3rd generation residents have left the household where they grew up, forcing the moving out person to get his or her fair share of household values. Before a child moves out, the total values of the parents are divided on the number of not yet moved out children. This is easy when the first child leaves the nest, because the household might be able to spend savings. But when the next child moves out, it might get harder. One child is supposed to take over the main home, which will often be valued higher than the one heir's share. Or the parents own different assets like Maccaroni Bank shares, community lots, or specific land. Then they need to decide who will inherite what?

Over at Redward Ranch, 6 Redward Heights, Randal's horses had a foal, there are now 4 horses on the ranch; Wildhorse (brown), Mazita (centered), Bliss (in box) and the foal Lucky. Bliss is actually Lucky's granny :-).

The only way to make money as a Horseman, is to sell the horses. This far he only sold 2 animals.

This morning Randal was as grumpy as ever, trying to calculate the family's fortune. When Rosanne moved out, she should have §56.998. She got some land in the western region, and some land in the eastern region, but the remaining §47.411 Randal put on hold. He had to make a plan for the Redwards before Rosanne would get more values. She needed none of their 2 houses, and then there was only the bank shares and the Nectary left.

Randal had already borrowed way more than the allowed §10.000 from Maccaroni Bank. Because he has access to the bank books, he has adjusted the numbers, to officially show a loan of only §10.000. So, currently §8.669 is a secret that he doesn't pay loan interests of.

Now he had made a deal with Carie Peel to buy her 10% shares as soon as she has raised the rest of the money needed to buy the local Café. Corinne doesn't like her husband's hidden businesses at all!

The original settlers had 4 kids per couple, and then agreed that the next generation should have minimum 3 kids per couple. By increasing the population they made survival way easier.

The fisherman families reside in the northern region. They are the Blumington household and the Black household.

At least Randal and Corinne own two nice homes, the Redward Ranch where they live, and the old red house across the road, where Randal's parents once settled. His sister Constance R. Hamming lives in the 3rd house (left).

And yes, there was built a water tower. The households at Greench Farm (southern region) required the water tower to be located near their farmland, but Randal and his son Yamir insisted on building the tower west of the central region. Up on the mountain there is still some smoke from the not quite dormant volcano.

Over at 9 Yea-Low Ring (just outside the top-right of the picture), Dorothy R. and Alex Yea-Low had decided to leave the main house to their oldest son, Reynar. He inherited a total of §30.355 which was almost enough to cover the house. He had to get a minor bank loan.

Reynar and Graica had made a deal, as she wil move in with him. That's the reason why the rest of this household moved to a smaller house they built back when they married. Nobody lives in that house now, it's located down at Sunrise Valley.

That's right, even Dorothy refers to the Health Care center as the Hospital now. She is still the only one working there.

Let's return ti Redward Ranch. Father and son are debating the future...

Yamir has been a young adult for quite some time, but he is still single as can be.

Only the Yea-Lows are rich and good enough in Randal's eyes, but well - they are all related, so Yamir and his siblings will need to look to the southern region or (Similius forbid!) to the northern region.

Randal took Yamir for a ride. Randal is well experienced, but Yamir hardly spent time with the horses at all. If he gets to ride regularly, maybe he would begin to like it more?

During the ride, Randal kept thinking of their future. What if Yamir got the red house, and Yvilla got the farm. Could he include a certain claim with the heritage, like Yamir's oldest son would need to buy the ranch?

At 9 Yea-Low Ring, Alex and Dorothy had moved out with Yesador, Richelle and Irena - and one of the cats. Graica had moved in, leaving her old granny Bianca with uncle Alfonso. After all she had helped them for a while, she never had promised them to stay forever.

Of course Graica didn't agree. She didn't even want to be rescued. She likes to live on Maccaroni Island, it's the only world she knows. All the talk about the other world, scares her. The other night she saw the ship passing their island, but luckily she managed to distract Reynar long enough for the ship to pass unnoticed. Graica had given it lots of thought lately, she felt it was wrong of her, but still she didn't want to be found by strangers.

More households did split lately:
Rebecka Black moving out inherited §11.053 - she got some land and a little savings.
Graica Greench (who actually moved out some time ago) inherited §10.000 - she got 3 small lots up north at Black Heights and a little money. The land is very close to the volcano and not really useful.

More to come in a long week :-)

Week 13 Day 2: On the move

Last night Graica saw a ship passing their island, but she panicked and distracted Reynar, resulting in the ship passing without him noticing it. It was very selfish of Graica, causing them all not to be rescued, and today is a rather tough day on her.

But, before checking on her, let's stop by at 4 Black Heights, up north. Rebecka grew up, and was preparing to move out! She has been spending lots of time together with the much older LaShawn Gladiston, and she couldn't wait to join him at one of the smaller parts of Greench Farm.

So, it was time to leave. In case someone expected to see Rebecka's dad, Christopher, waving his oldest daughter off, he was working at the House of Law.

Rebecka had just one tiny worry. LaShawn never asked her to move in, she was just taking that for granted...

Also this morning, at 11 Rounder Lane which is in the southern region, Cody Mayor and Rosanne Redward were busy in the garden. Cody produces garden plants, and Rosanne is still learning. They are not yet married, but expect their first baby. Counting from Rosanne, it will be 4th generation, the first 4th generation resident on Maccaroni Island!

Cody was still on call as the judge representing the southern region.

Rosanne's mom, Corinne Y. Redward, had at least one good eye to Cody, for a very long time. She will probaby not be thrilled about the wedding, but Corinne is already an elder, and well... she has no choice but accepting.

In the same region, at 2 Greench Farm, Rebecka Black had finally arrived at LaShawn Gladiston's house...

It actually seems like Rebecka was about to cry. They sure belong together, and she is very much aware that LaShawn will turn elderly any day now.

Cody walked over to Greench Market, it's a grocery store and farmers market mostly run by the Greench Farm. Cody bought the pests serum from his brother Archie, and then their sister Beatrice entered the store. She was still trying to figure out a flower she recently grew, a weird thing she never saw before. She described it to the two others.

Their dad was Gabriel Greench. He was a dedicated farmer by heart, and when he and Greta went on their honeymoon, starting our story, he thought he would miss his little farm so much that he brought books for daydreaming. Those books now exists at 3 Greench Farm, the main house.

Archie's wife, Bridgette B. Greench, was taking a break in their garden. The farm is not just a home, or a job, but a lifestyle. They tend the garden for hours every day, and now that all 5 kids have reached teenage stage, both Archie and Bridgette reached their lifetime goals of raising 5 kids. 5 kids, but still none to take over the farm!

Bertil returned from a ride. The horse is old Pepper, originally bought by Bertil's granddad, Gabriel Greench. Bertil was asked to take over the farm, and begged for a day to consider it.

Both Archie and Bridgette are quite relaxed and understandable persons. If Bertil was their only kid, it would naturally have been a different matter...

Bertil saw the Unicorn only once. Being the only Equestrian on Maccaroni Island, he should be the one to befriend the shy animal.

Then Eileen, the youngest, popped up...

Eileen just grew up. She is the one finding her aunt Bella and granny Bianca in the Village Hall the other day.

Eileen's cousin, Blanca, lives across the road. They are same age, and they often hang out together.

Graica is Eileen's older sister. She is the one who moved up north to help granny Bianca and uncle Alfonso with the house.

They walked about for a while. Left the southern region, heading west.

The decided to pull a prank on the Redwards.

Well, they managed to hide, and for a few minutes life wasn't boring at all.

Up north, there are still only 2 houses. Lots of open land, but ground it's less fertile and not much grows up here. A group of wild dogs ran up towards the mountain. No wait, it's the 4 dogs of Constance R. Hamming's household. The first dog is Cairo, the puppy Constance found in the woods.

The 2nd dog must be Cairo's puppy, Brownie.

The blue house is the home of the Blumingtons. This is where Graica Greench lives, temporarily to help granny Bianca and uncle Alfonso. Some time ago Graica planted some strange seeds, one seed turned out to carry burning fruits! Graica never saw such a plant before... no wait, it was the plant that the Redwards grow and sell as lamps! Would this be a rescue to this very poor household? Producing lamps?

After a few minutes, Graica was back on track reflecting over the ship she saw last night. She had been looking for it hundreds of times today, but no ships out there. She felt bad for avoiding them all to be found, but she always thought of Maccaroni Island as her beloved home ground, no reason to get anywhere else.

She knew that others might want to get to the other world. She should have alarmed Reynar, they could have made contact with the boat, and Graica could still have chosen to stay here. Alone? Because Reynar would obviously have left the island without even looking back!

There he was!

Reynar lives with his parents, Dorothy and Alex Yea-Low, and his 3 siblings. But now his parents and siblings might move out, leaving the main residence to Reynar.

Well, no comments needed. The once so lovely and naive Bianca Blumington has really turned into a grumpy old crazy woman. She is the only one of the 8 original settlers still around. And turning 125 years old, she certainly seems to live forever.