Elaine Hardy has moved to Lonely Island to try her hand (and the rest of her as well) at the Land Lubber's Challenge. The island looks slightly different than it did when Evan Cann was giving the challenge a try just a day earlier. The large regular trash can has been hidden away and the compost bin has been placed under the little loft house. Also, the funds were adjusted to exactly what Elaine would have had in the first place ($516), to live on.

Immediately after moving to Lonely Island, Elaine (knowing she was going to be dealing with a year of four summers) moved her existing garden plots into the shade underneath the loft.

She's busy planting her tomatoes now. After that, she'll sell those two fruit trees, one of which may already be diseased. She doesn't feel up to dealing with those trees, and doesn't think she'll need whatever fruit they might bear ("might" being a key word here).

Elaine has made good use of her time! She's sold off the two trees (netting herself $2400), and she's met two nice guys: Stephan Rusewicz and Bill Simpson. Now she's fishing for dinner, because her stomach has been growling for the past couple of hours, and there's nothing she's allowed to eat in the fridge!

Unfortunately, it looks like these guys aren't going to get along together. Wonder if they're fighting over Elaine's attentions?

Fishing isn't as easy as it looks!

Finally, after it gets dark, Elaine catches her first fish. Dinner at last! Just to make sure, she toughs it out and stays down by the river, catching a few more fish in the wee hours of the morning. Now she'll have a bit of a head start on the rest of her stay on the island.

Before noon the next day, Elaine makes some more drastic changes to her living situation. She adds a second palm tree which extends her natural shade, then she puts in a tiny swimming pool to help keep her cool on the hot summer days ahead.

She also takes down the fence and gate surround on the bathroom facilities, builds a slightly larger fenced-in addition to the loft, and moves the toilet and shower upstairs for more convenience (those middle-of-the-night trips, you know).

Then, before brunch, she still has time to meet Jack Todd (the mailman) and Stephanie Cann (now on her way up the stairs to the loft).

Steph has already informed Elaine that she lived here for a while, but that she (Stephanie) can see that Elaine really has an eye for the improvements!

NOTE: I thought that this type of purchasing and rearranging was allowed, but after reading the challenge guidelines once again just now, I'm wondering. The guidelines say no "improving of the furniture." At first I thought that that would mean not getting a bed with a higher sleep comfort rating and all that. If that's the case, I didn't do any of that. But if getting a swimming pool means I improved the furniture (furnishings, anyway), then I  blew it. :-(

While Elaine grilled some bass with squash, Steph went down and spent some time in the pool, explaining that she and Evan would be building one on their lot soon, but she really could use the cooling off time, since they hadn't gotten around to it yet.

All in all (being two Knowledge Sims), Elaine and Steph hit it off very well, and Steph promised to come around when she could. Evan was invited, as well.

Elaine figured out early, that the best sleeping time in the summer was right after lunch, after drinking two or three big glasses of water. Then she figured she'd take another long nap in the really early morning, after doing most of her chores during the cool of the night, by moonlight.

So far, so good! It's actually FUN to garden by moonlight (or any other time, for that matter)!

Once you have your bronze badge, the fishing gets a bit easier, too--especially when you use the Riverblossom Minnow as your lure!

Well, my goodness! Elaine probably thought she was dreaming about that big dog on her bed!

Seeing that there was a hole dug over by the road, and wondering about that "dream," Elaine dug an old dog dish out of her belongings, and filled it...just in case. She'd already been down to water and tended to her plants, and since it was after the noon hour, she decided to grill some more bass with squash. She supposed that menu would get a bit old, with time, but for now, it sounded pretty yummy!

All right! Another social contact! Jill Bruenig stopped by to greet Elaine.

A nice, cool, water balloon fight is always nice in the summer!

After the fun with Jill and a quick early-evening dip in the pool, Elaine was able to catch a couple more fish, and by then she was actually quite COLD! Good! That meant she got quite a comfortable sleep--until almost morning--without overheating!

The plants are already tended and watered. Time to compost the contents of the trash can--just before sunrise.

Oh, goodie! Elaine was up and around in time to meet Cole Turner, the paper boy!

Cole had a few minutes to hang out, so they retired to the shade under the loft, to get to know each other a little better.

After a little nap, Elaine fixed another fish meal, and then met Jim Platz, yet another teenager or young adult from the surrounding neighborhood (Elaine wondered where these young people might be coming from, since all she can see from the island is barren desert terrain).

Since everything was going so well, and since the composter had been running over, Elaine decided to overlap a bit in her gardening. She put in three nice strawberry plants. After the tomatoes are all harvested (which should be soon), she'll only do half of that area with tomatoes, and add in some bell peppers.

With all the exercise she's been getting, Elaine is having no problems staying fit.

Aaahhh!!! Jill is always up for a cooling water balloon fight!

It's been a hard couple of nights, and Elaine had to use a little more of her dwindling funds to install an old sink down by the garden. She just kept getting SO hot and dry, and climbing the stairs to use the sink upstairs just made things worse.

Somehow, even with all the heat, she has managed to harvest her first crop of tomatoes (though some of them were rather sickly). The strawberries should be getting ripe before too long, and sometime in the next couple of days, Elaine will plant some other crops, as well.

Only on a deserted desert island can you garden in your underwear...well that's the only place you SHOULD garden in your underwear!

Caryl Roennigke is always a good choice for a fishing partner.

Meeting Tracy Raymond--yet another young adult that has somehow appeared in the neighborhood!!!

Now, how in the heck did these weeds grow in this hot dry, soil?

Evan Cann has come to visit. Looks like more weeds have accompanied him!

Those water balloons sure are good at cooling things off...and keeping Evan watered!

Elaine has learned to talk to her plants, which is a great social activity, and it helps the plants out, too!

Even instant breakfasts can be HEALTHY when the fridge is stocked with vegies!

NOTE: I thought this would be OK, since the ONLY way fridge-stocked home-grown vegies can be used, is for making the regular food sparkly! In other words, if the food is NOT sparkly when it gets mixed up, it has to be discarded, because it wasn't made from NATURAL (home-grown) produce!

The PROCESS of keeping those natural vegies bug-free can be detrimental to your health...or not...depending on your point of view. For this challenge, this is the perfect state in which Elaine should remain. It will be a whole lot easier for her to finish the challenge as a plant person!

Elaine only has to get the plants through less than half of the last (fourth) summer!

Got...to...have...sunlight!!!

It was a long, sunless night, and then it was raining in the morning!

Still...grabbing Cole Turner and hanging out gathered at least a small amount of love and a small amount of sunshine!

Stephanie was really helping Elaine out with her need for loving (no...not THAT way), when lightning struck one of the palm trees. Elaine's Sunlight meter got a boost, but her Water meter took a hit. Interesting! Stephanie was obviously afraid of either the lightning or the fire, or both, since she collapsed on the ground and had a visit from the invisible shrink.

Then Steph started talking to that weird head made out of a soccer ball! Elaine quickly invited her into the pool, but she wasn't sure if Steph could hear her or not!

This may be Elaine's last night (of the challenge, or otherwise). Hopefully she can make it to daylight!

Watching clouds and soaking up the sun. That was close!

This is truly the last night of the challenge. Elaine talks to the plants most of the night to keep her need for love satisfied as much as possible. Her need for sunlight is even worse, though.

Well...she did it. It wasn't always pretty, and it wasn't very exciting, and I may have fudged in some areas where I shouldn't have, but Elaine made it through!

Now all she needs to do is move somewhere where it's spring all year round, and find someone to love her a LOT! She also has a locked-in want to have a plant baby. Hopefully she'll meet the love of her life really soon--someone who will give her everything she wants and needs, for the rest of her life. She certainly deserves it!