You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

This on goes in the category of "Are you kidding me?!!!"  Sometime in the night...we were attacked by a bear!  I'm only half-joking.

So today as I started to head over to the farm and get more work done, I noticed that our cooler was turned over.  We only keep drinks in it, but we leave it in the yard overnight as it leaks and we don't want it leaking in the car.  The lid was off and a couple of water bottles were strewn about, along with an empty Gatorade bottle that was in the back yard.  I figured that a raccoon had gotten into it.  No worries.

I walked over to the car and noticed that my driver's side rear tire was looking flat.  Hmmm...  It looked to have shredded slightly in one spot.

Not your normal blowout

Then I noticed the driver's side front tire was flat too, with similar shred marks on it.  I walked around and noticed the passenger's side rear tire was also flat.  Again...same kind of punctures.

So now the detective work began to try to figure out what large enough animal could have done this damage and left these marks (paw prints and smears).

The top view of one of the tires

By the way, Emily mentioned that something had left a dirt smear down the side of her car and pushed her mirror all the way back when she left (early) for work this morning.

Kinda hard to see with the glare and reflections.

I ruled out raccoon and your average dog pretty quickly.  My mind quickly went to a bear, but figured that might seem like I was being too sensational so I thought of other large predators that are sometimes spotted in the area.

Coyote? - Probably too small
Wolf? - Maybe in the area, but doubtful
Bobcat? - Not quite big enough
Panther? - Possible, but unlikely

So I kept going back to thinking it was a bear.  It seemed like the logical choice, but I needed more evidence.  I called Terrell and asked him what he thought it might be.  He wasn't sure it could be a bear, but perhaps a large dog.  I figured it was possible, but still didn't want to give up on the bear theory.

Neta (I'm sure) was furiously Googling terms related to animals biting car tires and she said it could be a dog as well, but also thought bear.

By this time I'd called AAA to have them tow the car to a local tire shop that had quoted me a price for a new set of tires (the price was scarier than a bear attack!).  When the two truck driver arrived I asked him to look around first and see if he could figure out what had "attacked" my car.  We noticed some paw prints that I hadn't seen before due to the glare and reflections.

It's a bit smaller than my hand.

Then he pointed out this:

Above the paw prints about a foot...

Twin nose prints with drip marks...  And there were several others as well.

It sometimes pays to have a dirty car.
Don't judge.  My farm is off of two dirt roads.

And that is how we arrived at the conclusion of it being a bear.

Seriously!!!  Who has a bear puncture 3 of their tires?  If you're thinking this is some sort of Halloween/April Fool's joke, you are wrong.  Can life get any stranger?

Progress, and lack thereof (part 2)

Here are the rest of the progress pics, mostly in the bathrooms.  I'm happy to report that the electricians are on site today, installing light fixtures.  There isn't any electricity for those lights yet, but we think Georgia Power might pay us a visit later this week.  There isn't a whole lot more that can be done until power is in place because the next big items is installing floors, and we need AC for that.  Wood floors can swell and contract from temperature and humidity changes, which is not good when you are trying to get them installed.  Once the AC is running they'll bring in flooring and let it acclimate for a few days before putting it in place.  After flooring we'll be ready for appliances and plumbing fixtures.  In the meantime, I've been picking out handles for these lovely cabinets (just when I thought I was done with decisions!)

Master bath cabinets 

Master bath shower.  

Guest bath shower.  

Upstairs bath 

Upstairs shower.
The accent stripe isn't exactly what we had in mind but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Dormer window seat in Emily's room. 

Progress, and lack thereof (part 1)

We did have some exciting progress before the storm hit: the tile is done and (most of) the cabinets are in, and the stairs are done (mostly).  Nothing has happened since the storm, understandably, but hopefully this week we'll have some forward momentum.

We had our cabinet guy build shelves around the fireplace, kitchen and laundry room cabinets, and cabinets for 2 bathrooms.  We're using an old dresser as a vanity in the guest bath - more on that in a later post.  Most of the cabinetry has been installed now, except for part of laundry room, and the kitchen island won't get installed until after the floors are done.  We're really thrilled with how all of the cabinetry has turned out.

The staircase isn't quite finished yet but all of the components are in place and it has already turned out better than I imagined. Everything seems to get done a bit at a time, but it will all come together eventually!

Just missing the mantel.  

Still have some staining and painting to do (and some focusing, obviously).
The kitchen island is in the background, temporarily residing in the dining room.

Getting the lighting right is tricky when there aren't any lights!

Our cabinet maker suggested the corner shelves and I couldn't really envision how they'd turn out,
but I'm really happy with the way they did.  He does good work!

The mudroom/laundry.  There will be a counter on the right, with a shelf above.
Part of the shelving broke during transport so they are rebuilding it.

Bathroom cabinetry and tile work coming soon!

Weathering the storm

The good news is we survived Hurricane Matthew with no damage to the house we're building, Daddy's cabin, or the rental we are currently in.  The bad news is we've lost a week of work on the house, but I can't even be upset because I'm so relieved we didn't have damage, when so many others have lost so much.

We did have some downed trees on the property; at least a dozen, several of them rather large.  In addition to the ones below we had several young pine trees and even a full grown sweet gum that snapped off.  All of the young pines have a decided lean to them now but they should recover.

An Asplundh tree trimming truck from Alabama (say that 3 times fast) came by the farm on Tuesday, by mistake. There were spotters out marking areas with plastic tape where there were trees that needed to be removed from power lines; the same plastic tape that was left at the end of our road by the timber crews.  After we cleared up the confusion I chatted with the crew for a bit and even wound up giving them a tour of the house before they headed back out to finish their shift.

There goes the pear harvest... 

We lost this pecan tree but it managed to avoid hitting a single blueberry bush.
Luck, or a little divine intervention from Granddaddy?!

Note that the branch from this pecan tree is just as big, if not bigger,
than the whole tree that fell in the blueberry patch.  

More pecan limbs down, one of which took out the electric lines.
We expected to lose some and we are just glad the barn was spared. 

A cluster of smaller trees fell and blocked the road.
We had just finished cutting them up and dragging them off when our neighbor WC came down the road.  

What was left of my garden was swamped.

The Titanic is fine; Daddy deliberately half sank it to keep it from getting airborne. 

We wanted to take some of these trees along the edge of the pond out so Matthew saved us some effort.  

The pond was half empty before the storm.

I'm glad this barrel just wound up in the field and not in the pond.
Snapped off & mangled trees in the background.

This pecan tree almost, but not quite, tipped all the way over.