It's been a while since I've been able to visit the STS board, but I am very glad to be able to update again. On September 27, hurricane Helene hit my region of the US as a category one hurricane, unheard of for such an inland, mountainous region. It had been prefaced by a week of tropical storm rain, saturating the ground and already causing floods. This "perfect storm" resulted in devastation of western North Carolina and east Tennessee that we will be recovering from for years. My family was lucky that our house was spared any major damage, but we were without power for 13 days and without water for 16. We just got internet back today (which is why I can get back on the forum, hooray!), and we are still waiting on drinkable water. The zoo where I work is closed indefinitely because the road and bridge to get in were swept away (luckily, there is a private access road we have been allowed to use in order to get into the park and care for the animals). It has been an insane month, but in the middle of everything, I was still able to find some little joys with being able to add to my collection at times.
I hope no one else here was caught in the path of Helene, and if you were, I hope you have come out alright.
First of all, I got a few things BEFORE the storm hit in September. More prehistoric Play Visions, more Nayab minis, and the newest set of Eyscota cats. The cats are really good, I might like them even more than the first set, especially the ragdolls and Norwegian forest cats. Also love the play visions and nayab of course, they are always fun to find.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]And then the storm hit. I assumed that the package I had coming from Paige would be lost in the flood, but amazingly, it eventually appeared! Once enough roads were cleared for the mail to get to us, at least! This K&M zebra had appealed to me when I saw it on ebay, and she got the lot and so sold me the zebra separately. I like that it's a little different than most little zebra figures. It's more like a Grevy's than a plains, though I don't know if that was on purpose. The frogs are W.N. frogs I did not yet have in my army, hooray! Getting the package was such a nice little moment of normalcy in the middle of everything. We were still without water or power at this point, a live electric wire sitting in our yard, a tree across our driveway. It was such an anxious period of time, and a little glimpse of things happening in the "outside world" was nice. They will always be my little hurricane survivors.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]And then I had the wonderful opportunity to go visit a friend in a different part of the state. For a little while, there was no way out of our region. Landslides and floods had taken out every road. But thankfully, they did get some of the major roads open eventually and I was able to use days I had already taken off for a vacation that clearly wasn't going to happen to instead go see my friend and take a few days break from the recovery. It was such a delight to go take a shower, go to restaurants, and just relax. One of the little things that happened during the storm was that our Tractor Supply had JUST started putting out their seasonal Breyer horses. I saw them when we had to rush and get a new sump pump for our flooding basement, in fact. But of course, after the storm Tractor Supply wasn't open, and even when they were able to open, finishing stocking Breyers was not their priority. So while I was visiting my friend, we went to some Tractor Supply stores and I was able to find the ones I was looking for. A really nice little treat!
There were only three blind bag models I wanted this year, and by feeling the bags, I was able to find all three. The black and white speckled one (on top) is one of the chase pieces, so it was especially nice to find that one.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The rest are family sets. I had only intended to get the black and gray draft family, but then I saw the others in person and changed my mind. I even got a couple of unicorn families because they had one that appealed to me, despite the horns and gold hooves which I just don't like at all.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Also while I was there, I was able to use the internet, so I did some ebay browsing. Retail therapy continued as I found two sets of Kid Kore horses I didn't have as well as the little Wild Republic German Shepherd I have been looking for! (Plus some extras, haha.)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]And last but not least, just the other day I received a package from a friend of mine that she had been unable to send back in the summer and then she had to wait because I was afraid it wouldn't make it right after the storm. At last it came, another part of my Breyerfest order and a whole bunch of little figures she found in an antique store!
The Breyerfest horses are another set of Best of Breyerfest stablemates, the ones from this year. I couldn't get a good group shot so here they are individually.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]And then so many little creatures! I think a lot of them are Nayab? The primates are at least, and maybe the birds and some of the sea creatures? The cats are ACC and are masterful gremlin cats. They look like cats from medieval artwork to me. And lots of little Chinamals. They are all very cool, at least.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.](I love this goat and lamb in particular)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]I have so much to catch up on here, but the truth is, the days are still very long and hard and I might have less time to sit and do that than I would like, but it is really nice to at least be able to get on again.
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