I HATE those furry little.....

On December 9th, Heather had planned to use her truck (I gave it to her when we got married as a wedding gift) to go to Disney, she started the truck while I stood beside her.  I just had to give her a few kisses goodbye. The motor ran however it sounded really rough.  The dash had every light on...In the 10 years that I have had the truck I have never seen it light up like something out of a Star Wars movie.  Scary stuff!

I yelled "Turn it off and pop the hood!" as I walked up to the front of her Chevy Silverado.  My worst fears were founded...Acorns, Acorns, and Tons and tons of Acorns scattered all over the motor. The insulation from the hood and firewall had been ripped off and made into a nest.  Next to the nest on the drivers side firewall was a bundle of wires that had been chewed on, some were even eaten all the way through.  We were shocked...the truck had only sat for 5 days.

I called our insurance company... then I found a local mechanic.  

As all of this was going on Heather had taken her mom's car to Disney for the day/night with Amanda her sister.  The entire time Heather was gone I thought of the costs involved with the repair.

Let's keep one other fact in mind, while all of this is going on we already know that we have to sell the truck before we move to Ecuador.  Of all the things that could happen, the timing of this was not at all welcome. We want to be able to save all the money we can for the big move in April.

Let's fast forward about a week and a half.  It's now December 22nd at 12 noon. The mechanic finally called and said the truck can be picked up at any time, the insurance check had arrived.

During the week, I had a few conversations with the mechanic about all the work that was being done and the parts being ordered.

The damage from the squirrel:

• Replace the hood and firewall insulation inside the engine bay
• Repair and reloom/insulate the frayed and broken wires
• Reset the computer to insure all codes were clear and that no further damage was missed
• Blow off the motor compartment with compressed air (I tried to remove most of the acorns with a water hose with some luck, Heather took a photo of what fell onto the driveway)

The mechanic also noticed some other work was needed.

So we did:

• Oil change
• Replaced both the serpentine belt and the a/c belt as both were really bad and they had never been replaced before. (110k)
• Replaced the wiper blades

The mechanic was fair!   More than fair, he managed to do the job in less hours than the pay out estimate from the insurance company.  So our deductible was covered (big relief.)  In the end, we had to pay the mechanic $63.43!!! That's it!

Well now Heather has pantyhose filled with mothballs on both sides of the engine compartment to insure that the squirrels don't have a chance to try to make a new home, again.

I HATE those furry rats at this point.