Owktree

1-wide openings. I often build 4-high dirt "towers" with a ladder on the 3rd block up. I have to jump to reach said ladder and then climb to the top. Useful as a lookout/archery post and a bear cannot climb it. Bears also have issues going over fences, so using those as a "hurdle" you can get over and the bear has to go around might give you enough distance to get to safety or far enough they stop chasing you.

Wall them in and have a zoo.

It's become one of my tactics when chased by bears, especially brown bears, to head for deep water. I think the only thing I do faster than a brown bear is swim. And I have seen a black bear drown after it followed me into a lake.

Flower garden and apiary perhaps?

I tend to do "functional" at first and then expand/rework for better mix of materials, plus some "decor" chiseling to make things look right or to add better contrasts like wooden window sills or stone/brick trim on wall openings. I have started doing a bit more with "trim" or screens, especially for ceilings. Like thin wooden grates in the forge. With your southern materials I have seen the bamboo stacks trimmed thin to use as screens as well. The "slot" technique to allow access to things behind the chiseled block is a trick I learned elsewhere. You can do things like screen in a chest and still access the storage - with the "screen" made to look like a piece of furniture. Just experimenting with the water flow through chiseled blocks so far and have gotten mixed results.

Chiseled as Maelstrom said. Walnut slab added to a Polished slate slab and then proceeded from there. The slot in it lets you "see" the water block below the slab and thus able to fill a bucket with water if you want.

Lots of bits and pieces being worked on, and also a little bit of detail work. Mix of material gathering runs, preparing food, landscaping and paths, and the windmill. (1) East view of main house and entrance stairs from the path to the barn, apiary, and gardens. (2) Interior of windmill with the helve hammers installed/ (3) Interior of kitchen and forge after that building had it's roof raised and modified. (4) "Hatch" for water access in the kitchen. (5) New north view of kitchen/smithy with the in-progress water feature. (6) Elevated west view of the two main buildings.

OK. Encountered a black bear and sprinted from it into the cove of a lake. Swam across that and then pillared up on the far shore with my longbow to wait for it to come up close. The bear drowned in the lake. Easy way to get a couple of huge raw hides and some fat.

Slow progress on numerous tasks. Windmill is up, full sets of sails, and currently running a quern while I get ready to set up a helve hammer. Initial building (on the right in the first screenshot) is the kitchen and smithy currently and is slowly getting some decor and better materials like a stone slab floor. Residence building is getting further details and upgrades as I redid the foundation in stone, started adding window sills and window edge chisel work, and began doing some of the necessary landscaping and paths to make getting around easier. Mid-summer of Year 2 and the crops are just coming in. Few bear issues as compared to last year. (knocks on wood)

Continued development of the homestead. And a few exploration trips looking for additional materials, ores, and terra preta. First crops of Year 2 about to come in. The pig herd is supplying plenty of meat and fat. So about time to start automating and getting the windmill constructed. Will be working on landscaping, replacing dirt as foundation materials, and getting the warehouse organized for future projects.

Alternative is trap them somewhere with a light source so that they don't despawn. On an MP server I played on the local wolfpack had gotten itself into a hole and we just left it there. And if you are lucky enough to work out where the spawn point it you have the option to fence it off as well with some luck. (I have fenced in a wolfpack once I realized that I always saw them hanging out in the same location.)

Continued progress as winter sets in. Building 2 has most of a roof except for the added tower. I do like the look of mixing Andesite block or cobble with Limestone brick and the Slate Roof. Birch seems to be a good wood to do accents in due to the lighter color. Lots of material collection, fixing up, and essential organizing to do. On the tech front I have iron tools and a stock of iron ingots for the eventual iron anvil. Copper is plentiful, but lead and zinc supplies towards mass producing lanterns are low currently. Enough leather produced for a full set of backpacks and some to spare. Pigs in a barn to protect them from bears and I expect their pop to explode soon. Produced enough flax the first growing season to make a gambeson armor suit, repair clothes, and have a few stacks of twine left towards developing a windmill soon-ish. Picture below is two recent views of the main two buildings. Apologies for the poor lighting of the second one.

Fall in progress and moving into winter. Second set of crops should make it to harvest before a freeze. Half a dozen pigs secure in a barn (fully roofed since the picture below). Plenty of copper on-hand, a bit of lead for windows, and still enough tin for a few more bronze tools. Making leather since I found a surface borax deposit and mined a few stacks of it. Currently equipped with a tailored gambeson (a live saver, see below) and a longbow along with a black bronze falx. Main concern right now is bears. And more bears. Area to my southwest is rife with them. I've killed four (along with most of two wolf packs) in that area. And there are at least two more bears there. Prospecting trips to the south looking for iron and halite have been cut short due to being mauled and chased by brown bears repeated. Current emphasis is on beefing up fences and other defenses.

The brown and black bears are very aggressive. I presume the polar bears as well. From what I've seen the sun bears and pandas are much less aggressive towards seraphs. It's to the point that I am very careful moving around temperate areas once I know brown and black bears are spawning in the area. I put up "stands" where I can take refuge if necessary, and often check which direction I will sprint if one turns up. (And at least the brown bears run fast enough to keep up with you and make more attacks if you are a commoner. I would guess Hunters will run fast enough to get away.) Bears will also hang out with wolves - so you can end up encountering a combined group of them.

Started a new Single-player run. Moved 3-4 days south from spawn across gravel hills and forests. Have opted to settle near a nice looking mountain range (see below). Nice mix of local stone layers (andesite, slate, limestone.) House of Cubes and early farms are up. Enough tin ore turned up from a loot vessel and a single surface deposit to garner a tin-bronze anvil. Let there be saws! Lots to do still. Need to find a coal source or else start mass cutting of trees. A number of materials still to find like Lead, Bauxite, Borax, etc. Do have some leads on Iron Ore and Halite however to follow up on. Plus some cave exploration once some better armor and weapons can be produced.