CAUTION!!! UPDATES BELOW!!!

If you have been wondering what we have been doing in March and April, read the next 5 entries.  They are in reverse order chronologically so go to "New Car" and work your way back to this one.

WC

BOBBY BECOMES A COWLEY!!! 4/12/2013

On the way back home from Medford, we stopped in Coos Bay at a veterinarian that had a 10 month old Papillion that need a home.  We paid our money ans he was ours.  Immediately, he demonstrated that he was the alpha member of the family and demanded that he drive the car.  Wayne bit his ear and he obediently removed himself to the back seat.  Not really, but it matches the picture.

On the way home, we stopped to walk Bobby several times.  We liked how he walks and carries himself like a big dog and not one of those little three legged runners.

 We got him home and Ann was content.  Something she has wanted for several years and our lifestyle diod not allow it very easily.  Now she has her doggie buddy!

 He is all puppy energy and loves to play hard.

 No little stuffed toy gets the best of this 5.6 pound he-dog!

 Take that you dastardly stuffed toy!  I am Bobby, the master of all that dares set foot on the floor of my new home!!

 Roar, slobber, yip!  I patrol this home and nothing gets in my way or I tear the stuffing out of it!!!

  But first I need to take a nap!

So, this little dog has wormed his way into our hearts rather quickly.  We have had him 4 days now.  He has 2 beds he calls his own, is somewhat house broken, responds to the commands of sit, come and stay (some of the time) and loves to run in circles as fast as he can when he goes out in the back yard.  He sleeps in his bed in the master bathroom, sits on our laps while we watch TV and loves his bones and tries to eat slugs, sticks, snails and an occasional dirt clod in the back yard.  Yes, we do feed him dog food too!
And then we were three and more tied down.

MOOOVE IT!!! 4/8-12/2013

We had a couple doctors appointments in Medford and planned to go over for the day to accomplish that.  But, one of the pleasures of family is that when one is in need, the others always show up to help.  Ann's brother and his wife were selling their old house and thought they had a lot of time before it closed.  But things moved faster than thought and they needed to do a hurry move into a rental for a time.  It was lucky that their move coincided with our doctor appointments.  So off we went to Medford to help.
But another addition was added to the trip!  On the way we went to Coos Bay and Eugene to look at some dogs Ann was investigating for adoption into our family.
We arrived in time Monday night to help unload a couple truck loads.  Here we are with nephews, Tim and Pete, their mom, Karen after unloading a big load.  I love being with family!

 So, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we worked hard shuttling trucks and cars full of stuff back and forth, loading up their new house with everything from the old house.

 Here's Ann's brother, John.

 Big brother and little sister.

 During those days there in Medford, we also managed to squeeze in two doctor appointments, an appointment with our tax man and a dinner appointment with Wayne's brother's family.

 Plus move thing

 and move more things,

 and move more things into their new to them temporary home.
We left Friday morning and drove home to Gold Beach via Coos Bay to pick up the doggie that Ann decided on as the one that would become our new member of our family.

SANITY TIME 3/2013

We moved here so Ann could spend lots of time on the beach, exploring her thoughts and gathering rocks.  It seems the hustle and bustle of settling and storms in tends to remove the ability to take time to go beaching.  But, we still manage a few times (Ann more than Wayne) to get down there.

 We have to bundle up usually, but still Ann finds rocks to interest her.....

...and Wayne finds pictures to take.

  Finding a windbreak with a couple old chairs is a nice way to wait for the sunset.

NEW LIVINGROOM 3/2013

 While Ann has been actively trying to put away all our stuff and make our house a home, Wayne has been putting our new house in order structurally.  He spent a couple weeks locating, removing and replacing sections of the outside of the house that had dry rot from the wet weather here.  Then he caulked and repainted all of the replaced wood.  No pictures of that process for some reason.  Then Wayne decided to mess up the living room before Ann's new carpet was installed.  First he removed all the carpet, pads and staples.  Here's the old carpet stored in the sunroom.  We will use it temporarily downstairs if we do a new addition.

The living room had received some water damage during the previous owners tenure here.  Some of the work was not done properly and it made some of the joists uneven and thus the sub-floor had some hills and valleys.  The two visible joists needed to be planed down between 1/8" - 3/4" to make things level before new sub-flooring was laid down.

 Once that portion of the floor was done, Wayne removed an extended raised hearth that had water damage underneath it and had not been addressed earlier by previous owners.  The hearth was built to withstand a nuclear blast with enough lumber to build 3 closets.  Some sheet rock needed removing also. But the joists were fine.

 A small area, but labor intensive.

 The pile of lumber is the second pile of that size that was removed from the hearth structure.

 New sub-floor minus the new sheet rock.

   The problem with remodels is that the thickness and sizes of lumber 20 years ago is not the same as the lumber today.  The replacement sub-floor was less than 1/8" thinner than the old stuff, so Wayne needed to mud the seams to remove the ridge. Next, the carpet.

The installer arrived the next morning!  Ended up the carpet installer was a former student of Wayne's.  Small world!

 In 2 hours they were gone and we had new carpet!  Ann is really excited about having her living room back in order.  We then moved in some of the furniture we had stored in the sunroom and the spare bedroom.

 Here it is at the end of the day!

 The next morning, we had our good friends from Medford, Mark and Dawn come for the weekend.  Things got done just in time.  

No pictures of the Gossons though.  Too busy having fun to take pictures!

NEW CAR 3/2013

Our youngest son and his wife have been looking for a more economical car that the old pickup they have been driving.  So, looking in their state of Idaho and us in Oregon we finally found one here.  It's a little 2007 Prius.  We were able to get a good price for them because it had been wrecked and the interior was in really bad shape. but.....from certain angles it doesn't look too bad.

 The front end had some cosmetic damage from someone backing into it with a big truck.

 I took it to a mechanic and he checked it out and found, minus all the wreck damage and the smell inside, it was in fairly good shape.

 A little bailing wire and twine was holding it together precariously.

There was a lot of garbage, dog accidents and such inside. The smell was horrendous, but I figured it was all fixable with a lot of time and elbow grease.

 After we purchased it and three solid days of cleaning and body repairs, it looks better but the smell is only down be about 50%.  More work needed there.

Ann and I will drive it out to Idaho soon to deliver it to #5 son.  Good excuse to see the two grand kids out there!