A Warm December

On into December!  Ho, Ho, Ho!  However, before I get ahead of myself I realized I forgot to mention Thanksgiving...  On Thanksgiving Day we had a dual celebration, my sister Brooke's 40th.. yes I said 40th.. did you hear me say 40th?  birthday as well as the annual Thanksgiving Day feast.  Brooke got to open her presents alongside the turkey carcass, and pumpkin and apple pie crumbs.  We had a very good time... as usual.  

My grandson Donovan ran around like a wild chicken and we all visited and ate a delicious meal.  Mom and Dad had worked on the turkey... and the sides.  Brooke, Jeff, Ella, and Ave brought some fantastic appetizers (prosciutto wrapped, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, balsamic jobbers) sort of like these but bigger with rich and tasty olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a dipping bowl:

and of course we broke into one (or two) of Dad's home cured/canned jars of green olives.  Near the end of the visit we pick names for Christmas presents...  except for Donovan we all put our names into a hat and draw the name of the intended victim.. er.. recipient of our gift.  We started doing this several years ago... and it really cuts down on the holiday shopping madness and makes it all so much more enjoyable.  

We made a couple of big strides at the house since I last posted...  we are 3/4 of the way through our bathroom!   Yayyy for the toilet!  Yayyy for the shower!   and as soon as David finishes fine tuning the plumbing in the sink... Yayyy for the sink!  

You may remember the before shots of the bathroom:

  

Well, we both jumped in the shower (relax folks...  this is not that kinda blog!) and with hammers, pry bars, and some colorful language we smashed out the old tile, and knocked down that weird upper box tiled thing. (Which was empty by the way.. there were no bodies stuffed up in there, or old treasure maps, or buckets filled with gold doubloons.) That box thing merely covered up more of the scary painted redwood tongue an groove beadboard.  Dang.

Anyway, David dropped in the shower floor, fixed the drain pipe under the house, and then we started tiling.  I say we... it was mostly David I just got in the way and wiped off the grout once in awhile when he told me to.  But we tiled the floor, the shower, and then tossed up some greenboard... er.. sheetrock/drywall.  I HATE drywall already.   We almost had an international incident as we put up our first sheet of greenboard on the ceiling.  David was at one end working his way up the ladder while I was on the other end already on the ladder trying to hold it in place... and my ladder slipped.  Just a touch but enough for a flash picture of me crashing down from the ladder, drywall dust everywhere, and David and I being found days later under the shards of broken greenboard.  It was just a little slip though and we ended up doing just fine.

Greenboard / drywall is a necessary evil however, and once it was all up and primed the bathroom renovation moved quickly.  The toilet was returned, as was the sink, and shower.  David also rewired and added in a new spiffy light. 

We still have to paint, trim, get a pretty new shower curtain and rug... oh yeah and replace that wonky window.... but we are getting there.  Here are the 3/4 of the way done shots:

Another big step was getting the Regency wood stove installed.  David and I had previously cleared a spot in the living room, drywalled, and then David built a hearth all in anticipation for the stove's imminent arrival. Here is another shot of David building the hearth... (We will be trimming out the edges after the floor is stripped, sanded, and stained so keep your eyes peeled for that near the end of the project.)

Well, the stove appeared after Thanksgiving and it truly is a great little stove!  We are very happy with it!  The stove came with a fan that turns on and off automatically.  It helps to blow the heat up behind and over the top of the stove into the room.  The black thing behind the stove is a heat shield. It allows the stove to be closer to the wall which was very attractive to us in such a small living space and protects the wall from heat.  You can put your hand down between the stove and that shield while the fire is rockin' and there is nothing but cool air there. It really does the job well!

This little stove heats our whole little house with very little effort.  David and I enjoy woodstoves and this one works well enough to heat the entire house and keep it heated throughout the day.  It seems to just make the bones of the house warmer as well our our bones!  Delta has moved her sleeping spot from behind our chairs on her bed... to right in front of the stove with her head up near the hearth! 

Our kitchen cabinets might not be done until January so we are shifting our order of jobs around.  We have lately been eyeballing the living room, and the dining/office area, as well as some more of the finish work in the areas we have already been working on.  One job that might get moved up much quicker is sanding, stripping, staining the floors.  It is a house size job and it is going to be a messy one but some of our finish work can not get done until the floors are finished. 

November blows by... with lots of photos

 

 

Early November this year started on a very sad note... two sad notes actually.  My aunt Maureen Killion passed away, and so did my ex-sister-in-law Dana Ahner.  

Maureen Killion                                                                                        Dana Ahner

Their services were one right after the other.  My aunt Maureen was 80 years old and she was ready to leave us.  Maureen was married to my 'Uncle Brother'. Alan Duane "Buck" Killion. He was my mother's brother and the family knickname of 'Uncle Brother' summed up what he was to all of us... except of course for those who called him Dad and husband.  Maureen taught my sister Beth how to knit, something which Beth enjoys immensely and has always given her great pleasure.  Dana was 38 years old and had been ill as well but her death was certainly not expected.  She also had a spitfire sense of humor and was constantly reinventing herself.  She was not afraid to jump in and try something new.  I remember so clearly going to the airport near Seattle to pick her up after she got out of boot camp.  She was deployed as an airman to the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island in Washington.  I was so proud of her when I saw her come off that plane in her Naval uniform.  I first met her when she was 9 or 10 years old, and I see her face in the two young sons she left behind.  Both women leave behind families who grieve deeply.  They were sisters, mothers, daughters, aunties, friends, and in Maureen's case a grandmother and great-grandmother. They will be sorely missed.

As for David and I, we have been chipping away at the house... literally.  We finished the sheetrock in the bedroom and painted... this is a terrible picture as the lighting does not show the colors well at all.  I blame the photographer completely.

The ceiling is white (really it is), the now non-existent trim will be white, and the walls are a soft Wickham Grey from Benjamin Moore paints.  Here is the inspiration... you have to imagine our room trimmed and the floors done etc.  It will get there but maybe not quite with those exact built ins, but I got ideas.  Quick! To the Pinterest boards Batman! 

We also worked more on the side fence in the yard which added a ton of privacy to the yard.  There was just a chain link before between our house and the neighbor's back deck... and on the other side of the neighbor's yard was another chain link and a small apartment complex of what looks like maybe 8-10 units.  We could see from our yard right onto the deck next door and then into the laundry room of the apartments.  The fence changed that completely.

At the risk of sounding very Eddard Stark-ish 'Winter is coming' and that assisted greatly in the decision to get our heating situation under control.

We picked out a nice little woodstove to replace the old oil burning stove that was here and it was installed a few days after Thanksgiving.  Just in time we are thinking as it is a bit chilly in this mostly un-insulated little house.  Not Michigan chilly by any means, but California coast foggy chilly.  However... since the stove was coming in we had to change our focus quickly from the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen and instead sheetrock the area above and behind the stove and build a hearth.  So we put the brakes on the jobs we had started elsewhere and quickly switched gears to the hearth area. 

                                                                                

First the old weird painted brick face had to come off the wall behind the stove, then the old painted brick hearth itself needed to be chiseled off, then the wall paneling, then the fancy wallpaper, then a couple boards of the side solid paneling, so that we could insulate.  The wall boards were replaced, and then back to sheetrocking or drywall.... I have always called it sheetrock which might very well be incorrect but it is just a habit. 

Oh yeah... and David finally had to build the hearth.

If you have followed the blog for awhile you might recognize that hearth tile as the same from our Michigan house. Look here and here and scroll around a bit for a quick reference.  It is the same... the very same actually we have been dragging around a couple of boxes through our travels.

Once that section was done we moved on to a different jobs.  My parents came over to the coast for a couple days and after a quick inspection my Dad jumped in and helped David tear out a couple walls.

We waited to do this to hear from him which walls were load bearing or not.  We were pleased to learn those weird old partial walls were not load bearing so out they came and all of a sudden the house is opened up! 

Here is a shot of the old wallpaper found under the walls in the old dining room... it was different from the paper in the front room. Must have been pretty lively looking in this small house back in the day with all that colorful vine-y ribbon-y swag-y wallpaper.

Just this one act of tearing down walls and faux walls seems to have made a significant difference in being able to visualize the house completed.  Of course I think I thought that when we took that ramshackle weird tiny bedroom wall in the middle of the house too.

Once the walls were down, and the hearth was finished and ready for the stove we turned our attention back to the job we had put on hold.   

The bathroom... good grief. That weird overhead box tile thing, the 5 layers of Amityville Horror house paint over redwood tongue and groove, the HUGE redwood plank trim that covers up the old window which hid lead weights, and the blue painter tape that they decided to leave up after they painted.

I forgot to mention the "medicine cabinet".... wow.  You can kind of see it in the left picture there where it would be behind you when you stood at the sink facing the window brushing your teeth. Here it is below in all it's glory.

 

The thing is... the sink is centered on the edge of the window, so one can not really hang a mirror directly over the sink necessarily.  We are looking into a hanging mirror off the trim or an arm mirror that attaches next to the window that can be adjusted to where it is needed over the sink.  In these older houses sometimes you have to make do with some little quirks unless you feel like dropping big cash to redo things.  We don't so we adapt, overcome or just deal with it as is.

Well... that catches you up a little bit.  We remodel in a scattershot fashion so these posts will kinda be all over the place.  Once we are done I hope to do a final posting with simple before and after photos. 

There is one thing I would like to show you we 'found' in our backyard though before I close this post out that I just love to share with everyone.  Take a look at what we can see over our back fence... a little black skunk making it's daily trek!

Heh heh... I guess I should say The Skunk and along behind the engine are the viewing platform of happy tourists, and passenger cars... all the folks out for a view of the northcoast redwood and pine forests as well as a taste of a historical trip out to one of the old logging camps where they disembark and have lunch etc.   Kinda fun!

Where do we start?

We arrived at our new home the same day we left the old one.  Exhausted does not quite cover it.  Sure we were tired from the drive, but then add in the stress and joy of leaving our last post.  We took a quick look around and fell into bed.

We woke up and got our bearings and started working.  We are really redoing the house... a little at a time.  We have a list but don't seem to follow it in any particular order.  Kind of like mini-whirlwinds. We fit in what works when we have the time and energy for the next project.  Let me catch you up a little.

The center part of the house is the original building. One of these days I am going to go to the historical records place where the secrets of the universe are held and find out how old this place really is.  Anyway, it is a one bedroom craftsman bungalow house... the one bedroom, bathroom, living room and porch added on later and probably in that order.  The original center of the house was just a box basically, and I am guessing the add-ons came around the 1910-ish time as is reflected in the final architectural style.  The kitchen is not really a kitchen.  The electrical stove was in the spot where the old woodstove used to stand... the woodstove's original home was up against the wall with a chimney that is now covered over.  But that area later became a hallway as the house was built around the center structure.  Having a stove in the hallway could not have been very convenient... there must have been  very patient women living here over past 100 years.    At some point a spot for a refrigerator was carved out of a corner in the pantry next to the California Cooler (which works pretty good by the way).  Then finally, the latest additions was a was a small room added to a corner in the original interior area and painted bright green... I assume it was for a child.  That green room had to go immediately as it seemed to enclose the whole house somehow... so that was the first job we tackled.

Before:

Before Green Room

 After... well, not really after because there is a lot to do so we will call it the middle meaning in progress:

Middle green room

before bedroom windows

A couple of the windows had been broken out in the bedroom so that needed to be addressed as well and that was next in line.

middle bedroom windows

Then I think we turned to the outside and made sure that the fence on ALL sides was secure for Delta.

before side gate

middle side gate

The gate above is primered... we will get to that painting part soon enough.  That is probably going to also be what the front picket fence will end up looking like as well.  The picket fence that is out front now is way too rustic and tall.  It is fairly new but does not fit the style of the house at all.  By the way... yes if Delta really wanted to be naughty she could totally jump that fence, but she is not naughty and it would have to be one of those 'Timmy fell down the well' moments for her to decide to go over.

Also... that cyclone fence will be invisible and or gone and a 6 foot wooden fence will continue from the shed towards the front of the house as it did in the back.  The neighbor's yard will then be invisible and it will give us more privacy.  The neighbor, a very nice man who knew my Grandad is a bit of a collector shall we say.  That side fence will step down near the front of the houses to match up with the front fences. It will look very nice when completed.   

As far as the shed?  There are big plans for that large shed... to be revealed later as they are still in consideration.

We blocked of the side escape route to the front yard with that little fence jobber...  note the viewing strip in the middle just the right height for Delta's eyes. This little fence is only visible if you are walking behind the house so it simply needed to be functional.  Then we moved on to the furthest back part of the yard. There is cyclone fence there and part of a wooden fence had started around the back corner and was already "framed" ready to finish... so we just finished it along that section.  It might have a bit different framing along the side sections between the houses we will see after we talk to the neighbors.

 

Back of shed area - finished the run of fence with reclaimed redwood. ;) Thanks Dad!

Yes the style on the fence sections are different.  Number 1, we are not done and number 2 if you could see behind me in this photo along the length of the fence of the yard there are 3 different back yards that run along our yard and each has a different style of fence... the only thing similar is the old rustic Northern California coast faded wood look so... it is a mishmash and we are totally ok with it for now. Besides we are pinching pennies to have a stove and a real refrigerator when we get to those rooms.  Right now I cook on a combination of a hot plate, an electric skillet, maybe a crockpot (if I use a shim), and for a fridge we use the California Cooler and a small dorm sized refrigerator. I would rather have a kitchen than a perfectly matched backyard fence.

Ok back inside...  much to our happiness we found that the entire length of the house has Douglas Fir floors which we plan to strip and refinish.  It will be just beautiful.

"Dining room" area looking back towards bedroom... all fir floors.

The bummer about the floors?  Well, first the Douglas fir floors were painted 2-3 times... in some of the rooms it was painted just where a room carpet wasn't.  It is like if you walked in and lifted a corner of the throw rug type carpet you would see the old paint job underneath framed by the new paint job.  When someone got tired of the paint, in some of the rooms they added linoleum. Not 1 or 2 layers of linoleum... but 5 layers!   In the bedroom at some point 2 layers of carpet was laid on top of that.  This has been a job that is taking a little bit of time.  But it will be worth it in the end.  If we don't hack it to pieces trying to get the linoleum tar glue off first. 

What you see in that picture is what was under the carpet and one layer of tile looking linoleum.  Then there is the parquet look, then a carpet looking linoleum (?) and then a layer of what we assume was white glue stuff, and then that weird grey spilled paint  linoleum and finally a dark red linoleum.  The real problem comes under that red linoleum.  It was backed and stuck down with what looks like a tar type adhesive.  Thick, black, gooey.  We have a couple of corners where it seems it was going to take forever to chip off. 

But there is hope thanks to the internet... I got a big tip from a blog called 1912 Bungalow for linoleum adhesive removal.  A high tech thing called "hot water".  I gave it a try a little this afternoon and it seems to be working ok... the real test will be the larger patch in the southwest corner.  I will let you all know how it works. 

In between floor scraping, we moved on to a bigger job...  sheetrock... drywall.. whatever you want to call it.  First I would like to call attention to something important with this little house.  The entire house is redwood.  Trim, boards, blocking, sill plates, beadboard,  ceiling boards, exterior panels, window trim, even a couple of cabinet doors... everything.  Just about the only thing not redwood is the Douglas fir floors.  At first we were aghast at the thought of covering it.  But there is nothing else to do... it is dark, it is rough cut, it has a lot of nails in it where they tacked down the original fabric backed wallpaper stuff.   When this house was built the area was thick with redwoods and they used it for everything.  So after trying to come up with ideas to work it into our design idea and failing... we took a deep breath and just decided to move onward.  So first we pulled off a couple rows and stuffed insulation down and up in between the interior and exterior walls.  (There was no insulation before, no wonder we could hear the ocean!)  In the picture below if you look close you will see that the ceiling is the same redwood boards as you see on the walls. It is covered with a thick paper and we just sheetrocked right over it.

First sheet nailed in.

One thing that is nice about the construction of the walls and ceiling etc.  All those thick horizontally laid redwood boards acted as a bit of an insulator in the past but it also makes it unnecessary to be sure to find a stud to nail things in to...  you can stick a nail just about anywhere in the wall or ceiling and hit thick sturdy wood.  

 

At some point in the middle of all this, we got tired of looking at the old oil stove in the living room.  So David unhooked it and we drug it out to the front yard.  That alone gave us a bit more space in that area.  We plan to take out that center little wall-let (if not structural) and open that next wall you see in the 'dining room' area into the kitchen.  Yes... there will be a kitchen someday... open to the rest of that area with a counter island separating it from the front area you see in the picture below.

front room / dining room in progress of being opened up

Phew!   The jobs will get a little bigger as we go... next on the agenda is the bathroom.  Gotta put my nail pulling/designer/tiler hats on.  I'll leave the plumbing to David thank you very much... that and climbing around under the house with the spiders.  ::shudder:: 

Did I mention...   we are really glad to be here? 

Because if I didn't...  we really really are...

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch Changes!

First the down and dirty nitty gritty:

For the past year and a half we have been managing a golf course...  more accurately we were involved in a lease option to purchase contract.  We had the opportunity to spend two years on the course, check out the business and the area and decide if we wanted to take the leap and purchase.   Well... to put it simply we found within just a few months after taking over that we would not be purchasing.  There were significant problems with the property and the business that were not disclosed to us.  Finally, it appeared to all parties involved that it would be best for us to be released early (8 months early) from our lease period.  The release papers were signed and we literally jumped in our pre-packed truck and trailer and drove away with dust billowing behind us.

Now the good part... the very good parts:

I am very close to my family again,

We are somewhere we have always enjoyed,

We can hear ocean waves crashing at night... 

and we have a new pretty big project on our hands!

Gotta find our hammers and paint brushes.

 

and by the way... 

Happy Halloween to you all!

We had our very first trick or treaters knocked on the door a few moments ago... two brothers perhaps 5 and 6 years old dressed as knights!  The younger boy's helmet covered his mouth but his parents explained who they were dressed as. They said the boys were the knights of the round table.

   

I was pretty impressed and was curious how the boys had been introduced to those stories at their young age...  turns out I did not have the right knights.   

Their Dad chuckled and explained that the boys recently got into watching 

Monty Python's Holy Grail... 

so they were dressed as THOSE knights of the round table... silly me!

Stay tuned for pictures of my Grandson Donovan's Halloween Costume this year and lots of photos of our new project.  We are tearing out walls, putting up fences, re-plumbing the plumbs. 

Makes me tired just thinking about it!  Tired and very happy!

Yes... there are some very nice folks

Adam

Adam is the night waterer and all around helper.  He is quiet, and  kind hearted.  He is funny, and when he gets rolling out there on the course he does a very good job.  He has a little dog named Milo who bites... (he does not bite David anymore) but he took a good chunk off of David's finger the first time David went to pet him.  

Adam likes the animals we try to get him to er...  eradicate.  Moles, gophers, nutria.  Well, he might not like those critters but he does like the squirrels and the skunks.  The deal David made with him about those other animals is this:  if he can trap and get rid of them... then that is all that needs to happen. No firearms will be needed.  Adam had a little squirrel friend up near the 5th tee box on the hill that he would leave nuts out for... and he would get very concerned whenever Delta was up there.  I have not heard nor seen signs of the squirrel so it might have left the territory.  I don't think it is one of the squirrels she ate.  His friend are a handful of nice fellows who work at a few different homes for children who have mental and behavioral problems.  They come to visit him once in awhile for cookouts and golf.  

Wyatt and Marla.
At Thanksgiving time Wyatt and Marla made us each a plate from their church's Thanksgiving Day Service feast and brought it by for us after closing. Wyatt has been more helpful than I could ever explain here.  He knows the history of the machinery and what needs to be done to keep them maintained and has been a very good resource for David.  I don't have a photo of them yet.

Mike and Cindy. 

This is actually just Mike.

I have not caught Mike and Cindy together yet while I have my camera on hand.  Gotta work on that.  Their family has been around this area a long time. They have been coming more and more as Cindy is getting into golfing and Mike is taking full advantage of her enjoyment of her new hobby.   On the 4th of July Mike and Cindy brought some chicken for David and I.  They were at a local catholic church BBQ and thoughtfully picked up a chicken for us and brought it here to the course since we were unable to leave. Cindy had family members who lived here when this was a horse ranch.

Gayle's Group

Gayle, Don, Lowell, and Bob with his back to camera

Gayle- Former tree topper for the electric company and currently has a Christmas Tree Farm. He and his wife love antiques.  He also is a terrible tease.  He loves the back and forth though and he is the star of his group.  They all particularly love it when David returns the teasing...  and they really get to laughing if I give him a hard time as well.  He calls me 'Hon'.  Gayle was very ill this last winter and all his friends were so worried they checked on him frequently and would argue about his medical updates because each one of them thought they had the 'in' and that they had the most recent information.  He is better now and back to his old tricks.   When I went home for a visit to see my family he brought a plate of food for David one night around closing time because he knew David was "bachin' it".  He is married to a red head who he calls 'the boss' and frequently mentions her temper.  He was late once coming back home after golf and she was waiting for him because she had planned on going shopping.  She called the course looking for him... and he was right about her being feisty.  

Don- Don absolutely loves dogs.  Probably all animals but he would follow Delta around trying to pet her when we first got here until she would hide from him.  She finally got used to him though and he just is beside himself when she approaches him on her own now.  He is a good foil for Gayle because Gayle is a relentless teaser.

Bob-  Makes customized birdhouses and enjoys his woodwork and his garden.  David decided to 'hazard off' an area on the course and asked Bob if he had some scraps to make the posts.  Bob brought out the nicest darn hazard stakes you have ever seen, cut to exact specifications and nicely painted... he also has been bringing me some extra zucchini and cucumbers from his garden.  As well as cucumbers, cucumbers, and more cucumbers.  I have not had the heart to tell him 'no mas' on the cucumbers so I was glad to hear it when he said the last bag was probably the end of the season.  

David, Lowell, Bob, and Von

Lowell-  His wife was a caretaker for an elderly woman.  The elderly woman had a daughter who was also very ill.  The elderly woman passed away and then so did Lowell's wife.   Now even though both of the elder ladies are gone, Lowell keeps an eye on the daughter even though they are not related in any way.  He maintains her yard, and brings her meals, and takes her to appointments, and has social service workers/ legal assistance people on line to help her out if needed.  Again, this woman is no relation to him, he just helps her because of his wife's acquaintance to her mother, and out of his own kindness.  Oh... and he has a fantastic laugh, the kind that makes you turn your head when you hear it across the room to see who is making all that racket. 

Von- Von brings us eggs from his daughter's chickens and he golfs with a group of fellows that includes our oldest golfer.  We have two regular 90+ year old golfers.  The one who golfs with Von is named Al.  We all call him 'Big Al' even though he seems to get smaller each time I see him.  Al is 94 this year I think.. or 95.  Last summer he golfed 3 days a week, walking the 9 holes.  While he might drive his big pickup around he said he won't use a golf cart.  When he has to use a golf cart he said... he will stop golfing.  Then Big Al started just golfing 2 days a week.  However, this last winter was a long one for him.  When the spring golfers were starting to return no one had yet heard from Al.  The other fellows did not report seeing him in the obituaries so Von did a little detective work and found him and invited him back out.  Al started back this summer at one day a week but after coming out a couple times we have not seen him again all summer.  I think his golfing days are done.

Our other 90+ year old is Virgil.
Virgil is 93. 

 Anyway.. Virgil served with Patton in North Africa. and was taken prisoner at one point by the Germans.  Sounds like a story right out of a movie doesn't it?  

Virgil and his wife Marie

Virgil's parents had a golf course back in the day so he is a loooong time golfer.  He has also been actively involved in his church throughout his life.  He was a pastor for many years and I think along with baking in the army he might have done some chaplain work as well.  He does use a golf cart but he also beats most of his opponents 75% to 80% of the time.  He frequently golfs with the local pastor of the one church here in town (Pastor Kent) and they come out at least once a week.

Don and Del- Don and Del went to high school together and were great friends... and then they married sisters so they became brothers-in-law.  They are much older now and Del suffers from I believe Parkinson's disease.   They have been golfing partners for many many years.  During the later parts of the winter and through this nasty spring if the weather was not too bad Don would bring Del out to golf at one of the earliest times possible because they were rather slow golfers. Del was having more and more difficulty getting around.  One of the last times they were out together Del fell and Don had to help him back into the cart.  Del is no longer golfing, but just out of fate one day Don happened to be here alone when another single golfer was here.  They decided to join up and had such a good time they have become regular golfing partners.

  

Wade 

 Wade is our big red-headed peace-nick hippy viking that we just love. He is so friendly and just has the best time wherever he goes. You can hear him talking halfway across the course.  Years ago he lived in a neighborhood where one of his neighbors had a son named Steve who had some developmental challenges.  Wade became friends with the family and even though he moved away from the area maintained a relationship with the boy... now a young man... and will go and take the young fellow on outings that he enjoys.

 Last summer he brought him probably once a month or so here to the golf course and treated him to a day of golf.  He has not been back yet this year with Wade, but Wade moved farther away from us and closer to his work.  Getting here is much more work for Wade... but he still comes and we are very glad to have him.  He calls David brother... and me sister.. or Mama... or sister bear... or sister mama.

Mike and Llyssa and Chuck and Tracey.  

Two couples that have become friends and we are always glad to see them coming.  

Mike and Llyssa practically lived here at the peak of summer... 

Mike

Llyssa

Chuck and Tracey actually do.. sorta. We always love to see them coming... and we feel like they have our backs whenever they are here on the course.

One time Mike and Llyssa happened to come in the door when David did not realize they were already inside and he came out of the office all excited asking, "are the kids here yet?!" 

Mike was so embarrassed, "Oh my God! Do you guys call us 'the kids' when we are not around?"  

(I think he actually liked it though.)

Dale

Dale, Mark, and Steve

Retired Air Force Flight Engineer, bare back bronc rodeo rider. I hope I have his Air Force profession correct. Very involved in Veteran's Affairs and encourages other veterans to be so as well. A Cowboy.  He has become a real regular this summer. He played last year but nothing like this year. We see him at least once a week... usually much more.  Dale is always willing to lend a hand with anything going on at the course and just an all around good man.  He was pleased as punch the other day when for the first time.. he played with the same ball all the way through the course. When he got his first birdie we taped it up next to the course record scorecard on the wall.  His wife sometimes joins him, and his friend Steve and his wife will sometimes make a foursome.  He is another person who literally has our back... we had a problem with 6 golfers once and he and Max came along to help David (who was alone with the guys on the course) escort the men off the course.  Personally I think he and Max were just itching for one of the fellows to say something ill-advised.  He said, "sometimes.. talkin' just don't seem to work."

Max

Max and David

Cowboy, Pro Bull rider, Pro Bull Grower (Rancher I suppose they would be called.  His family raised big mean bastard bulls that are ridden in pro rodeos. Those bulls can be as famous as some of the riders I guess) and now he is the head honcho engineer kinda guy for some kinda big construction pipe pump water city county state stuff.  I dunno what his title is obviously.  He has helped David numerous times with questions/problems with machinery on the course.  He simply will not take a dime for his help and frequently 'finds' money that someone must have left as a tip for me that fell off onto the floor... so I better just take it he says and he leaves it on my counter, or under my phone, and walks out the door.  He is also a good man.  He golfs occasionally with his mother but most of the time comes out alone and will join up with someone.. or not.  Mostly he golfs alone. He just has a great time though and loves to visit with David and has been a great friend to us.  As mentioned above, he was playing with Dale out on the course when David was having trouble with those six golfers.  I left the clubhouse, went and found them, and the three of us helped David with the escort.  Again... I think he was just waiting for one.... wrong..... word.

"Harvey's Group"

Harvey, Carl, John, Ron, Elmer (Pete), Dick, Elmer

This group can be as many as 8 men.  There are a few that sometimes join in that were not here the day we took the picture.  They play three times a week, all year. Rain, snow, hail, tornado... it does not matter. The ONLY time they did not play is one time on one of their days this last winter the creek had crested and flooded up around both sides of the covered bridge... knee deep kinda flooding and we closed for the day.  Had we let them out though... they would have played it. These men all know each other or each other's family members from grade school/high school.  They grew up here, went away to their different travels in life, and now have come back for their retirement years.... and now play golf together every week.

Gary

David and Gary.

Gary is a concrete man.  Very hard worker and he and his whole family are car folks.  He has several pretty nice rides including this corvette here, and a bright yellow El Camino / Ranchero (not sure which).  His wife has a gorgeous candy apple red convertible VW Bug she drove out once. He has been around a long time and has taken a liking to us and how we have improved the course.  He has several daughters and once I heard him say that he has several son-in-laws and they are just as good as sons to him... and I thought it was a very nice thing for him to say (and for him to be able to say).   He frequently golfs with his son-in-laws as well as the many many friends he has locally. 

Dick-

Dick has been playing here for 30 years...  he is not the oldest golfer but he has been around here the longest.  He also LOOOOOVES Delta.  I think he is in his early 80's which you would never guess.  He comes in and gets right down on the ground and lays by her and talks sweet and pets her. Very nice man, and he is so very happy for David and I and the path we are on.

There really have been so many nice folks we have met here.  The stories I tell seem to cover the folks we have a hard time with so I wanted to be sure to give props to some of the many folks who deserve it and who we enjoy.  Some more random folks:

Beer Boys - Wed Nights Summer time Bob, Jeff, Jesse, Ralph, Brad etc

Bill from Men's Club and David

Jim part of Men's Club

Bob (2nd Bob) who golfs with Gayle's group.