We’re Salem Residents

I guess it isn’t really official because I’m not changing my driver’s license and we’re not registering to vote here – at least not yet. But on Saturday, November 20, 2010 we moved into our temporary home in Salem. I say it is temporary because we intend to buy a house here when our house in Grants Pass sells. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Here is some of it in pictures.

We arrived back in Grants Pass late in the evening of the 14th. What wasn’t already packed started going into boxes – most of it. There are still a few items left and we will go back from time to time to see how everything is doing.

Friday morning four friends showed up and we started loading the ex-U-Haul (see last week’s blog for details of this). That little thing can hold a lot! We intended to leave items we had marked for storage but between the truck and trailer we brought most of them.

Ken, Wes, Joe, and Joey were great helpers. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. The black pickup belongs to Mike. He worked graveyard the night before so he was home sleeping. His contribution to getting Gene and Joyce moved to Salem was to supply and drive the pickup.

One activity was meeting with John Jones, the realtor to list our house. Of course he put a sign in the yard. We had to get a picture but it was really heart wrenching. Our home of 18+ years is going to be sold. Lord willing. He describes it as a “Tidy Home Near Allendale School.” If you want to see the listing and pictures go to www.c21jcjones.com, near the bottom of the left side it says “search by MLS number.” Enter 52918644; press search.

Friday evening about 28 former Allen Creek Neighborhood Church people showed up for another AC Gang potluck. This time we actually had it at Allen Creek Church. Kind of neat. They want to keep meeting so Joyce and I will have to time our drives down to GP to coincide with these get togethers. They just can’t do it without us, you know.

The caravan started out at 8:15 Saturday morning with Mike and the trailer taking the lead. He had Shiloh and Sadie in their car carrier in the seat beside him. They are the new additions to Mike and JoAnn’s family – 3-month old Schnauzers. I was next in the truck; Mike served as my speedometer since the one in the truck didn’t work. That little Ford Econoline pulled the hills really well and it drove better heavy than empty. JoAnn was driving our car with Joyce as her passenger – with the backseat and trunk stuffed full of the precious breakables. For those who know the area we were driving north on I-5. At Sexton mountain we hit snow – but fortunately it was only roadside snow. Very pretty but no problem for us. We had this delightful scene for about 20 miles until we got over Canyon Creek Pass.

We were greeted in Salem by a great group of folk to help us unload. Unfortunately this part of the journey was not documented on film … er, I mean on little camera chips. Here is our house. You are welcome to visit. Give me a call and I’ll tell you how to find us.

Tuesday we awoke to this scene. We are experiencing a cold front – quite cold for our part of the universe. Our temps are down into the low 20s. I hope the RV is okay. I blew all the water out of the lines but one never knows for sure.

Someone asked why we are moving to Salem. Well, two reasons, I guess. One, our daughter Ginger is here and this would put us closer to her. We’ll be able to look out for each other and especially so if we can buy a house with dual living or a duplex so she can live in the other portion. Yes, this would be a good thing. Two, I am working at the Salem Free Methodist Church 10 hours a week as Minister to Senior Adults. This pays a little so we can afford to rent while we look for a suitable house and wait for ours to sell. The time at the church is flexible so we can be gone when we want.

On a later blog I’ll tell about the church and post some pictures. By that time, I hope we’ve thawed out. Stay warm.

We Got One

Last week we signed papers to rent a house in Salem. Yeah! Sorry I don’t have a picture. Actually Joyce has a picture in her camera but getting it into the blog is more than I can handle right now. We left Salem Sunday after church. The first stop was in Lebanon to pick up a truck which in the flower of it’s youth was a U-Haul. That was many years ago. It is the small truck – 14 foot. Dave, in Lebanon volunteered to loan it to us. He bought for his business. We were going to stay for the Lebanon Church Thanksgiving Dinner that evening but decided that maybe the wise thing to do was head to Grants Pass. It was late in the afternoon, good chance of rain, and I would be driving a strange (to me) diesel truck. It drove okay but certainly handled differently than my pickup – and sounded MUCH louder. Anyway we got here safely about 8:45. Our pickup is in Lebanon.

The week has been a constant whirl of finishing packing, cleaning, doing odds and ends, running after this and going after that. And… (get this) we listed our house with J.C. Jones Century 21. I’ve known John for many years so much of our together time was simply talking. Which meant it took 4 or 5 hours to go through all the papers and sign on all the lines. But there is now a For Sale sign in our front yard. Kind of sad.

Tomorrow some friends are coming over to help load the truck and a U-Haul trailer. Mike and JoAnn are going to help drive vehicles to Salem. Saturday, we’ll drive up and some church people will help us unload. And we’ll be semi official Salemites. We will still have the Williams Highway address in Grants Pass – our mail will be forwarded. We will also still have our same phones numbers. When our house sells we will get real serious about being Salemites.

Next time some pictures but we’ll internet deprived for a few days.

Salem

Time for an update, isn’t it? The last few weeks our lives have mostly revolved around getting the house ready to sell. That meant painting the inside, which we have accomplished. That is, all that we are going to do. It also meant doing some repair – a frame around the bathroom vent, redoing the kitchen cabinets (some being sanded down and re-stained, the rest being thoroughly cleaned), and fixing bad places in the sheetrock. We have also been eyeball deep in packing boxes – filling some for a move to a rental, some for storage, and some for a future yard sale.

Then, of course there has been a lot of little things like replacing the dishwasher which decided to smell like burned wires as it quit in the middle of a cycle. Also replacing the bathroom light so it looked more modern and replacing the porch light for the same reason. And a bunch of other little things that seem to go on and on. Enough of that. You’re bored already.

We painted the living room in colors that can be eaten in an emergency – sourdough for three walls and sautéed mushroom for the wall around the fireplace. Here is a picture of it – the mushroom color is pretty close but the sourdough doesn’t show its true color in this picture.

The fireplace is going to need a screen here and a cap-with-damper on top. We will have to go back to finish the packing and call a realtor.

But… we are in Salem now. We drove up Saturday with a stop to have lunch with my niece, Betty. Then when we got here it was a quick disconnect and run out to Stayton to say goodbye to Eric and Rhonda. They left Sunday afternoon for Japan for 3 years – missionaries, you know. We are in an RV Park directly across the street from the church – probably about a 500 yard walk (if it wasn’t raining!)

Here we are backed into our snug little cubby hole. We are in the adult section and each site is quite private.

We are now looking for house to rent, working for the church, and doing MEG Board stuff for the Conference. I know this week is going to be very busy, maybe the ones to follow won’t be quite so intense.

And so it goes. In Salem. In the rain.