Changing of the guard

When we were planning the house in the woods we expected that we would finish the house in time for our dog Jefferson to live out his last few years in the woods with us. Stephanie and I got him shortly after we were married 12 years ago as a puppy.

He has been the silent participant in all of our moves (Madison WI to Richmond VA to Boston to Chicago to Durham NC and to Chatham County NC). Well he almost made the move to Chatham. We boarded him at the vet while we moved about 12 miles to our newly completed (aka we have the CO and can move in even though all is not complete) timberframe home. This was back in October. We closed on our old house in the morning and that evening as I was unloading the pickup truck of a few odd and ends when I got a call from Stephanie that the vet just called the Jefferson had a kink in his stomach and had bloat. It seemed to happen by chance. We really had no option but to put him down. It was a very sad ending to a happy day. He was at our side during the construction but did not make it there for the first night in the house. We buried him next to the pond that night under the lights of the pickup. It was like a scene from a David Lynch movie.

Fast forward to two weeks ago last Tuesday. We have a new addition to our family. His name is Gustav ("Gus") and came from a family in a nearby town. Steph saw a picture of him and his litter-mates while getting a chemo treatment and got him as a Christmas surprise for our family. Gus has been a lot of work but so has everything else related to our timberframe project. He is still small enough (8 weeks old) to got about anywhere (Lowes, under the clawfoot tub, under our bed etc). He has lots of energy but also likes to sleep. It has been nice during this week off watching Gus run around the property and trail along with Joshua and Jacob our two boys who are also continuing to explore around the land.