Pecan Grove (www.pecan-grove.net) Pecan Grove and Senior Residence

June 10, 2008

More Road Work

Filed under: Pecan Grove — knewman @ 4:44 pm

Lots of work on the road. We can’t drive on it for another week, give or take a few days, so we are driving between the first two rows of trees. They brought cement yesterday and made a lot of dust as they tilled and mixed. I’m sure that Terry has a better and more detailed report but he can add his two cents later. kch

Lime is applied to expansive clay soils to stabilize it. Rock lime is dumped from a hopper truck on road surface then spread with a dozer. tgh

Lime and the dry soil is tilled with a large rotary mixer to an average depth of 8″. Then water is applied to make the lime ‘pop’ and permeate the soil. After several hours it is well compacted with a roller. tgh

May 26, 2008

More Dirt….

Filed under: Pecan Farming — knewman @ 11:00 am

I guess all construction projects go slower than planned… we’re off to a slow start.

The problem of water flowing through the sand under the new road section through the woods has taken a lot of time to resolve. The underground clay wall to stop the water had to be extended. The following picture shows the depth that was needed to reach through the sand to clay… the orange clay at the bottom is the wall that was added.

Clay Wall

This wall is now complete, another culvert has been added… but the road has been too wet to add the stabilzing material (they’ve decided to use dry cement). Hopefully this week the stabilizing will be completed. Once that is done, dump trucks will be able to reach the building site, and work on the foundation can begin. Fortunately… we’re not in a big hurry, no deadlines that have to be met.

In the mean time, we continue to enjoy the farm. The small gardens are starting to produce…

Abigail learns to rideKim and Kathy gardening

Boating on the pondLarry and Jan on the beaver dam

There is a 10 acre piece of land sandwiched in between other parts of the farm, that we were unable to buy at first…. see the “10 acres not owned” in the “The Plans” blog below from May 3. The owner has finally agreed to sell, so we’re supposed to close on that on Thursday… thanks for the help Lounell!

Kathy, Kenny and I will leave for Paris in a week (June 2nd)… but we’re leaving the farm in good hands. Terry is looking after the building projects, Mike is farming the pecans and Dad is helping Terry (Lots of mowing and maintenance!). I hope to keep this blog updated from Paris… we’ll see how that goes.

Ken

May 8, 2008

Lots of Dirt

Filed under: Pecan Grove — knewman @ 9:15 pm

A lot of dirt is being pushed around at the farm.

New Entrance

This is where the new entrance to the property will be… west of the old entrance… to provide better visibility for cars leaving the farm.  The cement pile was the foundation of an old house.  The driveway will go out at the place where the old driveway was for this house.  A couple sections of the new fence need to be removed and a new gate constructed.

Y in the road

Turning around and looking the other way at the same point… you can see the new portion of the driveway joining the old driveway.  The portion of the old driveway to the right will be removed.

Road to Sr. Residence

The road through what was woods, going toward the Sr. Residence, is too wet.  The dozer is turning the ground over so it can dry out.  Once it is dry enough it will be sprayed with a stabalizing fluid (lime and cement mixture) and compacted.  Then it will be ready for a layer of crushed limestone on top.  A clay wall is being built from ground level down to the clay below the sand on the right side to keep the spring water from flowing under the road through the sand… a hidden clay dam.  Bet the beavers won’t bother this one!

Pecan Trees

The pecan trees are looking great!  We’ve had a good rain, so no need to irrigate from the lake. 

Mike and I went to see another pecan orchard about 30 miles away… it has no irrigation, and looks a lot different.  They raise hay between the trees.  These trees are 20 years old, ours are 9 years old.

A different pecan orchard

The owner of this orchard showed us how to graft pecans… very interesting… we (Mike) have a lot to learn about pecans.

Grafting 1Grafting 2

Mike already bought Destiny a horse, called Dude.  For now he’s Dude in Waiting, because there’s no fence yet around what will be the horse pasture.  Dude is still at his old home in Arkansas.  At the rate this fence is being built… Dude will have to wait for a long time.

Dude in Waiting

Ken

May 3, 2008

The Plans

Filed under: Senior Residence — knewman @ 6:04 pm

Our plans for Pecan Grove include the building of a Sr. Residence and two homes, one for Mike and Ronda Rosamond (Ronda is my sister) and another for my parents, Jack and Leona Newman. The following map shows where each of these will be. The yellow lines are power lines. The road across the bottom is State Highway 150… I guess it’s called Gibbs Street though I’ve never heard anyone call it that. At the bottom middle route 1097 T’s into SH 150. The current entry to the property is the straight sandy road that goes back to the barn and house area. We’re rerouting the incoming road with a gate further to the left on 150 to make exiting onto 150 safer. The red lines are the borders of the 3 properties, the large 101 acre farm and two 17 acre lots. Unfortunately, the man who owns the 10 acre lot between the two 17 acre lots is unwilling to sell…. so far.

Pecan Orchard Property

The pictures of the road shown on other postings are in the horizontal portion of the blue line above from the house to the Sr. Residence through the woods. The drives to Mike and Ronda’s place and to Dad and Mom’s place are still trails.

The floor plan for the Sr. Residence is shown below. It is very similar to the one at Redbud Canyon.

 

There are 10 apartments. The 4 on the ends are slightly larger for couples. In the center there is the great room and the kitchen. The main entrance comes into the kitchen area.

 Terry Hoffman is managing the building of these 2 houses and the Sr. Residence.  He’s moved into the small farm house with his family for the duration of the project.

Ken

Bernice Faber and Emmy Nelson Visit

Filed under: Pecan Grove — knewman @ 5:34 pm

Bernice and Emmy visited the farm today…  they were staying with Patrick and Karin… so came out with the Newman clan.

Bernice and Emmy by the pond

Terry and Kim have learned the hard way that the Newman clan descends on the farm most Saturdays, so they made other plans… suddenly they find Huntsville interesting!

Birthday cake

We found out someone was having a birthday… but I’m not supposed to tell who or how many… don’t worry, it’s not Brent.

Group at farm

So this was the crew available to celebrate, with a total of 6 dogs…

Emmy found the weed below by the pond and instructed me to find out what it was… so if anyone knows, please let me know!

Emmy’s weed

Ken

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress