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

Esther’s 100th birthday was very nice.  A group of buckeyes (Ohioans) came… family and friends.  She was so excited.  The excitement improved her thinking and memory, so she was able to visit… recall wonderful memories, and thoroughly enjoy the visitors.  She’s received nearly 200 cards now, including one from the Obamas, which really surprised her!  “How do they know about me?”   Pictures show Esther with her cake, the buckeyes, the birthday group, with her cards, the card from Obamas, and Esther with one of her close friends, Don Reynolds.  Note that we brought another close friend, Jeannette Ford, from the nursing home for the day.

June Kyger came down from Indiana, packed up Jeannette’s stuff, and flew with her back to Indiana.  She’s now in the Kingston Care Center, Fort Wayne, IN, and is getting adjusted to her new situation.  Some of her goodbyes here were very difficult, especially to Esther.  Before Jeannette left her sister Kathy and her husband Warren Pincrest from Boston visited.  Pictures below are of Jeannette and June, and of Jeannette and Esther, and Jeannette with Kathy and Warren.

Jennifer was in Mexico for conventions so Nadine was with Sara for several weeks.  Jean turned 92 in September.

We’re looking forward to our conventions in October.  Raymond is planning on Georgetown Spanish.  Elton and Jean hope to get to GT English.  The others hope to listen to GT English from PG.  We’re also looking forward to the many visitors we have at convention time.

The pecan crop is poor this year for several reasons, but mainly because of too much rain followed by too little rain.  But we do hope to have some pecans being harvested toward the end of October.  In the mean time we’re fighting the squirrels and crows!

Ken

September has been a good month at PG.  Doris has improved to her usual again, Betty has found a new medication that relieves her pain and Mary Jane hasn’t lost her glasses again.  Esther turned 99 and Jean turned 91 in October.

Martha Houston brought Jeannette Ford for a visit, in time for Esther’s birthday.  Jeannette stayed most of the month… everyone is excited when she comes… she sure livens the place up!  Here’s Martha and Jeannette in the cabin.  Dominique gave Jeannette a horn for her walker, so she’s demonstrating blowing her own horn (not that she needed encouragement).  The second picture is of Jeannette holding Evren.

Not to be outdone… here’s Naomi holding Katelyn.  A group of brothers met here, some headed to conventions in Arkansas and Missouri.  Lyle Waldo also visited from Oregon, but I lost the picture I took of him.

Samuel and Conchita fixed Cabrito (a Mexican delicacy made from one of Hoffman’s young goats) for a group of us including Betty, the Maki’s and the twins.  Hector Escamilla has come to work with Samuel temporarily… for the pecan harvest and some work on the new house.

The Pawnee pecans (about 20% of our trees) came ready for harvest in September.  The rest of the pecans (5 other types) will be ready in mid October (just in time for conventions).   Last year the crows and squirrels cleaned out many of our pecans in October, so this year we got ready!  We built the crow trap shown below, set out 4 crow cannons (propane noise makers), and set 2 dozen squirrel traps.  As usual, both the squirrels and crows have proven themselves smarter than we are.  We haven’t caught one crow or squirrel.  That may be because there aren’t hardly any here!  Last year the crows would blacken the sky in clouds.  This year there are about 6 crows hanging around… they’re here all year round… but that’s all!  The first picture below is of the crow trap with a few decoys in it.  The second is of the tractor shaking a tree.  If you’re interested, the bottom half of the October 2012 posting (listed in the upper right of this page) tells how we harvested pecans.

One thing we’re doing different now… then we caught the pecans on tarps…. very labor intensive.  Now we’re using a “harvester” shown below, which picks them up from the ground… a machine we’ve had all along but didn’t know how to use correctly before.  It picks up the pecans, and a lot of other stuff as well.  The first picture is of Kenny running the harvester.  The second is of Wayne and Dawn Overby working at the cleaner with Kathy.  The third is another picture of the cleaner with Kenny, Kathy, Hector and Samuel working.  The last picture is of Wayne and Samuel putting the pecans on the drying tables.

We already have more pecans from the Pawnees than we’ve had from a complete harvest in past years… so a very good harvest so far.  In the past we’ve been guilty of not being ready, and not paying enough attention to the harvest.  This year Terry made sure the pecans were fertilized and sprayed, we’ve had plenty of rain, we prepared for crows, and now a good harvest.  It is amazing to see how many pecans are wasted.  When we shake a tree we probably only get about half of the pecans.  Then the harvester doesn’t pick them all up, so some are left on the ground.  The cleaner throws away a lot of dirt, stones and husks, but it also throws away a lot of good pecans.  If someone wanted to… there is plenty of gleaning that could be done.

Ken

The longest day of the year has already past!  Now for a hot and humid summer.  We’re receiving plenty of rain.  We made a big effort to repair the irrigation system for the pecan trees, so that should guarantee that we won’t need it this summer!

All the residents are doing well.  Bea had a cold in June but she’s over it now.  She takes this stuff called Echinacea, which I call her euthanasia medicine (she doesn’t seem to know the difference)…  it seems to work for her!  One of the staff, Melissa (see picture in May post) is in the hospital with severe vomiting and water on her lungs… has been in ICU but today she was moved to IMU.  We’re not sure the cause of her sickness… but hope she recovers soon.

Bea turned 94 and  Doris turned 91 in June.  Two of the staff, Jennifer (with Doris below) and Melissa also had birthdays.

Doris’s sister Sandra came to visit from Alabama and brought Carrol Bush and Charles and Mary Lou Lewis with her.  They are shown with Doris in the picture below.  Sandra’s son Chris and his family came to visit as well.  The second picture shows Chris and family with Sandra and Doris.

Maria Lopez (from Houston) and her parents Benjamin and Rita Lopez from Monterrey came to visit Samuel and Conchita.  They’re shown below with Betty and Naomi.  Samuel and Conchita are standing.  Jennifer Benjamin from Oregon came to visit Don and Jenny Waldo.  The picture by the eagle shows Jennifer with Jaina, Ava and Don Waldo.

Cindy and Dub Johnson from NY came again to visit PG in general and Naomi in particular.  The second picture is of mom (Leona) holding her great grandson, Evren Furrow.

The pecan trees are doing well.  Here’s a picture in the orchard and of some small pecans.

The residence across the lake with the lily pads…

Ken

All residents at PG are doing well.  Here’s a picture taken today.  In the back row: Betty, Teresa, Mary Jane and Jean.  In the front row: Doris, Bea, Naomi and Esther.

Last month Teresa had been sick, was losing weight and not eating (down to 75 lbs), stayed in bed most of the time and walked with a walker when she had to.  The staff kept encouraging her to eat… telling her she needed to eat to get her strength back, but she wouldn’t.  When the physical therapist came to work with her she usually refused.  She didn’t even want the nurse to examine her.  The doctor decided it was time to put her on hospice care.  Then some ideas were suggested which we tried.  When PT came the staff would do the PT along with Teresa so she wasn’t alone.  The staff would help the nurse examine her, so it was someone familiar.  They brought her meals on small plates with small portions, and brought the same for themselves… sat down and tried to make it like a little tea party.  They talked while she ate, not mentioning the food… keeping her focus off of the food.  When not focused on it… she ate!  Now she’s almost back to her old self, at all the meals, able for some meetings, all morning bible studies, and playing the piano again!  We’re glad to have her back… thanks to our staff for working with her!

Frank Porter died in Florida.  Frank spent nearly 2 years at PG.  We appreciated his soft spirit and humor.  Kathy and I went to Apopka for Frank’s funeral, and spent time with his sister Jean and the folks in her meeting… a wonderful experience.  Here’s a picture of Frank and Jean taken at PG a few years ago.

Visitors included Rob Waldo from Oregon.  He’s Don’s dad.  Don and Jenny had a new (big) son this month, Oscar Dean Waldo.  The first picture below is of Rob, Don, Jenny and their 3 kids.  Dawn and Wayne Overby visit often… Dawn’s brother Kelly Olson from Idaho came with them.  The second picture is of Dawn, Naomi and Kelly.  Albert McSpadden brought Danny and Ana out for some 4-wheeling and some fishing.

Our new grandson, Evren Furrow, visited PG for the first time.  Here he’s with Karla (our daughter).  I had a birthday… the years fly!

What a difference a year makes.  Here’s the twins (Evren’s sisters) in the blue bonnets in April 2013 and then in April 2014.  Can you tell which is Maren and which is Maven?

What a beautiful time of year!  Beautiful weather, beautiful flowers… fresh green colors.  Below a picture of the Sr. Residence from across the lake showing the flowers on the backside of the dam, and a picture of the catkins on the pecan trees.

Here are some of Dominique’s pictures of deer and a juvenile gray heron taking flight.

Ken