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

The residents at PG are doing well.  There’s always something happening… Esther broke her hearing aid, Mary Jane lost her glasses, Bea can’t figure out how to turn off her new electric toothbrush, Teresa’s blood is too thin so she has to have it tested every week… but overall, they’re doing well.

Dominique and Mireille Mille completed the purchase of 11 acres of forest on the back side of PG, along with an easement through PG to access their land.  Jeff Chenault put a driveway in for them.  They have a builder lined up to start building a house on their property in September.   Here’s a picture of Jeff, Ken, Kathy, Mireille and Dominique at the entry into their property, and the driveway that Jeff was building between the pecan orchard and the power lines.

Our addresses are changing slightly.  With several homes and businesses entering through the same gate, we were required to assign letters to them so if there is a 911 call the emergency vehicles would know where to go.  The addresses are all 929 State Highway 150, even though the Mille property is no longer part of PG.  The only place without a letter is the residence.  Now they are::

929  – Sr. Residence

929A – bunk house

929B – Hoffman home

929C – Valdez home

929D – Athena Engineering

929E – Cormorant Engineering

929F – Ken and Kathy Newman home – under construction

929G – Cabin – Dominique and Mireille are renting the cabin until their house is built.

929H – Mille home – to be built

My parents place has its own driveway (even though it is part of the PG property) so it has it’s own number:

987 – Jack and Leona Newman home

Sorry for all that detail… hopefully our addresses will stay the same for a long time now!

We added another part-time staff member, Macy,  in July, because Melissa continues to have poor health.  The picture below shows 4 of the staff, Jennifer, Andrea, Macy and Salena.  The second picture is of Bryce and Emma Mille (kids of Pierre and Crystal) playing with the twins, Maren and Maven.

We didn’t get pictures of the other visitors in July, which included Heidi Angus, Scott, Brenda and Oliver Lee, Ed and Linda Lloyd and Trevor and Heather Chenault.

In July we had the first cutting of hay, and the figs were ripe.   Doris proved she could eat a dozen fresh figs in a few minutes!  They didn’t last long.

We found an interesting and scary looking caterpillar!

Kathy and I are in France with Kathy’s cousin and husband, Marcia and Jack Cahill.  Kenny and Salena will join us in time for the convention which starts Saturday.  These were the folks in the bible study at Roudiy’s yesterday… Roudiys, Barnes, Cahills and Newmans.

Ken

Of the 8 residents at PG, only Bea escaped having something… cold/flu/virus, in March.  Teresa has a touch of pneumonia, has lost weight and is very weak, though today has been a better day for her.  The other residents recovered and are doing their usual.  Roger continues about the same at Park Manor nursing home.

Ed Bolt passed away near Newry, PA, March 17th.  Ed and Leah spent a few months at PG in 2010 and 2011.  Ed’s parents, granny and granddaddy Bolt (Joseph and Ava) and pop and grandma Newman (Jasper and Elizabeth) were  friends and members of the Nazarene church… the men worked together as carpenters at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD… when Ida Hawkins and Louise Woods came to that area with the gospel in 1936.  Both couples professed in that mission, and the families have been close ever since.  We were neighbors, with Ed and Leah on one side, and granny and granddaddy on the other side, when I was young.  Ed’s faithful, caring, kind example meant much to many.  Here are pictures of Ed and Leah at PG, and Ed carving (his hobby) on the porch.

While I’m telling stories… The evening before the March union meeting we met a couple from Oregon, Fred and Linda Plews, who were here visiting Don and Jenny Waldo.  The next day, Dave Bolt (Ed’s son who lives at Newry and works with one of the engineering businesses at PG), was with us for union meeting and the pot luck.  At the pot luck, Dave told a story from the 1980s.  He was working in Michigan, and was doing business with a small company on the west coast.  After working with the owner of this company for a while… somehow… they realized that they were both friends.  Neither can remember how they figured that out.  The point of Dave’s story was that they had worked together but had never met.  I asked Dave who this man was… and he said Fred Plews!  I said… I just met him yesterday and he’s here (at a different union meeting)!  So Dave and Fred met at PG that afternoon, where the picture below was taken.

The twins had a brother, Evren Furrow, on March 4th.  Evren and Karla are doing great.  The twins are trying to understand what it means to not be the center of attention!  Here’s Evren with us and the twins.

Two of Betty’s sisters and their husbands came for a visit.  The pictures below show Roger and Jean Marshall (Arizona), Betty, Patsy and Harold Lee (Florida) and their granddaughter Amelia Lee.

Other visitors included Fred and Georgia Aldrink (Arkansas) and the Overbys, Wayne and Dawn, Kory, Teresa, Ryan and Lily.

Other visitors included Rebecca Larson and Sue Fantini with Jennifer and Hannah.  We didn’t get a picture of Gene and Carol Goff from TN.

Kenny (our son) and Salena Thorburn were engaged in March.  Salena continues to work weekends at PG.  Kenny works there some, usually when Salena is there!  They are planning on getting married in August 2015 when Salena finishes college.  The second picture is of Jim Phillips (discussed below) and LiPing.  LiPing comes in from time to time and cooks Chinese food for us.

Maybe some of you recall the huge oak tree along the driveway that died last year.  We cut the tree off at 12 ft, and hired Jim Phillips to sculpt it for us.  Here’s Jim starting to work, and the finished product – an eagle landing on a nest with a fish for twin chicks.

The following are some pictures Dominique took around PG in March.

Here are a couple of videos of Dominique with birds.  I haven’t included many videos… these should work with a fast internet connection.

Dominique feeding birds

Dominique and Cardinal

Ken

As 2013 comes to an end, we have so much to be thankful for.  Most at PG are doing their usual… all except Roger.  He recovered from the surgery he had, but hasn’t regained his strength.  He’s still in a long term care hospital in Conroe, and seems to have gotten weaker in recent days.  When he’s up to a conversation he never discusses himself.  He asks about some at PG, about the twins, about our family.  When we ask him how he’s doing he just says “don’t grow old!”.   He often discusses scripture or a line of a hymn he’s been enjoying… sometimes he quotes an entire stanza.  Other times he’s too tired to visit… just wants to sleep.  There were times in December we thought he was improving enough to come back to PG, but that doesn’t seem likely now.

We didn’t get pictures of most of the visitors we had in December.  The following shows Jeff Chenault with Travis Bolt.  Jeff is helping Travis on a project here.  He’ll probably be back in January.  Don, Charlotte and Paul Shaner visited from Virginia.

Steve Bailey visited Esther with Dale Maki.  Today is mom’s 82nd.  This picture wasn’t taken at PG like most of our birthday photos… it was taken at Ann Newman’s Orange Shoe studio in Houston.

Unfortunately we didn’t get pictures of many others… Jon and Mae Nelson were back for a visit.  The Milles are living in the cabin at PG now and they had visitors including Andrew Jacque from Canada, their kids Pierre Mille and Elisa Herd (with her son James).  Joyce spent a few days visiting her mom and helping at PG.  Several of Conchita and Samuels families visited.

We had a much colder December than usual, with temperatures dropping below freezing several nights.  The cold seemed to bring out the color in the leaves.  It’s certainly not New England, but there were some beautiful colors.  The deer stopped coming to the deer feeder… not sure why, but other varmints including crows, rabbits and coons cleaned up the corn.  This coon was determined to climb the 1″ diameter steel leg of the feeder.

Happy New Year!

Ken