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

February 21, 2010

February – Remembering Crystal

Filed under: Pecan Farming — knewman @ 5:59 pm

Crystal was with us at PG from March to November of 2009.  Her health started to deteriorate and in November she moved to the Opel’s in Pearland.  We’re glad for those family and friends who were able to care for her until she finished her course.  All of us, residents and staff, were able to attend her funeral last week.  Here are a few pictures of her from the 8 months she was with us.

Keith Ramsden was back for a visit, with his wife Gail.  Keith helped us at PG for a few months last year.

Sandra Wilson came to visit her sister Doris Crawford.

My cousin Audrey Fuller came to visit before going on special meeting rounds in Louisiana.  Here she’s with Joe, LiPing and Jonathan, and our workers Sharon and Jennifer.

Many of these folks were at our meeting at PG Sunday Feb 14th.  Here’s a picture of the meeting.

We’re looking forward to Ed and Leah Bolt returning for the month of March, and lots of visits around special meeting time.

Ken

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January 24, 2010

January 2010

Filed under: Pecan Farming — knewman @ 1:16 pm

All are doing well at PG.  Here’s Bea with Leah Newman.

 

The beavers continue to build on their new dam, just a short distance from the senior center.

 

Stacey came by PG on her way to Columbia

The local friends have started monthly tea parties for the PG residents.  The following pictures are from the January tea party at Dale and Patty Maki’s.

It seems there’s always a reason to celebrate.  The following are from birthday meals for Joyce and Murray.

 

December 29, 2009

Year End – 2009

Filed under: Senior Residence — knewman @ 1:19 pm

It’s hard to believe 2009 is nearly finished.  It has been a wonderful year in many ways.  We now have six residents shown below in the following order, Doris Crawford, Frances McPherson, Evelyn Kuck,Teresa Goff, Betty Lawrence, Bea Jecmenek.

Our manager, Linda Ronhaar, had ankle surgery, and now rides around in a wheel chair.  Her two employees, Lounell and Cindy don’t seem to mind.

We’ve had a cold December, including snow!  Very unusual for this area.  But we’ve had plenty of warm friendship.  We’re glad for lots of visitors… I don’t have pictures of all of them.  Too much to eat!

Kathy’s sister, Pat Johnson, who labors in Utah, is here visiting… returning to SLC tomorrow.  She helped Kathy a few days at PG, but the only pictures I have of her are at home.  Here she is with our little boy Kenny, and then our family picture.

Happy New Year!

Ken

November 27, 2009

Fellowship, Food and Fun

Filed under: Pecan Farming — knewman @ 7:20 pm

Unfortunately Crystal’s health degraded to the point we were no longer to keep her at PG.  Her relatives took her to their home for a week or so, and then her health got much worse.  She was in ICU for awhile and is now in an intermediate care facility.  We hope her health improves!

Betty Lawrence came to PG for a week and plans to come back full time at the end of December, so we’ll have 6 residents again, once Betty comes back.  The following picture is of Betty and her daughter Joyce.

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Sharon and Jennifer started meetings on Sunday afternoons.  Andrea was back for a visit last Sunday, before heading to the Mediterranean.

The beavers are back!  They dug a big hole in the bank under our trail.  Then the trail collapsed. Here’s a new beaver dam.

Brent turned 50!

Thanksgiving was wonderful!  31 of us, including 6 workers, 5 residents and many of the Newman clan.  Jennifer turned 29 and her parents showed up as a surprise.

The new equipment shed is nearly finished.

The first Cormorant Engineering pump should ship on Monday! The first picture below shows the downhole pump laid out horizontally, pumping water.  The second picture shows two of the surface hydraulic systems that drive the downhole pump.   We’ve celebrated a little early!

Ken

October 28, 2009

October – Lots of Rain

Filed under: Pecan Farming,Senior Residence — knewman @ 4:21 pm

Evelyn Kuck joined the residents at Pecan Grove on October 13th.  Carol Wagie and Dorthy Lehman brought her down from Ohio, and stayed a few days.  She’s adjusting to the new lifestyle.  We’re sure glad to have her with us.  The pictures below show Evelyn with Crystal and Carol, and with Doris.

We’ve had a lot of volunteer help this month, allowing the regular staff to get to conventions.  We’re sure glad for all the help.  Things are just getting back to normal with the staff schedule and we’re looking forward to having the workers return.

The pecan harvest hasn’t gone well.  A drought in the summer ruined part of the crop.  Then we had hundreds of crows who proved to be a lot smarter than we are.  They cleaned out the first type of pecans (called Pawnees) to come in.  After that loss we got “poppers” which use propane to make a sound like a shotgun at regular intervals.  These seem to have kept the crows away.  But the squirrels and deer ignore them.  There are some more pecans to be harvested, mainly “Desirables”.  We hope to harvest them on Saturday.  Even then, we’ll have far less pecans than last year, which was a disaster because of hurricane Ike!  Oh well… we didn’t buy the farm for pecans anyway!

The pictures below show a “popper” and some pecans with their husks just coming off, ready for harvest.

These pictures show the pecan orchard and the tractor being used to shake a pecan tree.  We have a machine that will pick pecans up off the ground (which would avoid using the tarp) but the orchard is so wet it just gets full of mud.

Finally, for those with a mechanical background, when a shaft key goes missing on a pecan cleaner, persons of a certain neck color can find a solution!

Ken

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