Pecan Grove (www.pecan-grove.net)

Our dear Frances passed away February 15th.  She was 94 and had been at PG since August 2009.  There was a memorial service at PG for her on Feb 20th, which about 90 attended.  Much was said about her ready smile and faithful life.  The pictures below are of Frances on her birthday in 2012, and then of her daughter and family, the Makis, Josh, Dale and Patty, at her memorial service.  Frances’s niece and husband, Steve and Wynesta Dale were here for the memorial service too (this picture was taken after Houston special meeting).  Finally, a picture of the workers that were at the memorial service.

A group of us, including all the residents, went to the nursing home for Roger’s 94th birthday.  His niece, Karen was here for a few days from PA.  The pictures show Roger with Karen, Roger with the residents, and then Roger with the group of us that were there.  Teresa, who is amazingly talented on a piano, was asked to play Happy Birthday for Roger.  When she started playing, a very lively version of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer came out!  Kathy had to sing Happy Birthday to her to remind her how it went!

We had many visitors at special meeting time, but didn’t get many pictures.  The first picture below shows Mark, Ronda and John.  Clarence Rochell lives about an hour from PG, but came and stayed a few days during special meetings, so he could ride the bus with the residents.  Here he’s pictured with dad and myself.

We have some big projects going on at PG.  One is to build a house for Kathy and myself on the farm.  Jeff Chenault has come down from PA to help on the excavation work for the house.  His son Trevor and Trevor’s new wife Heather (Bolt) were here for a few weeks as well.  Here’s Trevor, Heather, Karen and Jeff.  Jeff’s driving the compactor by the basement excavation for the house.  Basements are rare in this area, so progress is slow.

The dam that creates the small pond beside the cabin was originally built with a spillway.  Years ago a rush of water washed out the spillway and cut a hole in the dam.  The beavers built a dam across the hole, and that has kept the pond until now.  We managed the offend the beavers enough that they (finally) left!  So… Jeff dug out the beaver dam and is repairing the damaged portion of the dam.  The pictures below show the excavator from the cabin (where the Milles are living) just as Jeff started removing the beaver dam, and then the cabin across the partially drained pond.  The repair of the dam should be finished next week.

We don’t usually have much weather below freezing, but we sure had our share this year.  Here’s the deck of the cabin with some snow on it (very rare here), and a cardinal in the cabin bird feeder.

Ken

Frances McPherson had a stroke in January, was in the hospital, then in the nursing home and is now back in the hospital with multiple problems.  It doesn’t look good for her at this point.  We’re glad we trust in One whose timing is perfect.

Roger Cleveland is still in the Park Manor nursing home.  He improved to a point, but doesn’t seem to be improving further.  His niece, Karen, came down from PA yesterday for a few days visit.  Here he is this morning with Karen, ourselves and the twins.

So… we’re down to 8 residents at PG, who are doing reasonably well.  We have room for 13.

Dominique and Mireille Mille moved into the log cabin at PG in November.  Dominique is helping me with business management.  We’re really glad to have them here and for their help.  They’re shown in the first picture below with Christie Fair from BC Canada and Ivan Gibbs from Australia. The second picture is of their son Pierre and his family who live south of Houston.  The third is of their daughter Elisa (Herd) and her family who live near Fort Worth.  Finally there’s a picture of granddad and the 4 grand-kids.

Our good friends Doug and Vivian Murphy from Los Alamos, NM visited with their son Talus and his temporary coworker Doug Murray.  The first picture is of those 4.  The second is of the 2 Doug’s playing hymns together.  Judy Timmersman was here at the same time.   The third picture is of Judy and Vivian.  A few days later the brothers met at PG, Doug, Talus and Tom Davis.

Other visitors (that we have pictures of) include Darwin and Karen Witty from Ontario, Samuel’s dad from Mexico, Kristi Bullock and her parents Alan and Marilyn Walker with Jennifer and Hannah, and Duane and Rita Shaffer.

Naomi had another passing out spell, this time in Esther’s room while reading Esther’s mail to her.  Esther got excited, pounded on the wall (forgot she had a button she could push)… the staff hauled Naomi to her bed and she woke up on the way.  This has happened about 6 times over the last year, so no one (except Esther this time) get’s too excited.  It seems to be related to her blood pressure… usually happens in the morning not long after she’s had her medications.

Naomi washed her hair before the morning bible study, and put it up wet in a bun the size and shape of a door knob, right above her forehead.  I didn’t comment so she did… “How do you like my hair do?”  ”Aren’t you glad you are a man so you don’t have to mess with long hair?”  (Have you ever felt you were taking a test you hadn’t studied for?!)  Then she added… “I’m glad I’m not a man because then I’d have to shave everyday!”  I decided to leave that one blank!  I did ask if I could take her picture… not a chance!

We have so much to enjoy and be thankful for.

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

Roger is in the hospital, recovering from a procedure done on Friday to remove a mass from his bladder.  It wasn’t cancer, and the doctor said he should come home on Monday, but that didn’t seem likely when we saw him this afternoon.  Hopefully he’ll get his strength back and be home soon.  Otherwise everyone at PG is about their usual.  The pictures below are from the November union Sunday pot luck.  Josh and Dale Maki are in the second picture.  Dale received the good news in November that he is cancer free.

Derald and Nita Steinbrecker came back for another visit in November.  Nita sang some songs she’d written, and had her birthday while with us.

Mom’s brother and wife, Lynn and Florence Fuller from PA came to visit.  They’re shown here with my brother Brent and his wife Ann.  The last time Lynn and Florence were here (January 2012) Naomi “died” the first time… and Lynn fell on her and woke her up.  If you don’t recall that story and are interested… click back to the January 2012 post and read the paragraph about half way down.  Our sisters this year are Jennifer and Hannah (2nd picture).

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with 26 of us at the residence and another dozen or so at the Hoffman residence.  Betty’s nephew, Scott Lee and his wife Brenda and son Oliver came with Joyce.  Some played games and fished.

Ken

All are about their usual at PG this Halloween evening.  We’ve enjoyed a wonderful October in many ways.

• Jeannette Ford came and stayed at PG for 3 weeks.  She adopted to name “Sarge”, and lived up to the name!
• 6 of the 10 residents were able for Georgetown convention.
• Martha Houston came and helped with the residents at GT, then returned with Jeannette to Ohio.
• Derald and Nita Steinbrecker came to help out at PG while many of us were away at GT.
• Mary Jane’s niece, Dianne Barbour, came and stayed with her while most of us went to GT.
• Many other visitors, most heading to or from conventions

Birthdays in October included Naomi (85) and Teresa (93).

Karen Cleveland, a good friend of Jeannette’s and Esther’s, came to visit her uncle Rodger.

When Karen and Jeannette were together years ago… they had an agreement.  If they could get along for a month without a squabble they celebrated with chocolate sundaes.  So… they celebrated again at PG.  Jeannette demonstrated her zipper… but it had a problem… it wasn’t all the way closed!

Mary Jane with Dianne and Patsy and Al Hagen.

Domenic and David passed through on their way to Effie.  George and the Batsons visited after GT.

Barry visited after GT, shown here with Jeannette and the residents.  Frances McPherson wasn’t present.  Also our new sisters, Jennifer and Hannah, visited Jeannette.

Derald and Nita are shown by the camper they set up at PG.  Friends and family visited the Valdez’s after GT Spanish.  The Milles spent several days at PG and will be with us more in November.  Here they’re shown with the Makis.

A lot happened on the farm in October.  The saddest thing was the pecan harvest.  We did harvest some Pawnee pecans at the end of September.  The rest of the crop (4 types of pecans) came ready for harvest just as we were leaving for GT.  When we returned they were gone!  The crows, blue jays and squirrels had a feast!  We had crow cannons (noise makers) going off and squirrel traps set, but that wasn’t sufficient.  So we learned a hard lesson… when the harvest is ready it must be given the highest priority!  Next year we may need to attend a different convention.  The pictures show the empty pecan husks we came back to, a squirrel trap on a tree, Samuel holding 2 of the culprits, and the lake today after 2 days of much needed hard rain.  Note that the pier is under water.

We caught a deer in our hog trap… the hogs are too smart!  We started cutting down the old oak along the drive which was dying from the drought.  We’re leaving a large section of trunk… hoping to get it carved.