Pecan Grove (www.pecan-grove.net)

Barbara Hilligoss (93) went down quickly in April.  She was admitted to the hospital April 16th, moved to hospice the 22nd, and then to a nursing home on the 26th.  For several days in the hospital the local friends, PG staff, and our workers, sat with her 24/7, until the doctor was able to get her medications figured out.  Karen Wright came down from Indianapolis while she was in the hospital, then Janet Nicol (her niece) came down from Indiana for several days.  Now… Barbara still gets anxious when the pain medications wear off.  Most of the time she sleeps, eating and drinking very little.  Her family is trying to move her back to Indiana… not sure if that will work out or not.

Her roommate in the nursing home is a hoot… Erma is one of our best sources of information about Barbara.  She tells us when Barbara eats, when she sleeps, when she tries to get out of bed, and a lot more details you really don’t want to know!  She says Barbara had 15 visitors on Sunday (which is probably right).  She wonders why someone from Indiana has so many friends here.  She speaks loudly and freely… wondering if we’re a “close group”.

Here is a picture of Barbara at the end of March (repeated from the March blog) with the Millers from Indiana, and then one with Karen Wright and Kathy in hospice.  Also of Kathy and Janet in hospice just before Janet returned to Indiana and Barbara was moved to the nursing home.  The wisteria picture is inserted because 4 pictures fit better than 3, and because we’re enjoying so much new spring life while trying to help in the final winter days of Barbara’s life.

 

Barbara came to PG at the end of January, 2012, from the nursing home in Indiana that they are hoping she can return to now.  Some have questioned the wisdom of her coming here for just over a year, but we’re certainly glad she came.  She had many good days here, lots of meetings, visitors, and fellowship.  We’ve been glad to get to meet the folks who visited her… and appreciated what she meant to so many.  We wish we’d known her earlier in life… but are glad for the wisdom and influence she shared with us in her time here.

Frances McPherson spend a few days in the hospital, at the same time as Barbara, with bronchitis.  Frances has recovered nicely and is back with us at PG.  The rest of the residents are doing well.

Mary Jane Pike is an interesting resident.  73 years old, in wonderful physical shape, she suffers from loss of short term memory.  She’s a “free spirit”, wandering around doing what she likes.  She likes the outdoors… spends a lot of time weeding.  With the size of this farm, and the rate weeds grow in this humid climate, she has a full time job!  She’s fond of some weeds, and tries to decorate her room with them, much to the chagrin of those who try to clean her room.  The pictures below show her pulling weeds, clowning for the camera, and playing with one of the twins (not sure, I think it’s Maven), the weeds in her room, and the twins again (because 6 pictures are better than 5 .

 

The wild flowers in April have been unbelievable.  The top soil here at PG is basically nonexistent.  We have sand at the top of the hill, and clay at the bottom.  Getting anything (useful) to grow is difficult, yet the wild flowers are beautiful.

At the beginning of April Samuel was pruning the pecan trees (see the cut limbs around the trees).  He’s shown below with sisters Andrea Lund (Minnesota) and Jenny Waldo (who lives here), and Jenny’s girls, beside the shredder he uses to shred the limbs to mulch.

All of the paper shell pecan trees are grafted.  The root stock may be from a walnut or native pecan tree.  About 18 inches above the ground, that tree is cut off and a paper shell pecan (we have 5 varieties) is grafted on.  The old root stock, below the graft, continues to put out “sucker limbs” (shown below).  These limbs draw the energy from the tree, and would produce the fruit of the old root stock.  Samuel has to cut these limbs off every year.  There’s a good spiritual lesson in that for me!  The pecan pollen is produced from a male flower (shown below) and transferred between trees by the wind.

The orchard at the end of April looks much different than it did at the beginning of April, with the wild flowers and leaves on the trees.  We’ve lost many trees to the drought of the last few years.  Unfortunately we’re loosing this huge oak along the drive into the farm.

Doug Murphy from New Mexico visited for a weekend.  He’s shown below with a half size Elk sculpture he made several years ago, which we keep at Pecan Grove.  Virginia’s sisters visited her for a few days, staying at the cabin and enjoying PG.

 

Ken

 

 

Everyone at PG is doing well.  Spring has sprung!  We’re enjoying the beautiful spring flowers.  The following pictures show some blue bonnets and the view across the pecan orchard.  The pecan trees haven’t budded yet, but the rest of the trees are out.

Destiny had a birthday in March.  Here are pictures of her with her cake, and then with Mary Jane, Brisy and Virginia.

We were glad for another visit from Martha Houston.  Here she’s shown with Esther and then with Mary Jane.

We’ve had many other visitors this month including Emma (shown with Esther), Don and Lydia, Ray and Lyle, the Overby’s (Wayne, Dawn and Lorna), Bill and Louisa Ennis, Bud and Mary Aldrich, David and Rita Miller and Bernard Blomker.  The last picture in this set is of two French girls who came to visit, Elisa (Mille) Herd with her 2 boys, Isaac and James, and Kristina Roudiy.  We met at Kristina’s parents home near Paris part of the time we lived there in the early 90′s.

Samuel Valdez turned 50.  Noe came and cooked on a discada again (at the Valdez home).  They invited everyone on the farm plus several more for lunch.  Then they repeated it for supper with about 50 of the Spanish friends from south Houston.  The food and fellowship were wonderful.  Here are some pictures…

Roger’s older brother Elton and his son David are currently here from PA.  Here are some pictures, including one of Elton making a garbage run with Jack.

Thanks to all who care for us here.

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

All are well at PG.  Esther has recovered from her congestive heart failure.  All were able to attend the Houston special meeting last Sunday.

We’ve had some issues with the camera we use at PG, so please excuse some of these photos.  The following shows the current 11 residents.

Back Row: Betty Lawrence, Frances McPherson, Doris Crawford, Naomi Nicolson, Barbra Hillagoss, Roger Cleveland, Teresa Goff, Mary Jane Pike

Front Row: Bea Jecemenek, Jean Hagemeier, Esther Potts

Noe and Samuel Valdez cooked a special, wonderful, Mexican meal for the us.  The first picture shows them cooking at two ”discadas“.  Now a discada is  a special stainless steel cooking pot similar to a wok.  But originally they were made from disk’s used in the field.  The following picture shows them cooking.  The second shows the 2 Valdez families with Joyce and Marilyn.  The 3 in the center, Samuel, Brisy (holding a dog) and Conchita work at PG.  The 2 chihuahua dogs were just visiting, and had nothing to do with the food!

We had several visitors at special meeting time, including Joyce and Marilyn above, Edith and Andrea (in the first picture below), and Duane and Leslie Beddoe in the second picture.

Doris’s sister Sandra Wilson visited with Carol Castleberry.  Below they are shown with Doris.

Kathy and I went to Deltona Florida to see Frank Porter, who left PG last September.  He’s in a nursing home near his sister, Jean Porter.  We were surprised when Frank knew who we were.  He has gone down hill a lot since he left PG, but he continues to have a thankful spirit.  Jean Henry is in the same nursing home.  The first photo below shows Frank, Kathy and Jean Henry.  The second is of Jean Porter and Kathy at Jean’s place.  The third is of Frank at Jean Porter’s place taken by Phillip Farris after we left.

Our son-in-law, Brendan Furrow (father of the twins) arranged for 18 of the friends to come to PG to play paintball.  Samuel cut a special trail into the woods so they could use a part of this farm that I’ve rarely seen.  Kathy and I didn’t play… we babysat the twins .  It sure looked like fun… I think I’ll play next time.

Ken

2013 is off to a good start at PG.  Most of the 11 residents are doing well.  Esther Potts is in the hospital again with congestive heart failure.  She went in thinking she had had a heart attack, but that wasn’t the case.  As soon as they drained the fluid off she felt better and wanted to come home.  They’re keeping her for a few days to adjust her medications.  I had one of the best visits I’ve had with her in her room in ICU yesterday morning.  She felt bad she’d miss Roger’s birthday Saturday (she remembered it was Roger’s birthday, I didn’t!).  She talked about her memories of and appreciation for Evelyn Kuck, wishing she could be at Evelyn’s funeral in Clarksville Ohio, also on Saturday.  Her memory was so much clearer than normal… we’re wondering if the oxygen they were giving her might have made the difference?  Maybe it would help my memory?

We had more staff changes in January.  Cindy Erickson, who was the longest term employee, decided to leave.  Her upbeat, joking and caring presence is certainly missed.  PG is a much quieter place!  The first picture below is of Cindy with her husband Bob, and Bob’s sister Muriel who is in the work in Washington.  Samuel Valdez’s niece, Breseida (Brisy) Valdez (20), has joined us, replacing Cindy.  Brisy was raised in the US, so is able to help Conchita and Samuel with English.  The picture below is of Brisy with her parents, Noe and Magdalena.  The order is Noe, Brisy, Magdalena, Conchita and Samuel.

Barbara and Frances had birthdays in January.  In the picture below Frances is with Dale and Patty Maki.  Patty is Frances’s daughter.

Our daughter, Karla Furrow, comes to PG once a week and does exercises with the residents.  Here they are stretching yellow elastic bands.  The twins are sitting at Karla’s feet.  Joyce and Emma visited for a few days.  Joyce’s mom Betty Lawrence is one of our residents.

The first picture below shows our other daughter, Karin Kelleher, with her husband Patrick, and Karla’s twins.  Karin is the assistant manager at PG.  The second photo is of a local Chinese friend, LiPing, who comes sometimes and cooks wonderful Chinese food for us.  She’s also holding Karla’s twins.

Burning the burn pile safely can be a challenge, especially with all the dry weather we’ve had.  We’re now using one of the sprayers to spray water around the pile as it burns.  We’re getting more than deer at our deer feeder!  These small wild hogs are cute.  The big ones are not cute!  This motion sensitive camera has taken a lot of pictures of them, almost all late at night.  So far we haven’t been able to kill any.  We’ve also got pictures of coons, crows, a bob cat, and a lot of deer.

Ken

 

 

It’s hard to believe 2012 is finished!  We have much to be thankful for, and look forward to 2013!  The residents did well in December.  Esther recovered her strength, and now walks with Bea down to the “river” every evening again.  (It’s a 7 acre lake but Esther, who is nearly blind, insists it’s a river.)   Jean was sick some… had a flu shot and then thought she had the flu.  It turned out to be gall stones.  She’s still somewhat weak, but is feeling much better.

Naomi “died” again at bible study.  I believe this is the 4th time, though it has been several months since the last time. They noticed she was passing out so Samuel and dad loaded her on a walker and as they walked her back the hall to her room she passed all the way out.  They lifted her into her bed and that woke her up.  She looked up at Samuel and said, “Samuel, have you hung up my calendar yet like I asked you to?”.  Fortunately (for Samuel) he had!  The first time this happened (see the middle of the January 2012 blog posting), we had her taken (by ambulance) to the hospital.  Now she warns us repeatedly, DO NOT take me to the hospital… let me die!  Destiny asked her what we should do if she fell and broke her arm… she said, “let it be broke – no hospital!”  It’s interesting, because when she came back from the hospital in January she talked a lot about how wonderful the hospital was.  She said she was in a room “filled with equipment” (it was actually the emergency room).  ”There was so much equipment in that room, it must have cost a thousand dollars!”

Here’s a picture of the current 11 residents, from left to right, Naomi, Doris, Bea, Teresa, Jean, Roger, Esther, Frances, Barbara, Betty and Mary Jane.

We had lots of visitors in December… didn’t get pictures of all of them.  Here are Randy and Esther Wyatt with Esther Potts.  Mark, Julia, Elisa and Jeffery Hilligoss visited Barbara.

Ron, Pam and Russ Lacock visited their daughter Sara who is in this field.  Here they’re shown with dad and mom, Kathy, Betty, Samuel and Conchita in Samuel and Conchita’s house.  The second picture is of Sara with Sharon.

Kenny’s girl friend, Salena Thorburn and her dad Jim Thorburn are shown with Kenny.   Travis, Jamie and Aliyah Bolt visited.  Travis works for Cormorant Engineering here on the farm.

John Wilbur visited with his brother Dan and family who live about 50 miles from PG.  The first picture shows them with the residents.  The second shows John with Esther Potts.

Dennis and Jen Benjamin visited with Don, Jenny, Ava and Jaina Waldo.  Don works with me, sometimes at PG.  A gecko latched onto Dennis’s finger (they don’t really bite, have no teeth!)

Jack and Mae Nelson, and Dan and Elaine Parsons (and 3 kids) were here to visit.  Jack helped with the building of PG.  Dan is my sister-in-law, Ann Newman’s brother.  Their daughter, Danelle and Ann are starting a business together in Houston.

David and Lois Evans from PA were here while visiting Howard and Mary Ann Colson (who live about 20 miles from PG).  Jeff and Julie Evans, and Julie’s son David Accola visited from Minnesota.

Virginia had foot surgery and has been working with her knee on a rolling support.  Her birthday was in December and she has had some of her family in to help out when working at PG.   The pictures below are of her birthday, and then with her sister Mary Jane Barr and her daughter and family Jenny, Juan, Ethan and Eleana Salazar

Juan cleaning and Ethan playing the piano with Teresa.

Samuel and Conchita have 2 new puppies, Milley and Pilley,  Here’s Samuel, Conchita, the Salazars and the dogs.  The second picture is of the dogs and the kids.

 

Mom’s 81st birthday was today (Dec 31st).  Here’s she’s shown with dad, and then with Joyce and Emma who are visiting for a few days.

We have plenty of pecans to sell.  Don and Jenny Waldo and our 3 kids have all helped man booths at farmers markets locally, selling pecans.  Here’s a picture of Kathy at a booth in The Woodlands.  At this rate, we’ll be at a lot more farmers markets!

We’ve had a deer feeder running at the back side of the orchard, with a motion sensitive camera near by.  There are lots of deer, mainly does, at least 1 small buck and raccoon!  Here are a few pictures.

Finally, the requisite picture of the twins… as snow angels.  We’re currently in Minneapolis visiting Kathy’s family.  Also, a picture of the twins with our good friends, Lee and Sharon (Wahlin) Clark.

Ken