Pecan Grove (www.pecan-grove.net)

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.

The residents at PG are doing about their usual.  We see a gradual decline in each one, but that’s why they’re here!  Esther turned 98 in September, and Jean turned 90.  Now 6 of our 10 residents are in their 90s.

Lyle Waldo, who’s in the work in Oregon, spent a week here with his “little” brother Don.  He was at PG a few days while Don worked.  Lyle worked with us for 2+ years in the late 90′s, so it was good to have him visit again.  The first picture below is of Don and Lyle.  The second is of Josh and Patty Maki visiting with Patty’s mom, Frances McPherson, one of our residents.

We had two to re-profess in September, Josh Maki and Salena Thorburn.  Salena works at PG part-time now, as she is a full-time student at Texas A&M.  The first picture below is of Jason Munckton and Josh the day Josh re-professed.  The second is of Salena and Kenny the day Salena re-professed.

Andrea, one of our new staff, has twins who are 2 1/2 years old.  Here’s a picture of them with our twins, Maren and Maven.  Though it’s not obvious from this picture, they did enjoy playing together!  The second picture is of the “Frankolator”, Frank Porter, one of our previous residents, in the nursing home in Florida.  Though Frank can’t remember much, its good he retains his sense of humor.

We’ve had a lot of activity at our deer feeder since we set it up again in early September.  The following 4 pictures are taken with a motion sensitive camera which looks at the feeder.  As you can see, we have more than deer who enjoy the corn.

The wild hogs dig around the pecan trees in some places.  It’s amazing… it looks like someone plowed the soil.  It doesn’t harm the trees, but today I acquired a wild hog trap… so we may have some “free” pork!  We’ll let you know how that goes next month.  The first picture shows how the hogs plowed up the ground.  The second shows that we figured out how to be smarter than the crows!  A crow eats about 1 lb of pecans per day.  There are 57 in this picture that won’t be eating any more.  There are probably a few hundred more we need to get rid of… but we now know how.  I offered pecan-fed crows to the cooks at the residence, but no one was interested!

The first type of paper shell pecans, called Pawnee’s, were harvested in the last few days.  The pictures below show pecans still in the green husks, and then cleaning pecans after they are harvested.  We’re using a harvester this year instead of tarps, and it’s a lot less work.  For a detailed explanation of the pecan harvesting process (using tarps) see the October 2012 post, half way down.  We’ll be harvesting the 4 other types of pecans in October (just in time for our conventions!).  Hopefully I’ll have some pictures showing how a harvester picks up pecans from the ground, instead of using tarps.

Ken

All are doing reasonably well at PG.  We’ve had much to be thankful for in August.  Rachel and Jeanette visited and Jack took the following group picture with all the residents.  Back row: Roger Cleveland, Mary Jane Pike, Rachel Potter, Jeanette Coker, Betty Lawrence, Jean Hagemeier and Teresa Goff.  Front row: Frances McPherson, Bea Jecmenek, Doris Crawford, Naomi Nicholson and Esther Potts.

Kathy and I had the privilege of taking Naomi with us to Milford NH convention.  She traveled well and really enjoyed herself.  She still glows when she talks about it.  The following pictures show her with the workers and riding a golf cart.  Craig Dean is driving the cart but I know who is in control!

Linda Ronhaar took Esther to Yellow Springs OH convention and for a visit with her relatives in OH.  Here’s the workers picture with Esther, and Esther with old friends Bill Houston and Duane Hettich at Morrow OH.

Visitors this month included Warren Berger, Shaun and Sandy Schleuter (from Washington state), Sharon and Sara, Emma and Joyce.

Two of our full-time staff, Brisy Valdez and Salena Thorburn are headed back to college this fall.  Salena will continue to work one shift on the weekends.  We’ve hired two new full-time girls from the local area, Andrea and Jennifer.  The picture below shows Andrea and Jennifer with Brisy.  The second picture is of Travis, Jamie and Aliyah Bolt.  Travis works at PG.

Dad (Jack), Karin and Don Waldo all had birthdays in early August.  Both our daughters, Karla (mother of the twins) and Karin are expecting!  So if all goes well, by May next year we’ll double the number of grandchildren we have from 2 to 4.  The second picture below shows Karin and her husband Patrick Kelleher, with Maren (one of Karla and Brendan’s twins).  Karin is the assistant manager at the Sr. residence, and Patrick is starting to work at PG also, so we’ll see a lot more of him.  Once Patrick starts, if everyone is there, there will be 5 of us working in the barn for 2 different small businesses – Don Waldo, Jason Munckton, Patrick Kelleher, Travis Bolt and myself.  We often head down to the Sr. residence for lunch with the residents.

So far the pecans are doing well.  There’s still a drought here, with less than half the rain we should have had to date, but Samuel keeps the irrigation systems going and the little rain we have had sure helps.  The Pawnee pecans should be ready for harvest by the end of September, with the other 4 types ready later in October.  We’ve had a good cutting of hay off of the hay field for the first time, so the farming activity is increasing.

Speaking of Naomi… at bible study this morning we read 1Th 5:26 Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss.  She tossed a Hershey’s  at me and grinned like a mule eating huckleberry’s in the winter time!  I complained that it didn’t have any holes in it.  We need to be careful, Roger doesn’t approve of humor during bible study.

Ken

All are doing fairly well at PG as July finishes.  The weather has been hot, but we’ve had some rain, so the pecans are doing well and everything is green.

Our daughter, Karla Furrow, comes to PG most Tuesdays with the twins, and teaches an exercise class.  Her in-laws, Ron and Anna Furrow, and their granddaughter Aubrey were with Karla for one of these visits in July.  Karla found out she was expecting again (only 1 this time), so we had everyone sign a long orange poster.  The following pictures show the exercise class, Furrows…

I’ve done fairly well in recent posts… not too many pictures of the twins!  I’m making up for it with this post!

Dale, Patty and Josh Maki have visited PG to see Patty’s mom, Frances McPherson.  Dale and Josh haven’t been well… Josh is doing much better.  Dale started treatments today.  Jason Munckton joined us in July.  He’s working with us in one of the small oilfield businesses we run from PG.  He’s shown below programming with Don Waldo.

Kenny and Salena had purchased fireworks for July 4th, and didn’t have a chance to use them, so last week they did a fireworks show for the residents.  We were surprised how many stayed up (or got up to watch.

Kathy and I are traveling today with Naomi to Milford NH, for the convention starting tomorrow.  We haven’t been to Milford since we lived near there, 1980-1985.  Naomi is very excited to be going back.  Esther is to go back to Yellow Springs, OH, in a few weeks.

Ken