Pecan Farming « Pecan Grove (www.pecan-grove.net)

September 30, 2020

September 2020

Filed under: Pecan Farming,Pecan Grove,Senior Residence — knewman @ 5:09 pm

Clinton Goff passed away September 4th at the nursing home near here that he’s been in since 2016. We hadn’t been able to visit him since the end of June due to the virus. Rachel and Brenda were able to have a brief visit with him a week before he died using Facetime. Here’s a link to notes from his memorial service which was held in Virginia.

Clintons Memorial Service

John Culver was taken to the hospital September 2nd because of congestive heart failure. He improved and was moved to a rehab hospital, but then went down quickly with pneumonia, was moved to an hospice wing of another hospital and passed away Sept 25th. His funeral is tomorrow (October 1) here in Willis. There will be another funeral and burial in Owensboro, KY on Saturday. Here is a picture of John in the bible study the day before he went to the hospital (at right across from Fern). He was very weak but did try to have a part. Then a picture of him in the rehab hospital with Lois and myself.

Here’s a link to the folder for John’s funeral tomorrow: Service Folder

Otherwise, all here are doing ok. Dad fell and was in the hospital for stiches in his head, but seemed clearer afterward! We’re all getting older!

Karen Cleveland was still here for several days at the beginning of the month, visiting Elton. On her 50th anniversary of being in the work we had a sing and she told us some of her story. Here’s a picture from the sing and the workers that were that were there.

Here’s another picture of the workers, Brenda Townsend, Rachel Potter, Ana Laura Olivar, Alice Oetken and Karen Cleveland. Another picture of the sisters “talking” to each other!

Here’s Clarence with his son Wayne and Mary, visiting and playing dominos outside on the porch. Marybelle likes to “walk” back to the residence from meeting (it’s downhill). Dominique helps her.

We’re getting near harvest time and the varmints are sure making a mess. Crows, squirrels and pigs eat pecans and make a mess. We’ve managed to get rid of some, but not enough! Deer aren’t a problem for the pecans, but they eat the bait we use for the hogs. We don’t try to get rid of the deer… sometimes we have to save them from the hog trap. Hopefully there will be some pecans left for us.

Ken

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July 31, 2020

July 2020

Filed under: Pecan Farming,Pecan Grove,Senior Residence — knewman @ 4:56 pm

In the June post I told of the 1 hour seizure Dad had. It may not have been clear… since November 2019 he was living at The Wellington in Conroe. The picture of him in the June blog is through the window at the Wellington, where he was when this seizure happened. He was hospitalized, and for a while we didn’t think he would pull through. But he did improve, and with the help of my sister Ronda, was able to come back to Pecan Grove (on hospice) for several days. Then he had to go back to The Wellington where he is still on hospice. One of his caregivers at The Wellington is Tinnette, who came to visit him at PG (1st picture). Most of the family was able to spend some time with him… Karla and her 4 children (2nd picture), Karin, her 2 children, Kenny, Salena, Kathy and myself (3rd). Mimi gave him a much needed haircut (4th). He was able to be in a few morning bible studies, at a family dinner, and in 2 meetings. The 5th is a meal with distancing while Dad and Ronda were at PG. Then Ronda, Brent, Ann, Kathy and I took him back to The Wellington (6th). Tinnette and the other caregivers take good care of him there and make sure he can hear the gospel meetings by phone. Since he’s on hospice, they allow us to visit him once in a while through an open doorway in his room.

The residents at PG are all doing about the same, frustrated by not being able to get out or to have visitors, but glad for the fellowship and meetings we do have.

July was a difficult month for the Milles. Dominique had a hip replacement, which went very well, but requires time to heal. Then Mimi’s brother in France was killed in an accident… and they can’t travel. Then Mimi fell and hurt her back… so she’s healing also. They’re both improving nicely.

The workers switched around July 1. Lyle and Dale left this north Houston field and Rachel and Brenda came. The residents liked Salena’s July 4th costume.

Our 2 fig trees produced a nice crop of figs in July (1st pic). John doesn’t use his golf cart much anymore, except when the figs are in… he makes sure we don’t get them all! We’re working with about half the pecan trees this year as a hobby. The high humidity we have here causes a fungus called scab. The scab on the leaves doesn’t really hurt anything, but the scab on the pecan husks keeps them from fully developing. The 2nd picture shows pecans with scab and the 3rd picture shows some without scab. We’ve sprayed fungicide 5 times already and will need to spray a few more times before the September/October harvest, and hopefully we’ll have some good pecans.

Ken

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November 29, 2017

November 2017

Filed under: Pecan Farming — knewman @ 9:46 am

Raymond Reece had a bad fall November 1. We took him to the VA hospital, after which he went to a nursing home in northwest Houston that takes VA residents. He’s receiving PT and OT treatment, but it seems doutful he’ll return to PG. He’s content, and has visitors fairly often. Some tried to take him out of the nursing home for Thanksgiving dinner but he refused. He likes his routine. The following picture is of Raymond in the nursing home, and Kathy. The second picture is of the Milles and Elton visiting Elton’s brother, Roger Cleveland, in the nursing home.

I’ve updated the Current and Past Resident tables in the upper right corner of this blog. Now with Raymond gone we only have 6 residents. My father, Jack, lives in a house on the farm, and is at the residence a lot. Here they are:

Back: John Cluver, Elton Cleveland, Jack Newman

Front: Jean Hagemeier, Fern Duncan, Alice Otken and Marybelle Armstrong

We have 4 staff working in the residence. The first picture is of Jennifer Maddox with her husband and daughter. The second is of Lety Valdez with her parents who visited from Mexico. The third picture is of Salena Newman (the manager) with Ashley Kipp who was visiting. The forth picture is of Robbie Norman.

Wayne and Dawn Overby moved 17 miles to PG in November. They are living in the house that Samuel and Conchita had been in. We’re sure glad to have them here! Wayne and Dawn are with Wayne’s bother Keith and family, and Alice in the first picture below. The Overbys are on the right in the second picture taken at Clarence Roachells one Sunday morning. The Colsons, Milles, Eubanks, Fern and Jack are also in the second picture with Clarence.

Ron and Ann Furrow were here to visit their son Brendan, who is married to our daughter Karla, and their 4 kids. Also Mai Hoa from Vietnam visited the Milles and others of us who remember her.

Our workers this year are Rachel Potter and Emma Perez. They were with us for Thanksgiving, also Kenion Bryant from the south Houston field.

Here are some Thanksgiving pictures:

Ken

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October 31, 2017

October 2017

Filed under: Pecan Farming — knewman @ 2:13 pm

The first major event at PG in October was Elton’s 100th birthday! His son David, daughter Cheryl and Jim Hutchison, grandson Matt Hutchison and family, granddaughter Elizabeth Wimmer, and Alicia Weaver came for the first party. His daughter Karen joined us by Skype from Columbia. Gerry and Margaret Gunderson came for the second party. When the cake was being carried in to the first party, David went ahead with the cake box, pretended to fall, and threw the box on the floor. Here are some pictures. The second one is of Elton watching the cake “fall”. The last picture is taken in the nursing home, visiting Elton’s brother Roger.

The other major events were the Texas conventions. 5 residents were able for Georgetown English, and 3 for Mountain Peak. Raymond and Jack were the only ones unable to attend a convention. Some were able to listen to the conventions at PG.

Jack had lower back surgery in September to relieve pressure on his spinal cord and some nerves. The surgery went well, but the recovery has been long. He spent a few weeks in a rehab hospital, then stayed in John’s room at PG while John was away at conventions. He’s now back up in his house, and continuing to recover slowly.

Raymond Reece is having much more difficulty getting around. He has fallen several times. They are acessing him to see if PT could help.

Alice Oetken had a minor surgery which went very well, but then she had blood clots in her legs and lung, so was in the hospital several days. Her niece Carol Martin came to spend several days with her when she came home. Also Jim and Roberta Stipp (brother and sister) stopped by PG for a night after Effie convention. Ron and Pam Lacock stopped by for a visit, as did Nadene and Lynden Laird.

Harvey dumped 21″ on PG in 2 days, which was minor compared to what Houston received. It’s hilly here, so no concerns about flooding. However the force of the rain washed a lot (maybe half) of the pecans off of the trees. We finished the harvest and are still finishing the cleaning of the pecans. One step of the cleaning process is shown below. We’ve also started thinning the orchard. Our trees are on 35 ft spacing. In some areas they have started touching in the middle. We have to cut out every other tree, so they are on 70 ft spacing. This year we’ve cut down about 20 trees.

Ken

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September 30, 2017

September 2017

Filed under: Pecan Farming — knewman @ 8:17 pm

Last Friday Naomi Nicholson (88) started getting sick. She went from the nursing home to the hospital Sunday morning, and passed away early Tuesday morning. We knew Sunday morning in the emergency room that she wasn’t going to live, so we stopped all treatment and kept her comfortable. She had more than 2o visitors on Monday, and responded when hymns were sung and to some questions. Naomi came to PG in August 2011, and went to a nursing home in Conroe in January 2016. The funeral was yesterday (Friday). Barry Barkley, Rosemary Fandrich and Jane Estey came from the north east, and 4 of the Texas workers came, Lyle Schober, Marie Mounce, Joyce Lawerence, Emma Perez, Jennifer Bartels and Sarah Ranstrom. Here’s a picture of Barry, Rosemary and Jane with Fern. Also 2 pictures of the group together before the funeral. There was a pot luck after the funeral with a much larger group. We are working on notes from the funeral which will be emailed to the blog list.

Earlier in September a lot happened. My dad, Jack Newman, had back surgery, and is still in a rehab hospital. He’s making progress and hopes to return home next week. My brother Brent, and sister Ronda Rosamond came to be with him. Alice had emergency surgery for a hernia. She has recovered quickly, but still has some pain. Jean went into the same rehab hospital dad is in for 10 days of PT and OT. It made a big difference for her… she was in a wheel chair and now is walking again. Betty Denton and Lois Culver (John’s sister) came to visit John and Fern. Here’s pictures of Lois with John, then Betty and Lois with Clinton, and Betty with her Texas relatives Bud and Mary Aldrich.

Ronda Stidolph took Marybelle to convention in Iowa. Pearl Bailey and Alma Johnson visited Fern. Jean turned 94 (before going to rehab). Truman Weld visited from Oregon, shown here with Elton.

4 couples came to visit at the same time. Unfortunately we only have a picture of Roger and Betty Egger from Canada (near where Fern is from). The other couples were John and Betty Egger (John and Roger are cousins), Mel and Rudonna Pipgras, and Brian and Linda Blair. Our 6th grandchild arrived in September, Emry Furrow.