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

August 31, 2017

August 2017

Filed under: Pecan Farming — knewman @ 5:10 pm

August has been a very eventful month!

Friday the 25th Ken and Kathy left for Hong Kong/China and the same evening Hurricane Harvey made landfall along the coast in Rockport, TX and rains began falling in the Houston area.

Saturday we remember experiencing heavy rainfall all day.  Salena and Lety’s families moved to the farm to be close to the residents because of the streets flooding.

Sunday the heavy rain continued all day and night and many meetings were canceled.  Terry moved his meeting to the residence for those who were staying on the Pecan Grove grounds.  We were amazed at the increasingly high waters in the pond behind the residence as you can see in the first two photos.

These photos show the waters from the pond overflowing into the forest and horse pasture.

The waters rose to cover the pier area at the cabin and the pond waters began to go over the dam.  We were worried it would break under the pressure.

Marcos caught a few of the escaping carp and they were prepared for supper at the residence.

Monday the rains persisted night and day causing the soil to turn into quicksand.  One of our 4-wheelers became stuck and we tried to pull it out with a small tractor and then a bigger tractor, but they also became stuck!  The photo shows Marcos, Terry, Dominique, and Ty (not shown in picture) trying to rescue the machines.

Tuesday we lost power in the morning, but was back up and running in the afternoon.  The rain finally stopped that evening and the sun came out briefly.  The residents were overjoyed and many went out on their walks, they and the buildings are all doing well.  The farm sustained minor damages with a few fallen trees and lost pecans.  We are grateful to be located so far north, many of the areas south of us were evacuated and destroyed by the flood waters.

 

Earlier this month we had a big change in personnel at PG.  Samuel and Conchita, who have worked here since 2013, decided to take an opportunity in San Antonio.  Samuel had been working on the farm, and Conchita at the residence.  We are missing them.  It was a pleasure seeing Bambi again before they had to leave since we have not seen him in a while.

 

Fern turned 87 and Jack turned 84 in August.

Ken’s sister Ronda, who was the manager here at PG for a few years, and her son Travis Chandler and family, visited at the same time David Bolt was here with his son Travis.  Nathan and Allison Potter also visited.

 

The Jeanes came to visit John, and the Tasics visited the Milles.

Elton flew to Quakertown convention.  Here he’s pretending to fly (100 year olds get special treatment), and then shown in a 4 generation picture.

 

Thank you for your continued interest and all the care and concern that has been shown to us.

Ken, Dominique, Mimi, & Salena

 

June 30, 2017

June 2017

Filed under: Pecan Farming,Pecan Grove,Senior Residence — knewman @ 5:18 pm

A graduation party was held at the Sr. Residence for Abigail Hoffman.  Abigail was home schooled.  Terry declared the Hoffman high school officially closed!  About 80 people came to the party.  The pictures below show Terry, Kim and Abigail, and group photos inside and out.  The meeting at PG is in the Hoffman home.

Visitors this month included Gary, Susan and Adrianna Peter, Lynden and Nadene Laird shown here with Fern and Neville Lee shown here with Marybelle and Elton.

Also Calvin and Nedda Penland shown with John, and Ivan, Christie and Ryder Gibbs from Australia who came to visit the Milles.

We have 4 wonderful staff who work at the residence.  One is Jennifer Maddoux who had a birthday this month.  The second is Conchita Valdez, shown here with Patty Maki and Jack Newman.  Conchita’s husband Samuel (not shown) works on the farm.

The third is Lety Valdez, shown with her husband Marcos (who also works for an engineering company located on the farm), and their daughter Hannah.  The last is Salena Newman shown at the nursing home with 5 of the 8 PG residents and with Naomi and Roger.  Salena manages the residence for us.  Finally, Dominique and Mimi Mille who help with the business management and purchasing the groceries.

A few months ago I showed pictures of some of the pecan grafts we had done.  Most of them died, but we have about 9 that took.  Here are pictures of 2 of them.  You can see the graft wood from Kiowa paper shell trees connected to the larger native tree stump.

Thanks for your interest in us here.

Ken

April 30, 2017

April 2017

Filed under: Pecan Farming,Senior Residence — knewman @ 8:17 am

Doris Crawford passed away in Birmingham Alabama.  Doris had been here at PG almost 8 years.  Her sister Sandra moved her to Birmingham at the end of January.  We miss Doris’s quiet, contented, soft happy spirit.

Fern Ducan came to be at PG April 18th.  Barbara Ballentine and Sharon Martyn accompanied Fern from Boston and stayed a week to help her settle in.  Fern has settled in nicely… we’re glad to have her with us.  Here are the 3 of them when they arrived.  Then Fern with Clinton, Barbara and Fern with Naomi, all 3 with Cindy and Dub Johnson.

Later they visited the nursing home again, here is Barbara with Patty Maki and Alice with Naomi.  Also we had 5 sisters for gospel meeting when Jennifer got back.

Alice and I share the same birthday, 28 years apart.  My sister Ronda and Mike Rosamond, and brother Brent and Ann, were here.  Also Salena’s father, Jim and Kirsten Thorburn were here, shown here with Kenny and Salena.

Kathy and I were gone part of April, so we didn’t see all the visitors.  Glen and Gladys Goecke are on the first 2 pictures (not together), with the Hinkleys and residents.

LaNell, Darla and Julie came for brief visits.

Family and friends of Samuel and Conchita visited:

Clinton’s brother Norris, and wife Nancy came to visit Clinton and Teresa, and visited PG.  Ronda had a good visit with Jean.

We’ve seen some ex-employees of PG recently.  On our trip we had lunch with Cindy Erickson in WA, pictured with Kathy.  Destiny Minor came to visit while Ronda and Mike were here.  Here she’s with Karin.

We don’t see as much of Bambi, but he does come by sometimes for bread.  Some of the pecan grafts we showed last month worked, you can see the live buds on the branches that were grafted in.  3 sisters went with us to see the grafts.

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

March 31, 2017

March 2017

Filed under: Pecan Farming,Senior Residence — knewman @ 3:17 pm

In March 2015 Don Lewis came back to meetings, and has been with us a lot since.  He and Clarence became close friends and were often together.  March 9th he drove himself to the VA hospital in Houston with heart problems, and passed away on March 14.  He was 83.  Here’s a picture of  Clarence and Don taken last August.  The second picture taken this month is of Don and Clarence listening to Regi who had just tuned the piano.  We really miss his visits and friendship.

At the March 1st Wed night study at Milles is shown below.  Rachel and Marsha were with us.  The second picture is of Blair and Debbie Hoseth with Marybelle.

Ronda brought Joyce for a visit.  Joyce stayed a few days with her good friend Marybelle.

Ruth’s sisters Martha (and husband Hubert) and Elizabeth came for a visit.  Marsha and Sarah are together here while Jennifer is away at special meetings.

Byron and Debi Potter visited, shown here with a group of us, and then Byron with Nordic’s wolf Zeus.

The Printzs and Kolps visited.  Elton visits his brother Roger in the nursing home once a week.

There were 5 birthdays in March.  Troy and Mireille (Mimi), Samuel, Salena and John.  The cakes tell the ages :).

A pecan farmer from 30 miles away came to graft some pecan trees for us.  We tried doing it ourselves last year and weren’t successful.  Here’s Nick with a piece of graft wood he’s carving.  He grafted 2 pieces of Kiowa paper shell pecans into this stump which is a wild pecan tree.  Hopefully at least one of these two grafts will take.  We’ll cut the other off and let the new one grow.  Since the roots are well established the tree should grow very fast.

 

Ken

January 31, 2017

January 2017

Filed under: Pecan Farming,Pecan Grove,Senior Residence — knewman @ 1:29 pm

Doris Crawford, who had been at PG almost 8 years, left in January.  Her sister, Sandra Wilson, came for a visit with Louise Martin, and decided to take Doris back to Alabama with her.  Hopefully she’ll be able to get Doris into a nursing home there.   Doris’s care needs were really beyond what we should be doing in an assisted living facility, but the staff loved her so much they didn’t want to see her go!  Please contact me if you would like Sandra’s address.  We now have 7 residents at PG.  We heard that Evelyn Wilson (Sandra’s sister-in-law) who was at PG for a year, passed away in Missouri.  The first picture is the group saying goodbye to Doris.  The second is of Louise and Marybelle with Ty Nordic’s parents, Sharon and Gary.

A kiwi family (kiwi means from New Zealand), Brent, Ellen, Amanda, Brayden and Evan Roberts, came for a visit.  They are shown below at the residence and with the Hoffmans and their goats.

While they were here Marybelle had her 91st birthday, so they fixed Pavlova!  Ruth’s sister Martha and husband Hubert visited.

William and Mark visited, shown here with John.  Noe and Malena visited Samuel and Conchita.

Lyle and Silas stopped by for a brief visit.  Jennifer and Sarah visited and took Alice on special meeting rounds.

Alice’s niece Marian and Roger Fryer are staying near here for a month or so, visiting and escaping the Wisconsin winter.  Roger is helping Marybelle improve her chess game.

We have 4 in the nursing homes near PG now.  Alice is with Teresa below.  Teresa has some bad sores on the back of her head and neck, that the doctors think are cancerous.  She doesn’t get out of bed anymore, but she’s happy and peaceful.  Roger has gone down a lot recently.  Naomi is doing much better with a new medication they’re giving her.  She’s weak and her memory is poor but she’s up some every day, happy and thankful.  Clinton is stronger, but his mind hasn’t improved.

We’re having beautiful warm weather now, after nearly 5 inches of rain and some freezing nights earlier in January.  The grass is turning green and the trees are confused.  Here’s a picture of the pecan orchard.

Ken

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