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

October has been a busy, wonderful month.  The pecan harvest keeps us busy, and the conventions were wonderful.  All 7 residents were at Georgetown full-time.  John, Alice, and Dad were at Mountain Peak.

One big event was Elton’s 99th birthday.  We brought Roger from the nursing home.  Elton’s daughters Karen and Cheryl were able to join us by Skype.

Elton’s son, David, came for a visit and took Elton to Georgetown.  Sandra Wilson (Doris’s sister) and Carol Bush came for a visit. We only got a picture of Sandra petting Bambi.

Alda and Ann Blakemore came to visit.  Ann was a coworker with Doris.  Here they are with Ruth and Doris, adn then with John, Dominique and Mimi.

Bobby Sylvia was at Georgetown (below visiting with Doris).  He came back to PG with us.  Then Glenn Sparks came by and picked him up… they were headed to Effie.  Bobby was in our home a lot when when I was a kid.

The Howdens are now living in Willis.  Deniese spent a day helping out at PG.  Here she’s with Salena and myself.  Jim Stipp is here visiting today.  He knew Samuel in Monteray when Samuel was a kid.

We’re having a reasonable pecan harvest this year, which is nice after having no harvest last year.  Last year the wet spring caused scab, then the crows and squirrels ate all that was left!  This year, we had a wet spring again but we sprayed for scab 5 times.  We had almost no squirrels or crows.  And so we have pecans!  For the first time we’ve identified the types of pecans, and are keeping them separate.  The Pawnees (red on the map below) came in in late September, followed by the Cheyenes (green), then the Chocataws (orange) and finally the Desirables (yellow).  We have about 7 native (N) pecan trees, and have planted a lot of Kiowas (pink), but they aren’t big enough to bear yet.  There are 4 trees (blue) that we aren’t sure what they are, but they have huge pecans like the one shown below.

The pecan harvesting involves shaking the tree, picking them up off the ground with the harvester and running them through the cleaner which uses a big air blower to seperate out the leaves, limbs, etc.  The pecans come out on a conveyor belt and people have to pick out the stones and bad pecans.  Below Amy, Ty, Dad and John are heloing Samuel clean the pecans.  John has found a new use for his golf cart!  After this the pecans are put on drying racks to dry, then sometimes they have to be run through the cleaner again to blow out the empty pecans.

Ty added a cow to his longhorn heard, so now he has a bull and a cow.  Sandy and Bambi are good friends.

Ken

In July it’s gone from too wet to too hot and dry.  All at Pecan Grove are doing reasonably well.  Ruth had shots in her back for disc problems, which seem to have helped.  Then she was a passenger when a fender bender happened on the farm and her airbag deployed… she’s doing ok from that also.  She had lots of visitors this month, includeing her sister and husband, Martha and Hubert Dawley, George Lee and Cecil Wise.

George went with us, Karin and kids, and Karla and kids to the nursing home to see Naomi, Roger and Teresa.  All 3 love to see kids!  Naomi was up and dressed… first time I’ve seen her like that since she went into the nursing home!  Roger loves to tell us we all need to be childlike.  The last picture is of George with all 5 kids.  We didn’t get a picture with Teresa… she was in bed but still appreciated the visit.

Elton is having work done on his teeth… almost 99 years old, lives on sugar… lots of energy… amazing guy!  He’s our official photographer, so often isn’t in pictures.  He asked for the following picture with Kathy and the grandkids… to make sure he got included in the blog!  The second picture is of dad (Jack) with his 9th great-grandchild… Dylan Kelleher.

Conchita had a birthday.  Here she is with Samuel, then the 2 of them with Dylan.

Samuel’s cousins and others from Mexico visited Samuel and Conchita, and Raymond.  Sorry, I didn’t spend much time with them and can’t tell you all the names.

Jennifer and Rachel took Alice to Happy for preps and convention.  Carol and Mike Martin and their granddaughter Kayden visited PG. Carol is Alice’s niece… but Alice was at Happy.  That’s the way the timing worked out… glad for their visit.

Dub and Cindy Johnson came to visit Naomi, and stopped at PG for a visit.  Herbie and Paty Barnette came to visit with Justin Anderson… shown here with dad.

Dominique’s cousin from Paris, Cathy, visited.  Here shes with the group at Clarences on Sunday morning, and then with Elisa (Mille) Herd and Elisa’s 3rd son Eli.  Kathy and I are in France now for some vacation and then for the convention at Chaintreauville which starts August 6th.  We hope to see Cathy, possibly at Chaintreauville and later in Paris.  Kathy and I return home August 11th.

After we left for France, Gerry and Margaret Gunderson visited Elton at PG.  Sorry we missed them!  The second picture is on a tour with dad, Sandy and Samuel.

Dave and Nancy Schmertman came for a visit with Howard and Mary Ann Colson.  They’re in the same North Houston field… but so far away… were glad for the visit.  Bambi still drinks goats milk from a bottle, and makes a mess when she does.  Here Sandy is licking milk off of Bambi.  How old does a fawn have to be to be weaned from goats milk?  The pecan trees are looking good in spite of way too much rain followed by draught!

Ken