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

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

Ray brought Clinton Goff from Virginia to be our 8th resident in November.  Clinton is in worse condition than our other residents… but is slowly adjusting to PG.  Clinton’s cousin, Don Lewis, who lives near here came to visit with Clarence.  Don said Clinton has several strikes against him, physical, mental and being a Goff!  Takes one to know one.  The cousins are visiting on the couch in the picture below.

Tomorrow Marybelle Armstrong is to join us from Redbud Canyon.  I’ll include that in the December blog.

Other visitors (that we have pictures of) included Jim Stipp, Delbert and Penny Lewis, Robert and Linda Klepzig, and then Marie and Joyce.  Mike Callaway and Dave Larson are here visiting today.

There were about 30 here for Thanksgiving, most shown in the 2 pictures below.

Patrick Kelleher (our son-in-law who works here at PG) had a birthday.  His little son Dylan got a helmet to help straighten his misshapen head.

Here’s Naomi and Roger in the nursing home.  Naomi seems to be gradually improving… we see her up more, and her attitude is good.  Roger is basically completely deaf now… we have to write notes to him, but his spirits are good.  Teresa Goff is in bed more, but is in good spirits.  She’s aware her brother-in-law Clinton is here, but we haven’t been able to take him in to see her yet.

Kathy and I made our yearly trip to Aberdeen Scotland.  A few pictures of our friends there for those who may know them.

Ty has a longhorn cow and a young bull (not related) that will be a longhorn eventually.  The bull follows the cow around like it’s scared.  Bambi (who is growing horns, so is a he) is now sporting a red collar.  Hopefully that will be enough for hunters to notice, now that it’s deer hunting season.  He’s free to roam, but stays close.

Ken

In September Bambi lost her spots!  Ok, maybe that wasn’t the most important thing that happened in September, but it was interesting to see how fast it happened.  Here are pictures of her at the beginning and end of the month.  She escaped from her pen for a day or so… then came back.  Now she follows Samuel around like a puppy.

The residents are doing well.  Jean fell and thought she broke her arm, but it wasn’t broken, and she soon recovered use of it.  Raymond had a few falls but seems to be doing fine.  They cut back on the pain medications for Doris… she’s more “with it” and doesn’t seem to have pain.

Terry and Cathy Lawrence came to visit Doris.  We took a group picture which includes the Lawrences (including Joyce who isn’t related), all the residents, Dad, Kathy and myself.

Marilyn, Joyce, and Jennifer visited, shown here with Alice.  Diann and Patty came for the bible study one morning.

Jean turned 93.  Her good friends, Don and Clarence visited here today, pictured with Elton and Hannah in the background.  John had enough fish for another fish fry… so we had 26 here for lunch.

Elton had this picture taken at the nursing home with Roger, Naomi and Teresa (and Hannah).  All 3 do well, though Teresa seems to be in bed most of the time when we visit.  The Nordic’s have a pet wolf, Zeus, who lives here now, shown here with 3 of our grandchildren and myself.

The pecan harvest has started.  There is one of the 8 varieties we have, called Pawnees, that is ready for harvest earlier than the other varieties.  So far we’ve only been harvesting Pawnees.  They are more susceptible to scab than the other varieties, and we had a very wet Spring, so the yield isn’t very good, but it’s a lot better than last year!  Last year the squirrels and crows wiped out much of the crop… this year there are very few squirrels and crows.  We’ve been hunting the few that are here… hopefully the numbers won’t increase for the rest of the harvest.  The pictures show the tractor shaking a tree and then Dad pulling the  harvester, picking the pecans up off the ground.

A business acquaintance that has a helicopter came to visit and gave us rides.  This picture was taken from the helicopter.  The Sr. Residence is in the foreground, and the pecan orchard in the background.

Ken