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

May 31, 2016

May 2016

Filed under: Pecan Grove,Ponds,Senior Residence — knewman @ 4:17 pm

Our dear friend, Dale Maki, passed away Saturday morning.  His soft spirit and friendship are already missed.  His memorial service will be this Sunday.  Here’s a picture of Dale with Patty and a friend from China, taken May 1.  The second picture is of part of the group that was together that day.

Moses, Dale, PattyPart of union meeting May 2016

Ruth Evans came from Georgia to join our residents at PG… so now we have 7 residents.  Here’s a picture of Ruth, and then a picture of her with the Colsons, George and Norma.

Ruth EvansColsons, George, Ruth and Norma

Marilynn Frye is here for a visit from north Texas, and Marilyn Nutt and RoseMary Fandrich (shown with Elton) are here visiting Naomi in the nursing home.  Naomi has rallied some with their frequent visits, but she is still very weak.  Ron Nutt (Marilyn’s brother) took Marilyn up to Tyler for the weekend.

Marilyn with dogsMarilyn, Elton and RoseMaryRon and Marilyn

Jeff Chenault came to do some landscaping and to visit.  Here he is with Elton.  Michaela and Katie visited, shown here with Kathy and Jeff.

Elton with JeffMichaela, Katie, Kathy and Jeff

Samuel found a very young fawn in the woods.  They are feeding it… it’s growing quickly… named it Bambi. Kathy had three 65th birthday celebrations in May.

Conchita, Bambie, SamuelBambiKathy 65th

A group of Spanish friends came yesterday for a Memorial Day picnic.  Here are some pictures.

Memorial day 1Memorial day 2Memorial day 3Patty and Joyce

Here’s a group picture taken this morning, including the 7 residents.

7 residents and friends

We had another flood last week, the worst so far.  Fortunately we haven’t had much damage at PG, but a lot of roads have been closed.  Some of our grass carp went out the secondary overflow and were laying in the pasture below.  Samuel picked them up and is cooking them… says they’re good!  Even John wasn’t interested in trying them.

Flooding again!Grass carp

All the moisture is causing scab (a fungus) to grow on the pecan leaves (black dots). We lost much of our crop to scab last year, so we’re spraying fungicide more often this year… but there’s more rain in the forecast.  We know now why farmers are like hound dogs… crying all the time!

 

Scab on pecan leaves

Ken

 

April 30, 2016

April 2016

Filed under: Pecan Farming,Ponds,Senior Residence — knewman @ 9:26 pm

We’ve had some bad storms in April… thanks to those who have been in touch to make sure all were ok here.  In the first major storm, we were fortunate to only get 4″ of rain when Houston got 20″.  A second storm earlier this week caused a lot of damage in Willis (10 miles from PG), but hardly any damage here.  In the third storm, early this (Saturday) morning, we had 5″ of rain in a little over an hour!  Here are pictures taken this morning, the first of the lake and the second of the secondary overflow from the lake.  The secondary overflow should only have water going over it when the water volume is too great for the normal pipe to handle.

Flooded lakeSecondary lake overflow

Ann and Alice Harris visited from New York.  Elton was the elder in the meeting they went to for many years. Here they are with Elton, and then with the 3 in nursing homes Roger, Naomi and Teresa.  Naomi isn’t doing well… loosing weight, not eating… is very weak.  Roger and Teresa do well.

Alice, Elton, Ann HarrisAnn, Roger, AliceAnn, Alice and NaomiAnn, Teresa, Alice

Jon and Gianine Peterson brought Diane and Leland Broughton (sister and brother) to visit.  Here they’re together and then with their old friend Duane Hinkley.

Diane and LelandLeland, Duane, Diane

John caught a bunch of fish… here he is with a bass… so we had a big fish fry when the Broughtons came… over 30 of us.  Kathy and Gianine helped John fry the fish.  The Hawkins boys enjoyed our new dog Sandy.

John with fishCooking FishGroup for fish fryHawkins kids with Sandy

Herman Anderson came with the Makis, while my sister Ronda and Mike Rosamond were visiting.  Dad got cut off in this picture.  Andy and Dorlene Anderson visited Jean.  Ted and Teresa Westerbur brought Ted’s parents for a visit.

Makis, Herman Anderson, Newmans, RosamondsJean with AndersonsWesterburs visit

Alice and I share a common birthday in April.

Alice 87thKens Birthday

Elton’s family arranged for a barbershop quartet to visit PG and sing… it was very harmonious!

Barbershop Quartet

Jennifer and Rachel visited Teresa in the nursing home.  Teresa can still play the piano.  Our meeting Wed evening at Milles is shown in the second photo.  The couples from left to right, Maki, Valdez (with Josh Maki behind), Mille, Newman, Hinkley, Overby and Colson.

Jennifer and Rachel with TeresaWed evening April 27th 2016

Last month I wrote about the pecan tree grafts we had performed.  Here’s two of them (on one tree) a month later.  The graft on the left has a new branch growing out of the top of it.  The one on the right has a new bud.  We’ll have to choose between them when they get bigger.  The leaves at the bottom are new branches that sprang out of the old wild root… we call them sucker branches… and cut them off.  They would quickly outgrow the branches that have been grafted in.

Two pecan grafts

Ken

December 31, 2014

December 2014

Filed under: Pecan Grove,Ponds,Senior Residence — knewman @ 10:02 pm

The 7 residents at PG are finishing the year well.  I forgot to mention last month that Bea went on a 6 day cruise with Virginia.  Not bad for 96 and nearly blind!  Esther has started telling folks she’s 16.  She’s going to make it to 100 (next September) or die trying!

The first picture below (taken today – Dec 31) of the residents: Doris, Bea, Esther and Naomi in front, Betty, Jean and Teresa in back.  The second picture is of the residents with those of us that were there for lunch, including my sister Ronda and her husband Mike from Arkansas.

ResidentsResidents and staff

Today is mom’s 83rd birthday.  Yesterday Liz Wilbur brought Jerry and Kathleen Fredrick to visit.  The Milles children and grandchildren were also here, with Mike and Ronda.

Leona 83Milles, Rosamonds, Herds, Wilbur

Samuel and Conchita are with Ronda and Mike in the first picture, in the house Ronda and Mike used to live in at PG… now rented by Samuel and Conchita.  Scotty and Dorothy Scott visited with their daughter Glenda Kadir and her children (who live in Dubai) and their son-in-law Galen Grillo (who lives in California).

Valdez, RosamondP1040263

Terry (all hat and no cattle) Hoffman’s family visited from Wisconsin and Georgia. Ron and Anna Furrow (Brendan’s parents from Ohio) came to visit with Karla, the twins and Evren.  Esther is always glad to see folks from Ohio.

HoffmansFurrows

Mary Sitton brought Bernie and Sarah Hatchett for dinner on Christmas day.  These pictures show Mary with Hector, Conchita and Samuel, then Betty with Sarah and Bernie.

Hector, Conchita, Mary, SamuelBetty, Sarah and Bernie

Sisters Betty Goss and Mary Stanton visited their old friends, Betty and Bea.  Lyle and Ginger Meyer and their 3 – Jessica, Austin and Blake – were down from Minnesota.

StantonsMeyers

Howard and Mary Ann Colson and Wayne and Dawn Overby babysat our residents so the staff could go to a holiday dinner.  Ava and Oscar Waldo enjoy Naomi.

ColsonsNaomi, Ava, Oscar

Our road signs (needed for 911) were installed.

2 signs4 signs

Terry made a Texas slab at the bottom of the flag pole.  There are still a lot of pecans on some of the trees!  We’re to busy (or lazy) to bother with them.

FlagpolePecans in December

Good progress was made on the Mille home… rafters were going up today.   Our place was started in January… windows are going in now.  That retaining wall turned out to be a lot of work!

Milles HomeHouse from Orchard

Dominique took these pictures one frosty morning.

IMG954431IMG954439

Happy New Year!  Thanks for your interest in PG.

Ken

March 1, 2014

February 2014

Filed under: Newman Residence,Ponds,Senior Residence — knewman @ 9:47 pm

Our dear Frances passed away February 15th.  She was 94 and had been at PG since August 2009.  There was a memorial service at PG for her on Feb 20th, which about 90 attended.  Much was said about her ready smile and faithful life.  The pictures below are of Frances on her birthday in 2012, and then of her daughter and family, the Makis, Josh, Dale and Patty, at her memorial service.  Frances’s niece and husband, Steve and Wynesta Dale were here for the memorial service too (this picture was taken after Houston special meeting).  Finally, a picture of the workers that were at the memorial service.

Fances Jan 2012 Josh, Dale, PattySteve and Wynesta Workers at Frances Memorial Service Feb 20 2014

A group of us, including all the residents, went to the nursing home for Roger’s 94th birthday.  His niece, Karen was here for a few days from PA.  The pictures show Roger with Karen, Roger with the residents, and then Roger with the group of us that were there.  Teresa, who is amazingly talented on a piano, was asked to play Happy Birthday for Roger.  When she started playing, a very lively version of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer came out!  Kathy had to sing Happy Birthday to her to remind her how it went!

Roger and Karen Mary Jane, Esther, Naomi, Roger, Jean, Doris, Betty, Teresa, Bea Roger's birthday group Teresa and Kathy

We had many visitors at special meeting time, but didn’t get many pictures.  The first picture below shows Mark, Ronda and John.  Clarence Rochell lives about an hour from PG, but came and stayed a few days during special meetings, so he could ride the bus with the residents.  Here he’s pictured with dad and myself.

Mark, Ronda, John Ken, Clarence, Jack

We have some big projects going on at PG.  One is to build a house for Kathy and myself on the farm.  Jeff Chenault has come down from PA to help on the excavation work for the house.  His son Trevor and Trevor’s new wife Heather (Bolt) were here for a few weeks as well.  Here’s Trevor, Heather, Karen and Jeff.  Jeff’s driving the compactor by the basement excavation for the house.  Basements are rare in this area, so progress is slow.

Trevor, Jeather, Karen, Jeff Basement Hole

The dam that creates the small pond beside the cabin was originally built with a spillway.  Years ago a rush of water washed out the spillway and cut a hole in the dam.  The beavers built a dam across the hole, and that has kept the pond until now.  We managed the offend the beavers enough that they (finally) left!  So… Jeff dug out the beaver dam and is repairing the damaged portion of the dam.  The pictures below show the excavator from the cabin (where the Milles are living) just as Jeff started removing the beaver dam, and then the cabin across the partially drained pond.  The repair of the dam should be finished next week.

Excavator from CabinCabin from dam

We don’t usually have much weather below freezing, but we sure had our share this year.  Here’s the deck of the cabin with some snow on it (very rare here), and a cardinal in the cabin bird feeder.

Snow at the cabin Cardinal

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

January 31, 2012

January 2012

Filed under: Ponds,Senior Residence — knewman @ 10:04 pm

Barbara Hilligoss arrived today (the last day of January) to be our 11th resident at PG.  Janet Nicol accompanied her from Indianapolis and will stay for a few days while Barbara gets settled.  The picture below shows them arriving. The second picture shows mom cutting Frank’s hair (completely unrelated!).

Jennifer Downs, the younger sister worker in our field, shown below between her aunt Donna Smith and her mother Susan Harding, has run off to Haiti to help out for a few months.  A girl who has been going to school near us, Michaela Dotson, was waiting to go in the work… so she started last week, taking Jennifer’s place.  Lyle and Doug brought her to PG on her first day.  The old sisters told her about their first gospel meetings.  Esther commented that shes starting in the place where they are finishing.

Three “kids” (young employees) have been working part-time at PG to replace Lounell and Marianna.  Corey Stephens, Destiny Minor (who has been living with Mike (her uncle) and Ronda Rosamond at PG for a few years), and Crystal Bryant.  The first picture below is of Corey, and the second shows Crystal and Brandon – they had the same birthday.

There was a sing at PG on Saturday… about 70 of us.

Other birthdays in January, Connie Dalrymple and Joyce Lawrence, and Francis McPherson shown with the her daughter Patty Maki and family.

Sandra Wilson was here to visit her sister Doris Crawford and her sister-in-law Evelyn Wilson.  Dad and mom had their 60th wedding anniversary.

My uncle (mom’s brother) and aunt, Lynn and Florence Fuller, were her for mom’s 80th birthday (see the December post).  While they were here, Naomi “died” during the bible study .  After 10 min of no response, with her laid out on the floor, all the residents watching, with the EMT’s on the way, there was a discussion about whether they needed an ambulance or a herse.  Florence told Lynn to fold Naomi’s arms across her chest.  When he did this he lost his balance and fell on her chest.  This gave her heart a kick-start.  Unfortunately it was against her DNR… but accidents happen!  A few minutes later whe was sitting up explaining to the EMTs that shs didn’t have time to go to the hospital… she had too much to do!  She had her bed to make and 12 letters to write.  Frank immediately volunteered to make her bed (that’d be a first!).  She finally agreed to go in the ambulance if they wouldn’t cut her clothes off of her.  The last time she was in an ambulance they cut her clothes off and she had to sew them back together again!  Also, she insisted on sitting up in the ambulancee so she could see the country.  She spent a night in the hospital, and came back home the next day.  The following picture shows Lynn, Florence, Sandra, with Norma and Gordon Charboneau.  The second shows Cindy Erickson (our noisest employee) 60th birthday.  The grim reaper balloon says “relax, I’m just here for the cake”.

We’ve had some rain, so that our lakes on the farm are full, but Lake Conroe is still down 7 ft, so we’re not out of the woods yet.  We have plenty of dead trees to prove it.

Ralph and Dee Hart were here to visit Evelyn (and the rest of us).  Dan McKerrow from Frank’s home part in New York visited Frank.

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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