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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ken

Progress on the residence continues.  The contractor still claims it will be complete January 31, and that seems realistic.  The first resident says she’ll be moving in February 7th.  Here are some photos taken yesterday, showing the nearly completed outside and the sheetrock in the building.

Work on dredging the lake has progressed.  Fortunately the weather has been fairly dry, allowing this work to be done.  The first 3 photos below were taken from the same place standing on the dam looking over the drained lake, left to right, showing Dad and Mom’s new place, the residence and then the pecan orchard.  The last shows the back side of the dam which was covered with trees.  It will filled in so it has a 4 to 1 slope, allowing it to be mowed.

Jack Nelson began working at the pecan grove a few months ago.  The following shows Jack with his wife May.  Vincent Occhipinti happened to be visiting at the same time.

Just to keep up the red neck tradition… here’s Ronda’s dog Alex showing how he rides in her car, in front of Jack Nelson’s 5th wheel trailer.

Ken