January has been a wonderful month for us at PG. Many privileges to enjoy, good fellowship, mostly good weather, and no one got sick! A CVS team came out and vaccinated 27 of us (including all 11 residents) 3 weeks ago, and tomorrow (Feb 1) they’re coming to give the 2nd shot. 3 additional people will be added tomorrow, for a total of 30. We are hoping we can relax some restrictions soon, once the vaccinations are complete.
The residents are all about about their usual. Fern fell (slid off the edge of her bed) a few days ago, and has some soreness from that, but is up and around. Gilbert had a cyst removed from his back, and will have another removed in February. He never mentions any pain. Marilynn had a scan that was clear. She will have 6 weekly treatments for bladder cancer starting this week, but it isn’t chemo, and hopefully won’t be difficult or painful.
Important news first! Esther made Pavlova for us today. She says at home in Ireland they had it most every Sunday! We have a volunteer outdoor cat which sure makes Alice happy. I asked for a picture and they brought it indoors for the picture! Elton (103) gets his 1st vaccine shot.
Kenny and Salena put on a fireworks show down by the lake at New Years. We roasted marshmallows, drank hot chocolate, had an outdoor fire and enjoyed the show. Several, including Fern in the picture below, shot Roman candles.
Three residents had birthdays in January, Marybelle (95) (though she’s certain she’s 94), Della (88) and Gilbert (97).
We haven’t had a lot of visitors in January because of covid restrictions. Lyle (shown with Katelyn and Dylan Kelleher) did come for a few days with Brian Jagielski and Rich Raschke who are new to this field. Tony and Becky Gary (KY) and their daughter Allison Potter had a porch visit with Esther and Lois. Clarence’s family came for a porch visit, but we didn’t get a picture.
Della’s family came for a visit at our place (Esther visited them also), Mille’s family visited at their place (Esther and Marilynn are with them in this picture), and Shawn’s 2 daughters, Hailey and Eden visited Shawn and Anita at our place.
Our weather varies a lot in the winter. We’ve had a little snow (very little), several frosts, and a storm that took down part of a tree by our gate. On Jan 16th the grandchildren swam in our pool short periods, between long periods in the hot tub.
But many days have been warm and sunny, confusing the plants. Here’s blooms on our lemon tree. One frosty morning Kathy took this picture of wild hogs from our bedroom window! (I was scrambling to find a gun!). Usually we only see the hogs (as many as 12) in the game camera pictures (you can see the game camera and a green light box on the left side of the middle tree in the middle picture).
Last Friday morning a game camera alerted me at 2:30 AM and I was able to shoot a 60 lb hog. I put it in the back of the orchard near the woods, with a game camera watching it. I hoped to get some pictures of coyotes (which are plentiful here). What a surprise the next morning! Dominique says they see these 2 eagles all the time… I hadn’t seen them. The camera takes lots of pictures… I never realized how much an eagle would use it’s wings while eating to help pull the skin off the pig.
Then, just today, I got pictures of 3 more birds types! I asked Dawn Overby to help identify them. She thinks the first may be a juvenile bald eagle, the second a red tailed hawk and the third picture shows 6 turkey vultures.
Ken