The first major event at PG in October was Elton’s 100th birthday! His son David, daughter Cheryl and Jim Hutchison, grandson Matt Hutchison and family, granddaughter Elizabeth Wimmer, and Alicia Weaver came for the first party. His daughter Karen joined us by Skype from Columbia. Gerry and Margaret Gunderson came for the second party. When the cake was being carried in to the first party, David went ahead with the cake box, pretended to fall, and threw the box on the floor. Here are some pictures. The second one is of Elton watching the cake “fall”. The last picture is taken in the nursing home, visiting Elton’s brother Roger.
The other major events were the Texas conventions. 5 residents were able for Georgetown English, and 3 for Mountain Peak. Raymond and Jack were the only ones unable to attend a convention. Some were able to listen to the conventions at PG.
Jack had lower back surgery in September to relieve pressure on his spinal cord and some nerves. The surgery went well, but the recovery has been long. He spent a few weeks in a rehab hospital, then stayed in John’s room at PG while John was away at conventions. He’s now back up in his house, and continuing to recover slowly.
Raymond Reece is having much more difficulty getting around. He has fallen several times. They are acessing him to see if PT could help.
Alice Oetken had a minor surgery which went very well, but then she had blood clots in her legs and lung, so was in the hospital several days. Her niece Carol Martin came to spend several days with her when she came home. Also Jim and Roberta Stipp (brother and sister) stopped by PG for a night after Effie convention. Ron and Pam Lacock stopped by for a visit, as did Nadene and Lynden Laird.
Harvey dumped 21″ on PG in 2 days, which was minor compared to what Houston received. It’s hilly here, so no concerns about flooding. However the force of the rain washed a lot (maybe half) of the pecans off of the trees. We finished the harvest and are still finishing the cleaning of the pecans. One step of the cleaning process is shown below. We’ve also started thinning the orchard. Our trees are on 35 ft spacing. In some areas they have started touching in the middle. We have to cut out every other tree, so they are on 70 ft spacing. This year we’ve cut down about 20 trees.
Ken