We’ve had many privileges at PG in June. The residents have all been doing fairly well. Jean Hagemiere spent a few days in June in the hospital due to an infection, but she’s back home and doing much better. Esther Potts has had some stomach and dizziness problems this week, but she seems to be improving.
Then there’s Naomi, who “died” twice this month. If your not familiar with her previous “death” click on January 2012 on the right side of this page, and go about half way down that post. The two times in June, both during the morning bible study (like in January)… she laid her head down on the table like she was tired. That’s not unusual, so we let her rest, but then after a bit someone would try to rouse her, and find her unresponsive. We knew from the January experience that she’d probably come around, so the first time we loaded her onto someone’s rolling walker. It reminded me of those carts at Lowes lumberyard when you put 8′ two by fours on a cart. Someone held her feet and someone else her head, and we rolled her back to her room, and lifted her into bed. Just as she landed in bed she came around and said she was tired and wanted to go to bed. I told her she was already in bed. She said she wanted to go to HER bed. I told her that no one else would allow her in their bed, so she was in HER bed! She seemed to understand the humor in that (which is rare!). 30 min later Virginia came back from checking on Naomi and said she was doing fine… already bossing Virginia around. The second time was similar. Kenny was there to help so we were able to carry her in the chair she was sitting in instead of using a walker. She was awake before we got her to her bed. We wish we understood the cause of these spells (TIAs or heart arrhythmia, we’re not sure which it is). Since the last one she’s been moving to a big easy chair during bible study, so at least if she passes out she’ll be comfortable!
We “make fun” of Naomi… she does have a difficult personality and very little sense of humor. But I’ve grown to appreciate her more. She expresses gratitude more often, has a greater interest in our visitors, and apologizes more often, than anyone else. The difficult parts of her personality are doing a good work for some of us. We really are glad to have her with us.
June 16th was a special day. There was a baptism at PG – 4 were baptized. I didn’t count but someone said there were over 100 standing on the pier. Afterward, good visits at the Sr. Residence. And it was the first visit for the twins to PG, shown below held by Virginia (sorry, but if you’re going to follow this blog you’ll have to put up with comments about our new twin granddaughters, Maren and Maven Furrow).
The residents are always excited when they get a chance to “get out”. Union Sunday at our place is one such opportunity each month. We have a pot luck after meeting. Jennifer Downs was with us June 3rd. After the lunch we gathered around and she told us about her recent experiences in Haiti. This was also the first time for the twins to be in our (the grandparents) home (shown here with their mom, Karla).
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Sometimes we load the residents on the bus and take them to Walmart. What a hoot. Ever tried to herd cats? Other times they go 400 yards to Sunday morning meeting, or 15 miles to gospel meeting.
Sharon’s mom, Evelyn Williamson, spent a few days with us at PG. We wish she’d stay more… but we’re glad for the time we did have with her. Here she’s down at the lake with Kathy, Sharon, Esther and Bea. Bea and Esther hike down to the lake every evening (Esther is convinced the 7 acre lake is a river!). The second picture is of Sharon and Michaela, who just left for Happy preps.
We had lots of other visitors in June, but only have a few pictures. Carol Bush and Sandra Wilson (Doris Crawford’s sister) came and stayed a few days. They were there for Doris’s birthday (16 again!). Charles and Bethel Arnold from Ponchatoula LA visited. Don Waldo (from here) and Andrew Newman (from Atlanta) flew Don’s high dollar remote control planes. Britney Crawmer from Indiana visited Barbara (shown with her 2 nieces). Bea also had a birthday, 94th!
Terry and Kim Hoffman have started what seems like a petting zoo at their place at PG. They’ve had chickens for a long time, which supply plenty of eggs. Now they’re raising rabbits and goats. The pictures below show Don Waldo and Vince Occhipinti visiting with the 4 new goats, the rabbits and a baby rabbit.
We have one fig tree at PG, and the figs were ready in June. One tree produces a LOT of figs. They aren’t very big, but they sure are good. We have fresh figs, fig bars, and fig preserves (which don’t last long).
This little dog Daisy sure has won some hearts at PG.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, all the “paper shell” pecan trees are grafted. The paper shell pecans (we have 5 types) naturally have very poor roots. So the bottom portion of another nut tree (native pecan, walnut…) is used, and the pecan tree is grafted in about 10″ above the ground. This is done when the trees are small. After 10 or so years, the graft itself is hardly visible. However, that bottom root (maybe like human nature) tries very hard to put out limbs. These limbs (Mike calls them sucker limbs) grow very quickly, and if left would sap the strength of the tree. So, several times a year we have to cut off the sucker limbs. Here you can see a pecan limb on the left that’s from above the graft, and a sucker limb from below the graft on the right. The leaves are different. In this case the pecan limbs will be cut off also, because they are too close to the ground. There are lessons in that story for me…
Twins with Aliyah Bolt, who’s 11 weeks older. This grand-parenting is tough duty!
Thanks for your interest!
Ken