The Porter House LLC
 
Hello,
Up to now I haven't mentioned my other daughter Jennifer and her husband Levi very much.  They both also have made large contributions to our new Porter House with their advising and labor.
Levi is a builder and had a large part in building our new home.  He also did the general contractor work when we became busy with some personal business that couldn't be put off.  Jennifer has advised us in many areas and is responsible for setting up this web site. 
I can't forget to mention Gracie.  She is my beautiful granddaughter whom brings loads of joy to Porter House.  She loves to come and hide in the kitchen and run down the hall.  She brings play and laughter to all present at the home.
We have been so fortunate to have such talent in our household and will always be greatfull for all their help.
Until next time,
Ann
  
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Annoucement- Porter House is having an open house April 24 10:00am- 1:00pm; 
April 25 1:00pm- 4:00pm
Come to our open house and see our wonderful home.  We will be happy to show you around and answer any of your questions.  We will have some homemade bakery and refreshments for all to taste.  Hope to see you there.

Ann
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Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote.  I have been very busy with a number of projects.  Also as you have noticed our website has changed and it took me awile to get use to this new site.

We have finished our lastest specialized training for caring of people with Dementia.  Porter House is now  license to care for clients with Dementia/Alzheimer's, that are edlerly and/ or disabled. 
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Today I started my Dementia/ Alzheimer's  training.  When Beverly Bartlett was over at Porter House giving us an "Demential/ Alzheimer in house training" last week, she mentioned how Porter House would be a great place for a person with Dementia or Alzheimer's.  So I decided to take the training that is offered on the Alzheimer's website.  After Patty and I are finished with the training, I will apply to have Dementia and Alzheimer's clients added to the license of Porter House.
I did 5 hours of the training today and plan to do the remainder tommorow.  So far the training is very good.  It is done through the internet.  Their are several videos showing actual life situations and gives advice on how to deal with them.  I believe the training is very well worth the cost and time.  The cost is actually very reasonable and I would recommend it for all family members of a person whom has Dementia or Alzheimer's.

If you are from the Green Bay, Shawano, WI area and have any questions about Dementia or Alzheimer's feel free to contact Beverly Bartlett, she is a great lady and wonderful teacher.

Beverly Bartlett
Outreach Specialist Alzheimer's Association of Greater Wisconsin 2900 Curry Lane, Suite A  Green Bay, Wisconsin   54311 Phone:  (920)469-2110     Fax:  (920)469-2131 HELPLINE: 1.800.272.3900 E-mail: beverly.bartlett@alz.org
 www.alz.org/gwwi
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When I woke up this morning, I looked out our farm house bedroom window to see how much snow we got.  The view out this particular window shown very little new snow on the lawn, so I thought we didn't get much more snow through the night.  But I was surprised when I stepped outside to go over to Porter House.  It snowed more than I thought, the snow had blown around leaving some areas looking like less snow and other areas with feet of snow.

In the morning Todd did a great job plowing the Porter House driveway and parking lot and then went to plow the farm driveway.  At Porter House, we have a very nice blacktop parking lot.  Up to 6 cars can be parked easily.  The parking lot is designed for easy driving in and out.  I need lots of room when I am backing up so we made sure if I could do it safely then others will be able to also.  There is a handicap spot with a loading apron available right next to a rail that leads to the front door.

In the afternoon, Patty spotted some turkeys out eating in the corn field.  Then later when the turkeys were gone the deer showed up.  All I can figure was the wildlife stayed in the woods during the snow storm and now were hungry for a treat of corn.
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Today the scene out our large great room windows was gigantic snow flakes falling on the partially exposed lawn and the snow layered hay fields.  The large snow flakes filled the air appearing as falling white dots from as high as you could see slowly floating downward to the earth.  The trees and bushes were beautiful with the layer of snow outlining as a white line along their dark branches.

You could easily see this beautiful scenery by traveling any country road in Shawano, WI today, but how nice is it to see it from the comfort of your living room chair, from your kitchen table or from your own bed.  Soon we will be sharing such beautiful views with our new residents
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Today we had a treat.  We had venison hamburger spaghetti sauce with home made noodles covered with cheddar and mozzarella cheese.  It was delicious!

For the last few years, we have raised a number of ducks and geese on our farm.  Around the beginning of March, they start to lay eggs.  We start picking the eggs shortly after.  We have the eggs for breakfast, use the eggs for cooking and recently have started making home made noodles with the egg yolks.  Last year the egg laying was happening faster than we could eat them.  I knew the Amish made noodles with the eggs yolks so I started to ask questions about noodle making at our local Amish store.
The Amish lady that runs the store said she was planning to make noodles shortly with a neighbor and ask me if I would like to come over and learn how to make noodles.  I was delighted to get the chance to learn the task from the experts.
My husband and I have made noodles a couple of times since.  Carl, my husband really likes making the noodles.  He thinks it is fun running the dough through the noodle maker.  Now Carl won't eat store boughten noodles.

Making home made noodles will be another common task done at Porter House.  We will be welcoming our new residents and their families to join the fun.
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The WatchHorse 02/20/2010
 
As I glanced out the large windows in our Porter House living room I notice the horses running around their yard.  They suddenly stopped at the far end of their yard staring toward the road.  Soon I could see a young Amish man roller skating down Porter Road with 2 horses pulling an open wagon full of hay following shortly afterwords.
We see horses and wagons, carriages, older style farm equipment on a regular basis here at Porter House.  We are right in the mist of 2 Amish communities.  With our large windows and our horses and steers acting as watch dogs we don't miss many unusual events that happen around here.
I can't wait to share these special moments with our new residents.
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Today was a very busy day for us.  Patty and I went to the Shawano Dementia Group meeting.  We joined this group both for networking with others involved in elderly care and also to give back to the community some of our talents that we have developed in this area.
After the meeting, we had an in-house Alzheimer's training.  It was a very detailed training.  We learned what Alzheimer's actually is, the other diseases that have dementia associated with, how to detect if a person is starting to have dementia and how to treat and care for someone with any type of dementia including Alzheimer's.  We were also given accompany written materials to study.
We felt this was a very good training experience.
Beside this training the Alzheimer's Ass. representative did a walk through our new building to check if it was set up well for residents with Dementia.  She said everything was laid out well and that there was nothing she would ask us to change.  She commented on how peaceful and tranquil our place was and that she would recommend our place to anyone with Dementia or Alzheimer's.
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Pumpkin Recipes 02/18/2010
 
One of our best growing plants in our garden last year were pumpkins.  We had miniature pumpkins, pie size pumpkins and gigantic pumpkins.  Patty, Todd and Todd's family had fun carving several of the gigantic pumpkins last fall.  We had carved pumpkins and miniature pumpkins decorating the whole landscape around the Porter House home.
Today I picked out some of the pie pumpkins stored in our basement and cooked them.  We have some of our own favorite pumpkin recipes, but I wanted to try some different recipes that our new residents may like.  I found a pumpkin muffin recipe that was low in sugar and low in cholesterol.  Although my family which is use to their sugar didn't take to these muffins really well others may just love them.
When we get our new residents, I will be checking with them what their favorite pumpkin recipes are and will be looking forward to baking them.
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