2009 Newsletter

2009 has been a wonderful year for the Brubakers. We have been abundantly blessed.

We were sad to see Richard’s mother pass away at the beginning of the year (on Pamela’s birthday). But through it all we learned a lot.

This year Richard finished a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Utah Valley University. He is very excited to have completed school and now spends his spare time fishing, duck hunting, deer hunting, and working with his father and brother on the family business. He continues to work for the Penn State Facilities Engineering Institute as a programmer/analyst and on electricity shopping alone he was instrumental in saving the state of Pennsylvania $8.6 million.

Pamela is still working on her Ph.D. This year she was able to present research in Boston, MA, and Messina, Italy. She finished all of her course work and plans to graduate from Penn State in about a year, after completing her comprehensive examinations and dissertation.

In September we spent a couple of weeks touring Italy. During this time we spent several days in Rome where we visited the Vatican and saw many ancient Roman sites, including the Colosseum. We rode the train down to Sicily where Pamela presented research at a religious conference on how the General Authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints use the scriptures at General Conference. She gave background and explanations on the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. We thoroughly enjoyed the Italian food and discovered that traffic in Europe is frightening. We would love to do more traveling in the future and see more parts of the world.

We have been busy this year serving in our church callings in the University Branch. Pamela is the Relief Society president and Richard is the Branch Clerk.

We also enjoyed having Richard’s dad visit us. During his visit we explored some of our favorite jaunts, including Philadelphia, the sacred grove (Palmyra, NY), Niagara Falls, New Jersey back roads, Hershey Pennsylvania, and Gettysburg.

After hiking Rickett’s Glen, Pennsylvania—a beautiful place with lots of small waterfalls—Pamela decided that we found the original Garden of Eden.

Christmas was spent in Utah where we were able to enjoy being with Pamela’s family. We ate delicious food, played fun games, and went ice skating with our nephews.

We are looking forward to this next year and hope to have just as many adventures.

Ice Skating

We are having a wonderful Christmas in Utah. It's so nice to be home. This week we took our nephews ice skating for the first time. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

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23 degrees + rain = ICE

Have you ever been ice skating on a road? Today our car went ice skating, with us in it. In order to attend all of our pre-church meetings, Richard an I typically leave about three hours before Church begins. But today Richard's first meeting was moved a half hour so we didn't leave the house until 8:30. As we began driving to church Richard commented, "It's 23 degrees and raining." Well, with that comment we should have clued in, turned around and headed for home, but instead we got on the freeway. As you may know, central Pennsylvania consists of rolling hills and finding a flat straight road is near impossible. If you're not going down a hill you're going up one. So we made it to our second big hill when a truck in front of us began swerving all over the road. The road was turning into a sheet of ice and the woman driving the truck was over correcting and really out of control. Eventually she hit the guardrail, which stopped her. At this time we pulled over to ensure she was okay. From there she followed us to the exit, which wasn't too far away, and got off the road. Instead of getting off this exit, we kept making our way to church. At this time I began expressing my concern about driving over long bridge, which goes over a very deep canyon. The canyon scares me a bit, so I am always extra cautious when driving over it, particulalry in bad weather. As we began our decent down to the bridge we noticed a number of cars that slid off the side of the road. As we began our decent our real concern became avoiding the other cars. We were obviously going VERY slow, but at this point the entire road was a THICK sheet of ice and we were at its mercy. Eventually the ice took us over to a the side of the road where the snow stopped us and we hung out for two and half hours unable to drive forward or backward very far. We kept the car on, just on case someone came cruising by and we needed to somehow get our car out of the way. Once on the side of the road we called our branch president who decided to cancel church. Here are some pictures of what things looked like while we waited on the side of the road...

After two and a half hours the snowplow came through and dropped a little bit of salt on the road. A train of cars then followed the plow, which also helped break up the ice. By this time the temperature began increasing and by the time we drove into State College and back home (with a little detour in the middle that required us to go back to the freeway and avoid an accident on a back road) the temperature was up to 32. We spent the rest of the day at home.

From this experience we learned an invaluable lesson, "Don't drive in the rain when it's 23 degrees."

Also, I am grateful for being taught the following:
#1: Keep a car kit with you at all times. You never know when you will need it. Always make sure you have water and other necessities with you.
#2: Make sure you have atleast a 1/2 tank of gas in your car at all times (we could have been stranded all day and needed more gas to stay warm)
#3: Filling up your gas tank Saturday evening is the only way to go

It's Better to Give Than Receive

A few weeks ago one of my professors reminded me that it's definitely better to give than receive. I believe she is right. Not only is this an appropriate reminder during the Christmas season, but this is particularly true when it comes to tests. This next week I take my last formal test and turn in my last course paper. This of course doesn't count my comprehensive exams that will take place in a few months, but it definitely marks an epic milestone in my life. I typically don't blog about school as I don't want to bore anyone, but in order to sanely make it to next Thursday I am using this post as both a pep talk and a public reminder that I am almost done, just five more days. In the grand scheme of things five days is not very long, but it still seem so far away. Ultimately, I would much rather give than receive. :)

O "Bushy" Christmas Tree

Due to my busy schedule the week of Thanksgiving Richard worked all week, except of course on Thanksgiving Day. On Friday afternoon Richard got off work early so we could go pick out a Christmas tree while it was still light outside. Originally we planned to drive to a tree farm about a half hour away, but with a tree lot only two blocks down the street we decided to stop and check out Bellefonte’s selection. After hearing the prices, we were ecstatic ($25, $35, & $45) and began roaming the tree lot. The $35 trees were beautiful and just what we were looking for. They had been chopped down only two days earlier and they were locally grown. It was difficult deciding among so many great trees. With the cold wind blowing and Richard indicating that perhaps we should go sit in the car and decide, I didn't want to delay the decision too long. So I am happy to report that we didn't have to sit in the car and I made my decision fairly quickly. While scoping out the trees Richard decided that he would just drag the tree home and avoid the mess and other complicated logistics associated with putting the tree on top of our car. So we quickly ran home to put on our more winterized coats, gloves, and scarves. In the meantime the nice tree-lot man set our tree aside and awaited our return. When we arrived at home Richard and I looked at the wonderful artificial Christmas tree we in our front window.

[Side Story: Our artificial tree was given to us after a few years of marriage by my aunt and uncle. It has been a great tree. In fact, I don’t even know if my aunt and uncle are aware that we have used the tree every year since this time—thank you John & Lucinda! I’ve never really been one for artificial trees as I love the real thing, but that little tree has saved us a lot of money over the years. In fact, the last time we had a real tree was back when we cut one down in Vernal, Utah, a number of years ago.]

Well, back at home, after looking at the tree, Richard indicated that he thought I might light a bushier tree than the one I picked out. After examining the tree in our front window I thought that perhaps he was right and I did need something bigger. So back at the tree lot we indicated that the tree we had chosen was not right for us and I needed to look at some other trees. At this time there was a tree that I began eyeing from the wrong side of the fence, so I decided to check out. Upon further inspection this new tree seemed much bushier than the other trees I had previously examined, and it looked great (okay, so ALL the trees looked amazing, if you can believe that, but this one was calling my name). Once I decided upon this tree the tree-lot man told Richard that this tree was a lot heavier than other tree we had chosen. After confirming that Richard was going to drag the tree home, and looking at him like he was crazy, the tree-lot man said he would wrap the tree to help protect it. But to our surprise my tree was way too big to fit through the thing they use to wrap the trees. So, Richard tied a strap to the tree and began dragging it home. The Smilebox scrapbook give you a glimpse of the adventures that ensued from here.

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As you can see from the pictures, the tree was much bushier and heavier than we expected. Richard was able to drag it almost one block until I brought the Jeep back and rescued him, and the tree. Luckily the tree didn’t lose any branches from this experience--whew! Once we got the tree home the next step was squeezing it through the door and then getting it to stand up without falling over. In attempting to help with this I tried tipping the tree while Richard placed the trunk in our stand. That didn't work very well because the tree is so heavy that I coudn't lift it very high. Oops, I guess the tree was a little too tall as well. So we trimmed both the bottom and top of the tree and then tried to get it to stand. In the process our tree stand broke and we weren’t able to get another one until the next morning. Alas our tree is standing, and it’s beautiful. I’ve never had such a big beautiful tree. It’s a tree that makes you want to sing songs, hold hands, and walk around it. Now our little artificial tree is in the front window and our bushy tree is in the back window. I love Christmas!

One Proud Aunt

For Halloween this year Richard threatened to shave his head, put a suit on, and call himself Daddy Warbucks. Minus the gobs dough that are NOT in our bank account he may have looked pretty convincing. He said my hair is red enough that I could curl it, put on a red dress and be Annie. In the end we didn’t dress up and Richard kept what’s left of his hair—whew! Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to our branch Halloween party Saturday night either. But on Friday we did get away and go to Washington D.C where we saw a mermaid, a lamb, a witch, and Darth Vader. My cousins were so cute all dressed up in their Halloween costumes. On Saturday we went to the Washington D.C. temple. As usual, it was beautiful.

But the real joy this Halloween came in seeing the pictures of my sister and her kids. She is the best mom. Who else would dress up as Velma, put her kids in a Scooby Doo and Shaggy costume, and then go trick or treating with them. She is so creative. I wish I had her talent. Below are some pictures from one proud aunt. My heart melts every time I see pictures of those kids. How does she do it?(FYI: If you click on the pictures they enlarge)

Hello Winter

It’s official. Today was the earliest day in recorded history for snowfall in State College, PA. And I’m talking REAL snow (not quite as good as Utah, but it's the real stuff). Although it started out as a rain/snow mixture that turned into slush, by noon it was real snow and the flakes haven’t stopped dropping. Because the snow is so wet it hasn’t accumulated too much (about an inch now), but it sure is beautiful. Too bad it’s not mid November/December. I guess it’s time to get that new winter coat I’ve been putting off purchasing. At least now there is a reason I’m not seeing the sun. It hasn't exactly been two weeks since I said I wasn't quite ready for Fall. Well, that season went particularly quickly. Hmmm, welcome winter.

Not Ready for Fall

So it's been more than two weeks since we came back from the Mediterranean. Oh how I miss it. It seems we came back to Pennsylvania in the midst of fall. The weather has been so cold and rainy. But we have found joy in the simple things (e.g., seeing the sun, breaking 50 degrees, etc.). Projections say this could be one of the coldest winters in the north east--I'm hoping that doesn't mean one of the coldest winters ever. Maybe it's supposed to be one of the coldest winters in the last 10 years. Either way, I hope projections are wrong. Oh well, no sense fretting about it now. I should just embrace it. Brrrrrrrrrr

Prior to our Italy trip Richard and I commonly said, "after Italy we'll xyz." Well, Italy is over and life is getting back to normal, whatever that means. I guess it means no more stressing about conference papers, book chapters, or trying to get homework done while preparing for our European adventure. But even when we arrived back in the United States I had homework to complete and an exam to prepare for. Fortunately it appears that my exam preparation paid off, even though I completely freaked out in the middle (okay, more the latter part) of the test. You would have thought I have never taken a test before. I left my structural equation modeling exam thinking I had completely failed it. Well, through some kind of tender mercy I only missed one point. How did that happen? I still don't quite know. Now that all of my imminent deadlines and tests are past I will have a little time to put up pictures of Italy and share some of our incredible adventures, so stay tuned...

Boston: Aug 5-9, 2009

Richard and I drove to Boston on Wednesday, August 5 for the annual AEJMC conference where I presented some research. This scrapbook showcases some of the touristy things we did in Massachusetts on Aug. 7 and 8.

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By the way, prior to leaving for Boston (on Monday, Aug 3) Richard put up nine pints of raspberry jam from the berries we picked the previous weekend. After work that same day we went and picked some wild blackberries, which are now frozen and will at some point turn into jam. This last Saturday, Aug 15, Richard went to some boggy marsh and picked blueberries. We may just keep these frozen and cook them in things, they are delicious.

Jeep'n in the Rain

The rain storm this afternoon reminded me of an experience I had almost one week ago on Aug 12. I decided to get out of the house and spend the afternoon doing something other than research. So I went to State College (10 miles away) to run some errands. Typically when I stay home and do research I don't take the jeep out (actually, it's quite rare for me to do this, especially since we took the top off), but the sun was shining and I wanted to check some items off my to-do list. I was running a little behind (I was trying to get home at the same time or just before Richard) and had one last stop at the grocery store. While in the store I called Richard to tell him I was in Wegmans’ bakery trying to resist their delicious pastries. During our conversation he asked if it had been raining. I assured him there was no rain and it had been a perfectly sunny afternoon. Well, after peeling myself away from the bakery (No I didn't buy anything, but I fantasized about eating their chocolate cake and fruit tarts.) and walking outside it began to sprinkle on me. I knew Richard would be leaving work in a few minutes on the other side of town and see the same thing, so I laughed and thought of our conversation. I had just gotten on the freeway when the downpour started. I drove right into some heavy rain clouds that gave me “very little” visibility. The only solution I could think of was to pray, follow the outline of the white lines on the road–the only thing that kept me on the road—wipe the rain off the inside of my windshield, and keep going. Since we don’t exactly live in a city, I wasn't near anything I could drive to for cover, so I just kept going. After a driving few miles at 55 mph (that’s the speed limit on the road) the rain eased up a little, at least enough to give me better visibility, and I realized that I didn’t seem to be getting too wet. Until that point my biggest problem had been visibility. But just as I began slowing down to get off our exit (basically a big circle you make a 360 on) the rain drops seemed to penetrate me. Apparently, the slower you go the more wet you get! I made it off the exit and noticed some bikers hovering under the overpass. Hmmm, what were they afraid of, getting wet? Eventually you have to get to your destination and the rain didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon. Well, at this point I only had two miles to go, so I kept driving. As I approached the first of four stop lights it was red and I had to come to a complete stop. That was disastrous. When I stopped the rain began pelting my eyes so hard that I could barely see. At that point all I wanted to do was drive and NEVER slow down. As I approached our home all I could hope was that Richard beat me home waiting with the garage door open. Unfortunately, that was not the case so I parked the jeep outside and ran to our front door. By the time I got to the door Richard drove up with the garage door opener.

I must have been the funniest looking thing on the road. From a few honks I received I have no doubt other drivers were thinking, “What is that crazy woman doing?” The lesson I learned through all of this is that when you’re caught driving a topless jeep in the rain, drive as fast as you can and never, never stop. Too bad we didn't capture any pictures of this, I was drenched.

A Patch of Berries

Yesterday Richard and I went on a splendid date. We got up early and went hunting for blackberries. First we ventured to a beautiful park with a small river/large stream that was rumored to have wild berries growing alongside it. What we really like about this park is the covered bridge that ties two parts of the park together. It’s really neat. Unfortunately all the berries at the park were no longer producing, but our search wasn’t in vain as we did find a “few” ripe raspberries along one of the roads on the way out of the park.

We didn't expect to go hunting for berries too long, but I really wanted to get blackberries from the forest area just south of State College were we were first exposed to and ate wild berries. This is the area where we spent a few days with the youth on the Pioneer Trek last July. For the most part the area is lined with trees and you follow a gravel road up and down forested mountains. It's a lot different driving through the area rather than walking the area, but either way it's beautiful. We didn't have to drive far to find tons of raspberries along the road. The patch of berries we picked stretched 30+yards, making it a bit bigger than just a patch of berries. We really got into picking and kept climbing through and into the bushes to get more ‘ripe’ berries. I’m sure we were quite a sight to behold. As you can imagine, we didn’t exactly come out of the experience unscathed. Raspberry bushes are lined with THORNS (large and small). There are also a lot of other "things" that grow with them that have even bigger thorns too. By the end our arms looked like we were clawed by cats. The thorns seemed to like my hair too as the thorns kept catching and pulling it. But every scratch was all worth it!!! We have a lot of raspberries. After making a serious dent in the berry bushes we once again went looking for blackberries. Although we didn’t find any good patches of blackberries, someone at church informed us of a road by the airport that has blackberries growing on it. We checked out the road after church and it looks like we’re going to pick berries once again this week. I can’t wait to make some homemade wild raspberry and blackberry jam. YUM!

The morning was quite mystical with fog covering the entire valley. At 64 degrees, the temperature was just right for picking. By 11:00 a.m. the fog rose, and so did the temperature, making it a sunny day. I finished the day making a baby quilt for a friend and Richard went fishing for bass and catfish (he caught both). I guess you could say it was a great day in Central Pennsylvania.

Upstate New York

This weekend we went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra, N.Y., with our branch. In fact, it is the second year in a row for seeing the pageant. Just like last year we camped with our branch at the fair grounds in Palmyra and had the added bonus of having my cousins, the Thompsons, come to the pageant and camp with us. Apparently next year they are changing the pageant, so this is the last time they are chronicling the many stories in the Book of Mormon.

Richard got off work a little early and we headed up to Palmyra on Friday afternoon. We were a bit worried about having to brave the pageant in the rain as it began raining at 1 p.m. in Pennsylvania and did not let up until we were a couple hours from home in Corning, N.Y. The weather even said that it would begin raining at 9 p.m. in Palmyra and rain throughout the night. We pulled into the fair grounds at the same time as President Williams who drove his motor home. We then set up our tents and headed over to the Hill Cumorah where we sat with my cousins and our friend Tanya. Fortunately the trip turned out perfect. It didn't rain after all. It drizzled a bit during the night, but nothing anybody really noticed. What a blessing. This trip would not have been nearly as enjoyable had it rained. We feel so blessed to have had those rain clouds diverted somewhere else.

On Saturday morning Richard and I walked around the Sacred Grove. It's one of our most favorite places on earth (okay, so we have a lot of fovorites, but this is definitely top of the list). I believe this is the fifth opportunity we have had to walk through the grove. Our first opportunity to see all of the chruch history sites in New York was with my parents in May 2008, the second time we went to the grove was in July 2008 for the pageant, the third time was Novemberish 2008 when we went to the Palmyra temple, the fourth was when we went to the church history sites and the Palmyra temple in May 2009 with Richard's dad, and the fifth was on Saturday.

After leaving the Grove we went to Niagara Falls where we sailed on Maid of the Mist for the second time this summer. We love going on the boat and seeing the falls up close.
The wind was blowing just enough that we were sprayed and soaked with water whenever we were close to the falls, particularly when we walked up the side of the American Falls and when we were standing on the boat in the middle of Hoarseshoe Falls.

This is turning into the summer of waterfalls. Our first time for seeing Niagara Falls was on Saturday, May 23, when we took Richard's dad. We saw our second set of falls while hiking Rickett's Glen in June. This second trip to Niagara is the third set of falls, and in the next week or two we hope to see another set of falls in upstate New York near one of the Finger Lakes. I love exploring and enjoying nature with Richard!

Happy Birthday America!

Next to my birthday, our nation's birthday is one of my most favorite holidays. Since we have been married, our family traditions for this holiday have always entailed the Provo parade, tubing trip down the Provo river with my siblings (and sometimes my parents), and a barbecue at our home. For the grand finale we go with my parents and siblings to the Stadium of Fire concert and fireworks at Lavell Edwards Stadium. It is quite a spectacle that my parents have graciously indulged us in for many years now. But for the past two years we have been unable to go home for the 4th.

This year Richard and I spent the day in Washington DC with my cousins, KaDee and Robert. We went to the Fairfax, Va, parade where we saw men driving these cool mini cars. The clowns were also quite good. But my personal favorite was the Mexican dancers who had costumes of black velvet laced with bright purple trim and gold bells. I would display a picture of them, but I got caught up in the dancing and forgot to take pictures. So far it doesn't seem that anyone on the east coast has figured out what a float is, but this parade was way better than the Cherry Blossom parade we saw in April 2008 in DC. That has to be the worst parade I've ever seen.

After the parade we had a barbecue with KaDee and her family, where Robert introduced us to Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce. I don't know if they have this sauce out west, but it's fantastic. Not only does it taste great, but the story of how the sauce came about is quite interesting. After the barbecue we relaxed (Richard, Robert, and the kids watched Star Wars and Robert made his award-winning chili--it won his ward chili cookoff) until it was time to take off for the fireworks show.

Once we were in DC we decided to view the fireworks right in the heart of things. The fireworks were shot off right above/behind the Lincoln monument, so we found a great spot near the Washington memorial where the kids could roam. It wasn't exactly the prettiest evening (gray cloudy sky), but it was nice and cool. We parked only 1.5 blocks from the White House and took some pics before finding our seats.

We are sure glad KaDee and Robert moved out east just after we did. It has been such a blessing to spend time with them. We love hanging out with them and their kids (Bruce, Linda, Jane & Baby Claire).

While waiting for the fireworks Richard decided to entertain himself, I mean entertain the kids. :) He purchased glow-in-the-dark light sabers that kept him out of trouble.

Although it wasn't quite the Stadium of Fire, the fireworks were spectacular. I couldn't believe how well they were coordinated. The crowd cheered both when the fireworks started and when they ended. Apparently there were cannons going off at the same time as the fireworks. The buildings behind us created an echo that magnified the sound effects and created a double "boom." The car alarms went bazerk. The fireworks were done so well that Bruce asked if the beginning was the finale. Richard and I were also VERY impressed with the show!!!

Last year we went tailgating with our branch and watched the State College fireworks from Beaver Stadium, the largest stadium in the U.S. I must admit that I would recommend these fireworks as well. They do a really great job with them. But I feel so blessed to have spent the 4th of July in the nation's capital. Happy Birthday America! Although I miss all of the fun family traditions we created in Provo, I suppose that if I can't go home I might as well be in our nation's capital. Perhaps if I am not in Provo next year then I can convince Richard to take me to see the fireworks in New York City. But it might take me more than a year to coax him into that one.

Washington DC Temple

I love to visit the Washington DC temple. It is so beautiful. It's hard to capture something so grand in a picture, but I have to remember it somehow. This smilebox is a compilation of a few pictures we took on the evening of July 3, 2009.

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A Trip to Heaven

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Richard and I went with our little branch on a hike to Ricketts Glen, Pa. It is absolutely the most beautiful place in the world. During two miles of the three-mile hike you walk right next to waterfalls. I can't wait to go back again sometime. The terrain (rock formations, trails, and cascading water) is so hard to capture in a picture. This is definitely an adventure we must repeat.

Practically Pioneers...

Richard's garden is coming along quite nicely. He has worked so hard to get the garden in. With all the rain we had during the first three weeks of June (We didn't see the sun for three weeks) it took multiple weeks to finally get the garden in and get the wildlife and bugs off our plants. Richard worked tirelessly to build a fence that will keep the deer, rabbits and other critters out. In the process we were caught under a number of drenching rain clouds that decided to dump all the rain they had on us a few nights in a row. But alas, everything seems to be growing (I had to plant to peas twice to get them to grow though). It's going to be a late crop , but at least there's going to be a crop, and a good one at that.



On days it doesn't rain Richard drives the jeep up to the garden and waters it using water he puts in our cooler. So far, between mother nature and his trips in the jeep our plants are growing.

Bellefonte Cruise

Every year Bellefonte hosts the Bellefonte Cruise where people from the surrounding communities cruise down the streets of Bellefonte in their old--and sometimes new--cars just like they did in the 'olden days.' We sat in our camp chairs on the side of the street Friday night with some friends of ours (Amber and Camden Henderson) watching the cars cruise through town. It was very fun!

This was my favorite car/truck this year. We didn't have a chance to go see the cars on display on Saturday (the cars typically line the streets for judging on Saturday, which makes them really easy to look at up close), otherwise I would have included a picture of the 1952 Chevrolets that I typcially eye.

This is President Williams (driving), Ella Williams (passengar seat) and the Dones (back seat) cruising through town.

A few hours after the cruise Richard and I headed over to the Sock Hop. Last year they had a live band that played oldies music in the town square and we danced in the street. This year they had a different band, but we're not really into classic rock from the 70's, at least we think you call the music. We just looked at each other and decided we didn't even know how to dance to the music, so we sat and listened.

We really enjoy participating in all of the fun little traditions that take place in the towns that surround us. As the founding city of Memorial Day, Boalsburg has a fun celebration and civil war reenactment on that day. The arts fest is coming up in a couple weeks in State College and we can't forget the Grange Fair (end of Aug) in Centre Hall. You just can't end the summer without a good tractor pull. :)

The Gardner

Richard has become quite the gardener. Thanks to our nice builder he has a large plot of land to work with for a garden this year. Best of all, Richard can use as much of the land as he wants.

Last year Richard planted tomatoes, peas, lettuce, and onions in our flower beds. By the time fall rolled around and he could harvest his vegetables two of our tomato plants were so large that we couldn't walk down our steps or see the holly bush that was planted in the middle of them. Apparently the experience was so traumatic for the bush that it hasn't decided whether it is going to live or die. Right now the bush has a few green leaves on it, but at the moment it looks quite pathetic. Anyway, I have never seen tomato plants grow so big. We had hundreds of tomatoes last year. This year Richard has decided to plant 10 tomato plants. If any one of the plants turns out like they did last year then we are going to be feeding all of Bellefonte. It is fun to see Richard excited about his new favorite hobby. With all of the produce that comes from our garden Richard plans to do some canning--I guess that means I am going to learn how to can fruit/vegetables too--and give away the produce from our garden to EVERYONE he knows in Pennsylvania. Thus far we have planted between 80-90 onions, some lettuce, carrots, peas, cabbage, broccoli, and ONE tomato plant. Our only fear is that the critters will eat our garden. After clearing the land and just prior to putting in our furrows, we found some deer tracks through the garden. You never know when the critters will show up in this neck of the woods.