A letter that I wrote to our friend Mark in the spring of 1989:

Dear Mark,
Howdy! How are you? We're all doing exceptionally well, considering our surroundings. The ground has thawed, thus becoming extremely muddy and the snow is also slowly, but surely, melting. It still snows very lightly during the night, but the snow now shines so brightly that it all melts almost immediately after the sun is a little bit above the mountains. The sun is shining so brightly that my pumpkin plants that I planted not long after you left have leaves twice as big as the leaves of the plants I planted previously. My pumpkin plants have never prospered this well before. I also am growing millet, turnips, broccoli, baby blue hubbard squash, zucchini squash, garlic, onions, a soybean, a kidney bean bush, eggplants, lentils, and a mimosa. I discovered that the 'hen and chicks' cactus is also know as 'Black Prince' (Echeveria). I think I like the name 'hen and chicks' much better. I have many more seeds to plant, but am not going to plant them immediately, as I am busy handling the ones I have, all of which are growing indoors.
The Canadian geese have come to the swamp near or on our property. I supect they are on it. We hear them honk a lot. Things are becoming increasingly interesting here. No longer do I say, "I'm bored". My friend/teacher Miriam Kopek lent me a spinning wheel a week ago, and taught me to spin and knit. I never thought I'd be a knitter. I enjoy it and spinning quite a bit though. She also gave me a box of carded wool and a garbage bag and a half of uncarded wool and many more things. She is going to give me free lessons, which we both enjoy very much.
Is your leg okay now? I hope so. We were going to get 2 or 3 lambs, but for various reasons, we didn't.
We very much enjoyed our Passover meal. I hadn't been that full for a long time. Well, I guess that's all the news for now. May Yahweh bless you and keep you. Love,
Rebekah