Beautiful Landscape Year-Round

Eagle Power Turf & Tractor maintains a huge selection of both new and used outdoor power equipment to keep your landscape beautiful year-round. In addition to the full line of Kubota products, they carry the brands you know and trust from Ferris, Toro, STIHL, Boss Plows, LandPride, MacKissic and more than 20 others. With over 50 years of combined experience in the industry, the sales team can help you choose the right equipment for the job—every time. You can contact the sales department for the latest new and used equipment selection.

The parts department stocks over 100,000 parts and accessories, for a wide variety of brands, to keep your equipment going when you need it. These can be shipped UPS or next day to any location. Contact our parts department for more information.

Whether you just need routine service to keep your equipment in tip top running shape or you need a repair, their factory-trained technicians can help. You can trust the service team to provide the highest quality work at a fair price.

Eagle Power Turf & Tractor is located at 697 N. Main Street, Doylestown, PA. You can reach them at 215-348-9041 or visit online at www.eagleptt.com.

The Hattery Stove & Still

The Hattery offers modern American fare and comfort food that is sure to please any guest. In addition to some famous mainstays, the menu is updated to feature the tastes of the changing seasons. Join us for brunch, lunch, dinner or happy hour! Be sure to also keep an eye out for specials and events.

A town favorite, The Hattery Stove & Sill is located inside the Doylestown Inn, 18 W. State Street, Doylestown, PA; 215-345-1527; www.hatterydoylestown.com.

Composition & Color

Bob Richey is more concerned about the relationship of shapes, color and values than the overall subject matter

The whimsical skeletons dance on the paper in bright crayon colors, all smiling yet distinctive in their expressions. Their creator was only six at the time, but today Bob Richey values his first attempt at art as much as any of his current works. His childhood passion for creating art never waned even during his 25-year career as an aerospace engineer. “My art has been woven into my everyday activities—it’s always there as a part of my life,” he said.

Mainly self-taught, he painted in watercolor for many years before discovering soft pastels, his medium of choice. He relies on his powers of observation to portray ordinary subjects in a novel way, often returning to certain places to see them in a different light or angle. His small format landscapes enable him to quickly capture the essence of a particular moment and allow him to explore many compositions.

Composition and color are key elements in his work. “Overall subject matter is not as important as the overall relationship of shapes, color and values,” he said. “I think about my pictures in an abstract manner even though the end result is fairly realistic.”

Shadows and reflections are often key elements in his work, such as Little Bridge at Pond’s Edge, a restful scene he painted from historic Graeme Park in Horsham, PA. In the painting, reflections from the trees and sky are mirrored in the water with bold dashes of green and blue.

All of his paintings are done in his studio; however, he does quick sketches while sitting in his car and also takes photos for reference. His intent is not to copy what the camera sees, in fact, his finished piece is often strikingly different from the original photo.

A significant event impacted the way

Bob seeks out his subject matter. In 2012 his son, Bob III, suffered a severe spinal cord injury while swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. During trips with him to Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia, Bob learned to look for inspiration in places he never considered before. “I used to drive around looking for inspiration,” he said, “but now I find it wherever I might be.”

Before doing a pastel Bob starts with a charcoal concept sketch that helps him plan the composition and determine light and dark values. The pastels are applied to textured paper with a sanded finish, and he often lets small flecks of the of the paper show through the painting.

Starting with the sky, he tends to work from the top down, building layers and texture with little dabs of color.

Depending on the subject matter, some pastels are smoothly blended while others are more roughly done. “I feel that I have more than one style of working,” he said. “My urban scenes tend to be more roughly done since the scene itself is often a gritty one.”

Bob is included in the James A. Michener Art Museum’s data base of Bucks County Artists and was featured in the book, Artists of the River Towns by Doris Brandes, 2002. Despite his success, he remains down to earth and unassuming about his talent. “I’m not profound about my art—I just really like what I do.”

He admires the work of contemporary artist Stuart Shils and also Edward Hopper and the French Impressionists. In addition, he was inspired by the book, Being An Artist by Lewis Lehman, 1992, which chronicled the careers of 20 artists. One artist in the book, Austin Deuel, gave advice on art production and marketing that has stayed with Bob to this day: “Paint ‘em, pack ‘em and peddle ‘em!” Bob also does all of his own matting and framing, enabling him to minimize the cost of his work.

Bob and his wife Linda live in Warminster with their four adopted black cats. When not doing weekend art shows, the couple enjoys training for and participating in local triathlons. In addition to Bob III, they have another son, Andrew. Since his accident Bob III has graduated with two master’s degrees and now drives a modified vehicle.

Though he’s represented by galleries, Bob enjoys going on the road to sell his paintings at various art festivals. Each year in Philadelphia for the past 40 years he has participated in the Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show, the oldest outdoor art show in the country. Other shows include the Central PA Festival of the Arts at State College, Doylestown Art Festival and the New Hope Arts and Crafts Festival.

His paintings can also be seen at Artefact at the Village Barn in Furlong, PA and at the Church Street Gallery in West Chester, PA. Visit his website, www.bobri cheypastels.com to see more of his work, including his early skeleton drawing.

Formula Hunters

A baby formula crisis left parents without a way to get needed formula for their babies so, a Furlong mom, Christine Higney, created a Facebook group to help these

If you want something done, ask a busy person. So, when the baby formula crisis hit earlier this year, there was nobody more qualified to put her business skills to work at the problem than Furlong’s busy mother of three, Christine Higney. Through determination and some research during midnight feedings, Formula Hunters was born.

“I was away with my family at a water park,” Christine remembered. “Sitting with my baby on my chest, I began thinking about other parents.” She noted that formula has a short shelf-life—hours. And during a shortage, you hope you have a good solid drinker who can finish a bottle before time literally runs out. From the time the formula is manufactured till the time it is on the shelves takes a while.” Christine noted. “Add to that the fact that the birth rate went up through the pandemic, and you had a full-blown formula disaster to deal with. Only four production plants in the US were clearly insufficient.”

That’s how bad it got. Parents were down to a twoweek supply; some running on empty. One of her parents drove to 18 stores in one day in hopes of finding his child’s formula—and no luck. Another Pennsylvania mom, Sherry Asbury had infant twins. “Everything went crazy six months ago, so the babies were on two different formulas. I had family, friends, everyone looking for formula.” Sample cans from her pediatrician only went so far. So, while she was on Facebook, she learned about Formula Hunters. “This was incredible,” Sherry said. “There were people on there that don’t even have their own babies, looking for mothers in need to just bless someone.” She wound up getting formula from a New Jersey mom, along with toys and encouraging notes. Feeling blessed that she never ran out, she later paid it back by shipping formula to families in Kentucky and Florida. With bare shelves and production facilities shut down, the problem became real in a hurry. So, Christine’s resource management skills began matching supply with demand. She noticed some of the dozens of brands of formula weren’t equitably distributed. You might find one on the West Coast, yet some desperate parent on the East Coast needed it, with no supply in sight. “I see the world through a lens,” Christine said. That lens is problem-solving, and she quickly dove into researching what was out there for parents through the portal for all knowledge— namely Facebook.

Christine found groups that were addressing the problem by providing inneed parents with a forum to post their needs. But she pointed out, “It was disorganized. Not only were you relying on a random parent seeing your post and having what you need, but you were dealing with problems.” According to Christine, people would get on and compete for formula. Someone would post a picture saying my store has it, but it didn’t help when you were across the country. Then there were the scammers; those who would say they bought it, asked the parent in need to send money, then never send it. Or those who would bulk buy formula when they found it, marked up the price and sold it at a significant profit. And parents who would get into a bidding war in order to secure it. Yes, it got ugly.

How to provide parents with what they need, quickly, while taking the profit motive and scammers out of the equation was the goal. Christine realized she didn’t have the skill to avoid scamming but realized you can’t get scammed if you’re not asking for money. “Parenting is already a stressful job,” she said, “Add to that the real problem of figuring out how you’re going to feed your baby makes it that much more so.” So, she decided to launch a Facebook page that was donationbased. Yes, formula for free.

So, what would make a virtual stranger want to send you the formula at no cost to you? Payback. That’s right. Christine did some software research that provides a spreadsheet. Parents fill out a form that essentially asks for three pieces of information—Facebook display name, type of formula needed and time until your supply is depleted. The most urgent needs rise to the top of the list. When they’re met, the next set of families rotates up. So, in doing good works, you receive good works.

So, how well does it work? According to the founder, “In a week, we had 500 in our group. Now there are 1,500. And we’ve fed 500 babies. All over the country, people send formula to others somewhere else. People were incentivized to move through a list and get their turn. It’s amazing as a parent,” Christine said, “Seeing people want to pay for others (including shipping costs) and do it through other people paying it back.” As of this writing, the situation has eased a bit. Shelves aren’t as bare, but it still doesn’t mean your local store has your particular formula So, the community continues. While Christine got something successful off the ground, her longtime friend, Mary Hales, who is also a nurse and mother of three has jumped in. “I got involved four months ago when Christine told me about the problem.” She didn’t have infants, but what she did have was a flexible schedule. “Based on my assessment, the formula shortage is easing up for some, but there are still caregivers struggling to find their brand,” she said. When parents learn about the group, the demand spikes, but there are those who are still donating. Mary loves seeing the needs of parents met, a community that’s come together and hugs from her six-year-old when they celebrate shipments made.

It's truly a heartwarming story. And one that demonstrates that it is true—you can really rely on the kindness of strangers. Contact: www.face book.com/groups/formula hunters.

The Gator™ XUV Crossover Series Utility Vehicle has a precision-engineered drivetrain system that fully utilizes engine power, optimizing acceleration, hauling, towing, and hill-climbing capabilities. Power is transmitted from the engine through a continuously variable clutch system to the transaxle.