Karen, I hate to admit it but I gave up. Well my entire Treo 650 gave up is more like it. I had a bit of a problem and ended up losing everything (and I do mean everything) on my Treo, as well as the backup on my PC. I don't believe that it had anything to do with Village Sim, and so I re-loaded it and started over. I now have the following stats:
Hours played: 69 (hmmmm :> )
VB: 12
VC: 6
Buried: 0
Oldest: 59 (and doing well)
Max Pop: 18
Food:10124
Crabs: 0
Tech: 66266
Tech levels: 6
Island Events: 4
Puzzles: 4 of 12

Well there you have it. Unfortunately the oldest person in my village is also my master builder..I have what I need to look for puzzle 12 but I don't have the necessary tech for it. I am trying to build up another Master builder before I run out of things to build and thus land myself back in the proverbial boat I was in before my Treo up-chucked.

Hoping you are doing better than I am,

Tina