Features

“Why do you climb this mountain?” I asked Little Man, an enthusiastic, yet slow-speaking porter nicknamed for his compact size.

“I want to make your biggest dream come true,” he said, turning to look at me with all-too-serious eyes. “If you reach the top, it makes us very happy.” Then he proceeded to pump water into my canteen with his bare hands, as he’d done every day after breakfast before hitting the trail, saving my fingers from the biting wind of Summit Crater Camp’s 18,700-foot elevation.

Heading along Ohio’s Interstates and limited access highways, we sometimes forget there are amazing attractions at some of the exits.

Just off US Route 23 is Wyandot Popcorn Museum, located in downtown Marion. Famous for collecting and restoring the world’s largest collection of popcorn antiques and peanut roasters, the collection will fascinate anyone interested in antiques, collectables, and wonderful memories of another time. Two examples are more than 100 years old.

Not-for-profit electric cooperatives have a responsibility not only to fulfill the needs of their consumer-members, but to help their neighbors in need. To that end, Operation Round Up was born.

Operation Round Up is a voluntary program in which more than 200 electric cooperatives across the country participate, including most Ohio electric cooperatives. The programs go by different names, but they all operate under the same premise: Small change makes a big impact in communities all across Ohio.

With crisp breezes and colorful foliage, autumn in Ohio is prime time for festivals. Check out the homespun fun and hearty food at these fiber and apple events.

Steve Rhodes lives for challenges. As the CEO of the Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative (CHELCO), he leads an organization of 140 employees and serves more than 48,000 members in four counties in the Florida panhandle. He is also responsible for a utility services subsidiary with another 50 employees and is the immediate past president of the Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives board of directors.

Blazing hot days in August, bone-chilling cold days in February — what do those weather extremes have to do with the cost of electricity? More than the bottom line on your electric bill.

Explaining the connection is a big part of the workday for Kara Snyder, marketing and key accounts manager at Butler Rural Electric Cooperative in Oxford, about 40 miles north of Cincinnati.

At the center of Snyder’s conversations are little boxes containing radio-controlled switches that can be installed on certain kinds of water heaters and many air-conditioning systems.

War must be waged against these formidable enemies — the sooner, the better, considering that one mating female can potentially produce about 20,000 more fleas in just sixty days. These tiny tormentors can attack your pampered pet just as readily as a rescue at a crowded shelter. Fleas can’t be ignored, because they won’t go away on their own and, left uncontrolled, can seriously jeopardize your pet’s well-being.

As an Ohio resident, you know from experience that the Midwest region of the United States undergoes a wide variety of severe storms year-round. What is less commonly known is how much havoc this weather wrecks on the region — more than $3 billion on average is lost each year to storms in the Midwest with over $2.4 billion of that in property damages, according to the Illinois State Water Survey Report.

It’s during these storms, especially when power outages occur, that electric cooperatives must unite to keep members safe.

At the John and Annie Glenn Historic Site in N