September 2022

Visitors to the Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives education building will find energy-saving tips, cooking demonstrations, and free popcorn.

As the Farm Science Review celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, the state’s premier agricultural education and industry event will both highlight its own history and keep its focus on educating for the future.

Eventually, the electric cooperative tent got so popular that the co-ops decided to pool their money and erect a permanent structure on the grounds in 2008. 

The stadium is affectionately nicknamed “the ’Shoe” for its original horseshoe-shaped outline.

These days, as we watch more than 100,000 fans pack Ohio Stadium for Buckeyes football, weekend after weekend each fall, it’s impossible to imagine Ohio State University without it.

“We think, in 2022, that this stadium was inevitable — that it was inevitable it was going to be a double-decker and that it was going to be built for more than 60,000 people [its original capacity]. And of course, we inevitably enclose it because we knew we would fill it up so much, right?” Chute says. “Those assumptions are just not true.”

Hourglass

Buckeye Power has been the generation and transmission supplier to Ohio’s electric cooperatives since 1968, producing electricity from power plants and delivering it across the high-voltage transmission network (or “grid”) to each of those 24 electric cooperatives. Throughout this long history, American Electric Power (AEP) has been a partner to Buckeye Power in the generation of electricity — first only at Cardinal Power Plant, but adding more facilities as time went on.

Around 200 elk are home on the range at Dave Flory’s Quiet Harmony Ranch in the rolling Preble County hills.

Around 200 elk are home on the range at Dave Flory’s Quiet Harmony Ranch in the rolling Preble County hills. 

After viewing an informational movie, visitors can drive through the elk park to view the statuesque animals lounging in pastures and paddocks or opt for the 50-minute Outback Encounter, which affords a closer look and commentary. The inquisitive elk often approach fences for a peek at visitors or simply watch from their open shelters.

Wildlife Officer Reid Van Cleve is a veteran of the survey.

Mostly in life, possums, skunks, groundhogs, and racoons don’t get much respect. That’s especially so for the ones who spend their last earthly moments on Ohio roadways, just before they get hit. 

Katie Dennison is a research biologist for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife. At the Olentangy Research Station in Columbus, she oversees the annual Furbearer Roadkill Survey. And yes, that’s the official name.

Attendees of the Ohio Farm Bureau's  ExploreAg event get an up-close look at the profession at the Central Ohio Lineworker Training Facility in Mount Gilead.

Mike Taylor was a few days away from a scheduled pre-hire lineworker assessment at Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative when his little brother, Tim, attended an Ohio Farm Bureau ExploreAg one-day program at the

ExploreAg is Ohio Farm Bureau’s signature agricultural literacy and workforce development program. The majority of its offerings, which are free, are week- and weekend-long immersion camps for high school students. Teens get a broad-spectrum look at agriculture and related STEM fields, develop their leadership and collaboration skills, and prepare for college and/or a career.

Feathers from some birds, such as the great egret, were in such demand by the millinery trade that they were worth twice their weight in gold.

Sometimes, it’s good to remember just how far we’ve come in wildlife conservation.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, bird feathers were the fashion fad in the millinery — hatmaking — trade. Some feathers, especially plumes from great egrets and snowy egrets, were in such demand that they were literally worth twice their weight in gold. During the 1890s alone, it’s estimated that 5 million birds were killed annually for their feathers. To make matters worse, those birds were taken almost exclusively during the breeding season, their eggs left to rot or their hatchlings to starve and die.

LEAKOIL invites its members and other owners of classic Volkswagen buses to gather, gawk, and gush over the classic cultural icons often associated with road-tripping, hippies, and the peace movement.

Love of kombi is an affliction that runs deep and can span decades — ask anyone who suffers. Specifically, ask those who assemble at the Kelleys Island 4-H campground each autumn for LEAKOIL’s annual weekend camping event, Kombis on Kelleys.

Esquivel said there are disadvantages to owning an old bus, including the “old rust-bucket” itself (as she describes her 1972 camper) and the constant attention it requires. 

“People are always saying, ‘I love your car!’ and ‘Can I look inside?’” she says. “Of course, I always let them. And people offer to buy it all the time, too, but I would never sell it.”