Chilled, it was President George Washington’s favorite dessert. Today, rural folk throughout the eastern U.S. hunt this delectable wild fruit each fall, keeping their favorite pawpaw patch as secret as they would their best spring morel mushroom woods.
Chris Chmiel first became interested in pawpaws while in college at Ohio University. “I like to hike, and I began noticing pawpaws on the ground in the woods, just rotting, going to waste,” he says.
If a leisurely, relaxing train ride, combined with watching wildlife — particularly bald eagles — sounds like fun, you might want to head east to Romney, West Virginia, where, in the spring, summer and fall each year, the trains of the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad leave Wappocomo Station for a three-hour, 35-mile round-trip deep into the mountains.
The tracks parallel the south fork of the Potomac River, and the highlight of the trip is a wild stretch of stream where eagles soar.
For once, I was there “yesterday.” If you’re an angler, you know what I mean. How many times have you heard, “Well, the fish aren’t biting today, but had you been here yesterday (or last week, or last month), well…”
Putting me on the fish that magical late-summer morning a few years ago was veteran fishing guide Dave Rose. We were fishing a small river in northwest Michigan from a drift boat, casting minnow-imitation lures for king salmon (also known as Chinooks) that were migrating upstream from Lake Michigan to spawn.
Over the past decade, it has steadily grown to become the largest privately owned recreational shooting facility in the country. The numbers alone are impressive: Fifty-two trapshooting fields sit side by side, stretching a full mile, alongside 14 skeet fields, 14 pistol and rifle ranges, two sporting clays ranges, and an archery range.
Buckeye Chuck, Ohio’s official weather-prognosticating groundhog, does not live what anyone would consider a tough life; after all, he’s called upon to work only one day a year.
But oh, that one day: Groundhog Day, February 2 — the day the entire world watches with bated breath to see what he sees when he comes out of his den.
In the June 2024 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living print magazine, I wrote my monthly Woods, Waters, & Wildlife outdoors column about pesky poison ivy in a story titled “Leaves of three, let it be!” In the July 2024 issue, I described my custom-made hiking staff in a column called “Walking-stick work of art.” It wasn’t long before I heard from Bertille Mayberry, commenting on both stories.
David Fullenkamp, Midwest Electric
Q. In the November 2025 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living, you wrote an article about migratory raptors. The story helped me identify the pair of birds hunting around my house, a pair of gyrfalcons. I have seen them most days since the first of December. I live two miles west of St. Henry, Ohio, in Mercer County. I have lived in the country all my life, and this is the first year that I have seen them. Is it unusual for gyrfalcons to migrate this far south? Just thought you might be interested and would like a comment.
Kathleen MacMurray, Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative
Q. Hi Chip: I live on County Road 220 next to the Hancock-Wood substation north of Van Buren, Ohio, and read your very interesting outdoor articles in Ohio Cooperative Living magazine. Perhaps you can solve a riddle for me: I had six very nice laying hens in a fenced yard, and one warm summer afternoon when I went out to refresh their drinking water, all six were lying dead, decapitated, with no signs of any predator around. I wondered, could it have been a fox, hawk, owl, or a mink that killed them?
