family business

Mid-Ohio Energy Cooperative

The sky's the limit

sbradford — Tue, 27 May 2025 15:30:23 +0000

The sky's the limit

June 1, 2025

Damaine Vonada

Josh Bixler and his team once got a 3D printer to fly — while it was printing. They’ve turned Harry Potter into a remote-controlled airframe; devised a “Tubby” B-17 that’s an RC version of World War II’s iconic Flying Fortress; and taken on proof-of-concept RC projects for clients ranging from NASA to Tyler Perry. Want to see (faux) pigs fly? This is the place.

Flite Test LLC runs on ingenuity, electric motors, and tractor-trailer loads of foam board at its home in Edgewater Airpark, a 25-acre oasis for RC aviation enthusiasts that’s surrounded by Edgewater Golf Course in the countryside near Minerva in eastern Ohio. After Bixler and his wife, Jen, purchased the 18-hole course in 2018, they not only kept it open to the public but also carved out space where they could create an airpark complete with runways and a seasonal hobby store beside the pro shop. “Our vision is connecting people with family and friends around everyday activities like golf and model airplanes,” Bixler says.

Aviation has been a lifelong passion for Bixler, who grew up in the Alliance area on a farm with a grass airstrip. His father was a general aviation pilot who taught him to fly (“I soloed in a single-engine Taylorcraft monoplane,” he says proudly). Bixler also learned the basic principles of aircraft design and construction while he and his father built numerous RC model airplanes.

Shortly after he and Jen married, they ran a youth ministry for a church and tried to find activities that the kids were able to do with their parents. Bixler started designing easy-to-assemble RC airplanes that families could build in a few hours from foam board and other inexpensive materials. “My logic was that, for the price of a video game, we could get the entire family to spend time together by doing an engaging hobby,” he says.

The Flite Test brand was born in 2010, when veteran video producer Chad Kapper started making YouTube videos of Bixler’s foam board planes and practice flights. Bixler began making laser-cut model airplane kits to sell on Flite Test’s website, and soon enough, he decided to follow his heart: He quit his secure job painting Corvette parts and went all-in on becoming an RC airplane manufacturer. He enlisted his wife to organize the production process (raw materials in, finished items out) that Flite Test still uses, and they set up
shop in Kapper’s one-car garage.

“We began the business with one laser, a workbench, a computer, and a propane space heater,” Bixler says.

Today, Flite Test is one of the nation’s leading RC aircraft manufacturers and recreational aviation e-commerce stores. “We sell 36,000 airplane kits and 1,000 drones every year,” Bixler says. Visitors to the website (www.flitetest.com) can also find model aircraft plans that are free to download.

Flite Test’s customer base includes individuals, STEM schools, homeschoolers, and hobby shops, and its YouTube shows boast a worldwide audience of 2.1 million subscribers.

Although it’s now a subsidiary of New Philadelphia-based Lauren International, Flite Test remains a family operation. As president, Josh oversees the design team, whose studios are housed in the golf course’s former banquet hall; Jen manages manufacturing and shipping in a recently constructed 6,000-square-foot building. Their two grown sons also work there — Noah Bixler is the lead producer for Flite Test’s YouTube content, and in addition to piloting the video drones and working on aircraft, Michael Bixler helps to maintain the golf course.

Using flight controller boards and gyros has allowed Flite Test to produce technologically advanced aircraft, and one of its signature design features is interchangeable electronic components that can be swapped among airplanes. The popular “First Flyers” STEM build kit, for example, includes three different, easily maneuverable airframes that can all be used as gliders or combined with a Flite Test power pack for RC flying. “People always comment that our RC models are clever and affordable,” Bixler says, “but we never compromise on either the build experience or how well our aircraft fly.”

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Vintage airplane

Saucy sows

sbradford — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 19:06:41 +0000

Saucy sows

May 1, 2025

Margie Wuebker

Scott and Denise Scherer know the look — folks seeking a little pizzazz for their mundane mealtimes often find themselves wandering into their market, Saucy Sows Sweets and Meats, with a distinct look of hungry anticipation.

Saucy Sows, located at the intersection of state routes 47 and 235, is but a stone’s throw from the only roundabout between Bellefontaine and Sidney, where the owners are members of Logan County Electric Cooperative.

The market offers specialty foods (including many with the Saucy Sows label), fresh meats (including juicy burgers made with 50% beef and 50% bacon), deli items, Amish baked goods, and produce. The staff, which includes Scott and Denise’s son, Stealth, and daughter, Blazie, also prepares special treats like storemade barbecued beef, chicken salad, ham salad, and bologna salad.

The Scherers have spent years perfecting their products and growing the business. Scott left a job in the beverage industry in 2012 in order to pursue his culinary interest. He initially thought about producing a new kind of mustard but quickly realized the market was flooded. After considerable experimentation, he developed sweet pepper mustard using fresh red and green peppers. Numerous taste tests yielded only positive results, but he still needed a name.

“We used to do a lot of fishing, and our favorite charter was Sassy Sal’s,” he says. “We settled on the name Saucy Sows — since we envisioned our products being used on pork as well as beef, the name just seemed right.”

For many years, the Scherers prepared and packaged their mustard at a large commercial kitchen in Bowling Green, so they had to load up everything from ingredients to labels for their regular trips. During the ensuing weeks, Scott traveled to mom-and-pop markets, butcher shops, and specialty shops introducing proprietors to his “pride and joy.”

Orders steadily grew from cases to pallets, and soon he added new products like spicy mustard, moonshine mustard, barbecue glazes, horseradish sauce, pickles, and pork and beef sticks. Today, the Saucy Sows line comprises more than 25 products, including soda pop.

“We have hot and spicy products, but we also have plenty of options for those who don’t like or can’t handle the heat,” he says. “Adding new products takes considerable experimentation. It really involves trial and error. You can always put in a little heat or spice, but you certainly can’t take it out.”

Some new products spring from customer suggestions, but most originate from family members. Such examples include the sweet and tangy Sassy Tallahassee barbecue sauce and Saucy Sows mild bread-and-butter pickle slices. There is always something in the planning stage.

The Scherers no longer make trips to Bowling Green, because their growing product volume has allowed them to hire other businesses to handle packaging for the “tried and true” recipes. For instance, Woeber in Springfield manages the mustards and Sechler’s in St. Joe, Indiana, packs
the pickles.

The Scherers ultimately decided to open their market in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Clientele steadily grew and the white frame store now operates six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday. Denise manages the operation and spends considerable time in the deli, slicing lunch meat and cheese brought in from Ohio’s Amish country. Stealth oversees the adjacent meat counter, where fresh pork and beef can be purchased by the pound. Scott spends 50 to 60 hours per week preparing shipments, making deliveries, and recruiting new customers. More than 300 retail outlets carry Saucy Sows products in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

“We set out to make a quality product and we have adhered to our mission,” he says. “After all, we would never serve something to our customers that we wouldn’t serve to family
and friends.”

Saucy Sows, 13 State Route 235 N., DeGraff, Ohio. Open 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Sunday. Closed Mondays. Click here for more information.

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All in the family

sbradford — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 20:08:54 +0000

All in the family

January 1, 2025

Jodi Borger

6S Products in Anna started with five family members, one injection molding press, and a mission to find a niche while building a foundation of trust, dependability, and value.

“We didn’t have a goal of being a large company; we just wanted to be able to personalize and help find solutions for companies when they need it,” says Neil Schroer, who owns the company along with his wife, Genny; two of their daughters, Emily Schroeder and Tracy Platfoot; and son-in-law, Josh Platfoot.

(By the way, entrepreneurial spirit runs through the family: Neil and Genny also have a son, Eric, who manages a local machine shop with his wife, Karen, and another daughter, Jacquelyn, who owns a gluten-free meal prep business.)

The origin of 6S Products, a member of Urbana-based Pioneer Electric Cooperative, goes back a long way. Neil had co-founded and co-owned a different manufacturing company in Lakeview when Emily and Tracy were young, and both worked there as teenagers. When Tracy started dating Josh, he got a job there, too.

When Neil sold his share of that outfit in 1999, the family members went in different directions professionally — ranging from the U.S. Postal Service to real estate and accounting. But they recognized the need for their expertise and the niche market they could provide in plastics manufacturing.

“We stayed out of plastics for a few years and then finally realized there was a role that we could fill,” Neil says. “With our combined experience, we thought we could add value to the industry overall.”

And so they founded 6S Products in 2003 — each bringing different expertise to the business. Josh and Emily, who previously worked as production injection molders, became the company’s plant manager and warehouse manager; Tracy, who had worked in quality control, became the company’s quality manager; Genny handled the accounting and human resources; and Neil focused on building the infrastructure and securing a customer base.

“We sat back and said, ‘OK, we know we can do this, but we have to fill a niche,’” Neil says, “and that was to stay small and agile enough to allow us to change with the industry.”

Primarily a third- and fourth-tier vendor, 6S Products manufactures items such as fasteners, clips, and assemblies that are used throughout the automotive industry in dashboards, doors, motors, and interior areas that, while they may not be seen by the consumer, are a vital part of the finished product.

As with many startup businesses, the early years were not easy.

“We started with one press until we had more sales than that one press could handle,” Tracy says. “We used to have a couch and a TV in the office, and when that press required a constant operator, that couch became a bed. We did whatever it took to keep that first press up and running.”

Today, the company utilizes 15 injection molding presses that run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, producing hundreds of different types of products. That translates into millions of parts shipped per month — all weigh-counted and constantly verified, Josh says, to ensure they meet customers’ requirement and standards.

“Twenty years ago, there were people standing in front of a press and making one part at a time,” Neil says. “We believe that adding automation to the newest technology is the key to supplying reliable, quality products and enabling competitive pricing for our customers.” The high-precision presses are the latest available, with innovative, robotic equipment to ensure process control and repeatability.

Still, the company has an average of 15 associates on the payroll (including the five owners) and contracts an additional 15 to 20 sub-assemblers.

“We have a good workforce, and that is really important,” Neil says. “We provide a flexible, family-oriented, clean work environment, and staying small gives us an advantage because we don’t have to layer management and can keep our pricing competitive. Everyone does whatever needs to be done.”

Of course, the all-electric Cincinnati Milacron presses make the electric cooperative an important partner as well.

“I wanted this business to be on co-op lines,” Neil says. “They are great at keeping us informed, and we are pleased with how quickly they respond to get us back up and running if there are outages due to storms or other issues.”

And that small, family-oriented atmosphere means they can get be a little more personally involved with their customers, which Neil says is a benefit for both.

“We recently had a gentleman come into the office who told us, ‘This product is my dream and I want to make it a reality by taking it to market,’” Neil says. “We were able to help him put his ideas on paper and put him in contact with a tooling company to produce his mold. We produced the product for him, and he was able to package and market his dream. It’s a great feeling to be able to be a part of that process.”

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Pole position

sbradford — Wed, 01 May 2024 17:23:21 +0000

Pole position

May 1, 2024

Randy Edwards

The pole barn — as familiar a fixture on modern farms as a pickup truck — is an architectural innovation born in the 1930s, the result of a marriage of necessity and opportunity. Cash-strapped farmers of the Depression needed an inexpensive way to keep tractors and motorized equipment under cover, while the electrification of rural America led to the easy availability of utility poles. The earliest pole barns were rudimentary structures with dirt floors and poles planted directly into the soil around the perimeter, topped with trusses and a sheet metal roof. These post-frame structures could be built quickly and at far less expense than timber-framed barns, and while the continued mechanization of agriculture drove demand for more covered area on the farm, space for a tractor didn’t need to be as fancy and complicated as you’d need for, say, a team of horses.

For decades, the pole barn has reigned supreme on American farms. But the pole-frame structures of today have come a long way from the simple pole barns of the Depression, says Caleb Miller, owner and president of MQS Structures in Lancaster. Pole framing remains a popular design for farm outbuildings, but these days, Miller’s company, a member of Lancaster-based South Central Power Company, may just as likely be using pole-frame construction to build the shell for a far more complex structure.

“When Dad started, a pole-frame building was an agricultural building,” says Miller, who began his training at age 12 by helping his father, John, build barns. “It has evolved into a lot more than that. These days, we’re building event centers, a lot of residential garages. We build ‘shouses’ (a combination of workshop and house) and that’s evolved into the ‘barndominium.’”

Barndominiums, or “barndos,” are built on precast concrete columns to support upright poles, creating a solid but inexpensive shell that can cover almost any kind of interior finish. The term was popularized by the HGTV show Fixer Upper in 2016. That was the same year that Miller, who had been building barns most of his life with his father and brothers, found some investors and struck out on his own with MQS Structures.

“In 2016 I was the owner, the CEO, and the salesman. It was me by myself in a pickup truck. That’s how I started,” says Miller, now 47, who lives in Perry County with his wife, Dorcas, and their three sons.

In that first year he hired a second salesperson, put together a crew, and built 51 structures. In 2023, with 10 office employees and seven construction crews, the company built 330 buildings over a five-state area. “We have been blessed,” he says. “I never dreamed we could be so blessed.”

Miller credits his company’s success to honesty and hard work, values instilled in him by his Amish-Mennonite father, who moved his family from Geauga County to Perry County in 1966 and raised 11 children, including eight sons. John Miller worked well into his 70s and died five years ago at 83. “We had to work hard, but it didn’t hurt us,” says Caleb, the youngest of the eight sons. “My dad taught me honesty and to take care of the customers, and the good Lord will take care of the rest.”

Caleb married Dorcas, the daughter of Mennonite dairy farmers from Tennessee, 15 years ago. The couple lives in a house built by his father on Amish Ridge Road (renamed after his family after they moved there). They farm 180 acres, mostly for beef cattle. Miller jokes that he has two vices: “farming and golf, but farming is what gets me up in the morning.” The couple’s sons — 11-year-old twins Carter and Colton, and Cayson, 7 — all help out, Miller says, caring for the chickens and keeping up on yard work.

Miller also credits MQS’s employees, nearly all of whom are Amish or Mennonite, for the company’s success. “Our employees make MQS stand out,” he says. “Without them, we could never achieve what we have achieved.”

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South Central Power

Sweet and spirited

sbradford — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 20:53:40 +0000

Sweet and spirited

February 1, 2024

Wendy Pramik

Among Ohio’s numerous tourism “trails” that group loosely kindred attractions to create a single novelty destination, the recently conceived Sweets and Spirits Trail in Miami County seems a perfect pairing for this time of year.

Launched in March 2023, the 19-stop trail is a creation of the Miami County Visitors and Convention Bureau. “Miami County has a long-standing candy shop in its sixth generation (Winans Chocolates + Coffees in Troy) and three vintage candy shops, one in each of its largest three downtown communities,” says Leiann Stewart, the bureau’s executive director. “That prompted the original idea of a sweets trail, and as we were discussing trail ideas, sweets and spirits just fit together.”

My husband, Mike, and I made a date of it recently. To guide us along the route, we downloaded the Miami County Sweets and Spirits Trail app, which showcases all stops and includes a map with distances between each location. Some spots offer incentives for visiting, including purchase discounts, free samples, or a free shot glass. As we virtually checked in at each location, we earned points toward prizes from the visitors bureau.

We were taken with the area’s charming small towns and the warmth and authenticity of the trail’s shop owners. For example:

Indian Creek Distillery on Missy Duer’s family farm in New Carlisle — which was new to us, although not new at all. Missy and her husband, Joe, revived the farm’s old distillery in 2012. “This farm’s been in my family for over 200 years,” she says. “I’m the sixth of seven generations that have actually worked here.” 7095 Staley Road, New Carlisle, OH 45344; www.indiancreekdistillery.com.
In historic downtown Tipp City, we discovered Rad Candy Company, a quaint sweets shop owned by Kari and Mark Underwood and Chad Mowen, whose enthusiasm was apparent as they invited us on a delightful trip down memory lane with their offerings of retro delights such as Pop Rocks, Necco Wafers, and hot-selling Clark Bars. In addition to candy, they also offer glass-bottle sodas, Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream, toys, comic books, vintage Halloween masks, and packs of unopened trading cards. “We want everyone to come in and find something that reminds them of their childhood,” Kari Underwood says. 114 E. Main St., Tipp City, OH 45371; www.facebook.com/radcandyco.
In downtown Troy, we encountered more sweets at Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company. Founded by Margaret Berg, a Culinary Institute of America alum, Bakehouse offers a delightful array of freshly baked cookies — as well as a 20-year-old sourdough starter. 317 Public Square SW, Troy, OH 45373; https://bakehousebread.com.

As it approaches its first anniversary, the trail has drawn nearly 500 pass holders working to complete the trail for fun and prizes.

“Miami County has some really great history and businesses with a story to tell,” Stewart says. “That’s why we created the trail.” Plans are in the works to expand the trail by as many as 10 new stops, including ice cream parlors.

Here are a few other stops we explored on our trip:

A.M. Scott Distillery: Anthony Scott, former co-owner of Moeller Brewing, opened his newest concept in a historic 1920s Pontiac dealership in Troy last September. Technically, it’s a blending company; Scott purchases distillate from outside of Ohio, blends and bottles the whiskeys, and then sells them under the A.M. Scott label. The luscious single-barrel rye demonstrates the company’s focus on flavor and affordability. “I wanted a top-end whiskey at an affordable price,” Scott says. “We’re trying not to kill folks on the price.” 250 S. Mulberry St., Troy, OH 45373; www.scottdistillery.com.
Hayner Distilling: Founded in 2018 by Greg Taylor and Andrew Wannemacher, Hayner Distilling in Troy resurrects the pre-Prohibition Hayner Distilling Company, once one of the state’s largest distilleries. Using a surviving 110-year-old bottle of Hayner Whiskey, the distillery partnered with Kentucky’s Bardstown Bourbon Company to produce the first new batch of Hayner in more than a century. The bottle shop has limited hours on the weekends, when visitors can stop in to shop and taste. 619 Lincoln Ave., Troy, OH 45373; www.haynerdistilling.com.
Dobo’s Delights Bake Shoppe: Visitors and locals alike enjoy the sweet traditions of Hungary at Dobo’s in Piqua. Cindy Dobo, a baker with a passion for authenticity, has owned the shop for 25 years. She makes an assortment of pastries, like crescent-shaped linzers and the eight-layer Dobos Torte, with some seriously old, yet high-quality, equipment. Don’t miss the Cinnamon Pinwheels, a nostalgic favorite. “Everybody’s mother or grandmother made them with leftover pie dough,” Dobo says. “We started making them, and people love them.” 417 N. Main St., Piqua, OH 45356; https://dobosdelights.com.
Crooked Handle Brewing Company: Celebrating its first-year anniversary in downtown Piqua, Crooked Handle Brewing Company anchors Lock Nine Park, a scenic community hub preserving the historic Miami and Erie Canal Lock 9. Nestled in a century-old building, the brewery offers German lagers, wheat beers, American amber ales, and hard ciders. Brewmaster and owner Jason Moore established the business in 2015, and the Piqua pub is its second location. 123 N. Main St., Piqua, OH 45356; https://crookedhandle.com.

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A taste of Maine

sbradford — Tue, 30 May 2023 16:20:51 +0000

A taste of Maine

June 1, 2023

Jill Moorhead

Along the road connecting Fredericktown and Amity in Knox County is a red wooden sign with a lobster on it, marking a driveway leading to 22 acres of wooded property featuring a creek, walking trails, two cabins and a 1961 Shasta Airflyte camper trailer for rent, a house, a small private writing hut, and, if the season is right, 700 pounds of live lobsters.

Brett Fletcher built the Lobstah Shack in 2008 using free lumber provided by a neighbor and has been selling Maine lobsters out of the 96-square-foot shack in Amity, Ohio (population 50), ever since. A 460-gallon lobster tank fills up the structure, though there’s enough room inside for Maine memorabilia and a small always-on radio that plays music to deter the squirrels. That tank, along with an additional 1,200-gallon tank in his garage, can hold up to 700 pounds of lobster, which he sells from May through December.

The road to Amity

After graduating from Ohio State University, Fletcher talked his dad into co-signing a loan for a lobster boat and moved to an off-the-grid family cabin in Georgetown, Maine. He spent the next 20 years as a professional lobsterer, hauling water to his makeshift shower and 200 traps’ worth of lobsters per day from the waters surrounding the island town.

The 2008 financial crisis hit hard for the lobster industry, especially in Maine. “Lobsters are a party food. They’re historically expensive,” Fletcher says. The market rate for lobsters plummeted along the coast, and he needed an alternate way to make income.

His plan? To open a lobster shack on his mother’s property in Amity. He would make regular trips to Maine to catch lobsters, bring them back to Ohio, sell them, and do it again.

“Everyone told me that I was crazy,” says Fletcher, “and because it’s so crazy, a lot of people come here.” Aside from luring those intrigued by the absurdity of purchasing fresh lobsters from a shack in the middle of the woods outside of Mount Vernon, part of his strategy to attract customers is to keep prices the lowest in the area, by at least $4 a pound. “Last summer, places in Columbus would sell for $24.99 per pound. I was half of that,” he says.

Sea change

While the shack has remained the same, many parts of Fletcher’s operation have changed through the years.

First, he realized the difficulty of maintaining his lobster boat from 850 miles away. “My boat was unattended and broke loose in a storm,” he says, “and I knew I couldn’t be in two places at once. You really have to be there to take care of a boat.” So he now relies on his network of friends back in Maine to supply his lobsters.

For the first four years of the venture, Fletcher drove to Maine three times a month to purchase lobsters. But that turned out to be unsustainable as well. “I lost two transmissions, and I had one trip that was 36 hours,” he says. Fletcher now contracts with a trucking company that comes to Akron every Thursday with fresh lobsters. Fletcher fills his 2006 Chrysler Town and Country minivan with 18 boxes of lobsters and completes their trek to Knox County.

Live like a lobsterer, eat like a lobsterer

In 2018, Fletcher widened the experience at the Lobstah Shack by adding off-the-grid, pretend-you’re-in-Maine-style accommodations on his property through Airbnb. Fletcher rents each of the three structures (two cabins and a trailer) for less than $80 a night.

He started with rehabbing a 1930s moonshiner’s cabin, complete with a trap door in the floor that leads to a pit for hiding moonshine during Prohibition. The cabin emulates Fletcher’s living experience as a trapper in Maine — with a wood stove inside, an outdoor solar shower, an RV toilet, charcoal grill, outdoor fireplace, and candles and lamps for lighting. Instead of views of the Atlantic coast, the cabin showcases the windy and determined Little Schenck Creek.

He also facilitates lobster dinners for guests who purchase lobsters. In some cases, he’ll deliver the cooked lobster. If guests prefer to boil dinner themselves, he provides large pots.

But either way, dinner is sure to be delicious.

The Lobstah Shack, 18784 Lower Fredericktown Amity Road, Mount Vernon, OH 43050. 207-751-9151 or www.thelobstahshack.com.

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A mover (but not a shaker)

sbradford — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 18:24:26 +0000

A mover (but not a shaker)

March 1, 2023

James Proffitt

Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative

Jim Klier has been a mover for 39 years. Admittedly, the Wellington resident and Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative member isn’t real good at carefully packing all your possessions, loading them into a big rig, and driving them somewhere else.

Instead, he just moves everything at once. Like your entire house. And very carefully.

Jim and the rest of the folks at Klier Structural Movers have made hundreds of such moves over the years. They have transported buildings both commercial and residential, though most are houses. The longest trip was a home that went down the road about 25 miles. The shortest? About 4 feet (see sidebar story below).

Klier has moved plenty of homes for lots of different reasons — some legal, like for zoning issues; others more sentimental. Klier’s moved a lot of older homes. Much older. Like an 1813 timber frame home on Lake Erie.

“Oh, heavens yes,” he says. “A home that’s been in the family for generations, for example. You really have to love the house to do something like that, to go through that process.”

Not all the structures he’s moved are historic or sentimental — or even old. In fact, just the opposite. Some haven’t even been lived in yet or are still under construction. “We’ve done new houses, never occupied. Sometimes they’re not even finished,” he says.

Sometimes builders make mistakes, like putting up a house on the wrong spot, perhaps straddling a property line or facing the wrong direction. Other times, issues arise with a new foundation, or groundwater wells up suddenly, indicating a likely future of constant pumping. Other jobs have included moving a structure out of an existing flood zone or adding a basement where none was.

Occasionally, it’s a combination of sentimentality and business.

When Mike Bassett’s investment group purchased waterfront property in Port Clinton, their plan was to build 14 homes on the site, which features a 125-foot sandy Lake Erie beach. But a two-story, 3,300-square-foot home sat directly where the main driveway would be. In Ottawa County, tearing down vintage homes on the water and replacing them with new homes and condominiums has been in vogue for years. But he questioned razing what seemed like such a great old house.

“It’s got high ceilings, very large wood molding, just a lot of charm,” he says. “I just know someone will fall in love with it because it’s very large and well-built. To me it just seemed like it would be a terrible waste to tear it down.”

So Bassett contacted Klier and had the home moved — about 100 feet over the course of a couple months, and in the process, rotated about 90 degrees. Bassett estimated the cost of the raw lumber and materials in the home, circa 1934, would run about $100,000 today. He said after some remodeling and updating, it will be a beautiful nearly century-old home that’s just like a new home.

So just how do you move a structure? According to Klier, the answer is, “Very carefully.” But at its simplest: Jack it up and drag it out. Klier has a yard full of equipment — several hundred tons of steel beams, a fleet of specialized hydraulic dollies, and hundreds of fat, heavy timbers. With these items, experienced Klier crew members place long steel beams beneath a structure, then slowly raise it.

“We push everything up evenly,” Klier says. “The structure rises on a completely level, even plane.”

But first there’s plenty of measuring, planning, contemplating.

“We definitely spend a lot of time figuring out what we’re going to do before we do it,” he says. While they’ve had a few minor mishaps over the years, he says they’ve never dropped a structure or suffered any catastrophic disasters.

Moving a structure is not inexpensive, relatively speaking. At the minimum, a shorter, simpler move is likely to run between $30,000 and $40,000, and the price goes up from there, depending on several factors. “It’s very viable in the right situation,” Klier says, “but a terrible waste of money in the wrong one.”

Just a slight twist

When Sally DePerro bought what had originally been an 1880 vacation cottage for a member of the Gamble family (as in Procter & Gamble), it was a beautiful home in a quaint spot overlooking the LaFarge shipping dock, where lake freighters come and go in Marblehead.

“When we bought it, it needed some TLC,” DePerro says. “And also we wanted a garage.”

As it happened, the home sat at a slight angling opposition to neighboring structures so that additions were off-limits, zoning wise. “They were going to add onto the front and the rear of the home,” Klier says. “It wasn’t sitting in line with the property boundaries.”

And so for a pretty penny, which in DePerro’s view was worth a pound of gold, Klier and his crew cocked the now-massive 4,700 square-foot structure just enough to come into line with zoning rules and leave room for the desired additions. The total distance was about 4 feet — still the shortest move his company has undertaken. “The move made everything line up,” he says.

“And while all that was happening we dug a deeper basement because it wasn’t a full basement,” DePerro says. “It sounds crazy, but we got a lot out of that. In the end, moving the house just a few feet gave me everything I wanted.”

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Lake Erie

The big cheese

sbradford — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 14:57:14 +0000

The big cheese

December 1, 2022

Damaine Vonada

For Swiss immigrants Ernest and Gertrude Stalder, 1937 was an important year. Not only was their son John born, but a new rural electric cooperative began powering their business, Pearl Valley Cheese, in eastern Coshocton County. “Getting electricity was a turning point for our family,” says John Stalder, “because my parents could modernize their cheese house and use refrigeration.”

Pearl Valley Cheese still occupies the same country property off St. Rte. 93 where Ernest began making Swiss cheese in a small stone building in 1928. Back then, he heated milk from nearby dairy farms in a single copper kettle that yielded one 200-pound wheel of Swiss cheese a day. Today, Pearl Valley Cheese is a sprawling, technologically up-to-date factory producing 40,000 to 45,000 pounds of Swiss and colby cheeses per day. It still gets electricity from a cooperative — The Frontier Power Company — and continues to be owned and operated by Stalder family members. The general manager, Kurt Ellis, is Ernest’s great-grandson (he also serves on Frontier Power’s board of trustees).

For the Stalders, cheese is more than a business — it’s a lifestyle that has endured for four generations. John and his wife, Grace, took over the factory during the 1960s, and though they’re now octogenarians, they lend a hand there practically every day. The couple also raised four daughters — Ruth Ann, Sally, Heidi, and Trudy — who, along with their spouses and offspring, have helped to make cheese and run the plant in various ways over the years.

“Sally and I work at Pearl Valley Cheese every day,” says Chuck Ellis, who is Sally’s husband and the company’s current president. The Ellises have been involved in Pearl Valley Cheese since 1987 and are the third generation of the family to reside in the frame house next to the factory.

Since Pearl Valley Cheese is about halfway between Sugarcreek and Coshocton, its on-site retail store is a destination for locals as well as visitors to Ohio’s Amish Country and Historic Roscoe Village. The factory makes 14 varieties of natural cheese, and bestsellers include their signature Mild Swiss, which won a gold medal at the 2014 World Championship Cheese Contest; Lacey Swiss, a reduced-fat and reduced-sodium cheese; and colby, a semi-hard orange cheese.

While Super Hot Jumping Jack with ghost peppers is one of its newest cheeses, Pearl Valley also makes an Emmentaler Old World Swiss. Emmentaler is Switzerland’s definitive cheese, and in the United States, Swiss-born cheesemakers like Ernest produced versions of it that Americans dubbed Swiss cheese. “Our Emmentaler has a bolder flavor profile than Swiss cheese,” says Chuck. “It’s made with a starter culture from Europe, and as far as I know, we’re the only U.S. cheese factory using that culture.”

Because east-central Ohio’s climate and rolling terrain are similar to Switzerland’s Emmental Valley, Sugarcreek — aka Ohio’s “Little Switzerland” — became a center for both Swiss culture and cheese production. In the early 1900s, the Sugarcreek area had about 60 cheese houses operated by immigrants whose skills and hard work made Swiss cheese synonymous with the Buckeye State. Presently only a dozen or so Ohio plants manufacture Swiss cheese, but they create more of it — some 150 million pounds annually — than any place in the country. “Ohio is the biggest Swiss cheese producer in the U.S.,” notes Chuck. “It makes about 48% of the nation’s Swiss cheese.”

On Wednesdays, Pearl Valley Cheese also offers free factory tours that begin at the store and end in its shipping facility. Customers are welcome to have a snack at the picnic pavilion just outside the store, and there’s also a small playground for children. Store employees gladly slice samples to taste and even provide serving suggestions. “We try to make things nice for customers because they support us year after year,” says Chuck. “We do a customer appreciation event every summer and always have a bounce house to encourage them to bring their kids.”

Pearl Valley Cheese, 54760 Twp. Rd. 90, Fresno, OH 43824. Open 8 a.m.–5 p.m. M–F and 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Saturdays. 740-545-6002; www.pearlvalleycheese.com.

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dairy

Cider season

sbradford — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 13:53:40 +0000

Cider season

November 1, 2022

Victoria Ellwood

It was the antics of a wily and very hungry fox that serendipitously led to the creation of an apple-growing enterprise and cider mill that are still going strong more than a century later.

Back in 1911, George Bowers and a friend started a chicken-raising business on 30 acres of hilly land near Laurelville, according to George’s grandson, Bob. “My grandfather was a rural mail carrier, first on horseback and then by truck, and decided to raise chickens, too. But one night, a fox came along and got all of the chickens. A few apple trees were already growing on the hillside, so they scrapped the chicken business and switched to apples.”

That launched what is now the Laurelville Fruit Company, with Bob at the helm, following in some well-worn family footsteps.

“My dad took over the farm after World War II,” he says, “and growing up in the ’60s, I remember working my tail off to help out. Some of my high school friends and I would get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and make a thousand gallons of cider before school started, and then jug it when we got home. But it was fun, we didn’t think of it as work.”

Today, the Laurelville Fruit Company orchards include “40 acres of apple trees, a couple acres of peaches, and just a smidgen of plums, cherries, and nectarines,” says Bob from his favorite perch in a rocking chair inside the Laurelville sales room.

The popular retail shop is open July to December, and sells 12 to 15 different kinds of apples (Bob’s favorite is the tart Winesap variety). But it’s the cider — produced each fall with a vintage rack-and-claw cider mill — that’s the main attraction here.

The sought-after Laurelville Fruit Farm cider is made from a mix of sweet and tart, red and yellow apples. But the big difference is in the filtering. “Most ciders are not filtered, but ours is,” Bob says. “It makes for a more pleasant cider, and tastes just like biting into a fresh apple. It’s the only cider I’ll drink.”

The shop also houses a slushie machine that turns out refreshing cider slushies each fall. “They’re really good; cider has just enough sugar in it to freeze to the right consistency.”

The fruit farm shop is located smack-dab in the middle of tiny Laurelville, but the orchards are on acreage outside of town. Bob and his wife, Sherry, live close by on her family’s farmland, in the middle of 200 acres of row crops. Their home, a few rental properties, orchard buildings, the retail sales room, and a huge cold storage room are all served by South Central Power.

Bob raised three daughters … none of whom plan to take over the reins of the fruit farm. A local family has helped the Bowers clan run the business for two generations. “When they’re ready to retire, I’ll probably retire too,” Bob says. “But I hope whoever buys the place will let me keep on sitting right here in my rocking chair.”

Laurelville Fruit Farm, 16181 Pike St., Laurelville, OH 43135. 740-332-2621.

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South Central Power