Mountain Home, June 2023 by Mountain Home

FREE asthewind HOME MOUNTAIN Pennsylvania & the New York Finger Lakes Westfield’s Ninety-Seven-Year-Old Ed Heyler Still Living the Good Life

JUNE 2023 Farm, Family, and Faith A Purrfect Premiere in Wellsboro All Bottled Up in Bradford County Love and Sunflowers Bloom in Canandaigua THE FARM ISSUE WeddingSection!

By Steve McCloskey

14 2023 PA State Laurel

Queen Candidates

16 Wellsboro Goes Hollywood

By Nancy Hesser

22 A Touch of Gray

By Michael Banik

24 (PA) Wild(s) for Adventure

By Gayle Morrow

WEDDING SECTION

30 Music, Food, and Love Play On

By Karey Solomon

34 Pop (the Question) & Paint

By Karey Solomon

38 Field Notes

By David Nowacosky

Courting workplace drama.

42 Back of the Mountain

By Deb Young

June reflections.

Farm, Family, and Faith

By Steve McCloskey

Westfield’s ninety-seven-year-old Ed Heyler still living the good life.

Cream of the Crops

By Paula Piatt

Raising kids, cows, and hopes in Bradford County.

On the Shores of Towanda’ s Golden Mile

By Maggie Barnes

3 20

17 Issue 6

Volume

6 36

Cover design by Gwen Button. Cover photo: Ed Heyler, by Steve McCloskey; (top) Ed Heyler, courtesy the Heyler Family; (middle) Lexi Bradley, courtesy Bradley's Country Creamery; (bottom) Renee and Mike Wilson courtesy Shores Sisters. Gale Larey film tells the untold Kathryn Crawford story. Antique motorcycles strut their stuff at Laurel Festival. Rootstock Racing creates opportunities for surprise summer suffering. Lincoln Hill Farms feeds all three in Canandaigua. This business makes wedding party a verb.

MOUNTAIN HOME

Sisters create a flowerful farm market oasis.

www.mountainhomemag.com

E ditors & P ublish E rs

Teresa Banik Capuzzo

Michael Capuzzo

A ssoci A t E P ublish E rs

Lilace Mellin Guignard

George Bochetto, Esq.

d ir E ctor of o PE r A tions

Gwen Button

M A n A ging E ditor

Gayle Morrow

s A l E s r EP r E s E nt A tiv E

Shelly Moore

c ircul A tion d ir E ctor

Michael Banik

A ccounting

Amy Packard

c ov E r d E sign

Gwen Button

c ontributing W rit E rs

Maggie Barnes, Carrie Hagen, Nancy Hesser, Roger Kingsley, Don Knaus, Steve McCloskey, Dave Milano, David Nowacosky, Brendan O’Meara, David O’Reilly, Paula Piatt, Karey Solomon, Carolyn Straniere

c ontributing P hotogr AP h E rs

Bernadette Chiaramonte, Bruce Dart, Denko Imaging, Kylene Kiah, Linda Stager, Megan Antalek Photography, Amy Merritt, Nicholas Wynia

d istribution t EAM

Brian Button, Grapevine Distribution, Linda Roller

t h E b EA gl E

Nano

Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018)

ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2023 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag. com, or call (570) 724-3838.

TO ADVERTISE: E-mail info@mountainhomemag.com, or call us at (570) 724-3838.

AWARDS: Mountain Home has won over 100 international and statewide journalism awards from the International Regional Magazine Association and the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association for excellence in writing, photography, and design.

DISTRIBUTION: Mountain Home is available “Free as the Wind” at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in PA and Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in NY.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: For a one-year subscription (12 issues), send $24.95, payable to Beagle Media LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901 or visit www. mountainhomemag.com.

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Musical Fireworks!

6, 2023

Friday, July 21

“Opening Night Orchestral Fireworks” at Mansfield University

7:00 p.m. — Steadman Theatre, Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA

Farm, Family, and Faith

Westfield’s Ninety-Seven-Year-Old Ed Heyler Still Living the Good Life

By Steve McCloskey

After thirty-three years of teaching and nine decades of farming, living the good life comes naturally to Ed Heyler. It’s his roots, kind of in his blood, starting in one end of Tioga County and ending up in the other.

See Heyler on page 8

Courtesy the Heyler Family The best—barn none: Ed Heyler has spent his lifetime serving others, regardless of how many feet, or stomachs, they have.

A drive across Route 49 through the Cowanesque Valley in northern Tioga County reminds you just how beautiful the land, and life, can be in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier. Starting in Lawrenceville, heading west and following the Cowanesque River, the two-lane Route 49 serves as Main Street for the communities of Elkland, Osceola, Knoxville, and Westfield. These communities proudly fly the American flag. Many display banners honoring their hometown heroes who were in the armed services. The landscape is both majestic and tranquil, traversing mountains and valleys that include long stretches of flat, fertile fields spanning the river’s floodplain. There is no place quite like it in Tioga County.

Nearly Time Out of Mind

It also serves as a time portal of sorts. Self-service egg and plant stands dot the route. You pay on the honor system. Things seem a bit less hurried. These places have been settled a long time. You sense life is old here, but in a reassuring way that doesn’t seem obsolete. Farm life and farm values still have deep roots.

When you get to the Ed Heyler farm on the outskirts of Westfield it looks, at first glance, like many others along the Cowanesque. The 120-acre farm extends from Route 49 to the hills sloping down to the water. The big house and the numerous outbuildings appear to be well used, but are also well maintained. A four-wheeler sits idle by the back door. You sense this is a place where memories have been made.

It’s also where the time portal opens. Ed has just returned to the house after spending much of the morning chasing his herd of beef cattle in the pasture. That doesn’t seem too impressive until you realize that he is certainly one of the few, perhaps only, soon-to-be ninety-eight-year-olds on earth—or at least in the Cowanesque Valley—who is still chasing cows on a four-wheeler.

Seemingly defying time, Ed doesn’t look the way you’d expect of someone his age, and he acts even younger than he looks. Dignified, still erect in his stance, and full of a farmer’s dry wit, Ed is welcoming, warm, and easy to talk with.

“The only thing I ever really wanted to do was farm,” Ed explains, sitting in front of a wood-burner in his living room. He’s done other things, of course, but he’s achieved that goal. In 2022 he received the prestigious Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award from the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. It’s one of the Commonwealth’s highest honors. But Ed has achieved much more satisfaction in his roles as loyal husband, loving father, caring teacher, lay minister, community advocate, and advisor to countless friends and neighbors. A humble man, he’s one of the most iconic, well-known, and greatly admired citizens in the valley. He is someone everyone trusts and respects.

The Good Life Begins

Ed was born on the now almost 200-year-old Heyler family homestead in southern Tioga County, sandwiched between Liberty and Morris in Nauvoo. Though he came into the world four years before the start of the Great Depression, Ed’s childhood memories are nothing but positive.

“It was a good place to grow up,” Ed recalls with a smile. “We didn’t have many modern conveniences, but we had everything

Heyler continued from page 6 (3) Courtesy the Heyler Family Growing unherd of happiness: (Top) Dorna and Ed planted memories in their greenhouse; Ed herds cattle on his fourwheeler; Ed and Dorna in 1947, the year they were married.

we needed to have a good life.” That good life improved when the farm finally got electricity. Ed was a freshman at Liberty High School. He remembers well the day his family replaced the kerosene lamps with light bulbs in the house and barn.

Farm life meant you didn’t travel much. A shopping trip to Williamsport or a rare drive to see a movie at the Arcadia Theatre in Wellsboro was the extent of his universe until he graduated from high school. He volunteered for the Army Air Corps in the waning days of World War II.

His service training took him to Florida, and later Texas, where he was learning to maintain the B-29 Superfortress. “When the war ended, they came into a training session and announced that if you wanted to muster out early your training ended that day, or if you wanted to remain in the service you could choose to do so,” Ed remembers. He chose to return to the good life back home.

While Ed was eager to get back to the farm in Nauvoo, he was even more pleased to see his girl. Before joining the service, Ed had met Dorna Mudge, from Covington. Dorna’s sister taught at the two-room schoolhouse close to the Heyler farm and knew Ed. She

thought that Ed and Dorna would make a good couple. It proved to be a correct assumption.

Communicating mostly through letters during Ed’s service days, the relationship grew. When Ed returned home, he initially worked the first winter cutting logs before taking a job in the Wellsboro glass factory. But he was looking for a farm. Dorna asked why he would pass up the chance for a free college education provided by the GI Bill. It was, she reasoned, the chance of a lifetime. After thinking over her suggestion, Ed came up with a proposal which in turn would lead to a proposal. He would take classes at Penn State to become a secondary agricultural education teacher, but he wouldn’t do it alone.

“If I was going to do it, we were going to do it together,” Ed explains. “I was a little homesick when I was in the service and didn’t want to be homesick again.”

They married on May 17, 1947. Ed and Dorna got to know each other really well after moving into a cramped twenty-foot trailer in State College. Both of them got jobs at a local nursery to make ends meet, with Dorna staying on at the nursery after Ed started classes. She loved the job. Her passion for the

nursery business became a lifelong occupation, something they would share all their lives.

They had each other while they were in State College, but not much else. Their time at Penn State was special and lasting, though, and it instilled in both of them, and for their future family, the importance of education. All five of their children earned degrees in higher education, with Sam and Dick graduating from Penn State. Dan attended Penn State before transferring to Williamsport Area Community College to become a mechanic. Marty, who graduated from the University of Georgia, and his family have a farm adjoining his dad’s. He, Sam, and Dick followed their father’s footsteps and became teachers, with Marty replacing Ed as the ag teacher at Cowanesque Valley High School. Little sister Nancy graduated from Bloomsburg University and serves as the head of nursing recruitment at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. Their successes in their professional and personal lives is one of Ed’s greatest joys.

By taking classes through the summers, Ed had graduated early. There was an ag teacher position opening in Westfield that would start in January of 1950. The couple

See Heyler on page 10

felt a sense of relief when Ed was offered the position, and packed up the car to move north to Westfield. On the way, they stopped by the farm in Nauvoo to see Ed’s folks. There Dorna, who was pregnant, told Ed’s mother that she was experiencing labor pains. Ed’s mother insisted she go to the hospital in Wellsboro. The next day was one Ed and Dorna would never forget. It marked the arrival of their first child, Sam, and Ed’s first day of teaching in Westfield.

Farming Again

A fallow farm came up for sale on the outskirts of town, and Ed and Dorna found themselves back in the farming business. They felt that running a dairy herd would be too much of a challenge with the time requirements of teaching, so the couple bought chickens and sold eggs to help make ends meet. The business grew to nearly 2,000 laying hens, with Heyler eggs shipped to New York City on one of the railroads that ran through Westfield. But their side enterprise became part of the collateral damage inflicted when the railroad stopped service to the city.

The egg business was gone and their family was expanding. Ed and Dorna explored ways to generate extra income while also keeping their hands in farming. Dorna’s passion for the nursery business seemed like the most logical choice.

So they built a greenhouse.

Starting on a small scale in 1953, the nursery business grew into a family and community tradition that lasted for sixty-six years until 2019 and the onset of covid. It was a community gathering spot as much as a business. Folks from up and down the valley stopped in every spring to pick out plants and talk with Dorna. The business also instilled responsibility in the Heyler children. They returned to help, even as they themselves were approaching retirement age. Ed still raises plants for family and friends, and starts seeds for the Guthrie Community Garden in Sayre.

More of That Good Life

Retiring as a vice principal at Cowanesque Valley High School in 1983, Ed started putting more time and attention into another way of making a positive impact on the lives of others.

“A minister heard me talk and offered the opportunity to speak from the pulpit,” says Ed. “That was about fifty years ago, and I’ve been offered opportunities to speak at different churches in the valley when needed since then.” Right now, he’s booked for at least four services this year.

Some of those speaking opportunities were funerals. Ed figures he has done about 100 so far, with some folks already asking in advance for him to perform their service.

His presence at any service seems special but none more so than when family is involved. Allen Heyler is one of Ed’s six grandchildren. He’s an elementary teacher at R.B. Walter School in Tioga Junction. When Allen got married, he asked his grandfather to do the message at the wedding.

“He has shown me over the years how to be humble, kind, caring, and make time for everyone,” says Allen. “I’ve never heard him pass judgment on someone else or speak unkind words. There is always a place at the dinner table for anyone and everyone that stops or happens to be there, no matter family, friends, or just someone in need. As a kid I used to often borrow tools, shovels, rakes, or other hand tools,

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Heyler continued from page 9 See Heyler on page 12

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and he never cared, as long as they went right back where I got it from. He was willing to give the message during my wedding, and that is more special than most people know. At ninety-seven-yearsold, it still amazes me the amount of effort he puts into making the world just a little bit better place, one person at a time.”

Ed’s ability to make people feel special makes an impression, no matter how young or old you may be. Allen’s son, Barrett, is one of ten great-grandchildren, and he already has lasting memories of his great-grandfather.

“Whenever we stop...if he is on the four-wheeler, he always makes room for me, even if we were just going from the front yard to the backyard. He used to also ask about how many cows would fit around my furnace, because when I was little and it was cold, I thought he should bring them in so they didn’t freeze.”

With few exceptions, the first thing anyone says around Westfield if you ask about Ed Heyler is “I’ve known Ed and Dorna Heyler my whole life,” and “the Heyler’s are a great family.”

John Painter Jr. heads one of the largest and most successful farming operations in the county and serves on the boards of numerous state and local ag-related organizations. He has known Ed Heyler his whole life, and played a role in the nomination process for the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award. He becomes emotional when talking about the impact Ed and Dorna have had on him and on the community.

“Ed Heyler is a man of the community who commands a lot of respect for how he lives his life and how much he and his late wife, Dorna, have done for this area,” says John. “Ed doesn’t pass judgment on anybody, and welcomes everybody. Even at the age of ninety-seven, he is still making a lasting impact on our community.”

They Stayed for the Speech

At the conclusion of the banquet at the Farm Bureau Awards presentation last year, as the Distinguished Service to Agriculture recipient, Ed was the final speaker on the podium.

Three hours of speeches had left the audience a little restless and weary. But everyone perked up to hear what this ninety-sevenyear-old man had to say. After giving the appropriate thanks and appreciation for an evening that was meant to be about him, Ed spoke from his heart:

“Now if you take a pool of water and throw a stone in it, the ripples go all over. If you do a good deed today and another one tomorrow, they’re going to go all over. And the ones that I make are going to come to the ones that you make. And pretty soon we’re going to have a much larger place. Soon we’re going to have a much better world. Stop and think for a moment. Maybe we can change Pennsylvania. Not from a red state or a blue state. Maybe we can change it to an O state—O for an optimist. The optimist gets up in the morning and he says, ‘Good morning, Lord.’ The pessimist gets up and says, ‘Good Lord—morning!’ Let’s be an O state. Thank you, you’ve been a good audience. You’ve listened to an old man’s hopes and dreams.”

His speech lasted five minutes and was greeted with thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

Among the multitude of people who pressed to congratulate him afterward were two of the servers. They explained they never stick around to listen to speakers, but they wanted to hear what he

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Wellsboro Goes Hollywood

Gale Largey Film Tells the Untold Kathryn Crawford Story

By Nancy Hesser

The face in the faded black-and-white photo might not grab your attention: a reasonably attractive girl in a yearbook-style headshot. Her straightforward gaze didn’t freeze local historian Gale Largey in his tracks as he went about compiling photos of Wellsboro’s worthies to include in his Life in Wellsboro, 1920-1960: A Socio-historical Portrait (1988). It wasn’t until thirty-plus years and several film documentaries later that Gale fell under the spell of Kitty Moran, a.k.a. Kathryn Crawford, star of screen and stage.

It happened late one night, as hauntings properly do. “I couldn’t sleep and was flipping through this old magazine, and there she was,” Gale explains, pointing to a picture of a brunette beauty jauntily showing off shapely gams. This was the girl from Wellsboro! Holding her own against a rising tide of Hollywood blondes, she could boast a photo spread in a major movie magazine. Her journey from here to there must have been eventful, perhaps posing a tantalizing mystery or two along the way. The best historians are

dogged detectives. Gale was intrigued.

Kitty’s journey began on an ordinary note. Born in 1908, the second daughter of Michael and Ann Moran, she joined a family enjoying the promise of a secure life in Wellsboro. Her father worked in the glass factory, as did many locals at that time, while her mother tended to her girls at home. This period of stability proved all too brief.

At age three, Kitty’s life was to change when her father’s factory closure put him out of a job. Her parents divorced soon afterward, catapulting Kitty and her sister, in their mother’s custody, into a series of moves. Sorting through conflicting accounts of this period, Gale traced a path leading to Chicago—where the girls found themselves consigned to an orphanage. They were rescued by their father, joining him in Ohio and later relocating with him and his second wife to California. There were mounting tensions between Kitty and her stepmother, and, at age fifteen, the girl eloped with a seventeenyear-old boy (allegedly her sister’s fiancé). The

young couple finished their schooling while cohabiting in mutual distrust until their shortlived marriage dissolved.

Hooray for Hollywood

By this time, Kitty was clinching roles in musical theater up and down the West Coast, thanks to her perseverance, pert good looks (“Five-foot two, eyes of blue,” quotes Gale), natural stage presence, and agile singing voice (fellow choristers dubbed her “The Warbling Soprano”). Her performance in Lillian Albertson’s production of Hit the Deck caught the attention of Wesley Ruggles (director of the Academy Award-winning Cimarron), who helped her land a contract with Universal Pictures. During the peak period of her film career, 1929 to 1933, Kitty starred in frothy fare with Buddy Rogers (“America’s Boyfriend” and Mary Pickford’s third husband), belted out “Buffalo Girls” opposite “Singing Cowboy” Ken Maynard, and shared billing with Bing Crosby, Paul

See Hollywood on page 19

Lilace Mellin Guignard Purrdy as a picture: Local historian and filmmaker Gale Largey stumbled on a story when he found Kitty’s photo in an old magazine.

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(5) Courtesy Gale Largey Role call: (clockwise from top left) Kitty in the 1929 movie Modern Love; with Carole Lombard and Josephine Dunn in Safety in Numbers; the 1930s “girl next door” in the movies; 1934 marriage to James Edgar Jr.

Whiteman, Carole Lombard, and Pat O’Brien, among others.

Kitty’s Broadway dreams were to prove elusive, however. Cast in Cole Porter’s The New Yorkers in 1930, she introduced the composer’s (in)famous “Love for Sale.” The public rejected the depiction of a streetwalker by an ingenue so closely fitting their vision of the girl next door, and the number’s setting was promptly switched to Harlem, with Kitty replaced by African-American songstress Elisabeth Welch. Wellsboro’s star was left to take consolation in the seven films she’d made that same year, one of the busiest of her acting career.

A Whiff of Scandal

Some major events in Kitty’s life mirrored her screen performances for dramatic effect. In 1929, she was reunited with her mother, who reappeared in a blaze of publicity, offering up what Gale describes as a vivid (and far-fetched) account of kidnapping, betrayal, and a frantic mother’s twelve-year search for her children. She would enjoy her spot in the limelight, along with extravagant gifts from her adoring daughters, for the next two years before vanishing completely from the public eye.

In 1934, her film career waning, Kitty announced her marriage to Detroit sugar industry heir James Edgar, Jr., proclaiming her wedding day the happiest in her life. Her poise and charm—not to mention her experience modeling luxury fashions—would serve her well in her new role as a well-placed socialite. Sadly, her sugar daddy proved to be no sweetie. In addition to alleged abuse (reliable reports, Gale notes) and a fraught divorce, he instigated a dubious “stolen love” lawsuit that played out in public and left no stone unthrown.

At Long Last Love

Not one to languish, Kitty continued to give theatrical performances, touring in the US and Australia. She eventually embarked on a new career as an interior decorator, her design talents netting clients among the rich and famous (e.g., Barron Hilton and Mary Pickford) and credit in Architectural Digest. She successfully filled this role for decades. Latter-day romance came her way in 1970, when she married engineering industry magnate Ralph M. Parsons. (Their shared epitaph would read “Somewhere there’s a place for us.”) A wedding day photo shows a sixty-two-year-old Kitty beaming beneath a towering updo, an elaborate structure of curls and coils—unapologetically blonde.

Kitty left the scene in 1980 (taken by cancer). She reemerges as a vital presence in Gale’s Kitty (appropriately subtitled Grit and Mirrors). His saga speaks to life in the Twin Tiers in the early twentieth century, as well as his subject’s Hollywood heyday, when movies began to talk. Kitty debuts June 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts Coolidge Theatre in Wellsboro, with additional shows on Friday, June 9, at 7:30, and Thursday, June 15, at 8 p.m. Admission is donated to the Deane Center. There are mysteries to explore, and surprises in store. Kitty did not lead a dull life.

Nancy Hesser, “recovering academic” and recent transplant from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, lives in Wellsboro with her husband and rowdy dogs. She teaches short story courses via Zoom for lifelong learning programs.

Dead Cell Man’s

by Sarah Ruhl

Jean is sleepwalking through her life until she answers a dead man’s cell phone. It turns out to be a wake-up call that helps Jean re-connect to her own spirit and learn that life is for the living.

Cream of the Crops

Raising Kids, Cows, and Hopes in Bradford County

By Paula Piatt

As he sits on his tractor overlooking the farm, Parker Bradley has a good feeling. It’s not just the fresh air or the contented cows munching in the fields in front of him. It’s knowing that the farm is going to be around for a while, that he’s got many years ahead of him on the tractor and with those cows.

That’s a great feeling for an elevenyear-old.

“They love this farm, and we had to do something if we were going to have a future,” says his dad, Mark, who, along with his wife, Nichole, are celebrating their first year at Bradley’s Country Creamery. “The kids were a huge motivator. If there was any long-term future to this farm, we had to take a different route [than selling only to the co-op].”

Parker and his eight-year-old sister Lexi can almost always be found on the family’s farm at 3954 Sportsmans Road,

Athens—ringing the register in the store, tooling around the barn on their scooters, or helping Dad clean up after a bottling run. On opening day in 2022, both kids turned the “Open” sign.

“Whatever path they choose is fine, but they truly have an interest. They like being here; they want to be a part of it,” says Nichole. “It’s pretty cool to go somewhere and see a bottle of our milk. The kids just turn and point—‘that came from our farm.’”

Mark farms the 250 acres in a twentyyear partnership with his dad, Mike, tending about fifty cows, a mix of Holsteins and Jerseys who are the key to Bradley’s Creamline milk that has quickly become a regional staple. Three years ago, all that milk was going to the co-op under a quota system. Already dealing with a surplus of milk, covid shut down commercial bottlers, leaving dairy co-ops with even fewer markets.

The low milk prices weren’t sustainable for many farmers. A spark lit years ago began to burn a bit brighter.

“We felt very vulnerable at that point and we decided to pull the trigger on this,” Mark says of the store and attached bottling operation. At a time when most were reeling from an unprecedented pandemic, the Bradleys were taking on the future. It was, admits Nichole, way out of their comfort zone. Farming is a solitary life—you, the cows, the occasional inspector, the milk truck driver.

“That was a huge adjustment for us when we opened, to have people coming here all the time. Now all of a sudden we have strange people coming…well, they’re not strange anymore because we know them,” Mark laughs. He marvels at the support of the community.

“The community is phenomenal. Prior

More than a lick of sense: Mark Bradley (left), Angel (right), and his family partially opted out of the co-op and opened a store and bottling operation to sell their own line of flavored milk. Courtesy Bradley's Country Creamery

to this I never realized how amazing our community is,” he says. “It’s not just any small town USA.” And he’s now in the thick of the local small business community. For sale at the farm store (open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) is not only the milk he bottles himself, but locally made ice cream, honey, maple syrup, pizza, baked goods, meats, and cheeses. Bradley’s milk can be found in more than half a dozen outlets “down in town.” Regardless of where they put it, it’s flying off the shelves.

“Mark told me it would be a dream if we could sell 100 gallons of milk a week,” says Nichole. The first two weeks they were selling 500 gallons a week and now, having settled into a routine, bottle between 300 and 400 gallons weekly. A vending machine run by the Athens School District’s Future Farmers of America club empties in days. “A couple of months in, we had to buy another cooler because we couldn’t keep up with the demand. With the flavors, we were doing forty gallons in the beginning, and now we’re up to seventy-five to eighty.”

Ah, yes. The flavors.

The whole milk—minimally processed with no homogenization and around 4.2 percent butterfat (as opposed to commercially-processed milk at 3.25 percent)—is a flavor unto itself. You know immediately that something is different, including the need to shake the bottle to mix in the cream.

The other flavors are chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, cookies and cream, coffee, chocolate peanut butter, and maple. Everyone has their favorite. The early frontrunner—chocolate peanut butter— was an instant hit, until milk drinkers tried the coffee. Then out came the eggnog for the holidays. The flavors rotate through the cooler, based on ingredient availability. Maple, for example, will be seasonal during sugaring season. And there’s a delicious surprise on the horizon for late summer.

“There are some wild flavors out there. I start looking at the list and I’ll say, no, that’s too risky,” says Mark, who’s already left his flavor comfort zone. “At first it was, well, if it doesn’t sell then we have to eat it, so it’s got to be something we like.”

But a year in, he and Nichole have a pretty good handle on their customers. And things have settled into a routine, albeit a hectic one. While Nichole’s teaching job at a local school district gives her summers to help, there are still only so many hours in a day.

“Right now, it’s a full-time job,” says Mark of the store. “There’s a minimum of eight hours a day of chores in the barn, so to take this on—it’s been a struggle. In order to grow, I’ve got to let go of some of the control and have somebody else in here processing and have somebody delivering.” He’s not sure he’s ready for that, but, all-in-all, some good problems to have. Especially when he looks to the future.

“At the end of the first day, we counted the money,” Mark remembers. “Parker was standing there and he gave me the biggest hug and he said ‘our farm is going to make it,’”

That’s a great feeling for an eleven-year-old, too.

Find Bradley’s Country Creamery on Facebook or call (570) 651-0200.

Paula Piatt lives in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania with her husband and two Labrador retrievers, where they hunt and enjoy the outdoors. An award-winning writer, she is an active member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association.

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A Touch of Gray

Antique Motorcycles Strut Their Stuff at Laurel Festival

By Michael Banik

Earlier this year, a 1908 Harley-Davidson Strap Tank motorcycle sold at auction for $930,000. Although the odds of winning the lottery are better than seeing the Strap Tank out and about, you are sure to see many examples of old Harleys, Indians, Vincents, Excelsior-Hendersons, and more during the Allegheny Chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America’s National Road Run, June 12 to 14. Riders will be touring the beautiful back roads of Tioga and Potter counties during the first half of Laurel Festival week, and they look forward to having the wind in their hair and bugs in their beards.

“A total of 130 antique motorcycles have registered for the Wellsboro event,” says coordinator Jim Graulty. “Our event is at capacity, with 160 registrants—130 riders and thirty passengers coming from twelve states and Canada. The majority of our members ride Harley-Davidsons, but we welcome all brands. Registered for our event are mainly Harleys from 1921 to the early 1980s, with most from the 1950s and 1960s.

Next are Indians from 1937 to 1948, followed by some BMWs from the ’60s and ’70s. Also registered are British bikes, a Triumph from the ’70s, and a BSA from the ’60s.”

Attendees will check in at the Penn Wells Lodge on Sunday, June 11, the group’s host hotel. Riding days are Monday through Wednesday. Monday, June 12, bikers will ride by the Austin Dam, then through Renovo to Hyner View. The Tuesday, June 13, ride will take them through Blossburg, Salladasburg, Waterville, and Slate Run. Bike enthusiasts can enjoy the Antique Motorcycle Show from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. that evening. Riders will display their cycles on Pearl and Charles Streets by the Green in Wellsboro and be on hand to talk to people about them. There will also be an ice cream social, featuring Main Street Creamery’s homemade ice cream to purchase, and a free concert, also on the Green. The Wednesday, June 14, ride will include a tour of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon’s West Rim and a loop up to Tioga-Hammond Lakes.

The Antique Motorcycle Club of America was founded in 1954 by a group of antique bike fans in the New England area and can be found at antiquemotorcycle.org. The Allegheny Mountain Chapter, one of the eighty-five AMCA-affiliated chapters nationwide, includes members from Ohio, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania. Most chapters plan events for members such as bike shows, swap meets, and antique motorcycle road runs such as the one scheduled for Tioga and Potter counties.

These folks’ rides are very near and dear to their hearts, so if you see a “gray beard” and his lady standing by their “scooter,” take a moment to quiz and ponder. They are very proud of their motorcycles, so prepare yourself for the possibility of having your ears talked off.

Michael Banik Tioga County native (and former farm boy) Michael Banik is Mountain Home’s circulation manager. Hear me roar: Frank and Irene Robb, of Welsh Settlement, and their 1946 Harley-Davidson WL, the first civilian model after WWII, will be riding with the Antique Motorcycle Club in Tioga County this June.

August 12, 2023

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Pre-registration discount: until Aug. 1st, $50/individuals or $45/team member.

Pre-registered participants guaranteed a t-shirt. PRICING AFTER Aug. 1st until Day of Race: $55/ individual and $50/team member.

*After Aug. 1, shirts will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.

Questions?

Please email wyalusingchamber@ gmail.com or call 570-746-4922. The triathlon is sponsored by the Greater Wyalusing Chamber of Commerce. Financial support is received from area businesses and individuals. Funded in part by the Bradford County Tourism Promotion Agency.

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(PA) Wild(s) for Adventure

Rootstock Racing Creates Opportunities for Surprise Summer Suffering

By Gayle Morrow

It sounds grueling. Biking, hiking, paddling, running, maybe some rock climbing—it’s five days of extreme physical exercise in mountainous terrain. Hardly any sleep. Serious orienteering (some call it playing chess while running) and/or navigating in out-there places you’ve never been. Not much more food and water (and required water treatment devices) than what you can carry, and not much time to eat, anyway. And, oh, yeah, it’s a competition.

It sounds like a blast.

Brent Freedland thinks so. He and his wife, Abby Perkiss, started out as participants in adventure racing in the early 2000s. Adventure racing is like a days-long triathlon with a few more sports thrown in, and a course that is classified information until things get underway. It is traditionally a co-ed team event, but some races now allow solo participants and single-gender

teams. Brent, who is, by day, a high school history teacher in the Philadelphia area, says after they captained and designed races for another group, he and Abby in 2015 formed their own adventure race organization— Rootstock Racing.

It’s Rootstock that is bringing the Endless Mountains Adventure Race to the Pennsylvania Wilds June 26 through July 1.

Brent explains that his introduction to the region began around 2017 when he and Abby directed some shorter events in the Loyalsock State Forest area. They spent some time in Wellsboro in 2021 while directing a thirty-six-hour adventure race that year, and it was then that “we discovered the PA Wilds moniker.”

“That was really one of the key moments in developing this five-day event—we saw an opportunity to come to the region and showcase different quadrants (of the Wilds),”

Brent says. Last year they did an event in the southwest corner of the Wilds, an area he characterized as having “a little more subtle landscape.” For 2023, Rootstock opted for the eastern portion of the Wilds, which is, he says, “just spectacular.”

The actual course is a secret, but Brent does divulge that “we’re working with five state forests, four state parks, and thirty-five different townships and boroughs.” This year’s race is based out of Williamsport; teams are bussed to a remote start location, and then it’s 325 miles of a wilderness-based course that will bring them, eventually, back to Williamsport. Teams get their maps on the morning the race starts.

The full course is designed with mandatory checkpoints and optional checkpoints. The race is scored by the number of mandatory checkpoints the

See Adventure on page 27

Nicholas Wynia You can get there from here (but it won’t be easy): Racers in the 2022 Endless Mountains Adventure Race go over their maps by the gleam of headlamps.

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team visits, with optional points added for visiting the optional checkpoints.

“It’s an amazing sport,” Brent says. “These guys don’t get lost. Maybe they can’t find the checkpoint, or they are on the wrong hilltop, but they can get themselves out. The only time I have ever seen a team get lost was in Brazil.” That team was in a flooded marshland area and had to call the race director for directional assistance. The event obviously requires a mix of physical skills from participants, but Brent says navigation is a definite focus. A “navigational mistake” in a five-day race can cost a team several hours.

“One of the great things about our sport is that we have online satellite tracking,” Brent explains. “It’s been a game-changer." Each team has one member who carries the tracker; team members have to be within communication distance of each other at all times.

Gear transport is a big logistical hurdle, and, during last year’s event, the “people in the community of Clarion were really helpful.” Team members need their bikes for the pedaling sections, boats for the water portions, climbing gear if rappelling and/or ascending is part of the race—whatever big stuff they can’t carry— and someone has to get that stuff to them. Teams will strategize and plan and pack their boxes and bins accordingly, hoping that they figure correctly what they’ll need and when they’ll need it.

“Getting stuff to people is really important. Racers are expected to be self-sufficient in terms of food and water, but we like to treat our racers with a little more care than that,” Brent says. They do require that teams carry a water filtration system, but they provide seven transition areas throughout the course, and hope to have hot food at three of those. And while you can eat and still walk, ride, or paddle, you really need to stop in order to sleep.

“Sleep strategy is a big part of it,” Brent agrees. People sometimes pitch tents out in the woods, or might just stretch out on the ground using a rock for a pillow. With a winning time of about ninety-five hours, the math tells you that the 120-hour fiveday event doesn’t have much space in it for snoozing.

As for spectating, Brent says there is not a lot of demand for it. A number of checkpoints and transition areas are accessible to spectators, but most people interested in how the teams are progressing watch online. The tracking map goes on line the morning of the twenty-sixth, around 6 or 7 a.m. There are nearly forty teams signed up for the main event. Most are four-person, but three-person and pairs are eligible.

As part of this year’s event, Rootstock is offering the thirtyhour Endless Mountains Lite for those not quite ready for the five-day version. Brent says there are about fifty to sixty individuals signed up for that—“a good, manageable number.” Crooked Creek Campground in Gaines will serve as headquarters for Endless Mountains Lite.

It’s not unusual for five to ten teams to either not finish or to finish unofficially.

Visit rootstockracing.com for the most up-to-date information on the Endless Mountains Adventure Race, pictures of previous events, and links to the live tracking. Find them on Facebook and Instagram as well. Visit arworldseries.com to get a taste of the international adventure racing world.

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Music, Food, and Love Play On

Lincoln Hill Farms Feeds All Three in Canandaigua

By Karey Solomon

Brian Mastrosimone shares a vision of a sunny future with those who come to celebrate romance, and more, at Lincoln Hill Farms, near the city of Canandaigua. And, as marriages evolve, so his love affair with this land has unfolded over time to become very different from his original expectations.

Formerly a Rochester-based entrepreneur whose enterprises included real estate investments, he’d decided to semiretire and do a little recreational hunting. The land, previously owned by a man who’d hoped to turn its three charmingly rusted metal silos into an unusual home (the building plans did not meet with official approval), seemed perfect. But just the first day’s hunting convinced Brian the sport was not for him. When he was asked to host a wedding here, he was game for it, in part because he and his wife, Marisa, had celebrated their own wedding in an outdoor venue. He began to see the possibilities of

including a bit of everything in one venue that epitomizes what makes the Finger Lakes area special. He’s held true to that original notion, adding new features to the site each year.

“Visionary is what they call me,” he says. He began advertising the location, using the motto “Finger-Lakin’ Good!” That soon drew the ire of a well-known fast-food chain, despite this being a phrase used by several other businesses scattered throughout the region. He opted to stop using the disputed phrase in 2017, right after the success of hosting a celebratory music festival on the grounds. It was too much fun not to continue—easier to come up with a new name.

Today Lincoln Hill Farms (the name was suggested by one of his architects) hosts about sixty weddings each year, as well as a full lineup of summer concerts and special events—often simultaneous with the weddings. The ninety-five-acre

spread is large enough for two or more big happenings to coexist without one impinging on another. There’s a semipermanent 6,000-square-foot wedding tent that can hold 250 guests for dining and dancing. It has a smooth concrete floor, but a wooden dance floor may be added.. He employs at least three chefs, plus a full roster of additional helpers, including wedding/ event planners, wait staff, and bartenders, to make each occasion run smoothly. Until recently, Brian or Marisa served as bartenders for all the weddings, and he says each one has felt special to him.

Most outdoor weddings happen on a velvety apron of lawn surrounded by fields of sunflowers. They generally take place between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., so that the wedding photos may be taken against the backdrop of a spectacular sunset just past the sunflower fields and pond. But other sites are also available for a ceremony. There

Imaging

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See Lincoln Hill on page 32 Yurt the one I love: Lincoln Hill Farms offers upscale tents for group glamping—just one more way they make weddings wonderful.

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are two ponds, a one-acre garden, and a hops field—the hops will be used in a future micro-brewery—and a few spare silos, which can accommodate smaller groups. In August and September, when the sunflowers are in bloom and other flowers are strutting their stuff, the main site is truly spectacular.

Even more spectacular is the food, says Donna Nichols, who books and helps plan weddings and events. “That’s one of the things we’re very well known for. I don’t think anyone generally has a high level of expectation for wedding food, but our food is very, very good,” she says emphatically. Last year the chefs even created an authentic Indian meal for a couple from India. And when the sun has gone down and the tent is lit with long strings of Edison bulbs, the warm light adds to the cozy, happy feeling, she says.

Brian is serious about the “farms” part of the label, so there are grown-on-site herbs and veggies the chefs can incorporate into the menu. Goats and chickens live near the smaller pond and the glamping area, with eleven upscale tents arranged around a firepit. Wedding guests can even schedule a goat meet-and-greet. The glamping section is popular with wedding parties who rent it to continue their festivities with an after-reception bonfire.

The pandemic gave Brian and Marisa firsthand knowledge of the comforts of the glamping tents. Having gone all-in on property improvements, finances were a bit tight. As an outdoor venue, they were able to hold a few smaller events, though many had to be cancelled or rescheduled.

“It was an utter nightmare,” he says now. “We lost everything—our cars, our house—we lived in one of the tents on the farm. In 2021, we worked for free and grew our name.” 2022 was better. In 2021 and 2022, theknot.com designated Lincoln Hill Farms as one of the best wedding venues in the Finger Lakes. “We want to keep that,” Brian says. “We don’t cut corners.” So, for instance, as they’re waiting for the state to issue permits for a sewer system on the property (the paperwork was filed five years ago), guests have the use of multiple upscale mobile bathroom facilities, stationed near the wedding tent, bridal preparation cabin, glamping, and concert areas.

This year, having attracted the attention of major music representation, they’ve been able to invite and book bigger name acts. They constructed new spaces for the bands to relax offstage, a better stage for performances, and additional food kiosks with crowd-pleasing snacks, meals, and beverages for the audience to enjoy. While there's room for up to 6,000, they aim, Brian says, for fewer, allowing for a more intimate concert experience.

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The season at Lincoln Hill Farms runs from mid-May through the end of October. In addition to weddings, concerts, and corporate events, they have regular Sunday family fun days, a Brewfest in early August, an Oktoberfest in mid-September, and at least nine Halloween fests in October. Find Lincoln Hill Farms at 3792 New York Route 427, at lincolnhillfarms.com, or call (585) 430-4661.

Karey Solomon is the author of a poetry chapbook,Voices Like the Sound of Water, a book on frugal living (now out of print), and more than thirty needlework books. Her work has also appeared in several fiction and nonfiction anthologies.

Lincoln Hill continued from page 30

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Pop (the Question) & Paint

This Business Makes Wedding Party a Verb

By Karey Solomon

Formerly known as Wine and Design, Pop & Paint at 90 E. Market Street in Corning is still owned by Kylene Kiah, who loved the concept but wanted to broaden the store’s appeal. In winter 2023 she did just that, and continues to offer fun and memorable ways to host important events, such as bachelorette parties and bridal showers. “We treat those the same as any other party,” Ky says. “They have the same two hours to paint, and they may bring in fun props, decorations, etc., to celebrate.” So, you can pop a cork while you tell stories about how he or she popped the question.

If you don’t want to pop a cork, soda or juice is a good accompaniment to a kids’ group or adult team-building activity. Birthday parties of all ages are held here, and there is a new emphasis on kids’ painting parties. Ky has a second studio at 210 W. Water Street in Elmira just for private parties; the one in Corning is open to a wider audience.

“This is the main place,” she says of the Corning location. “The locals kept me

going over the years, and I like being visible on Market Street. Tourists are the icing on the cake.” Sessions at the art studio might be guided painting on canvas or informal seasonal art, often items useful as holiday or wedding décor. Projects begin as components cut out of wood, ready to paint and assemble, so coming to a class can be a way to de-stress and unwind with friends. Sometimes there’s a buffet of beads and embellishments. Some projects may be finished with a resin pour needing time to cure before being picked up the following day. Most classes last about two hours.

“Someone will say, ‘I went to Pop & Paint with my girlfriend, and it was so much fun!’” Ky says. “I went to school for art, and I have a creative brain,” she continues. “I’m always coming up with new things to do and new things to offer the customers. The more we evolve and change, the more there is to offer.”

Many attendees build an occasion out of a session, beginning with a meal at one of Corning’s many eateries, buying snacks for

the group, and getting wine, beer, or soda to share. Some groups combine their fun with some fundraising for a favorite charity. Some have almost too much fun, such as a bachelorette party that brought decorations designed to resemble a certain part of the male anatomy.

What about those who feel uncomfortable with a paintbrush in hand? While they might feel a little apprehensive at first, “then they start to relax and say ‘Oh, I love this!’ I’ve never had someone who wasn’t happy,” Ky says. Three quarters of her customers come back to repeat the experience.

Find information, costs, and book a class at popandpaintny.com or by calling (607) 738–6884.

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On the Shores of Towanda’s Golden Mile A

Family Creates a Flowerful Farm Market Oasis

By Maggie Barnes

Traffic slows to a crawl, then a near stop. You’re thinking construction? Accident, maybe? But no, it’s just Saturday at Shores Sisters.

The farm market/café/greenhouse/ store has become one of the pivotal businesses on the bustling “Golden Mile” in Towanda. But it didn’t start out that way. It began with a pair of sisters and a field of corn.

“It was either selling sweet corn or milking cows!” Renee Wilson laughs as she recalls the ultimatum her father gave her and her sister Raya when they were teenagers. The family had a dairy farm and that meant all hands on deck. There was no way they could know then, but the sisters were on a path that has brought them to an

ambitious plan of expansion today.

The first Shores Sisters Market stand exactly where they once sold corn out of a truck, but featured a substantial building, a huge variety of wares and a cherished spot in the hearts of local and visitors. Renee co-owns the business with husband Mike and employs fifteen to twenty people who, “remind me so much of myself when I started out.”

Mike and Renee met in a setting straight out of a country song. He was a farmhand, loading corn when he caught the eye of the farmer’s daughter. He was headed to boot camp. She was going to college. Somewhere along the line, they decided the farm life was the one they wanted. Before they put up the wooden building in 2012,

the market was housed in a skid shed. A real structure brought lighting, refrigeration, and what was then a lot of space. Renee’s dream for the market grew too, and she began to seek out specialty items and local supplies for meat, baked goods, and seasonal décor.

The produce is gorgeous, brilliant in color and variety. There are jars of jam and pickled things of various spiciness. A line of coolers display meats, bacon, and eggs from places just down the road. The sweet corn isn’t local yet, but will be very soon and many fans will be coming for a dozen ears.

“I’ve learned as we’ve gone along,” Renee says. “And our customers have been a part of every milestone in my life.” They rejoiced when she and Mike got married,

Amy Merritt

New shores: Visit the new market, flower shop, and café under one much-larger roof at Shores Sisters in Towanda.

and cooed over their children, raised behind the counter from their car seat days. She knows virtually everyone who comes in.

Shores Sisters has worked hard to build relationships with local growers and makes it a priority to use meats, greens, and grains grown nearby. From coffee roasted in Dushore, to Mother’s Day flowers in the greenhouse, to homegrown Christmas trees, Shores Sisters reflects the seasons. Now with a café featuring soups, breads, and produce, even a gray winter day can be brightened by the Wilson family. While a local favorite, it has become a destination for folks from Williamsport, Corning, and Tunkhannock as the perfect weekend jaunt.

“No, this wasn’t the plan when I was a kid,” Renee smiles as she greets customers. “But it is a good life.”

So good, in fact, that Shores Sisters outgrew its original footprint. Renee and Mike had to make a decision: stay as they are, with the limitations of space and parking, or take the business to the next level. Grounded by faith and prayerful consideration, they took the leap and bought the three adjacent properties in order to build a 24,000 square foot structure to house the market, the cafe, the greenhouse, and the home décor shop. “I asked God to stop me if this isn’t what we are supposed to do,” Renee laughs, “It’s been green lighted at every turn.”

On March 25, Renee and Mike closed the doors to the old red building that was their first mortgage together. “We met so many wonderful people in that red wooden structure—and we welcomed our three children there,” Ada, Allie, and—last fall—Kit.

There were challenges to this new business plan, namely the pandemic and endless supply issues. “We [were] a year and half into this, and still waiting for steel,” Renee shrugs. The complications made a timeline hard to predict, but the Wilsons reopened in spring 2023 as planned.

The former café was charming, but toasty, with tables set up amidst greenery under a glass ceiling. The new facility has full HVAC, allowing for true year-round use and more seating, making it easier to host bridal showers on-site. Events like that, and more community offerings like craft days for kids, are one of the reasons for the big build.

Though not open as of this writing, there is a take-out window for the cafe via an app. What else are they doing with the extra space? “More restrooms, more shelf space for dry goods, and coolers for meats,” says Renee. “It will be better for our employees too.” So much so, that Renee may not need to hire any additional staff once her current team has enough room to groove.

The parking is no longer a challenge. The former open field with disorganized parking is now a spiffy parking lot with approximately 150 new spots to make getting in and out easy.

A thriving business and a happy family, both of which have successfully expanded. In the kids, Renee and Mike see a legacy of living off the land continuing into the future.

Shores Sisters Market is located at 1003 Golden Mile Road, in Towanda. They are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed on Sunday. For more information, call (570) 265-0333.

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Writer Maggie Barnes, IRMA and Keystone Press Awards winner, lives in Waverly, New York.

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Courting Workplace Drama

By David Nowacoski

For over two decades I worked in an office and felt I did a decent job of avoiding most of the issues that would consume the “water cooler talk.” She said this. He made a face. Someone ate my lunch. So many ways to become the issue-du-jour

One of the worst ones to deal with was the adult version of teacher’s pet. Especially nasty if it matured into the human resource nightmare of favoritism. An absolute morale killer, this was definitely one to avoid.

I live and work on a farm now, so I figured workplace drama was a thing of the past Yet, here I am, smack dab in the middle of it.

I didn’t even realize it was happening. But looking back now, I should have seen all those little signs. She always found a way to put herself in my path. To be honest, at first I didn’t even notice her. There is always work to be done on the farm and most of the time I had my hands full doing chores. Anytime I turned around, though, there she was. There was nothing particularly

remarkable about her. Maybe that helped lull me into not noticing that her constant contact was making her more familiar. Before I realized it, I could pick her out of the crowd.

That’s when things got bad. I don’t know—maybe I liked the extra attention. I started greeting her, not the others, and I think that gave her the green light to take this to the next level. I was a little shocked one morning when she literally hopped up onto my lap before I could get off the tractor. I remember giving a little embarrassed laugh before setting her back down on the ground. As I glanced around to see if anyone else noticed, I was met with icy glares from the other girls. I knew this was going to be trouble.

So I have no one to blame but me. I should have responded way different. Instead, I found myself dropping a little feed out of the pail right in front of her. A couple days later it was sunflower seeds, a special treat for sure, and I made sure she got her share. I stopped worrying about what the other hens thought. Look, it’s a farm and we all know what our jobs

are, right? As long as we are all professionals, we can work together.

Who was I kidding? Egg production started dropping. Feeders were being flipped over, and someone kicked a bunch of bedding into the waterer. Tension was so bad that when I stepped into the barn I felt like I was walking on eggshells.

I knew it was time to end this. No more special treats. I was all business. It took a few days, but I think she got the hint. That is, until today. She showed up at my house with a look in her eye.

If she weren’t just ten inches tall, I think I’d be scared.

David Nowacoski grew up on a farm in East Smithfield and lives just down the road a bit from it still, where he runs WindStone Landing Farms and Delivered Fresh (DeliveredFresh. Store) with his wife (and high school sweetheart), Marla. He made his kids pick rocks from the garden and believes that sometimes a simple life is a more wise way to go.

Field Notes

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had to say and were touched by the message. Ed thought that was one of the best compliments he received, because it came from people who didn’t have to be there but just wanted to listen to what he had to say.

Dorna passed away in 2021 after seventy-three and a half years of marriage. “Dad was brokenhearted, and he still is,” Dick says. “But he’s a strong man with a strong will and strong faith, and so he keeps going. He has chores. He has his church. He has his farm. He has his family, and he has his community and people stopping every day to visit or ask questions about how to do something. As I tell you this, he is in the field driving his tractor and discing to plant corn.”

“Mom and Dad were role models for their kids and for the whole community,” explains Nancy. “They taught us the importance of family, kindness, empathy, and education. They functioned as a team for more than seventy-three years, and in doing so, and holding fast to their love of each other and friends and neighbors, they impacted hundreds of lives.”

Last year, Ed left his birthday party celebration early to go cut hay. As he approaches his ninety-eighth birthday celebration, he doesn’t really know how much time he has left, but he does have a plan.

After his last checkup, the doctors told him that the battery in his pacemaker has six years of life remaining. Ed plans to use all six years. And then perhaps get another battery.

Steve McCloskey retired in 2017 as the long-time Director of Athletic Operations and Information at Mansfield University. He currently serves as a member of the board of the Mansfield History Center.

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Heyler continued from page 12

Courtesy the Heyler Family

Time to plant tears: Ed’s wife, Dorna, who died in 2021, had a green thumb and is greatly missed.

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BACK OF THE MOUNTAIN

June Reflections

By Deb Young

Early in the morning it’s fun to tiptoe through my garden and find just the right spot for a dewdrop and flower to line up. I then used a macro lens to capture the image. Quite often I get wet, but it’s well worth it.

Life changing is... the small things

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