By Emily Schilling I’m obsessed with gingerbread houses. I love how, by judiciously purposing gumdrops, candy canes, M&Ms, and royal icing as architectural and landscaping details, a cookie can become so much more than baked dough (albeit delicious baked dough!). Of course, I’m totally intimidated by creating my own gingerbread house (maybe I’ll finally try… Continue reading.

Something magical happens when trains couple with Christmas. Be it a model electric train circling the base of a Christmas tree firing up a child’s imagination or a genuine old-fashioned steam or diesel engine chugging through a winter’s night to real holiday delights, trains add to the nostalgia and memories of the holidays like no other… Continue reading.

After college, Jason Clemmons worked as a high school guidance counselor in his hometown of Rushville. He also facilitated a young mothers’ group and worked with at-risk youth through the Mayor’s Youth Council at the Boys and Girls Club. He had a full plate.  These were 80-hour weeks, he said, giving him little time to… Continue reading.

Creating the northeast corner of Indiana, Steuben County is a border county touching two other states, Michigan and Ohio. The county’s natural beauty of lakes and forests truly makes it a transition county as Indiana gives way to the more naturally majestic Great Lakes landscapes of Michigan. And, to underscore its outdoorsy wintry feel, it’s… Continue reading.

Five minutes into one of their first sessions of the season answering Santa’s mail, Santa’s Elves were stumped by a child’s undecipherable scrawl. “Boy, I’m having trouble with this name,” said Joyce Robinson, a volunteer elf of 20 years. She handed the letter to Pat Koch, the chief elf who’s been answering Santa’s mail for… Continue reading.

By Emily Schilling Here’s the thing about being a writer in a deadline-oriented job: Sometimes your deadlines and your brain don’t see eye to eye. Words don’t always travel from the cortex to the fingertips and finally to the computer screen as quickly as I’d like. (Hello, writer’s block!) Sometimes I waste precious time staring… Continue reading.

COOKIE TIPS One cookie dough can make a variety of cookies. For example, after rolling and cutting out sugar cookies, top with sprinkles before baking. Bake others plain and, after baking, dip them halfway into melted chocolate and sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Or, frost the cookies with royal icing and add fancy flourishes to your… Continue reading.

Make a list of the recipes you plan to make, noting all the ingredients you’ll need and how much. Then translate that into packaging terms. Example:7 cups of butter = 14 sticks. Buy 4 packages.6 cups of sugar = 3 pounds. Buy a 5-pound bag.12 cups of flour. Each cup is about 4.5 ounces so… Continue reading.

Daviess County might be named for a Kentuckian, but it’s embraced, produced, perpetuated, and exported one of Indiana’s greatest crops: basketball — including bushel baskets of ballplayers. Washington High School ranks third in the list of most Indiana High School boys basketball state championships. It has seven, one behind Marion and Muncie Central, who are… Continue reading.

Just what is 25 years? It’s 300 months. It’s the “Silver Anniversary.” It’s a quarter of a century, and, for the average American, it’s a third of a lifetime. Come January, it’s also the amount of time editions of the Cooperative Calendar of Student Art have been adorning walls of electric consumers all over Indiana…. Continue reading.

To celebrate October as National Cooperative Month, here are some factoids you may not know about Indiana’s electric cooperatives. Boone REMC was a model for other rural electric groups in the country. The REMC received the Rural Electrification’s first loan on July 22, 1935. It was energized on May 21, 1936.  Claude Wickard, a member… Continue reading.

While co-ops operate in many industries and sectors of the economy, seven cooperative principles set co-ops apart from other businesses. The principles were first established in England in 1844 by the Rochdale (rhymes with “Scotch-Dale”) Equitable Pioneers Society, the first modern co-op organization. Over the years, the original guiding principles have been altered and added… Continue reading.