Tranquility. Peace. Love. Like a warm blanket on a cold day, you’re immediately enveloped by it as you head up the dusty lane to Refuge Ranch, near Pawnee. With a menagerie of horses, ponies, goats, sheep and even a pig milling about, this may look like just another small ranch that dots the Illinois landscape, [...]

Melanie wants her home to be comfortable, cheerful, and bright. Winter gusts blowing across the Kansas prairie send her to the thermostat to fight the chill. In the summer, she nudges the temperature down to keep cool, all while avoiding her husband’s detection. Melanie’s husband, Scott, frowns on tweaking the thermostat. He canvases the home, [...]

There are a couple of things more important in life than just about anything—even money. Faith, family, friends and forgiveness are just a few of life’s most important things. Another thing important to many Illinois families is the family farm. It’s where roots are put down literally and figuratively. It represents more than a business. [...]

Consumers are increasingly aware of the value of feeding their families fresh, locally-grown fruits and vegetables and are searching for farmers markets and produce stands. Illinois has long been known for its corn and beans, but more than 40 different specialty crops are grown in the state, including everything from pumpkins and apples to horseradish, [...]

By Frank K. Gallant For 70 years, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) has represented America’s electric co-ops, fighting to keep electricity affordable, reliable and safe, and improve the quality of life in rural America. But over the past half-century, the scope of its work has reached far beyond U.S. borders. On Nov. 1, [...]

If you live in a city you probably have access to several broadband Internet provider options. The same can’t always be said for those living in rural areas. But there’s good news. Many Illinois electric cooperatives are striving to level the broadband playing field for cooperative members. Broadband communications is important to their own business [...]

“I can still remember in December 1937 exactly where I was and when I saw the lights come on. My brother and I were walking from the barn to the house and suddenly the house lit up and we were excited about that because it was the first time we had electricity in rural areas,” [...]

Some people might call Pinckneyville’s Charlie Greer a hoarder. After all, he’s collected for years and his accumulation ranges from antique tractors to tools and telephone equipment. But unlike those for whom gathering can become a serious problem, Greer’s collection instead is a source of preservation, education and remembrances. Greer and his wife Mary are [...]

For more than 75 years the electric cooperative business model, when utilized effectively by engaged members, has served as a valuable instrument to improve the quality of life in rural areas. Cooperatives – democratically governed businesses that operate on an at-cost, not-for-profit basis – are unique in their ability to focus on the needs of [...]

At the beginning of the rural electrification movement during the Great Depression, a Tennessee farmer stood up in church one Sunday and said, “The greatest thing on earth is to have the love of God in your heart, and the next greatest thing is to have electricity in your house.” That was 75 years ago [...]