Old Time Threshing - Slate Run Living Historical Farm

Written/Photo/Video by Andrew Livelsberger

Background:
The Slate Run Living Historical Farm is an actual working farm where people can learn how farm life in Ohio was conducted in the late 1800's.  The farm is part of the Columbus Metro Parks system.

Impression:
One of the great things about the living historical farm is the immersive experience. They use actual machinery and techniques of the era.

In this demonstration, called threshing, you get to see how early automation helped to separate the wheat from the straw.  It took 5 workers to run the entire process.  Someone needed to drive the horses, 2 people took the wheat from the trailer and staged it for the worker at the hopper and one person to monitor the barrel where the wheat is deposited.  Several times the barrel would need emptied and loaded into a large sack, which you can see in the image immediately above.

We have featured Slate Run many times before, but as you can see, there are a lot of reasons for us to return there!  We think you'll find a lot of reasons to visit this place often.

Please enjoy this video showing the threshing process in action.  The video is hosted on Youtube, so feel free to load it full screen in all its HD glory.

Arnold Sports Expo 2015 - Part 2

Written:  Danielle and Andrew Livelsberger

Photography/Video:  Andrew Livelsberger

Part 2 brings you Arm wrestling, MAS wrestling and fencing!!

Background:
Fencing coverage in the Hyatt Regency Ballrooms.

Followed up by MAS wrestling on the concourse stage and then by arm wrestling at the Expo main stage.

Impression:

Fencing
One of the most anticipated events for us to cover as I have only ever seen this fleetingly on TV.  It is great to see in person, hearing the clanging of the foils upon parry, the buzz of the scoring machine.
The speed of the fencers is a sight to behold and trying to keep up with them either shooting video or stills was an interesting affair.  My favorite was the younger children as their coordination and focus seemed way beyond their years.

One of the stand out points to the fencing sport is the sense of camaraderie amongst all the competitors and the extended support of the family members.  As intense and fierce as the matches might get, at the end of the day, there is always a sincere handshake.  The fencers even spend time helping each other out with gear and a good-natured conversation.

MAS Wrestling
I did not know a lot about this sport before hearing that it would be represented at the Arnold this year.  While the rules of this sport are straight forward, there is a lot of strategy that goes into resting the stick from your opponents grasp.
Regarding the rules, the objective is to pull the stick from your opponents hand or pull them over to your side of the board.
The board is placed between between the 2 players, which they place their feet on.  The official ensures that the starting position of the stick is along the edge of the board.  It was exciting to watch strangers come out of the crowd and up on stage to try a new competition.  This can be done by all ages, and test not only strength, but endurance and strategy.  I am thinking that one of us might just give it a try next year, maybe both of us!

Arm Wrestling
Covering the preliminary heats this year, we saw matches that lasted from a few seconds to almost a minute.  There is always a debate regarding strength versus technique.  It appeared this year that technique in the preliminaries was a deciding factor to victory.  It amazed us at the size difference of some of the match ups.  As with the other competitions we watched, we tried to "predict" the winner, but many times it goes differently than expected in arm wrestling.  I was pleasantly surprised at the diversity in the ages, races, and genders in this sport.  Again, something for everyone.

Major Ohio Storms July 2013

Central Ohio has been getting hit lately with some pretty sizable storms.

Here is a short video of what I saw of of my window at work yesterday, July 10, 2013.

This is,  by far, not the worst storm we have had here,  but the rain and high winds caused increased flooding, downed trees,  property damage and left 115,000 Ohio homes without power.