A new neighbor's surveyor says Walt's 47-year-old fence is five feet over the line, and the only proof Walt has is a hand-drawn 1951 survey in a coffee can, pointing to a corner stone that someone has just dug up.
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The people and places of Calder County, Ohio
At the Calder County sale barn, a mud-covered old cowboy outbids a struggling young couple for a "guaranteed sound" bull he knows is lame, and has until the bull is loaded to prove it.
When a $22,000 kitchen repair threatens to close Dot's diner, her grandson finds the cigar box of IOUs she never collected, and the town decides to pay her back without asking permission.
During the first big snow of the season, Hank hears a faint call on the CB emergency channel from an elderly couple stuck in a ditch with no cell signal, and no idea where they are.
Every story is published in full (Part 1 & Part 2)
A new neighbor's surveyor says Walt's 47-year-old fence is five feet over the line, and the only proof Walt has is a hand-drawn 1951 survey in a coffee can, pointing to a corner stone that someone has just dug up.
At the Calder County sale barn, a mud-covered old cowboy outbids a struggling young couple for a "guaranteed sound" bull he knows is lame, and has until the bull is loaded to prove it.
When a $22,000 kitchen repair threatens to close Dot's diner, her grandson finds the cigar box of IOUs she never collected, and the town decides to pay her back without asking permission.
During the first big snow of the season, Hank hears a faint call on the CB emergency channel from an elderly couple stuck in a ditch with no cell signal, and no idea where they are.
A copy of *Treasure Island* checked out in 1961 comes back to the Pine Hollow library with a $100 bill and a note: "This book saved my life." Ruth Ann sets out to learn how.
A $14,000 barrel mare has put three trainers in the dirt and is headed for the Saturday sale, and the only person she has never hurt is the 12-year-old girl who loves her.
A retired postmistress gets a call from her "grandson" in jail, in a voice that sounds exactly like him, and a courier is coming to pick up $9,000 in cash.
Walt is hired to tear down a rotten barn and burn the wood, until he smells the beams and realizes they're American chestnut, a tree that has been nearly gone for 80 years. A dealer from Pittsburgh is already offering the owner $5,000 to haul it away.
For three nights, Walt's old beagle won't stop barking at the woods. On the fourth night, the neighbor's five-year-old goes missing in those same woods, and everyone has given up on the half-blind dog.
The old church bell that warned the town in the 1937 flood has been silent for years, until it starts ringing at midnight by itself.
Tyler modernizes the diner with data, and the numbers say the old men at the "Liars' Table" are costing money. So he moves them. Then one of them stops showing up.
Grady is one signature away from his biggest deal ever: selling the old glass works for a warehouse that will bring 200 jobs. The catch: the last building has to come down Friday, and inside it is a wall with the names of every glass worker since 1951, including his father's.
The VFW post is headed for a county tax sale, its youngest regular member (besides the chaplain) is 71, and the one man who could help is Walt Brenner, who has paid his dues for 50 years but never once walked in the door.
A nursing student is about to quit school because three shops have quoted her thousands for her late grandfather's old pickup. Hank listens for ten seconds and goes pale: it's a $40 part, and one shop told her it was safe to drive.
In 38 years of teaching, Ruth Ann held back exactly one third grader. Now he has written to say he's coming home to tell her what she did to him.
Clay spots his own 1981 championship buckle in a pawn shop window in Marietta. He gave it away in 1988. The pawn loan is due at 5 p.m. today.
Somebody has stolen eleven trail cameras from hunters along Hollow Creek, and two old brothers are about to go to war with their neighbors over it.
Every Tuesday a stranger in a suit drives ninety minutes to Dot's, orders sour cream raisin, eats half, and takes the other half home. He never says why.
For 45 years, a small handmade rocking chair has appeared on the porch of nearly every new baby in Pine Hollow. Nobody knows who makes them. Ruth Ann, writing the town history, sets out to find out.
An ice storm knocks out power to all of Calder County the night before Thanksgiving. Dot's 1978 gas range still lights with a match, so she opens the diner. Then the care home's generator fails, and 22 frail residents need somewhere warm.
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