The passion that Chris Sturtz has for animals is immediately evident upon arrival at the tidy 197-acre farm that she shares with her husband Jerry. One is greeted by dogs, many cats, even a rooster; the horse, cattle, and donkey are visible in the pasture behind the house.  Chris has several favorite spots, and we first hiked down into a narrow wooded valley, where we saw an ancient spring emerging into a sandstone bowl carved by an unknown predecessor.  Just in time for sunset, we climbed back to the top of the hill, which offers a view across the hills into the distance, the gentle contours of the farmland curving into the edge of the woods.  Of all of the sites we have visited so far, this one seems to hold the most reminders of human use of Coshocton County’s resources; there is a landfill not visible from the farm that lies just beyond this row of trees, much of the surrounding land was strip mined for coal decades ago, and the stacks of the Conesville AEP coal-fired power plant are visible in the distance. Chris notes that even this long-distance view would not have existed before settlers cleared the forest for agriculture. Click below to hear her thoughts: