VINTON, Iowa — When you walk into Lance and Heidi Lillibridge’s home in rural Vinton, Iowa, it smells fantastic.

The long, stout house on the family’s farm in Benton County serves as a staging ground for Cool Bean Candles, Heidi’s hobby-turned-business.

HOPKINTON, Iowa — When the temperature drops and the snow flies, farmers in northeast Iowa are among the rural residents to start up their engines and dash from town to town across the rolling hills and farm fields on snowmobile trails.

Delaware County farmers Karl Wendt and Dave Guthrie are members of the Snow Pioneers snowmobile club. Brett Benter, a member of the Jones County Snow Chasers, lives nearby and delivers fuel to farmers in the area.

TOLONO, Ill. — Tim Wood has a way of taking an old object and bringing to it back to life — one thing at a time.

“I have learned that I can’t just take on every project and do open heart surgery,” said the eastern Illinois farmer.

TOLONO, Ill. — Jim Berbaum likes John Wayne memorabilia, agricultural implements and wagons, among other interesting and historic things. He has been collecting such items for 45 years and likes to share his collections with friends and family.

His machine shed may look like a typical metal farm shed from the outside, but once you get near the door, you will know it’s extraordinary inside. Visitors are greeted with an old sign that reads “Horses Boarded.” The sign details costs at that time: fed and groomed, 85 cents; shod $2; board, 75 cents. Next to it is a hitching post and a wagon wheel.

DENVER — Tucked away in the rolling hills of Northwest Missouri sits Worth County, Missouri’s smallest and least populated county. Situated on the Iowa line, it’s about as close to a North Pole as Missouri has.

In one corner of Worth County, in the hamlet of Denver, a man with a white beard maintains an ever-growing sleigh collection.