Only a farmer’s love …

Mahoning County farmer Ed Schaefer Jr. decided to skip the flowers, chocolates and mushy card for his wife, Jen, and made a more public statement last weekend for Valentine’s Day. “There’s no better way to say ‘I love you’ than with a load of manure, is there?” he joked. Schaefer spread his love — and a hefty load of manure from his beef operation — in a heart-shaped pattern over soybean stubble on his Greenford-area farm. The field and Schaefer’s handiwork has stopped traffic along state Route 165 on the east side of the village. (Andrea Zippay photo)