Now and Then Wilsbach and Stratton

I have added this picture of the front so you can compare to the front of the old Stratton place easier. You can see a big difference.

The second picture shows the Wilsbach camp"Valley Hi" as it now looks from the back. I did the remodeling on it which added this large area to the back and left side as you view the picture.

Fran sent me a picture of the camp in the early 30's. It was then known as the Stratton Camp and is hardly recognizable as the same camp unless you know what you are looking at. The front wrap around porch is gone and so is the camp you can barely see in this picture to the right of it, which for years was known as the "Elkhorn Camp". A large set of Elkhorn antlers that hung outside of that camp now
hangs inside the new addition to Valley Hi.

More Cabin Pictures from the Past

This is the Herre Camp from the files of Fran Weigley. Another picture from the 30's. You can see that there isn't a garage on the building like there is now. The most startling difference is the trees. The entire mountain behind the camp seems bare compared to today with tall pines so thick you can't see much of the hill. It is amazing what nature can do in a short period of time to change the landscape.

We got more snow tonight and are scheduled for my favorite: "wintery mix," which means everything nature can think of will come out of the sky. Where did Spring go? Have a great Leetonia day! Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Square Camp or Cassel's Place

Here is another picture from the files of Fran Wiegley. Her family lived in this camp, which she called the, "Square Camp". It is now owned by the Cassel family. Although there is no date on this picture is appears to be taken at about the same time as the bear picture during the early 30's.
The camp is now aluminium sided but the shape hasn't changed in 75 years.

Fran's Dad worked with the CCC boys during the period of time Fran lived in Leetonia. I have more camp pictures she has sent and will post another one tomorrow. The cold temperatures has caused me to unthaw my water line to the well the last two mornings. It is not pleasant temperatures, we currently have light snow, which is supposed to get heavier this evening. Snowmobilers should be happy today, since it has been a pretty poor year for snowmobiling so far. I went through a cart load of wood in less than a day yesterday and today looks about the same for wood burning. Stay warm and if you live somewhere warm try not to gloat about it. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

The Bear Facts

A special thanks to Fran Weigley, who with the help of her niece scanned and sent me this picture. This is her mother in Leetonia, August of 1934 bottle feeding a bear. The bear is not very old, but is still large enough to do some serious damage to your arm when you run out of milk. It looks like the bear has a nice hold on the arm. I am wondering if Fran's mother had any scratches after feeding the bear.

I would NOT suggest trying this activity. Although I am sure you could get a bear to cooperate it might not end nicely. Fran sent a bunch of great pictures of camps in Leetonia during this period and I will try to get them up soon for you all to see. You might see your place. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Weather whiplash

Well we have gone from record high temperatures and thunderstorms with lightening to this in two days!

The creek at Cedar Run went up to 8' which must be some kind of record. The creeks made so much noise it kept waking me up. You think a truck is driving down the mountain.

Yesterday we got 4-6" of snow and the snowmobilers are running today. Now the wind has picked up and the temps are dropping fast. This is the kind of weather you just want to hug the fireplace.

Hope you all stay warm inside today and Spring returns quickly. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

The Logs come rolling in!

One advantage of being in the woods near loggers is I can buy a tri-axel load of tree-tops for firewood. The first year I lived up here, I tromped around the woods looking for anything dead to load into the truck and haul home. In a mountainous area it is difficult to get the wood down to your truck and I would often spend a day and be lucky to get more than 1 or 2 truck loads of wood. It takes about 6 full size truck loads to make a cord of wood and I burn about 6-8 cords a winter. You can see how time consuming this was. The other down side was I couldn't get into the woods when it was muddy, which was usually the time I had off from work. It was also hard on the truck and I spent a lot of money on gas to drive around finding wood. In one load I get about 10 cords of logs for around $500 delivered where I can cut and split them in my spare time regardless of how muddy the forest gets.

I decided to get a movie of this for those of you that have never seen a logging truck in action. These guys that run them make it look easy, but I am sure it is not. They run up and down these narrow roads in all kinds of weather. Meeting them on an icy narrow road is not fun, its not fun when the roads are good. Coming to a complete stop has proved the best tactic as passing is often defined in inches not feet. Have a great Leetonia Day and be glad you won't be meeting any of these trucks on the narrow roads of Leetonia today. Mountain girl, Paula logging out...or should I say cutting out.

Ground Hog Day Leetonia

The Leetonia Ground Hog came out in full attack against then continuation of winter yesterday. Although, we had about 3 inches of rain/sleet/snow/ice covering everything he did not see his shadow.

This however was not the only sign of Spring. We actually saw a dozen Robins. The earliest ever sighting of this bird, I or anyone else can remember. We all felt sorry for them unable to peck through the frozen ground and wonder if they are going to break down and eat seeds from the bird feeders. Something I have never seen a Robin do. But I have never seen a Robin on Feb 2nd before.

We still have a lot of firewood left on our porch this year. This represents a warmer than usual winter so far. If we make it through February without using much wood we might have some left over for next year. This is a much better thing then not having enough wood to make it through the winter as we feared our first and coldest winter here. So for all you Leetonia lovers take heart that mild days are in our future and the time to come to camp is closer rather than farther away. Have a great Leetonia day. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out!