Antler Inn

The mountain girls took a rare trip out to eat at the Antler Inn. As you recall from a post last year the Inn suffered a complete loss in a fire and was rebuilt and opened in May of last year. Well it has taken us this long to check it out but here are a few highlight.

The entrance door is a magnificent carved deer with an antler pull. Inside you find these cute benches held up by mens work boots. They have a nice bar and two eating areas. The largest one has a great four-sided fireplace that water flows over and is decorated with real trees on the 4 corners. The needles on the trees are fake, but it is difficult to tell by looking. They did a really great job on it.

Last but not least is a video of the buffet. It was a little dark but it still came out well enough to make you hungry. The buffet is around $22/person, but if you are hungry and want some good food it was well worth it. I loved the cranberry bread, probably because it is a lot sweeter than I usually feedmyself. Enjoy the visual tour and it is my recommendation to eat at Antlers if you want a great meal with wonderful surroundings. Mountain Girl, Paula, Logging off.

Free Handout

This nice buck showed up yesterday with a doe for a free handout. The cracked corn was for the birds, but it seems most of it goes to the deer this time of year.

The deer have had it easy as far as winter goes not much snow cover so they can find food easily. Some years by now they are starting to get thin and not so healthy looking, but these two look fine.

The weather is still bitterly cold and my cough is hanging on. The roads are very navigable by 4-wheel drive cars or trucks.
Snowmobiling is still out for the year although I have seen a few desperate snowmobiler's tracks if you want to spare your machine you will wait until you can travel on less than half gravel.

It promises to be a bright sunshine filled day which gives the illusion of warmth outside. My nose burns with every breath reminding me it is far from warm. It is another Leo by the fire day and a day we will easily go through a large cart of firewood.

Even with the cold and the bare trees there is something very comforting about being in Leetonia. Hope you all have a great day. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out!

Cooooold!

This morning when I got up it was 55 degrees INSIDE and about 6 outside. Temperatures are not promising to do anything but go down for a while so its, "sit close to the fireplace weather". For all you snowmobilers forget it! We have had very little snow and what we do have is mostly ice.

I managed to get a bad head cold this week and now Lee is sick. Fortunately, I am now feeling good enough to fetch the firewood or we would both freeze. Leo the pit bull does not like the cold and his preferred location is covered up near the fire today.

Sometimes I wish I could be a dog at least one that has it as good as he does. The new pup Scooter seems to be having a hard time keeping his teeth. He broke one permanent molar about 2 weeks ago that needed to be pulled then turned around and broke another one two days ago. To be loosing your teeth at nine months old does not predict your long term dental health as very promising.




A special thanks to Joe Sulikoski, who dropped off a nice grouse he shot yesterday he said the grouse had about twelve miles of walking into it. I know his dog was happy he shot one that it flushed....those grouse can be tricky to hit, but a dog will give you a dirty look after you miss a dozen times or so. I have that grouse marinating and it will be supper tonight. Thanks Joe.

Mountain Girl, Paula, sticking near the fire and logging out.

The Savage 99

Hunt Camp Memories by Harry White
Harry White is from Philadelphia , PA. and about to retire from the University of Pennsylvania after 43 years. A family relative owns the trailer (Fox Chase Hunt Camp)(the sign is going up next season) next to the Ruins Camp and we have had use of the camp for the past six years. Our camp is mostly family with my sons, daughter in-law, and several grandchildren.
The picture (with the deer) is my son Harry White(4th); all were taken in our camp in Leetonia. The group picture contains row left to right my sons Mike White, Harry White (4th), Jimmy White, and myself Harry White (3rd). Front row left to right grandsons Harry White (5th) and James White. The picture (with the deer) is my son Harry White; all were taken in our camp in Leetonia.


About fifty plus years ago I was coming of age to hunt with my father. On a day in September my father and I hopped into the family truck to go shopping. We ended up in a gun store where my father bought me my first and only hunting rifle. It was a Savage model 99 and it was just like the one he hunted with all his hunting trips with my Grandfather. Well as time passed so did my father but every time I pick up my rifle I always think of my trips with him. My father’s rifle has been passed on to my sons and my oldest son (also name sake) wanted to use it to try to honor his grandfather by bagging a deer. Well this year in Leetonia his dream came true during a morning hunt. An 8 point deer crossed in front of the old iron sites and the ammunition from 1950 still worked!
Sure it’s nice to bag a deer but the thing that impressed me is the memories that are built and passed on during these family times. I realized that as my grandchildren hike the trails and sit around our campfires in Leetonia they are building memories and who knows one of them just might carry my old model 99.

Winter reprive

It looks like winter is on hold as tomorrow is calling for heavy rain. Most of the earlier snow is gone and the roads are a muddy mess. The lettering on my truck is very unreadable amidst the thick muddy coat and there isn't much sense in cleaning it unless I never move it from the drive or the road refreezes. In my latest computer change over I have somehow lost the information sent to me by a reader that included pictures of a family gun used to shoot a deer and a bunch of hunters. If you sent me that please resend the names of the people in picture. I still have the two pictures but no names. Thanks. Mountain girl, Paula, technically challenged logging off.

Christmas is officially over in Leetonia

Christmas is officially over today with the lowering of the Christmas tree in front of the house. Every year some tree is spotted that must be removed out of a trail and is designated to be our special tree. In this manner the tree has a place of honor instead of merely being cut out of the way. I will tell you right now lowering it is much easier than raising it.
Mother nature also played a wild card today with Spring-like temps in the 50's. Wow! We revealed walking without jackets this morning, but know we are far from winter being over. This is just a tease to remind us it can get warm again....Oh, some of our worst storms have been in February and March. That is why the front porch is still stacked high with firewood. The snowmobile are silent today, but they know snow isn't far away.
So we are loving living in Leetonia today...wish you could all drive down or up or over for a visit, but for now enjoy the view from our cabin. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out!

Fran Weigley "Ottman"

I just finished talking to Fran Weigley who is now 85 and lived in Leetonia during its CCC days. She is the daughter of Norman and Beatrice Ottman who moved to Leetonia after the crash in 29'. My understanding was that they lived in the "Square Camp", which I believe to be the older Cassel place which is Red. Her dad was able to live rent free and she believes he feed them mostly with free deer meat. Later on he worked at the CCC camp in a manager position.

I talked with Fran for nearly two hours and you can always tell a true Leetonia person. Their love and memory of the place never dies. The town has changed alot since she lived there and I will be sharing much more with you when I get it all written down. For now here are a few things to think about and add to if you know any information.

Fran mentioned a water wheel in Cedar Run Creek near the Petite Camp. She thinks it was purely decorative, but isn't sure if it had any real purpose. The Ottman's also lived in the Herre Camp for a while after the Square Camp fire, so if any of you Herre people remember information about that let me know. If you were part of a bucket brigade to put out the Square Camp Fire you may also add to that conversation. Do you know anything about a pet bear keep by Mr Lutz at the Herre Camp in the 30's please add? For now I am gathering pictures and collecting all of the memories Fran gave me tonight into something that will be fun and educational to read. You all have a Great Leetonia night and dream of a time when the CCC worked and lived in Leetonia and there were only two phones in town. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Starting the New Year 2008

New Year's Eve celebration at Cedar Run Inn wouldn't be complete without the traditional naughty snowman. I will say this year's snowman is more presentable than in years past so you get the idea of valley humor with only a PG rating.

About a dozen or so people attended Charlotte and Stanely Dudkin's annual celebration, which manly includes her family, past and present
employees.

The second picture is Cozzette and her husband John Stoltzfus. Cozzette works at the Inn and "Johnny" is a local handyman.

The third picture is Albert,"Sonny", Margaret's husband. Margaret is Charlotte's sister. As you can see Sonny is very excited about 2008 to the point of barely keeping his eyes open.

The annual required game of Pictionary was played and I am happy to say for the first year I was on the winning team. Never let Charlotte and her sisters: Margaret and June on the same team. They have some sort of psychic link and beat all of us terribly.

A champagne toast brought in the New Year at Cedar Run. No ball dropping or famous Celebrities except on the Television, but memories made at a place less touched by the chaos of the world. A place where playing simple games and spending time with modern day mountain folk is still fun.
We've only missed this celebration once when the roads were too icy from Leetonia to Cedar Run to dare the trip. This night the roads although not great(narrow in a couple places due to snow slides) were passable by those of us immune to the fears of sliding off. Well maybe not immune, but we tremor a little less than the person who doesn't know every rock and stone of the way.
Coming home that night we reminisced about each spot of the road we have been stuck at since moving up here. I will tell you knowledge of the road does not come cheap. Rarely a mile goes by that we can't point out a spot we have had to dig ourselves out of or walk home. The worst being my 3 mile walk home in absolute darkness (no flashlight) although I did have my dog,Jack, whom I couldn't see most of the way. Jack would check in on me with a cold nose to my hand and thank goodness I knew it was a dog and not a bear or big cat. The reflection off of the snow made it barely possible to see where to place your feet. I can tell you a three-mile shuffle, wet from kneeling in the snow digging your car out multiple times, was not fun. But isn't that what memories are made of, "trials."
So in the gloom of my trials or the joys of my celebrations, I know one thing, it will make a good story to tell the grand-children. So 2008, time for the next Chapter in the Mountain Girls' story.

Mountain Girl, Paula, wishing you a Great 2008!