Happy Anniversary to the Grubes

John and Joann Grube are up at camp today celebrating their 53rd anniversary. All I can say is they must have got married at 10 they look great.

John stopped by here earlier today and asked if I wrote this blog. He don't do computers but was told I liked information about Leetonia. I went to their place this afternoon and got some great photos and some good history, which I will be sharing later when I put it all together.

Thanks to John and his wife for sharing this special day with me. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Firewood time

One advantage of living in the woods is firewood. We heat mainly with wood as the propane company will not deliver to us in the winter.

I used to run around the woods(with a permit, State don't let you just pick it up) and find wood. It can be a long, costly job, that is often hindered by weather. Then I found out the local loggers would deliver a tri-axel load which amounts to about 10 cords after you split it.

Now I can run out even if it is muddy and cut wood. It is still a big job even with the splitter, but it is part of living here.

There are two seasons up here firewood gathering season and firewood burning season. Sometimes the two overlap a bit in Spring and Fall. There is nothing like the feeling of seeing a long row of neatly split wood, stacked and ready for winter. It makes you feel rich. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out and cutting logs.

Weed or feed?

A few seconds before I took this picture several finches were making a meal of this weed. They were too shy to appear. Sometimes we are so quick to get rid of weeds we find unappealing that provide food to our feathered friends. I know I am guilty of cutting way more down than I should. Then what do you do buy food to feed the birds to replace the natural food you eliminated.

The multifloria rose I hate with a passion provides cover for rabbits and nesting turkeys. It also provides a mid-winter snack of berries when food source it low. Unfortunately after the turkeys eat the berry they spread the seed inside somewhere else to grow again. Good for them...not so good for me.

The hummingbirds maxed out with new babies this last month and the males have already headed south to stake claim to a winter territory. It was 42 this morning and even though we have more warm before winter it does remind you that colder weather is on its way.

My foot is healing up well and I am able to walk on it some. Although, the doctor wanted me to stay off it 2 weeks, I will be lucky to follow his instructions. We are starting to think about wood for the winter(next years we have this years) and have been wondering when a load of logs promised over a month ago will show up. Loggers have been working in the area and I found the best way to get firewood is to have a tri-axle load dropped off so we can cut and split it here. It is much faster and easier on my truck and body then running all over the woods. I figured out the time and money I spent looking for it cost me more than the tri-axle delivered.

It is a beautiful day today and I hope to spend a little of it outside. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off.

Another way to get hurt!

I don't know why I am able to come up with so many ways to get a few days off...but this is a douse.
I have a brush cutter that looks like a saw blade on the end of a weed whacker. The blade has a guard behind it and I thought that would keep things from flying back at me.
I will admit I should have been wearing steel toe shoes, but I am not sure that would have stopped this wire or maybe it would have deflected it into some other part of my body.
I was trimming Sumac on the side of a hill near the neighbor's camp. When I heard a snap and felt what I thought was a rock hitting my left foot hard. It was like someone had taken a sledge to my foot. I turned the trimmer off and got down on my knees banging the ground with my fist. I tried to put a little weight on my foot and thought for sure it was broken. I scooted down the hill through the cut brush and when I got to stand up, I was shocked to see about 10 inches of wire coming out of the side of my foot. Every time the wire moved it gave me a nice hint we were heading to the ER. I hopped to the truck and drove the 1/4 mile home, hopped in and informed Lee of the new afternoon plans. She got the dogs put up and helped me to the car, then said, "Are you sure we can't pull it out ourselves."
"I don't know?" I said, "Put a little pressure on it and I will tell you."
She came over and unlaced my shoe and pulled the tongue back. You could see the wire was definitely in my foot. Lee grabbed a hold of it and I almost immediately said, "STOP! That thing is in there. I don't know if it is buried in my bone. I think we should get an x-ray before anyone pulls on it.
So we went on the one hour trip to the ER in Wellsboro. Every time that wire moved a little a wave of pain would go through me. I tried to think of anything else, but it was difficult. Wellsboro Soldiers and Sailors hospital is small and the good thing about small is you don't have to wait long. It was less than a half hour from the time I hopped in until they had an x-ray.
The nurse didn't say much except," Its in there pretty good. "
The last picture shows exactly the path through my foot the wire took. It came in on the top of my foot just below my little toe crossed the top, and I believe hit one of the long foot bones and went down between them an out the bottom.
Well, when the doctor came back, he didn't think it had gone all the way through. He told me he couldn't give me a local unless he got the shoe cut off and cutting the shoe off was going to hurt. I said, "Just pull it out."
As he started to pull one inch out, I was shocked to see more and more coming out. All together about two inches of wire was in my foot. He briefly looked at the bottom of my foot and proclaimed it hadn't gone through. But Lee said, "It had to go through there is blood on the bottom of the sock and the bottom of the shoe." Sure enough when he looked again there was a small hole that had stopped bleeding. "Well, I guess it did go through," he said in a tone that made us think he didn't like to be corrected.
He squeezed the wound and injected it with a local more that hurt worse than pulling it out. Of course I got the another tetanus shot, a antibiotic shot, some pain pills, and wrapped up. Lee said, I seemed a bit happier on the way home and talked a lot. We had to return a couple days later for another kind of antibiotic to stop the flaring up. However, today it is looking good and I think in a couple days, I will be able to get my shoe back on. I am sure the bruising I took will last a bit longer. Looking at that wire and how far it went into my foot, I am thankful it didn't hit some other part of my body. Mountain girl, Paula, logging, and limping off.

Gas Well expansion on Pigeon Hill Rd

I am not exactly sure what all the equipment and tanks are on Pigeon Hill Rd, but it looks like an industrial zone. Bravo Button who had a lease with the gas company and has three different well sites on his property said he had no idea they would build this. It has been a year and a half since they started drilling and it looks like another six months before any kind of royalty checks will be seen by most the local participants. Lets hope the checks make up for seeing this everyday on your once open cornfield.
They have started drilling on Thompson Hollow Rd. coming into the forest. So far a few local wells that I know about have been contaminated. One in Stony Fork can lite his water. Don't think it is good to drink do you?
Our creek water tables have been very low this year and we haven't had a lot of rain, but they are also taking a lot of water for drilling. How do you know what is causing the low water in Pine Creek? Maybe both things. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.