The Never Ending Winter

Snowmobiles finding plowed road

Multiple snowmobile turn arounds

last of front porch wood

Well today is the last of February and the wood on the front porch has made it through the cold weather as Lee predicated. We still have wood on the back porch for what should be the down side of winter the next few months. Although, the official end of Winter is March 21st the end of using firewood often does not come until May. We have had many below zero temperatures this winter and are hoping this morning's -12 is the last of them. Unlike the winter of 2012 when winter never showed this winter and last has had cold temperatures driving the depth of frost deep.  Last year there was still ice on the ground in April and I had a hard time getting water to start in two of the camps I take care of. This year is more of the same. We are very much hoping for the above freezing temperatures promised for next week although that will lead to the dreaded melting March combo's of mud, ice, rain, snow and whatever mother nature can think of.

For those of you thinking of driving your regular vehicle through the State Forest I would advise against it for now. No one will pull you out and it will be April before the road is plowed again. When the weather gets above freezing the nice packed snow you might have driven on will become a deep wet snow trap. One winter Lee and I spent 4 hours making the trip from Cedar Run up to the house and I walked the last 3 miles to get the snowmobile so I could pick up the groceries and Lee. Once the road refroze over night driving out again became possible. Best to wait a couple months, or plan on skiing, hiking, or snowmobling into camp for now.

We have more snow in the forecast for Sunday then a nice warm up next week.  Today we are enjoying the comfort of a good fire listening to the snow come off the roof and the snowmobilers turning around at the sight of plowed road from our house up. Enjoy the weekend in the woods safely. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Firewood split and stacked.

I have finally finished splitting and stacking firewood.  The wood that we will use this winter is under the porches and the wood stacked outside is for next winter.  Now I just have to clean up the bark mess and winterize the tractor.  What a relief to have that done before we get snow that piles up.

Speck got 5 teeth pulled on Monday but he is doing great and seems to be recovered.  We will be keeping him on a soft food diet for a few days and giving him anti-biotics for 7 days.  He doesn't seem to mind at this point.  Actually he prefers a soft diet.

Today there were 7 robins in our front yard.  It made me think it's going to be Spring instead of Winter.  I know you snow mobilers are anxious for good snow but I would be happy for it to hold off for a little while.

My sister Diane requested that I post when Paula is busy working so I will give it a try when I can think of something to write.  This is Lee signing off until next time.

Firewood is ready

One of the biggest tasks of Fall is getting all the firewood split and stacked. We get a Tri-axle load of wood every other year so it can start drying out for the following year's wood burn. It will be stacked in the sun and dried for up to 2 years before it is burnt. This allows us to get green timber. We add anything we "find" usually in the middle of the road to help complete the two year time span. We move the wood we are burning for the winter under our two porches, which is just enough to last the winter. When burning season is over it is gone, this keeps the bugs away from the house since in the winter they are not active in the firewood.

Lee got stuck with doing the firewood this year as I have been working away from the house during the daylight hours. Now that it is all spilt she will stack it in the sun on skids a distance from the house. Seems like quite a few hunters have been up for archery season. The bucks are definately running the doe as I have seen quite a few in the evening coming home. Last night I saw a bear getting ready to cross 144 just before Button Hollow road and a porcupine at the top of Cedar Mt. The leaves are mostly off the trees preparing them for the snow that is sure to come. It has been cold enough to remind us that winter is shortly around the corner. It is too bad we can't schedule snow for when and how much we want and leave out all ice. There is nothing prettier than a fresh snow in the mountains and nothing scarier than freezing rain or ice on the roads. Phil has just about finished salvaging out the trailer and is down to the final floor. It will be nice when it is all cleaned up and done. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out and heading up the mountain.

Two days of Zero firewood use!

There is always something exciting about the first 24 hours of no firewood use to keep us warm. Yesterday, I awoke to a temperature of 68 degrees inside the house, a full ten degrees above normal for morning. I had to stop myself from an almost automatic march to the wood burner to start a fire. It got to 67 outside yesterday, which kept the wood use to zero. This morning was a repeat of the same, although the weather predictors are saying the temperatures will drop this afternoon and threaten my streak of firewood savings.
I sat in the sun on a chair in the front yard for a while before going to work and listened to the happy birds and enjoyed the feeling of a warm Spring morning.
When I drove into Wellsboro, everyone was outside walking with smiles on their faces. Winter weather makes one appreciate a nice day when we get it. Although, I am sure it won't be long before people are complaining about how hot it is...seems we love to find something to complain about. But for now I am watching the snow disappear from the north side of the mountain and enjoying a pleasant day in Leetonia. Mountain, girl, Paula, logging out.

Wood Prediction according to the porch

Firewood on left front porch

Firewood on right front porch

In the 11 years we have lived up here we have never used more firewood than the front and back porch can hold. As of today these couple stacks of firewood are all that is left on either porch. This year's firewood use has been different as it is continuing to be as cold in March as it was in February. Last year it was unseasonably warm this month getting into the 60's and 70's and we ended up with firewood left on the porch. I have noticed that for every 30 degrees drop in temperature we use an additional cart full of  firewood. So when it is 65 we use basically none, when it is 35 we use 1 cart full, 5 degrees 2 cart fulls, 25 below 3 cart fulls. So with the temperatures ranging from single digits to 25 we are using twice as much wood this month as normal.

Now I may have totally confused you as to my point. But we are due for a fast warm up if the wood on the front porch is to last. So I am sticking my neck out here and saying the probability of a quick warm-up is definitely in our favor due to the porch prediction. We can go through the rest of March this way, but April will need to see some 50 plus weather to balance out the use of firewood. 

Now for those of you worried we will freeze once the porch is gone, have no fear, we have other wood stacked away from the house. However, the wood miser is very jealous of the pile and will not easily use it. We do like the wood to be gone during summer month that is stacked close to house due to the bugs in wood affecting our house and just the moisture of having the wood stacked against wood siding isn't good for it. I will let you all know if the porch predicts the end of the heating season accurately this year...it hasn't failed us yet, so I am hopeful. Let the heavy coat and boot days end, the mountain girls are ready for Spring. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

The Firewood pile is cut

Speck on top wood pile

Side of wood piles

Front of wood piles

It has been a great week of weather staying dry enough that I finished cutting all the logs up into pieces. The next chore is running them all through the splitter and stacking them in the sun to dry. The couple rows in front are the large logs where the pile sat. They were very large in diameter my 16" saw couldn't cut through them from just one side. This made them extremely difficult to lift even the cut pieces and this is why they aren't stacked very high. This will be 2013-14's wood. It is a big job cutting two years worth of wood at once, but on the bright side I get to skip a year.

Seems like a lot of bear hunters stomping through the woods but I haven't heard much of anyone close getting anything. The nice weather has been kind to the hunters as it has been getting close to 50 during the day. I been trying to do some last minute cleanup and straightening of things before we get snow. It is harder to find stuff when snow is pilled up on it.

Lee is in Arizona visiting some friends so it is just me and the dogs for Thanksgiving. We had an early nice dinner when some hunters gave us three Grouse. I cooked them up and shared a few bits with the dogs. I have to admit the Grouse are one of the few animals I enjoy the taste of. For such small birds they have quite a bit of meat. They are worth breaking my mostly vegetarian diet to indulge in.

Straightening up the garage is my next project and I have to admit one I have been putting off. I look at it and just shake my head wondering where to put everything. The strategy hasn't made it clean itself so far. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off.

Firewood time of year

Tri-axle load of logs to be cut,split and stacked

Logs to be cut,split and stacked

This years firewood ready to go

  There are two seasons in Leetonia firewood cutting season and firewood burning season. They overlap a little in the Spring and Fall when the weather is cooler it makes for much easier work. But there is no way around getting dirty and your back tired from bending over and picking up wood. The sight of a year's worth of wood ready to burn and a couple years of wood stacked and split drying in the sun always gives me such a rich feeling. It is like no matter what happens in the world it is going to be warm and cozy inside the house.

My two short-cuts to firewood are getting a tri-axle load delivered every two years and having a log splitter. Both of these make it much easier to get the six cords of wood we burn each year cut and split. Lee is the stacker as she has developed a method of stacking the wood she doesn't care to have changed. I am the cutter and we both share the splitting. Scooter likes to grab some of the small pieces and make them even smaller, which isn't very helpful. So I have to keep an eye on him. Leo now and then will grab a piece, but for the most part leaves it alone. The chihuahua, Speck, must be kept away from the operation as one log slip and he will be hurt badly or worse.

The key to cutting the tri-axle load is to always work in a way that keeps the wood from falling on you. It is like a big game of pick up sticks with higher risks. I always work from the side of the pile that is uphill and try to get higher or side pieces cut that won't fall on me. Of course there is always the fight over my 16" measurements. Seems they are too small or too big and I am too lazy to add measuring to the operation. So the too big ones become two small when I cut them in two. As long as I can get them in the stove they all burn the same.

 Looks like the weather is going to be on the warm side tomorrow and stay pretty warm most of week with some on and off showers. I don't count on the rain part of weather forecasts to be right. It seems like more than not it rains on the sunny days and gets sunny on the rainy days. Best weather prediction is looking outside the day you want to do something. Not sure if I will get everything cut,split and stacked before snow. But I will at least get it all cut so it is out of the way of plowing the drive. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off.

Snow and no power again

We got six inches of wet snow on the night of March 23rd. It covered the rest of the wood we were working on splitting and made running the wheelbarrow up the hill impossible. But my sister and I got a good pile of wood split. Most of the rest of the wood is buried in about 6" of ice and won't be coming out until we get warmer weather. The first picture shows split stack. The second picture is before we started yesterday. It was much colder than the day before and wet gloves and a breeze made hands and feet get cold a bit faster.

Snowmobiles have been running all day even though about half the snow melted. It doesn't
look like much of the snow will melt until next Monday as the temperatures are going to drop into the low teens at night and stay below freezing for highs during the day.

Along with the snow we lost power again. I don't remember losing power this much in the winter since we have lived up here. The generator is a God send with the four extra visitors. Having water for showers and flushing is more than a convenience. It used to be when we were out of power I would go to creek and get a bucket of water to flush. If it was real cold this meant chopping through some ice first. Now it is just a matter of starting the generator and the well
works great.

In the last picture you see my sister's van covered in snow. Fortunately, we didn't get anymore snow last night and with the road plowed she was able to get out over the mountain.

I am formally putting the groundhog on notice. YOU ARE FIRED! That early spring you promised is not here! Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Fall and Firewood

Well I finished cutting the Tri-axle load of wood today. It will be about 10 full cords when split and stacked. Since this wood is for next year I can take my time splitting it, although I would like to have it done by late Spring so it can dry out good during the summer sun.

The wood for this year is neatly stacked under the two porches around the house to keep it out of the snow and rain. We will use up the wood by Spring and once again complete the cycle necessary to keep the house warm during the winter. We generally burn any where from 6 to
8 cords of firewood each winter.

My brother, Rob, was up over the weekend and I took him to the Leonard Harrison canyon view. You can see by the picture down the canyon that most of the leaves are gone from the trees. It was a brisk day and it is always windy at the overlook.

The smell of firewood burning in the cabins over the weekend was thick in the air. It reminds us winter is not far off.

I like my winters with snow. Snow you can ski on not ice. But so many winters we get snow and then it melts and freezes into an ice slick. The worst is freezing rain. This turns our tricky narrow roads into a nightmare. There isn't a person up here that doesn't have a story of a frightening slow trip down the mountain roads.

The slow economy gave a bit of a punch to all the businesses around here. Most aren't doing too good except for the ones who have picked up some of the gas workers business. We are all hoping next year will be the end of empty pockets. But regardless, people who leave here are used to tough times and they will make it through better than most. One thing no one can take away from us is this beautiful country we live in. On a cool day with the sun shining through the forest, breathing the scent of pine you feel rich indeed. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Water, wood and weather

The last day of September, mother nature tried to catch up on the rain all in one day. We had four inches of rain. Pine creek started at around 1 foot high and went to 7 foot in a matter of a eight hour period. It is now back down around 2.84 nice day for a canoe trip. The first picture was taken on Oct 1st in the morning at Cedar Run.

We are busy cutting, splitting and stacking wood for the winter. It got down to 30 the other night and I awoke to a white frosty substance covering the grass. A little reminder winter isn't far away. It is hard when it goes from eighty to thirty, but the change in weather always seems to do that to us.
I am a little over half way through my tri-axle load of logs. I have about 30 left to cut. Those will be used next year as they have to dry. Although, I did notice a few dead logs that might be useable this year. The load they delivered was mostly ash and beech. Those will dry much faster than oak, but not burn as hot. The red oak we have for this winter has dried for about 3 years, which seems to be about right for that wood. It is very slow to cure, but a good burner once it does.

The trees are changing and dropping leaves, which doesn't make for long color. Spring and Fall are some of the nicest times of year here cause the bugs aren't hanging around. The color is
pretty in Fall, but, with winter around the corner, seems to put a bit of a damper on it. Spring heralds the end of snow so I lean towards liking it the best.

If anyone feels like they need a bit of extra exercise feel free to come bye and split some wood. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out and starting the chain saw.

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.

Keeping it warm in Leetonia

Thought I would share with you my daily winter rituals. When I got up this morning it was 4 degrees outside and 58 inside. First I let the dogs out and next started the fire for the day. We heat mainly with wood. I do have a back up gas space heater for temperatures below -10. It gets hard to keep the place warm enough with my woodburner.
The cart you see in the picture when filled to the top lasts one day in temps that average around 20. When it goes down to zero we can go through two carts a day. The wood container near the cart holds kindling to help get the fire going.
The dogs are quick to do their business in the morning for two reasons: they get a morning treat and it is much warmer inside then out.



My boots are commonly on the hearth drying out from the snow. A pan of water is refilled at least twice a day to keep some moisture in the drier winter air. The nice thing about a fire is if you are really cold you just move closer to it. I have a fan that circulates the air to move it a little faster through the cabin. There is something mesmerizing about looking at a fire I can do it for hours and never get bored.
The down side to heating with wood is if you let it go out you get cold, your pipes freeze and havoc occurs. I can't just set a dial to the temperature I want and forget it. Also being gone for more than a day is out of the question without winterizing the water pipes. That is why not having indoor plumbing for the pioneers was a plus...no frozen pipes. The dogs love the fire. My old dog Jack would often sit up on the hearth so close I swear I could smell his fur burning. I just wish I could teach them to tend the fire.
Of course wood burning is not without its dangers. The old methodist Church in Marshlands (which is now a residency) had a chimney fire last night and did quite a bit of damage. Carefully cleaning of the chimney each year is a much and making sure you store your ashes carefully. I learned this the hard way a few years ago. I would just carry the ashes out in a bucket and toss them over the hill near the stream all winter. I didn't think a thing about it until one day I came home to a large fire in my stack of next years firewood. Flames were shooting 10 foot in the air. I had to carry buckets of water from the stream to start putting it out until Lee could connect a hose. It took 4 hours of water and kicking my pile apart to get it out.
I was very lucky the fire had started at my ash pile, burnt the dry grass up within 5 feet of the house, under the propane tank down a 100 feet to the wood pile, on its way claiming a large pile of expensive cedar boards. I was so lucky it didn't catch the house on fire. Since then I have built a cinder block pit to keep the cinders in and avoid such a disaster. Well about time to put more wood on the fire. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Winter's wood lines up

Lee finished splitting and stacking the firewood for next winter this week. There is something that gives you a sense of comfort just seeing it line up to dry in the summer sun. This batch of wood is all from a Tri-axle load of tops we had delivered about a year and a half ago. They were lumbering just up the road from us which made it convenient to get. I don't know how many 40' logs there were but I know Lee is glad to see them all converted into small burnable pieces.
We have an old hand made splitter, which makes the work a little
easier, but it is still rough work. They say you get warm twice when you burn wood to heat: once gathering and splitting the wood and the second time burning it. I do know it is a constant task to make sure we get the wood cut far enough ahead to season well. Green wood will burn, but not very hot and it takes more of it to stay warm.
The chipmunks love the stacks of firewood to hide under and keep the dogs busy chasing them around and around the piles. Last night the dogs chased something a little bigger as we sat on the porch. A mother bear and cub appeared and I had to do some quick dog calling to keep them from getting into too much trouble. Thor, the three-legger is not at all afraid to give chase.

I told him when he came back, "You don't have many legs left you can loose, so don't be chasin that bear." He just panted at me not at all absorbing the consequences of his actions.

There is a mother bear with three cubs not far from here. It seems the bears have survived and thrived through the winter. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Fall and wood

Just thought I would give you an update on the firewood. Lee is down to the last batch of firewood to be split before winter. We sawed the rest of it yesterday and she has a week's worth of spliting and stacking ahead of her. I was able to run the chain saw while she lifted the logs, but I must admit I paid for it by the end of the day. My mind is well ahead of my back on healing.

Our seasoned firewood came up about a cord short so I will be looking for some more before snow. Last week we didn't use a stick of firewood as the weather stayed unseasonably warm. It changed
last night to cooler weather so it is back to log burning.

The trees have mostly lost their leaves in preparation for the snow and the gray days of winter will be upon us soon. I have one additional thing to report as to the voting. It appears only 25 of the 31 eligible voters voted. For President it was McCain 15, Obama 6, and write-ins 4.

I thought it was curious that 4 people didn't like any of the available candidates for President. That is almost 20 percent of our voters. Do any of you remember a time you could cast your vote in Leetonia? If you do let me know what you remember about past elections. I hope we see some programs like the CCC with the new administration. All of the work done in this forest was done during that period and not much but maintenance since. I would love to see the trails, bridges and tree plantings done again and part of our national treasure, "Leetonia" revived. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off.

Fall Ritual

I have always said there are really only two seasons up here in Leetonia: wood gathering season and wood burning season.

The logs you see in the picture are tops cut above our place by loggers last fall. After spending time, gas, money on permits, and stress on my vehicle. I have decided spending the money to have logs delivered is more cost efficient for me.

As you can tell there is still plenty of work to do after the logs are
here. They have to be cut into fireplace size pieces, split, stacked and dried for a year. Lee is splitting the firewood for the 2009-10 winter. The firewood for this year still needs to be moved close to the house before snow. We usually stack both porches full and find that makes it through the winter.

I don't like to keep wood on the porch year round because of some of the insects in it like to eat wood houses just as much as they do firewood.

The last picture shows you the progress Lee has made through the stack. The first picture are the logs yet to be cut and split. I am afraid I am not much help this year with my lifting limit still at 30 pounds so Lee is stuck with the entire job. I did notice Scooter "helping" by dragging fairly large pieces away to chew on. If we could just teach him to stack them he could pay for some of that dog food he eats. Looks like beautiful weather for the weekend and we are enjoying the pleasant temperatures. I am sure there will be a hum of chainsaws and splitters running this weekend as camps and homes try to off set the cost of heating this winter. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off.

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.

Things get HOT at Buckhorn Camp

When someone knocks at my door at 1 am and asks for a fire extinguisher its never a good sign. A fire up here usually means a total loss of building, life or both. But this story has a happy ending.

The smoke detector failed but not the noses of the camp members who were just getting ready to go to sleep. The wood stove pipe overheated and caught the wall on fire. All of the walls up here are double thick solid hemlock and once fire gets started between the boards it can be a difficult thing to stop.

Quick thinking and drinks and water thrown

mostly on the fire, Sheila in the excitement of the moment tossed a bucket of water right into Robert Senior's face. They still managed to get enough of the water on the fire to keep the cabin from burning down until the fire company came as backup.

The Germania fire company came within 40 minutes of my 911 call, which isn't bad on these slippery roads. The smaller brush truck was all that could drive back the 1/2 mile lane to the camp and it was indeed fortunate that not much was needed. After careful inspection and the adding of more water the wall was deemed safe enough to leave.

And now you know the reason the people in the last picture are smiling. The cabin still stands and
no one was hurt not even their new puppy, part Rottweiller and part Bermese Mountain dog who at eight weeks looks like a small bear. They all smell like smoke and probably won't sleep the rest of the night. But this is the kind of stuff you tell your grandkids. Because you lived through it. This is one lucky camp.

Sorry the pictures are so blurry.. guess my hand isn't too steady at 2 am. Mountain Girl, Paula, logging out and hitting the pillow. I will post more tomorrow when I am awake.

Mystery Camp Revealed

For anyone who didn't guess where the last two blogs pictures were taken it was behind the Petitte camp. The first picture two days ago was on the cliff up high the second in Cedar Run Creek. I am sure Jimmie got the first one.

As you can see most the snow is gone. Knock on wood we won't be seeing much more white before next winter. As Mickey would say, "Time is wasting, better start getting your firewood, winter will be here sooner than you think!" The first year I lived up here I sort of poo fooed his announcement which seemed to come the first day we got rid of our snow. Then when winter again was knocking on the door, I realized he was right. There are two seasons up here: Firewood burning season and Firewood gathering season and you best be busy during the second or you'll freeze during the first.

So happy Firewood Gathering Season! from the Leetonia Mountain Girls