Christmas present from the past

Stanley Dudkin from Cedar Run Inn gave me this for Christmas. Not many people would be excited about recieving such an object, but I knew a little something perhaps you do not. This object comes from the days of the CCC camps here in Leetonia. Although, I can't be sure this was used in Leetonia there were certainly ones just like it being used. Do you know what it is?

I will tell you what it is not. It is not a shingle spliter, or a cheese slicer. It would make a horrible torture device. Ah but, at last, it is a brush clearer, mostly for overhead small limbs on trails. During the days on non-electric and few gas-powered trimmers this was the tool of the trade. The blades I understand are still available and able to be sharpened over and over.

Stanley picked this up from an Amish man who sells a lot of these old tools. It is quite heavy about 30" long and when you pick it up you have a real desire to take a whack at something. Not a good Christmas present for children. I am not going to leave this hanging on the wall somewhere. It is definately going to come into use clearing some trails in Leetonia again. Thanks to Stanley for the great gift.
Mountain Girl, Paula, logging off.

Winter Driving

I am sure some of you are wondering what it is like to drive the roads of Leetonia in the winter. I did this video a couple days ago before we got 6 more inches of snow just to get you warmed up to the idea of driving. This was taken on Leetonia Road coming up from Cedar Run just before the Cedar Crest Cabin in that nice narrow area. I was driving without chains so this wasn't a particularly hard to drive or really scary day. I am not sure either of us is steady enough to get video and drive on one of the hard to travel days. Enjoy and be glad you live close to a paved, plowed road. Mountain Girl, Paula, logging out!

Christmas in the Valley

The SlateRun general store has a wonderful little Christmas Window I wish I could have taken a picture showing the whole thing but the glare on the window made it so I had to be close for a picture. The Santa looks like half the mountain men up here showing off their white beards. There is a cute cabin as well and many neat things in the store. Not many people were up yesterday and we had a nice chat with Tom and Deb Finkbinder the owners of the store. There is something special about the quiet slow nature of things this time of year that many of the locals look forward to.















I also took a great picture of Charlotte Dudkins tree at Cedar Run Inn. She does most of her decorating on Thanksgiving weekend and warns visitors not to eat the candy canes on the tree. She says they are at least four years old and probably wouldn't taste too good. She strings popcorn and cranberries as well, but says the cranberries look more like raisins when they dry out. Stanley was out working on the plow, which he says always runs in July and decides to come to a halt at the first snowflake. We are getting snow today with a combination sleet snow as of 2:30pm we had about 4 inches not near the storm they predicted. Of course locally it is considered a no storm the more it is talked about. It is the ones you don't hear much about that catch you waist deep in the white stuff. Have a wonderful Leetonia day. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off.

Major Snowstorm headed this way

It looks like we are going to get more snow added to our already 8 inches on the ground. It may turn into a snowmobile only day by tommorrow. I will keep you updated. I am planning on going to Slate Run and Cedar Run today before it hits and will get some pictures of the valley Christmas decorations. Although not many people are up here this time of year the ones who are here get in the holiday spirit.

Lee took a tumble on the ice yesterday and managed to really twist up her wrist. Since she thought she might have broke it so we had the one and a half hour trip to the hospital followed by the three hour wait to get a diagnosis. It is badly swollen but not broken. You find out how much you use part of your body to do things once you hurt it. I will post more later for now Mountain Girl, Paula, logging out.

Snow Plow in Leetonia

I don't know how many years it has been since the roads to Leetonia have been plowed. I know they were plowed in the 60's but I don't have the last date. Regardless, this is the first year they have plowed us out. They are plowing Leetonia road only from the Galeton side to downtown Leetonia and back no other side roads are being plowed so if you have a camp up here and want to use the plowed road to get to it you will have to come in from that side.
There are pros and cons to having a plowed road. The pro is we don't have to plan how to get a car out to where they do plow to snowmobile to to get out. The cons are that you can't snowmobile o
the plowed road and it disrupts the snowmobile traffic.
After 5 winters of snowmobling out and having limited ability to work. I decided to request the plowing. For those of you this inconveniences I am sorry, but I could no longer afford the luxury of not working in the winter months. If anyone would like the roads not to be plowed and would like to pay me a salary for not working. I would be more than happy to return them to their natural state.

I took a few pictures of the forest covered in snow it is beautiful and it is snowing in such large
flakes you can actually see them in the last picture taken from the top of the hill. The mountains are dressed up in formal white today and it is great to be living in Leetonia.

By the way this is my 100th POST! of Lost in Leetonia. I love doing it and can't believe I have posted that many times since March. Hope you all enjoy it as well.

Mountain girl, Paula, Logging out!

First Big Snow

It is officially winter in Leetonia we are getting a major snowstorm today with the mountain already showing 8" and more is to come. So far no sign of the promised snowplow as of noon. I think they are waiting for the snow to be done. I am going to start up the snowmobile and get my cross-country ski trail packed down. Today is a good day to enjoy the snow and the warm fire.

They are calling for another storm to come through here on Sunday so a white Christmas seems to be a given. I worked outside yesterday finishing installing windows on a camp in Cedar

Run and it looks like it wasn't a minute too soon. I have enough inside cabin work for the next couple months, but I have the time to enjoy a little hard-earned time off and what better excuse than a snowstorm. Temps are still moderate at 21 degrees so it is perfect weather for a little winter sports.

I am sure the snowmobilers won't be far behind this storm to ruin the quiet, but I am enjoying the sound of absolutely nothing for today. Snowed in Leetonia, Mountain girl, Paula logging out!

Making of a Christmas Card

Every year I take a picture for my Christmas Card. This year I carved a stand-in for Jack and it was the only one of the dogs who behaved. Leo always hates this and the puppy just wanted to eat the ears. Leo looks like we are killing him in this picture and he literally had to be dragged to the spot. Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through this every year. Hopefully next year the puppy will be better behaved. I have no hope for Leo. There is a short clip of me trying to get the ears on Scooter. Freezing rain tonight...Not a good time to drive to Leetonia.

Mountain Girl, Paula, Logging out!