Sunday, September 22, 2013

FALL ... beautiful Fall . . .

Happy 1st Day of Autumn!

Growing up in Western Pennsylvania and living in N.E. Ohio for the past several years, I have always enjoyed the changing of the seasons!  
 
Winter can be so pretty as you sit inside your warm, cozy home and watch the snow gently falling to cover everything with a clean blanket of white!
Spring is a breath of fresh air ... a time when you can open the windows, enjoy the breeze and witness your yard go from dingy winter brown to beautiful springtime green!
Summer is always wonderful with the warm, sunny days and flowers all a bloom.
But FALL can be the best of all!  
With the cooler temperatures, wonderful fresh garden vegetables and the amazing colors of the trees, how could you ask for more!

It was brought to my attention recently of a challenge blog called OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD.  Wow! What an awesome site with beautiful photos and stories being shared.  This week's challenge is FALL and I instantly knew what photo I wanted to share.

 This is a maple tree in my daughter's front yard in Leetonia, Ohio.  
I took this photo back in 2005 but every year it looks JUST LIKE THIS ... just gorgeous. 

 I grew up on 25 acres ... covered with Oak, Maple & Dogwood trees.

 
In fact, my parents had to cut down enough trees to make a clearing to build our house.  They took them to a local saw mill where they were cut into boards that were then used to build the house! 

In case you are not familiar ... the red leaf in the photo is a Maple leaf in its fall color. The green leaf is an Oak and the photo below with the red berries is a Dogwood.

See that 'saw blade' peeking out from behind this dogwood branch.  Well THAT SCARY THING is the actual saw that my parents used to cut the logs that we burned in our wood fired furnace when I was a kid.  Summer time my dad spent hours in the woods cutting & clearing then come fall he would hook up this MONSTROSITY to our tractor that had a pullie belt & motor that created the power to make the blade go around fast enough to cut the logs into burnable size pieces.  Then we kids (3 girls) would help haul it back up to the house and stack it in the basement to get us through the winter.

My father has been passed for 20+ years now and the old saw still sits down in  what was our 'picnic area' and there was even a few years that Mom planted flowers around it in honor of my Dad.  Talk about hard work ... and yikes ... we're lucky no one ever got hurt with this thing!!  Nope ... there was no GUARD ... that saw blade was spinning fast & free and the platform table on the back is on wheels and that's where you laid the logs to pushed them into the saw blade to be cut.

Well ... I didn't mean to go on and on, but thanks for letting me share one of my Fall childhood memories with you today!  
God has certainly blessed us with so many wonderful & beautiful things!  Even this scary old saw blade which enabled my parents to keep our family warm through the cold, harsh winter months.

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend!
As always ...

16 comments:

  1. How cool is that saw, one not to part with. Love the tree, I'm truly ready for fall, now I need to get some decorations up outside. Inside is a mess you wouldn't see them with all the clutter right now.

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  2. Loved this post, Dar! So special to share these memories with us. I could picture you kids hauling the wood into the cellar. Gorgeous trees...great photos, too. What a refreshing post! Thank you!

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  3. Wow, that tree is massive, I mean the thing is HUGE....wonderful pictures my friend...and I so enjoyed your story of the saw. When we were kids we had to go with my Dad and get firewood too, he had an old Hudson Truck and it ran very slow, we would sit in the back on the tailgate and when he would take off we would always say "hudon hudon"...silly I know, but a great memory...thanks for bringing it back!!

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  4. Wonderful pictures and post. As you know, fall is my favorite season...but I love something about all of them. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else...look forward to the changing seasons. Hard to believe Grandpa would've been 93 tomorrow. Btw...did you see who's on the porch in the picture of the tree? My Josie girl. Thanks for the memory lane stroll...love you.

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  5. Such a beautiful story and absolutely beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing your fall story with us. I loved reading about it and I miss living in the NE. I am from NJ but live in Texas right now and there is no four seasons here. I've been living in Texas for 2 years now and hope to move back to my roots and to the NE in the next year or two.
    Hugs,
    Jo

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  6. I don't think I've ever seen such a magnificent tree! This is a lovely post full of beauty ... Thanks so much for sharing at Our Beautiful World!

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  7. Loved your post and beautiful photos! That maple tree is just gorgeous!
    Pam
    scrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com

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  8. I enjoy the fall colors you have around you and I enjoy your story too!
    I took a picture (almost exact) of the red falling leaves 2 years ago at Iowa, aren't they gorgeous lying on the bed of green?
    Thanks for sharing it with us this week at Our Beautiful World!

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  9. What a treasure Darlene, such fond memories! and that tree is wow AMAZING!!!! Thanks for sharing it with us at Our Beautiful world!

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  10. OH that Maple tree is just BEAUTIFUL, what an amazing species! I love it. You must enjoy it every year so much!

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  11. I love Fall, and really enjoyed seeing your pictures. That maple tree in front of your daughter's house is gorgeous! I am hoping we get some beautiful Fall colors this year. That saw blade looks dangerous as heck - but bet it got the job done!

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  12. That gorgeous tree!! It is so like the ones that sat in my front yard as a child in Illinois! Thanks!

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  13. What a wonderful post and beautiful pictures - the tree in your daughter's garden is truly stunning! What you feel about the changing of the seasons is EXACTLY what I feel about it... I find it hard to imagine living in a place where everything's sort of the same all year round.

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  14. What a beautiful post-thank you for sharing your lovely memories :)
    Your leaves are gorgeous-look at those colours!
    Best wishes,Nessa xx

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  15. Beautiful pictures and a lovely memory.
    irene
    xxxx

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  16. WOW!! That has to be the biggest tree I've ever seen! :). Must be lovely to live in such a big area, surrounded by trees and animals. And yes, that saw is SCARY ... Thank you for this lovely share with us at Our Beautiful World.

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Thanks for taking the time to leave me some love!

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