36.   This weekend the Shed-Headz Crew headed west to the Sooley family cabin near Whitbourne for a firewood cutting trip. The plan was to replenish the supply we've been using on our annual winter cabin trip over the last few years. The cabin uses wood stoves for its primary heat source and the damn stuff don't cut itself!

35.   I got off work early on Friday so I headed out earlier than Sooley & French who both had to work till 5. This way I could take advantage of the nice weather to get the cabin heated up and some pre-woodcutting work complete.

34.

33.   With the woodstoves lit I loaded my new (to me) Sthil MS250 chainsaw into Project 6x6 and headed in the back trail where we planned to cut firewood.

32.   The new saw is awesome and a huge improvement over my old 42cc Poulan which never ran great, had a tiny chain, and was way underpowered.

31.   There were some windfalls blown down across the old trail so I spent Friday afternoon cutting and bucking them to have the trail open and ready to use Saturday morning.

30.   This also garnered a couple extra box cart loads of fairly dry firewood to haul out later the weekend.

29.   Friday evening Sooley & French arrived and we set about getting stuff ready for the next day's woodcutting operations. First up was replacing the tongue on the log cart. The old slight steel tongue snapped off last year when Maffer was towing out a load of firewood from the long trail with his beastly Can Am 800 ATV.

28.   Sooley had an old piece of heavy square stock kicking around so we fit it to the trailer and welded it in place with his 110v wire feed arc welder.

27.  We were unsure of the penetration strength of the welds so we also drilled some holes and added some 1/2" diameter bolts securing the tongue to the cross members for added strength and durability.

26.  Finally a new 2" hitch was bolted in place.

25.   The new trailer tongue is much longer than the old to provide much better balance when loaded and also makes backing up much easier.

24.   Meanwhile French was hard at work tuning up all the saws, square filing and cleaning the oil grooves on the bars, touching up the chains with a round file, general cleaning, and topping up with fresh fuel & bar oil.

23.

22.   Our activities were paired with some kick ass Romeo & Julieta Cigars and a bottle of epic maple moonshine!

21.   It rained most of Saturday morning but finally cleared off by lunchtime. We hooked the log hauler trailer to Sooley's trusty Honda 300 4x4 and the box cart to Project 6x6 and headed in the back trail to start cutting. Ronnie arrived just in time to lend a hand for the afternoon. Many hands make light work.

20.   French and I made a cutting plan with him on one end and me on the other. We started felling trees, liming, and buckin to length while Ronnie & Sooley loaded the trailer and hauled the wood out to the Cabin.

19.   Once we got a good size clearing opened up we started a fire to clear up the boughs from the Sooley property. This makes the area a lot safer to work in with a lot less trip hazards. When cutting under a provincial cutting permit on crown lands you're supposed to leave branches on the ground.

18.

17.   French's Husqvarna 359 is an awesome professional series saw that continues to work extremely well. The upgraded 18" solid bar and 3/8 chain get the job done with ease and great reliability.

16.   Through the day French and I continued felling while the byes hauled logs and dragged boughs to the fire. Ronnie had to leave mid afternoon but Justin showed up just in time to continue with the work, our fantastic crew hardly missed a beat!

15.

14.

13.   That evening we relaxed in the cabin and enjoyed an awesome barbeque steak supper.

12.   Sunday morning after a quick breakfast we were back at it aiming to fall and get as much firewood as possible out before days end. Justin had to go back to town overnight but arrived back at the cabin bright and early with coffees in hand.

11.   My Sthil 250 continued to work great, using the Husky pre-mix fuel definitely made both saws run a lot better as it's made from high test fuel. The best part is its stable for up to 3 years once open. For our crowd who don't use saws often this is a great feature as it won't go bad in the tank clogging the fuel system or carburetor. 

10.

9.

8.

7.   As the day progressed we were down to the men for awhile so I started hauling out the junked larger logs with the Argo and box cart to get as much firewood out to the cabin as possible. 

Project 6x6 Update: Despite another cleaning the carburetor is still not 100% on the Argo. It runs decently but I don't think it's making full power, I have to run with the choke partially on and it stalls at idle. After this weekend I will be ordering a rebuild kit and some high strength cleaner to make it good as new.

6.   Not a bad pile of wood (both in full lengths and bucked) for a couple short days work. This will be left to season until next year before is junked, split and stowed away in the woodshed.

5.

4.   Buckin Billy Ray would be proud I'm sure!

3.

2.   As evening drew near we wrapped up our cutting operations and began packing up to head home. Before leaving we winterized the water system in the cabin as overnight temperatures are to dipping below freezing, this will prevent broken water feeds and drains.

1.   All in all it was a very successful weekend, good friends working hard to get an important job done while enjoying some dandy meals and lots of laughs!

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith