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.

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33.   With the woodstoves lit, I loaded my new (to me) Sthil MS250 chainsaw into Project Argo and headed up the back trail to where we planned to cut firewood on the property.

32.   The new saw is awesome and a huge improvement over my old 42cc Poulan which never ran well, 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 activities. 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.

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22.   Our activities were paired with some kick ass Romeo Y 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 my Argo and headed in the back trail to start cutting. Ronnie also arrived 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.

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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, hardly missing a beat!

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

12.   Sunday after a quick breakfast we were back at it aiming to fall and haul as much firewood as possible before days end. Justin who had to go back to town overnight arrived bright and early coffees in hand to help out once again.

11.   My Sthil 250 continued to work great, using the Husky pre-mix fuel definitely makes both saws run a lot better as its made from high test fuel. The best part is its stable for up to 3 years once open so it wont quickly go bad in the container or in the equipment which is great for machines that are not used often.

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7.   As the day wore on we were down to 3 men for awhile so I started hauling out the bucked larger logs with the Argo and box cart to get as much firewood out to the cabin as possible.  The carburetor is still not 100% on the Argo, it runs decent but far from perfect. After this weekend I will be ordering a rebuild kit and some high strength industrial 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 and dry before is bucked, split and stowed away in the woodshed.

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

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2.   As evening drew near we finished our cutting and began loading up for home. We also set about winterizing the water system in the cabin as evening temperatures are starting to dip to freezing, this will prevent broken water feeds and drains.

1.   All in all it was a successful weekend with good friends working hard to get an important job done.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith