Write On!

              We would be on the road around 9 a. m. and home by 5 p. m. if
possible. The distance varied by what kind of timber we were after in different
areas. Traveling on the road allowance where there would be some sort of trail
was rather uneventful. When we got closer to the timber we would go across
some sloughs and make our own trail as everything was frozen. The ice would
crack with the weight of our outfit and this would upset poor Spot to no end. He
would jump up in the air and pounce and follow the cracks under the snow and
through bulrushes barking and yelping and never seemed to learn he couldn't
find them.
Once we arrived at the spot where we were going to cut our load Dad
would trample the snow down and plan his day. It was my job to unhook the
horses and tie them out of the way of falling trees. Dad would never let me use
an axe except to limb a tree once it was felled. I guess my aim wasn't that
accurate. This was before the chain saws of any type and lots of strength and
experience was required. However I surely knew how to use the cross cut saw
to top the trees, cut them in lengths or whatever. Sometimes a tree had to be
' snaked out' closer to the sleigh and this was also my job. One horse would be
used with a logging chain to pull the tree out - if the snow was deep this was
quite a task but necessary as the horse was stronger than we were.
In 1934 Dad decided he had to buiid a new barn from logs of course.
This project required far more searching once in the bush for suitable trees.
Also the rear bunk on the sleigh had to be lengthened out with logging chains
to accommodate the longer logs. This was a pesky nuisance in many ways plus
more work and it took longer to load these heavy green logs.
The crack of the axe and zing of the saw hitting the tree plus the cry of
limber" as it came down echoed all through the bush as many neighbours
were working within ear shot. About 11: 30 a. m. Dad would say it was almost
lunch time. I'm sure the dog understood him too. I would build a fire, and
sometimes had to dig through a lot of snow to get closer to the ground. Our
coffee in a syrup pail had to be heated, lunch spread out and horses fed too. As
we were eating or as soon as there was any smoke from the camp fire several
jays, ' whisky jacks', sometimes called ' camp robbers', would appear. We would
throw a piece of our sandwich in one direction to them and in the other direction
to Spot. The latter detested these birds and would sometimes leave his piece
and dash in the other direction to grab their piece, then come back to his. There
were numerous squirrels chattering away to further annoy the poor dog and he
never seemed to learn he couldn't catch them. Dad and I quite enjoyed the
circus anyway.
We were always very glad to get the load on the sleigh chained down,
and the team hooked up and ready to go home. Spot was ready too but he
always seemed to have enough energy to chase a frightened rabbit and follow
the ice cracks again on the sloughs. The trip home was slow with the load on
and many times we were quite wet from the snow and took turns walking