A Sawyer - every town, nook, village and hamlet had one of these enterprising individuals. Most started off with a one cylinder engine bolted on a wagon. The sawing machine outfit was a 24 inch blade that had been used to cut rough lumber. The saw blade was mounted on a shaft that sat on a skid. This would be pulled by an old truck. The engine would be started and a belt would be hooked over the power takeoff then to the skid. The belt would make a figure 8 so as not to slip off. With the blade whirring at top speed, a table of steel was set up along side for the cord wood to be fed and cut. A simple process but a lot of labor was eliminated in an efficient manner. Later, the operation was simplified by mounting the sawing outfit directly on a small rubber tire tractor. This made it easier to move from one job to the next.
 

I remember well, going with the men on ‘blow days’ when we lived on Humbuck Bay on Lake Winnipeg. Our portion of the bay was a cul-de-sac for all types of wondrous surprises. A bonus my family would say. Much of the timber washed ashore had broken free from logging booms. Other perfectly good timbers had simply been in the wrong place when the big lake decided to shift some ice around. We would pile the wood to dry with the idea of later hauling it to our camps for cutting. After all, wood was our only source for comfort and cooking. And it took a lot to keep the monster in the cook house at well-fed.
 

Even though we lived in the forest, the trees still had to cut and cured before they could be burned. Remember our primary function was fishing not cutting cord wood. Needless to say the days were taken up quickly. We were lucky to have our own sawing outfit. “Dusty Gusty”, the Gimli blacksmith, had welded a table on to the front of our small Cleveland crawler tractor. The power takeoff kept the blade whirring and we always had wood for the camps.
When we moved to Gimli so my brother and I could go to school, Father would contract with the local farmers to deliver 12 cords of wood to our home by Easter each year. Then someone like Siggi “Sawed It” would come and cut the wood. This was always done on the beginning of Easter holidays which did not make my brother and I very happy. We think Father planned it that way to try and keep us out of trouble. We would split and pile wood for hours. Robert found a splitting maul in the shallow water near the big dock. He fashioned a handle out of a broken hockey stick and one swing was all that was needed to dispatch the toughest log.
 

It was the happiest day of our young lives when Father bought Mother an electric stove and an oil space heater. This would free my brother and I to do more important things with the Easter holiday - like earning some pocket change by setting some nets, and selling fresh fish to the Winnipeg campers who came to check on their cottage.

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February 2014