So Bobby-Moore, my son-in-law, he had about a thousand logs all skidded up in the bush, he had a man with them, all winter, all skidded up in the bush. And it was getting late in the spring, and they wanted to get it out to the field, and the man was coming with the moveable saw, do-you-see, to cut it into lumber in the spring.

Interviewer: Now, you're talking about the men being in the bush doing the lumbering in the winter. Why was it winter? Why did they have to do it in the winter? Speaker: Well, that's when they cut the logs. ... And skidded them to the lake. .. They had to skid them all to the lake and many times, they had to skid them across rivers or creeks or lakes and that's- that's when they did it and it was easier to cut the timber in the winter, there's no flies, no bugs, might be a few wolves and moose ar-- ah wolves and moose around but that's what they would do and they'd, you-know, they cut two-thousand logs or five-thousand logs, skid them to the mill, pile them up in big piles beside the mill and get them ready because we had our sawmill there for the summer. So as soon as ah- soon as the first part of May come, they'd start the sawmills, throw saw in these logs. Interviewer: Then you say skid them, now what would that mean? They put them on? Speaker: Put them on sleighs, put them on sleighs and well, they'd do two things. They cut a tree down in the bush, take all the limbs off it and then cut it in sixteen-foot lengths and then they'd get the horses and one one or two horses ah, usually two-horse a team and they'd put one or two of these on a chain and pull them out to a place ah ah (inc) call marshling yard and then there'd be another coop-- load them onto sleighs, another team of horses will pull the one sleigh s-- on a little winter road to the mill. So it was a continuos operation ah and ah that's what he did.

But um then the men, including my father went on a logging drive. Like they'd- they'd had to- to ah get the logs all out of- out of the bush where- where they- other people had been cutting them during the winter and um- and skidded them down to the river and then they made log brooms to- to contain- contain the- you-know, like the big like- like these. These would be logs and then these would be wooden brooms with chains inbe-- tied in between with chains that they floated down the river to the sawmill and ah so anyway we were there just to one- one ah- one year.

Interviewer: Now what else would you do with horses? Speaker: Oh well you- you ah- and I skid log to the bush with them. Interviewer: Now how do you do that? Speaker: Well ah you cut a tree down and you- you- tree is- get ah pine logs. ... So we- we pull the logs out of the bush to where a truck and put them in a big pile where a truck can come and haul them away to a lumber- we sold them to- well my uncle sold them to- way up near Algonquin-Park. ... And then- and you skid them up there ...

But ah the big- the big timber when the years g-- early was pine. ... All winter they'd be- there'd be maybe forty teams of horses one plight in the bush. ... And ah men and ah people cutting, people skidding, people hauling logs out of the bush and other guys drawing the sleigh loads down to- where the truck would get them (inc)- ... Winter only. 'Cause you could sleigh- the sleigh uses snow for sleighing, eh?

Interviewer: Now how do you skid logs? Speaker: (Laughs) Well you put them in ah s-- whippletree and chain and drive them into the bush where the log was and hitch onto it with the chain onto it and then you pull it out with the horses into an open space. Or where you get a skid way to put them on the sleigh and bring them up to the barn. And ah some of them you could skid them out into the field and then load them onto a truck. And later on, I skidded them out into the field and loaded them on to the- a wagon and brought them to town with a tractor and wagon. Ah, good load on the wagon about eight miles to save hiring a truck. And ah I like working in the bush and ah worked for people at Poland. Cutting logs and skidding and- and got used to doing it so.

Speaker: You skidded all them logs into the mill with the horses out. Pulled the lumber and out go the slabs to the horses. ... Interviewer: So what year would- when did the horses go out? Speaker: They're not out yet. ... but I wouldn't let anybody into my bush with a skidder. Speaker 2: They just destroy every tree. ... Speaker: No, you would never get into my bush with a skidder. Interviewer: So a skidder is what? Speaker: It's what they skid the logs with. Speaker 3: Piece of equipment usually they get chains on- ... Which rip and tear and roar and I've seen skidders, oh a number of years ago when we really had snow- ... And like the snow like four, five feet deep. And they're driving through it and pulling logs ... Speaker: They had a whole tree behind that log. ... They just brushed her off, stop, and skidded the whole thing out through the landing eh? Then they cut her up out there.

And I'd been with him when he went around in the wintertime and had all these horses in the bush for skidding and one would get loose in the barn and the- back in the bush in the stable they had. And they were all what they called sharp (inc) eh? Them shoes. And the other one would kick the other one in the arse and just tear him wide open.

Ah, well I've done a lot of different things. ... I was on bulldozer for a while. ... Rooting out trees and- ... Skidding logs, whatever.

Oh yeah, yeah we log in the winter. I cut seventy-five (inc) of wood and the lad that works for me drive my truck. He come and (inc) for me, just in the mornings he'd fill and then I'd skid them out and get them cut up and split and- our woods sheds are right full. ... The- Laringson's had two steam boats up on Dried-Lake and dad bought them off the bank for a hundred dollars and they skidded them over the land. ... And he would draw the logs from down here to Sawyer's and put them over scotch-damn down at (inc) Lake.

Interviewer: So what did you do up in the bush? Speaker: Cut logs. Interviewer: So let's- how did you cut logs in those days? Speaker: ... I took my Swede-saw, I went up in the little valley that runs up behind the camp and in three weeks I had enough stuff down, I was in the clear. ... Interviewer 2: That's- that's hard work. Speaker: Yeah, so I didn't have it skidded but it was lying, kept track of what I had, the mill- the mill that I worked in in the summer bought all m-- my material you-see? They bought my logs ... And you got ah seventy-five cents a piece for them. That was- you-know that- that- that was good, that was good going in those days. ... You couldn't buy a bush lot today even with your big skidders and-stuff and pay for it in three weeks.

... he just talked to her like we're talking and the horse just- it was just like, you-know, if- the- the horse was skidding a log out of this thick swamp, tamarack swamp, he got snagged, you just stop him, back him up a little bit and go over and on you-know ...

Interviewer: What is this called? Speaker: Those are called skid-tongs. Interviewer: Skid-tongs. Speaker: Or log-tongs they could be called. Interviewer: Log-tongs. Interviewer: And- and when you're skidding, there's two horses- there's a whipple-tree here- here a double tree, a swivel hook and the swivel hook- hooks into that. And when you're the teamster, you got to pick that leg of the tong up and swing it.

... that's a long hard process for a team of horses because they have to be rested. You could only do so much. Maybe you do an acre a day or-something a day or-whatever. But with a tractor, you can just- you can just do the whole thing so- but there's other things like skidding out a bit of firewood and- and working in a sugar bush where horses make sense ...

Interviewer: So what would be the biggest tree you could cut down? ... What kind of things did you learn? Speaker: Well, to start with they ah- they got through the bush and they pick out the skid ways where they're going to put- skid the logs onto and then the road ways so when you following trees, you don't follow the tree so they have to move all that brush you-see?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we skidded all our logs with horses pretty well until the latter years and then we had a- a different kind of machine.

Interviewer: On- on your farm, on that five-hundred acres, ah, to get out in the forest were you clearing trails to, ah-? Speaker: Yes, yes, yes. It wa-- well, it- ah, mostly, ah, in terms of trails, ah, I'd say, ah, they were skid trails for horses. ... Yeah, we skidded all our logs with horses pretty well until the latter years and then we had a- a different kind of machine. But, ah, yeah, so it was mostly s-- skidded out into open areas and those open areas happened to be hydro lines, corridors, that sort of thing- or farm fields or-something-like-that, so. Yeah. But no, there's definitely a certain amount of cutting of trails, that's for sure, to- to get the, ah- the logs.

My father was a farmer and a carpenter, which took me into that sphere of activity with horses, everything was done with horses. ... And ah you started out, with the horses, ... maybe when you're ten, you would drive the horses with the load of hay, or an empty wagon. And that's how you would learn to handle the horses. And ah, so then you would graduate from there to being in the bush, and skidding logs when you're maybe twelve. ... And you would skid logs out of the bush ...

I was only sixteen. He was twenty years older than me. I had sixteen children. We had a hard time. ... When I was a young girl, I worked for my father in the bush, cooking for him, too. Baked the bread, I was twelve years old and I skidded the logs and took care of the horses. Had two horses.

Cut wood. Fall the tree and skid it to the landing and land it back and pile it up. Pretty well all hand work but you did it all with horses.