At five feet tall and weighing 100 pounds, Liz McMann is probably the last woman a person might picture behind a chainsaw.

The single mom never thought it was in her cards either, but with a sparse resume and a need to create an income, one year ago McMann started looking at chainsaw carving as an option.

She had no experience, but thought of fashioning decorative garden items out of log ends seemed like a workable idea.

"I knew if I could just get past the fear of chainsaws, I could do it," she said.

"It's not that I was looking for anything big. I just wanted to fill my freezer and fix my truck."

In May, she got a gig at the local home and garden show, carving garden furniture while people watched in amazement at this tiny woman wielding a huge chainsaw.

It attracted a lot of good attention, so she took it one step further. She contacted Stihl Canada (chainsaw manufacturer) to pursue sponsorship.

It took a lot of letter writing, but persistence paid off. McMann impressed them so much with the notion of a woman and her saw, the company recently offered their backing along with a truckload of equipment.

The package included a couple of brand new saws and head-to-toe safety gear that will come in handy when she embarks on her upcoming summer carving tour.

She has invitations to stage demonstration at more than half a dozen festivals, including a 10-day August engagement in Revelstoke as main entertainment in their forestry museum's Railway Days celebration. The town's Timber Days event also has her booked for early July and she said there's been interest shown from, Whistler Mountain Resort.

"It just seems to be taking off creatively and in other ways. I can talk the talk, but I can also walk the walk."