Shelby Stanga moved to the swamps north of New Orleans when he was nine years old. He has been a logger there for more than four decades. On his shows, Shelby was often accompanied by his dog Willy, his friends Earl and Bob, and his cousin Jarvis. Unfortunately, Willy died in 2015. Shelby was part of the Swamp Man Logging Team on the third and fourth seasons of the Ax Men reality show. Stanga and his crew work the summer logging season on the show. The Swamp Man Logging Team also appeared in season five of the television reality series. Some of the logs he recovers have been sitting in the mud for many, many years. Some of these trees range in age from 2,000 years old to 5,000 years old and have absorbed minerals from the mud in a process that alters the appearance of the wood. This process results in a rainbow of colors — yellow, red, blue, green, purple, and brown — and a very attractive product that Stanga sells to such furniture makers as the Northshore’s Keith Dufour.