# Weird things in trees



## sgreanbeans (Jul 28, 2011)

OK, tried doing this earlier.Must not have went thru
Over the years I have found some really strange stuff inside a tree. I have found a corvette rim that must have been sitting for like 30-40 years inside a maple, I have found a mass grave of army men and have even found tools, yo-yos, and clothes. The best was a HO's liquor stash that he was hiding from his wife in a hollow base, it was in one of those metal file boxes, had a full bottle of yukon jack and a bunch of empty's, he had been telling her a raccoon lived in their to keep her out. Well, he got in a little trouble because of me! OOPS!

I figured we need to lighten the mood, as lately there has been way to much fighting, I am just as guilty of it, as anybody else. So I figured this would be a good/fun subject.

Whadya find?:kilt:


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## capecodtree (Jul 28, 2011)

*strangre things in trees*

I looked at a big silver maple(4'dbh) about 80' from the waters edge. Some one had put a rope around the tree to hold a winch to pull boats out of the water. the rope has long since rotted out but the tree had grown around the winch, part of the spool and wire cable are still visible. 
I once saw guys removing a 60' maple tree by lashing a series of ladders to the trunk of a the tree. they had no ppe, climbing saddles or climbing ropes. the guy in the tree held on with one hand and cut with the other. appropriatly the tree was next to a cemetery. 
other than that it's only other tree guys.


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## ronnyb (Jul 28, 2011)

When I dropped the trunk of a multi stem silver maple it broke apart and out came a beer bottle from the late 1800's. Hey, this is beer city.


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## flushcut (Jul 28, 2011)

I got nothing really unusual just random sing fixtures, wires, conduit, hook and eye latches, barbed wire, pipe flanges, tennis balls, fabric, plastic bags, concrete, and expanding foam. Oh and pipes copper and steel, t-posts, and rocks.


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## keh10 (Jul 28, 2011)

All I ever find in trees are nails rocks and wire.


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## Mike Cantolina (Jul 28, 2011)

raccoon


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## Bigus Termitius (Jul 28, 2011)

Good laugh on the liquor stash....

I have yet to find anything really special on my own that hasn't been mentioned already, but I love the tales, like old rifles that were leaned up to a tree and left there, or lead bullets from old battlegrounds.


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## chrisoppie (Jul 28, 2011)

Some smart A$$ thought he would hammer a horse shoe in a tree about 50 years before I found it in mid cut. That cost me a bar and chain at the shop


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## tomtrees58 (Jul 28, 2011)

how about topless girls next door other then that all the above:hmm3grin2orange:


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## Slvrmple72 (Jul 28, 2011)

pair of women's thong panties, used, abused, and chewed on by whatever critter took them up in the tree. Come to think of it that does explain that dead raccoon we found at the base of the tree....hmm....go figure. Water pump for a late 80's chevy, it was sticking proud of the crotch that grew around it so we split it free with the logsplitter to see what it was. All the other usual chain/bar wrecking crap is not worth mentioning.:bang:


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## ForTheArborist (Jul 29, 2011)

I found a few balls up there is all.


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## the Aerialist (Jul 29, 2011)

Mike Cantolina said:


> raccoon



I trimmed and deadwooded very large Silver Maple that had a Momma raccoon and three newborn babies. The hollow she was hiding in was right where we placed our ladder and she would growl and hiss at us whenever we went up, but she held her ground to protect her babies.

One other time a raccoon came out and kept climbing higher above me as I advanced up the tree to set my TP. Eventually it made a flying squirrel type leap into another tree. I was relieved as the tree was coming down at I didn't want to drop it with the raccoon still in it.


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## sgreanbeans (Jul 29, 2011)

The one thing I have noticed, all of the weird stuff is usually found in a maple, another thing I didn't really find, as it was not hidden, I bid a job where they had a large Silver that had a 5ft pine growing out of the main crotch, it was one of those multi stems that had a huge main crotch with a large area to collect water, leaves and such. It was really cool, didnt get the job tho, so not sure what happened to the little tree. I told them to leave the trunk and let the pine live! Would have been a unique grafting pic!


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## flushcut (Jul 29, 2011)

I ejected a coon out of a dead oak spar once that I tipped.


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## sgreanbeans (Jul 29, 2011)

Bigus Termitius said:


> Good laugh on the liquor stash....
> 
> I have yet to find anything really special on my own that hasn't been mentioned already, but I love the tales, like old rifles that were leaned up to a tree and left there, or lead bullets from old battlegrounds.


 
Cannon balls! I seen in a museum in Fredricksburg,Va chunks of wood with cannon balls in it, now thats how ya remove a tree! Some of that cival war stuff is worth BIG MONEY!


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## millbilly (Jul 29, 2011)

*this was sickening*

Im located in the most south east corner of Pa so you might be able to figure out the town im talking about. Its rated right up there with camden NJ. Anyway we had a Norway maple growing between the street and the sidewalk that the top had broken out years ago and the trunk had started to decay. The local town natives had filled the cavity with 40 ounce bottles of there favorite beverages, concrete, rocks, and other street trash.

After limbing it out it was time to drop the trunk, we put a pull line on it and dropped it into the street. Opon impact it split open and not hundreds, but thousands of cockroachs spilled out onto the street, and began running for cover. All i could think of was carring them home and they would infest my house and trucks


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## ripplerider (Jul 30, 2011)

4 foot long King snake living in a hollow in a big limb. Didnt live long as my trimmer cut it into 3 pieces while removing the limb with a hydraulic pole saw. He didnt mean to, saw blood flying as he made the cut but it was too late by then. I hated it as I like most snakes. It's a constant battle to keep guys from killing every one they see but I dont allow it. I caught a pretty green snake today while putting in on Section 4 of the Chatooga river. Interesting day as I started out by climbing a large pine and taking it down for a friend who then showed me down the river. Made 100 bucks and a couple of seats for an inflateable kayak I own then got the benefit of her intimate knowledge of her home river. I know that'scheap but she's a good friend.


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## sgreanbeans (Aug 12, 2011)

Found this the other day, this is out in the back of a house my brother built, about 10 years ago. We went to bid the trees I planted back then for pruning, when walking around, I looked up and seen this. It was there before (forgot about it) maybe if it was for a deer stand, as it was a heavily wooded area when my brother bought the land.


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## PinnaclePete (Aug 12, 2011)

Found this today 25 feet up in the crotch of a split Post oak on a golf course in Hot Springs. I estimate over 50 years of growth around the golf ball, we'll know for sure when we get the tree down.
View attachment 194105


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## treeclimber101 (Aug 12, 2011)

I found a antique baby doll in the crotch of a tree , that someone tore the head off and filled with beer bottle caps , and all peals caps ... I thought that was strange to say the least ....


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## Job Corps Tree (Aug 15, 2011)

*Weired things in trees*

Found a Ships Anchor grown into the base of a Big Weeping Willow, Large C clamp in an Apple (I still have) had to split it out, Model A Axle in a stump took all the teeth off the cutting wheel when I hit it, plus all the concrete,Tar paper, rock, rebar and brick from cavity fills


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## sgreanbeans (Aug 15, 2011)

PinnaclePete said:


> Found this today 25 feet up in the crotch of a split Post oak on a golf course in Hot Springs. I estimate over 50 years of growth around the golf ball, we'll know for sure when we get the tree down.
> View attachment 194105


 


4!


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## imagineero (Aug 16, 2011)

I often find white river pebbles up in the crowns of cocos palms and puzzled over it. I found out from another guy I worked with that birds take them up there. They think the pebbles are eggs, and carry them up to cocos palms for a feed. When they realize they dont taste too great they leave them and fly off. Record so far for me was 10 pebbles in one cocos.

Other that that, all the usual crap. Did 4 stumps today and all the usual bricsk, rocks, lumps of steel. Found one had grown right over one of those small lay down in quarters type concrete rings for mowing. I hate stump grinding.

Shaun


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## arborpros (Aug 16, 2011)

I had a climber of mine gut and kill an opossum that was in a hollow log and he did not even know it.


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## flushcut (Aug 16, 2011)

arborpros said:


> i had a climber of mine gut and kill an opossum that was in a hollow log and he did not even know it.


 
messy!!


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## TreeAce (Aug 16, 2011)

arborpros said:


> I had a climber of mine gut and kill an opossum that was in a hollow log and he did not even know it.


 
I had a similar thing happen. Was taken down a good sized tree that was mostly dead and I had noticed a decent sized hole in the trunk but gave it no mind. It was a bucket job and the tree was kinda like in the middle of the gravel driveway. Not much under it so very easy to do. Limbed it and dropped the log. While cutting up the log , all of a sudden, I see "stuff" flying off the end of my bar. I thought the oiler went nuts or something. I was pretty much through so as the piece o wood kinda fell off there was half a raccoon laying there. It had just kept backing up in that log till he couldnt back up anymore. All the poor guy had to do was run out the end of that log but I guess it was to scared. I felt bad....but what u gonna do?


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## tree md (Aug 16, 2011)

I had a squirrel do that onetime. I was in the tree and cleaning up a about a 6" stub after a pruning cut and when the stub hit the ground the squirrel bailed. How he made himself scrunch up enough to avoid my bar and chain I will never know because there was virtually no room in that hollow little stub. I also had a whole family of squirrels run off one at a time while I was bucking a tree I had dropped. I could see the first one's tail after I dropped the tree and pulled him out by the tail. Every few minutes another one would bail out of the log. I think there was like 4 in all. I was worried the whole time I was gonna kill one making a cut while the HO's wife sat there looking on...

Also had a young possum almost bite me in a maple that had been topped about 25 years earlier. The tree was rotten and hollow at the previous topping cuts and the possum was in one of the hollows. By the time I saw him he nearly had my hand in his mouth. Thank God I was tied in. Scared me so bad I would have prolly fell otherwise... Dam possum will bite a man's hand off!!!


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## tree.bro.NZ (Aug 18, 2011)

Recently removed a fairly decent size pohutakawa (New Zealand native) up against two walls of the local backpackers, you can imagine the things we were graced with condoms were just the beging !! not fun lol


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## Scrat (Aug 18, 2011)

ForTheAction said:


> I found a few balls up there is all.


 
Who's do you think they were? If they were high up then prolly a new guy....


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## woodchux (Aug 19, 2011)

I found a bunch of baby bats in a pecan tree last month... They started screeching at me when i lowered down the limb they were on.


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## woodchux (Aug 19, 2011)

ripplerider said:


> 4 foot long King snake living in a hollow in a big limb. Didnt live long as my trimmer cut it into 3 pieces while removing the limb with a hydraulic pole saw. He didnt mean to, saw blood flying as he made the cut but it was too late by then. I hated it as I like most snakes. It's a constant battle to keep guys from killing every one they see but I dont allow it. I caught a pretty green snake today while putting in on Section 4 of the Chatooga river. Interesting day as I started out by climbing a large pine and taking it down for a friend who then showed me down the river. Made 100 bucks and a couple of seats for an inflateable kayak I own then got the benefit of her intimate knowledge of her home river. I know that'scheap but she's a good friend.


 
We go down the Chattooga a couple times a month. Usually section 3, but i'll paddle down section 4 when the water is low. Let me know if you want to hook up and paddle sometime.


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## alonfn4 (Jun 2, 2012)

I was Removing a leader from an oak tree yesterday it was dead and hollowed out (Carpenter Ant Damage). I was Bucking the Top side when I flipped it over with the peavy out poured a colony of Grubs some how living 40' off the Ground. First time I have ever seen then in a tree. Boy was I glad I tied into the other solid leader the walls were only 2-3" thick on 20" dia leader with rot from the base to tips.


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## tomtrees58 (Jun 2, 2012)




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## tree md (Jun 2, 2012)

tomtrees58 said:


>



I had one of those in a Walnut last month. Thankfully it was visible.

Had a weird deal a few weeks back doing a job with a bucket. I had been flying around one side of the tree deadwooding and I kept seeing this huge Mocking Bird on a large lower limb and it was right beyond the branch union where I needed to make my cut. I kept getting closer and closer to the bird and it would not move. I had worked the whole tree and had not seen a nest so I couldn't figure out why the bird wouldn't fly. I thought it might be dead as I have found a couple of birds perched in a tree dead before. I got to within two feet of the bird and saw it blink so I knew it wasn't dead. Finally I grabbed a twig and shook the limb and the bird still wouldn't fly. I shook harder and literally had to shake the bird out of the limb to make it fly off... Weird.

I found an ancient horseshoe grown over in a crotch before... Found various old cans and bottles in hollows... City trees are the nastiest. Always seem to be infested with cock roaches and I have found hypodermic needles in a couple of them.


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## sodbreaker (Jun 2, 2012)

Had A flying squirrel come out of a tree and land on me as I was cutting down the tree next to it. That count for anything?


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## Treetom (Jun 3, 2012)

Weird thing in tree. Country boy. View attachment 240341


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## Philbert (Aug 7, 2017)

Bump

Interesting article in '_The Vintage News'_ about military relics, including live ordinance, in a Russian forest, remains from WWII:

https://m.thevintagenews.com/2015/1...embeded-into-trees-in-nevsky-pyatachok-Russia

"Weapons from WWII embeded into trees in Nevsky Pyatachok – Russia"

Philbert


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## Stayalert (Aug 9, 2017)

35' up a red pine I found a small piece of lumber with nails and some sheet metal....It was from the house that was previously on the site. That house blew up as a result of a propane leak a few years before I ended up doing tree work at the property with a new house...


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## ChipChomper (Nov 23, 2017)

Besides barbed wire nothing but mice, hornets, and angry squirrels. I saw my foreman fight a squirrel off with his hand saw once and now I always knock before I climb to let the inhabitants know they have company. Sounds like I'm missing out on the shenanigans everyone else is experiencing...


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## ABlease (Oct 5, 2018)

ripplerider said:


> 4 foot long King snake living in a hollow in a big limb. Didnt live long as my trimmer cut it into 3 pieces while removing the limb with a hydraulic pole saw. He didnt mean to, saw blood flying as he made the cut but it was too late by then. I hated it as I like most snakes. It's a constant battle to keep guys from killing every one they see but I dont allow it. I caught a pretty green snake today while putting in on Section 4 of the Chatooga river. Interesting day as I started out by climbing a large pine and taking it down for a friend who then showed me down the river. Made 100 bucks and a couple of seats for an inflateable kayak I own then got the benefit of her intimate knowledge of her home river. I know that'scheap but she's a good friend.



Section 4 is rad. Totally worth the short money on the job.


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## The Singing Arborist (Oct 5, 2018)

One time I found a 3/4 eaten slice of pizza, 30 ft up in an elm. I figure a bird had grabbed it, eaten it there, then left the crust...picky birds eat like my kids.


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## Intotheether (Oct 19, 2018)

Has anyone opted to buy a metal detector and have the greenhorn check all the tree trunks before cutting?


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## Thumper88 (Oct 28, 2018)

When I was a kid in the 90’s my uncle had a circle mill. He hit a railroad spike someone had driven in a big hickory. It ripped teeth and rings out and broke all kinds of stuff


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## Haironyourchest (Feb 6, 2019)

Some guy in here found a letter sealed inside a stainless steel container...pretty weird. There's a thread about it in here somewhere...


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