# I Found it in a tree.......



## DDM (Nov 26, 2005)

I found these about 60' in a tree last week.


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## Sizzle-Chest (Nov 26, 2005)

did you find a skeleton too? thats a good find for sure. the best i ever got was a butter knife in a locust tree, and that sucked because i found it after it wrecked my chain!


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## DDM (Nov 26, 2005)

I found a fishing reel in a water oak about 5 yrs ago. It for some reason was in a crotch
40' high the only thing left not completely encased in wood was the end of the handle.


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## Koa Man (Nov 26, 2005)

I have found golf balls, thong panties and a dollar bill in coconut palms. One of my guys once found a $20 bill in a coconut palm. These things (except for the golf balls) get taken into the palm by birds who use it to make their nests.


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## DDM (Nov 26, 2005)

LMAO I would have assumed you were working next to the Strip club.


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## PTS (Nov 26, 2005)

DDM said:


> LMAO I would have assumed you were working next to the Strip club.




That's exactly what I was thinking!


Last year I found some concrete that some arse years ago filled the tree with. Thats enough to set you off.


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## JimL (Nov 26, 2005)

old rail off a bed frame, wrecked a 36" chain.


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## PTS (Nov 26, 2005)

I just remembered. on a farm in the trunk an old eye beam. Thank hurt a chain or two.


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## rebelman (Nov 26, 2005)

Barney fife put those there years ago. Aunt Bee climbed up there to unlock him. The scariest thing I've found was a sharp metal arrowhead. The cedar shaft had rotted away.


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## jp hallman (Nov 26, 2005)

I found a horseshoe while splitting a piece of firewood. It bogged my splitter down and then "popped" bigtime! Old hand forged shoe. Must have been hung on a branch years ago by a sheep-herder. I've found several arrows, all graphite shafts and broadtips.


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## Redbull (Nov 26, 2005)

Off subject here, but does anyone collect arrowheads?


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## DDM (Nov 26, 2005)

I Took down a 60" Dbh Hollow Water oak on an old Farm about 3 yrs ago.This tree must have been where all the farms implements were stored. In the tree i found half of a plow,
Multiple chains,Tractor water pump, Part of a harrow and several horse shoes. I ruined 7 chains that day. Too say the least i was pissed.


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## Lumberjack (Nov 26, 2005)

I found an X man action figure 40' up a hackberry in the center cavity. I may post a picture if I feel up to it.


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## stihlpid (Dec 4, 2005)

ive found a gold pan in a crotch and old 1/2 chain that a old timer must of lost when he tryed to cut the same crotch apart


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## treesurgeon (Dec 4, 2005)

found a horseshoe when grinding a stump.


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## Mike Barcaskey (Dec 4, 2005)

PTS, I live in the concrete tree capital of the world. usually hit it about 3-4 times a year

Took a lrage silver maple down on a rental property. it had a hollow crotch about 5 feet high that everyone used for a garbage can. filled two five gallon buckets out of it, most interesting thing was an old brass lock

four way electrical junction box about 6 inches deep in an oak
railroad spikes
ax head


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## Trignog (Dec 6, 2005)

Why is this in arborist 101 forum. Seems seasond climbers would have more to contribute to this particular thread.


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## moss (Dec 8, 2005)

Trignog said:


> Why is this in arborist 101 forum. Seems seasond climbers would have more to contribute to this particular thread.



Well... it's great cautionary stuff for newbies, you never know what's going to be buried in wood.
-moss


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## notahacker (Dec 8, 2005)

I once found a muffin half eaten in a crotch of a tree. It was hard as a rock. I figure a squirrel found it somewhere and took it up there. It tasted pretty good too! 

Just Kidding!


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## Filer (Dec 8, 2005)

Have found several electric fence insulators with 6 foot bandmills over the years. You usually end up with 40 feet of watchsprings where the bandsaw used to be. Have also sawed railroad spikes completely in half without blowing a saw, of course the saw wasn't good for anything for scrap afterwards, but it is always a lot better to keep the saw on the wheels.


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## Ryan Cafferky (Dec 8, 2005)

While doing removals in some of the outlying areas around Portland I have hit bullets in trees a few times. 

The worst ever though was when I was stump grinding after removing a tree. I hit a huge coil spring and a brake drum. I was grinding with a vermeer 505 and I ripped off five of the tooth pockets and ruined half the teeth.


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## Pollock777 (Dec 17, 2005)

I found a railroad spike when I was grinding a stump grinding wheel threw it right into the tire and stuck in rim. Not a bad day no one hurt and a tire and rim $100.00 that the owner of the stump payed for. Biggest thing no one got hurt. Was a good day.


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## Redbull (Dec 17, 2005)

I admire your positive attitude.


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## Blake22 (Jan 27, 2006)

Redbull said:


> Off subject here, but does anyone collect arrowheads?


I think it's safe to say I collect arrowheads.


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## wood hacker (Jan 29, 2006)

I just hate the ******** who fasten barbed wire to tree trunks only for it to end up 6" within the trunk!!!


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## b1rdman (Jan 29, 2006)

wood hacker said:


> I just hate the ******** who fasten barbed wire to tree trunks only for it to end up 6" within the trunk!!!




You're not kidding...I was one of those ******* when I was growing up. I built a lot of fenceline on trees in my younger days. Now I own the property where we used to farm, and I run into barbed wire and electric fence insulators a couple times each year. 

There's even a few trees near a pond with 8" spikes in them (to rest your rod on when horn poutin')...of course you can't see the spikes anymore.

Guess I have to accept the consequences huh?


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## PTS (Jan 29, 2006)

wood hacker said:


> I just hate the ******** who fasten barbed wire to tree trunks only for it to end up 6" within the trunk!!!



If this drives you crazy don't come to Iowa. Farmers here are notorious for this. You would say it is a way of life here.


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## SilentElk (Jan 30, 2006)

I have hit my share of nails and barb wire as as much as anyone who does trees probably does. Worst was a 50" willow we were taking down in a from yard. We were making the bottom cut, about 12" up since the swell was real bad, and as we got nearly finished we started hitting something. 3 chains later and a couple trucks on rocks to yank the bottom 8' over the tree finally drops. Turns out the tree had split when it was 5 or 6 years old and someone had clamped the 2 halves together with a 10" bolt and some junky steel scrap for plates on the outside.

Best I have heard was a from a retired firewood cutter whom I did a ton of work for. Been 7 years so dont recall exactly, but apparently him, or possibly a friend he was working with, hit a gun in a tree! Their best guess the tree was a double leader and some hunter leaned the gun against it and couldnt find the gun. tree grew around it and next thing you know a guy with a chainsaw is cutting through it! Attempting to at least hehe. Not sure if it's true but a good story either way. I like to think it is. He also, personally I know, found a chainsaw bar stuck in a tree that had been there for a few weeks. Apparently the genius who left it didnt have a another saw, bar, money or friend to get a saw.


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## Stumper (Jan 30, 2006)

Wire, nails, steel posts, waterpipes, rocks (one chunk of sandstone12 feet up the tree in a hollow) 1.25inch axle stubs, rairoad spikes, railroad rail, toy soldiers, toy robot, Highquality hardened tip screwdriver(I managed to hit that with only the left side teeth on the chain-what a mess), rubber tires, and my all time favorite was when a big elm hit the ground, split apart and an old waterpump fel out. I told the customer that tree was dying of a bad waterpump.


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## SilentElk (Jan 30, 2006)

Stumper said:


> I told the customer that tree was dying of a bad waterpump.



I like that. Good soild witty esponse there. An instant classic. I think I'll joke around and tell customers the water pump is broke so the tree needs to come down. Hehe


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## PTS (Jan 30, 2006)

It wasn't in a tree but right next to several stumps. Got out of my truck to check my load today and as I was getting back in I was looking at the stumps and noticed a 4 foot felling Lever that someone had left in the ditch. That was gracious of them. I will take good care of it.


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## Redbull (Jan 30, 2006)

Hey, thats mine. Go check the lost and stolen forum.


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## treesurgeon (Jan 30, 2006)

today i hit a cable at twenty feet up. cut some more and hit a nail at 6 foot. then at three foot, a dead squirrel in the tree. after removing it, i cut some more and i hit concrete. with two cuts left, i packed up and left. told the home owner that i was taking tomorrow off to figure out the bill for new chains.


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## Tree Machine (Jan 30, 2006)

Eeeek. I hate trees like that. I once went through 11 chains in the last 4 feet of a trunk. Fencepost, cocked off at a weird angle. Shoulda walked away, but I stuck it out. Pics on that later.


For now, I was working with Sqwerl a few weeks ago in Florida and we came across this:


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## Gearhead1 (Jan 31, 2006)

Speaking of squirrels, I've had rodent/chainsaw encounters twice. The first occassion was while taking down a hollow box-elder (about 30 ft high and 22" trunk). I was bucking the trunk into firewood lengths and noticed what looked like fur coming out of the cut along with the wood shavings. Sure enough, I had cut a frozen squirrel right in two! The second time finding a squirrel was in another much bigger and older box-elder. My friend was climbing up and taking off one of the main leads in chunks, and I was running the ropes. While cutting in an approx. 12" diameter section, he (and I) noticed what looked like hemp rope coming out of the cut. He did have such a rope along the back side of the piece to catch it when it fell, but was not near cutting into it. When he was far enough through the cut that the chunk fell off, a squirrel with a shortened tail came running down the lead he was on and into another part of the tree. It turned out that the squirrel had been in a cavity formed from a broken and rotted branch.


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## Sprig (Jan 31, 2006)

Maple trees! "Can you lower the stump?" Nope, not after the last bunch of rocks (one itty-bitty piece of basalt cost me two good chains, barely scratched it,  sheesh). Never fails, they are notorious for picking up stones and I've found good sized ones 3-4ft off the ground.
When in the mill one day (I was pulling slabs) the quad-saw operator hit a chunk of metal in a big douglas fir log, these giant bandsaw blades are about 10" wide, about 14ft in diameter, and move at around 10,000ft per minute, it tore off most every tooth before exploding (loudly) into several large pieces of flying schrapnel. It turned out to be a 6" cannonball, the saw made it almost 1/4 of the way through before destructing and the guy tailing the saw (flipping over the cants etc) didn't stop shaking for an hour or so. That was the strangest thing we found in a tree but also found axe heads, bicycle parts, fencing, rocks (large and not so) and deer antler and nails of various sizes. When 'enviromentalists' were threatening to spike trees we had a metal detector installed.
Always take great care cutting anything near field's fence-lines, nothing quite like barbedwire or pagewire to wreck your day. :bang:


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## PWB (Jan 31, 2006)

Found wire and nails in the past, but the latest incident involved coons. A big beech broke of about 15 or 20 feet up in the bush. Tree was obviously rotten and hollow wher the break was, but since we were cutting firewould, I moved about another 8 or ten feet up the tree and cut in to see if it was worth the effort. Apparently about halfway through the cut I disturbed a couple of critters. They took off out the end, one went up the standing stump, the other took of across teh bush trailing a little blood. Nasty way to wake up from a long winter's nap! I know where there's a page wire gate embedded in a big cottonwood, will try to get some pictures this week.


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## smokechase II (Jan 31, 2006)

*rocks*

Sprig:
How could a tree pick up a rock? What mechanism?

It must be from a fork near the ground getting a rock in it and then a tree growing around it. Or similar with an odd shaped bottom.

If I'm flat out dead wrong again, don't hold back, go ahead and tell me.


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## SilentElk (Feb 1, 2006)

smokechase II said:


> Sprig:
> How could a tree pick up a rock? What mechanism?
> 
> It must be from a fork near the ground getting a rock in it and then a tree growing around it. Or similar with an odd shaped bottom.
> ...



I have done alot of landscaping and alot of times when new rock is brought in they will dump wheel barrow on the tree. Often then will not even clean the new rock out of the crotches of trees and bushes. Kids also drag rocks to weird places.


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## Sprig (Feb 1, 2006)

SmokechaserII, yep, when maples start out in a clump I think they must lift the dirt etc. between them as they get larger and grow around it. When we got rocks in firs or hemlocks in the mill I can think of at least a couple of sources; Being dragged along the ground and blasting nearby come immediately to mind. Sometime this week I have a fairly large pine that has to come down, someone years ago put up a crossbar with 1/2" poly rope and it strangled it to death (now deeply imbedded about 15ft up), its near my house and about 60' high, 16"dbh, and quite dead, hopefully not too tricky. We have a collection of pines that were killed by having fencing attached to them, I guess they're sort of sensitive (doesn't seem to bother the douglas firs though) and I guesstimate its taken about 15-20yrs to do them in, a shame really.


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## aggiewoodbutchr (Feb 6, 2006)

*Critters*

Nails, rocks, wire & bullets pretty common.

Smoked a chain last month on a 6" rock 2 feet up in a 24" cedar.

Oddest encounter for me had to be this. I was trimming some limbs from a pecan about 20' up. When the first section of limb snapped I was showered with cockroaches. :blob6: The limb was no more than 8" dia but it turned out to be hollow. I regained my nerves and proceeded to cut the limb back closer to the trunk. This time after the section dropped I peered into the hollow to check for any more surprises. There staring back at me 3" away from my cut was a large snake!  I guess he was hunting a crunchy snack but upon seeing me he went further into the limb. Again, I regained my nerves and cut the remaining limb from the trunk. On ground I shook the snake from the limb. I'm not sure what it was but it was about 4' long, iridescent black with a yellow belly and non-poisonous.

Pretty wierd.


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## treemonk (Feb 6, 2006)

*new member*

I'm pretty new to this but i have been around long enought to ruin a fare share of chains on nails, fences, bricks and cement in the centre of trees But the wrost i ever got was when i was blocking the tree after iwas done taking the branches out. I was doing my cut through the trunk at the same time there was a racoon trying to get out and i cut one of his back leg off not the prettiess thing to see. Anyway it made for a good laught at the end of the day.


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## PWB (Feb 6, 2006)

Local town forman (now retired) told me about cutting down a big maple in front of the town hall. Wrecked about three chains, tree was FULL of gravel. Thought about it for a while , and realized that when he was a kid (better than 60 at the time) him and his buddys used to see who could throw a stone up into the hole in the tree, which was up about twenty feet. Must have had a LOT of time on their hands back then!


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## aggiewoodbutchr (Feb 7, 2006)

Just remembered when I was a kid my father and I pulled a dead-fall tree trunk into our hunting camp to cut up for firewood. When we put the saw to it we started to smell strong skunk sent. Turns out a mother skunk had made her nest in the hollow trunk and had several babies in there with her. We promptly returned the log to where we found it.

:fart:


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## phlynott (Feb 15, 2006)

*motorcycle*

A few months ago I saw a 1920 indian powerplus chief for sale on ebay, and the front forks and wheel were surrounded by tree! Apparently the owner had parked it between two then saplings and over the years the trees grew together and actually raised the bike about a foot off the ground.


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## Kate Butler (Feb 15, 2006)

*does this count?*

The sign seems to've gone with the little gas station and the tree has grown to surround the sign in the succeeding 35 years. It's in SC near Trinity's.


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## elektrobot (Feb 27, 2006)

*Anybody ever try a metal detector?*

Has anyone ever made it a practice to check a tree with a metal detector before cutting into it? I wonder how deep something would have to be buried before a metal detector would overlook it.


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## MEDGE1 (Mar 10, 2006)

The Battle of Britain museum has got an excellent display of an exploded log, bar and a small pile of chain from where a guy hit an unexploded 20mm cannon shell in the timber! I reckon they should have the state of his pants on display too!

:jawdrop:


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## itsgottobegreen (Mar 10, 2006)

A buddy of mine takes the cake. I wish I had a picture. But he found a caterpillar D-6 cable blade in a tree. 

The guy that owned the dozer parked it and it sat for 20 something years. When my buddy went to buy it (from the widow) a tree had grown up threw the blade and the back of the dozer blade. So they had to cut it to get the dozer out of there to restore. 

I see tons and tons of barb wire in trees around here. 

I remember when I was in middle school wood shop. We found a piece of 2 by 4 pine with a bullet and bullet hole in it.


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## treeguy020 (Mar 12, 2006)

I have some small interesting things in trees, but last week took the cake. While climbing a declining red oak I found a mummified squirrel in hole. It was very disturbing. Then his very live buddy came out another hole and we met on the other side of the trunk eye to eye.


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## gumneck (Mar 29, 2006)

*here's one*

this farm tool was in a pear tree.


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## pigwot (Mar 30, 2006)

While taking down a double-trunk silver maple that was about 5 ft dbh hit something in the crotch that tore five teeth off the chain. Replaced the chain and cut above and below that spot, and split it apart to find a metal slab a full 1" thich by 12" by 16". The homeowner, a 92 year old gentleman looked surprised for a second and then related how he had placed it between the growing trunks as a first step up into the tree house he had built for his son, some 70 years earlier. 
Also, while pruning trees in Michigan for my parents I came face-to-face with a flying squirrel, who soared off right past my right ear, and dropped a hollow oak that had a family of black snakes at about 60' up in small hollow.


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## beowulf343 (Mar 31, 2006)

I was once taking down a sugar maple when I nicked one of the
spouts they use to collect sap during sugaring season. It was 
buried in the tree and was about 12 feet off the ground. Couldn't
figure out why someone would take the bucket off the spout and 
forget to remove the spout itself at the end of the season.


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## limey (Apr 7, 2006)

*Sir Loin*

I found a Marijuana grow op, 2 pots wired in the top of a 40 ft Beech tree.


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## (WLL) (Dec 5, 2006)

:jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: CONCRETE LIMB ABOUT 6FT OFF GROUND. LIMB DECOMPOSED LEAVING JUST THE CONCRETE. TREE WAS 2 BE REMOVED BUT WE PACKED UP N LEFT.  80FT SYCAMORE JUST FILLED FULL. NO THANX


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## l2edneck (Dec 6, 2006)

*Loads of crap........*

this was most recent thou........







Then theres this one i've shared b4.........






but the best was a bar and chain left stuck. :bang: Homeowner said the got it stuck and only had 1 saw so they just removed the power head and left.He waited for 2 days but they never showed,so he called me.


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## Chainsaw_Sally (Mar 28, 2007)

*Found in a tree*

...about 6 feet up, on the side of a busy road, under the utility lines. 

Wonder if i changed the batteries and drove up and down the road pushing the button if I could find the car?

:hmm3grin2orange:


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## Sprig (Mar 28, 2007)

*Lolol!*



Chainsaw_Sally said:


> ...about 6 feet up, on the side of a busy road, under the utility lines.
> 
> Wonder if i changed the batteries and drove up and down the road pushing the button if I could find the car?
> 
> :hmm3grin2orange:



That is awesome Sally! I can see it all now, "Oh honey, I left the keys hanging on a branch right beside da road, see ya for pastsa and wine at 5:00."
Hm, a taxi ride maybe? 


DOH!

  nice going silly who-ever


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## lxt (Mar 28, 2007)

Ok!! heres the best one, a co-worker while felling a pine tree(mind you the mans 60+yrs old & been doing tree work for 40yrs) has a large red object fall out of the tree and bounce off the rim of his hard hat.

what was that red object? well keepin it clean-it was a red rubber D*%K yes thats right a female pleasure device bounced off his hard hat. go figure...

never look up with an open mouth when droppin pine trees. only in the tree realm!!!

LXT........................................


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## builttoughf350 (Mar 28, 2007)

*possum*

i was cutting off a 3-4 foot wide tree stump a year or two ago... it was old, rotted and had a hole in the top. i didnt think anything of it. i cut through it with my 24" bar and just as i was about to push the top off, i noticed blood and fur on my chain... 

i push the top off, and find a POSSOM in it!!!! i cut part of its shoulder and cheek off. it was "playing dead" at this point... 

i scooped it out with an ax and decided it was best to- not let the animal suffer... couldnt use the pistol i had in my truck- you can figure out the rest of the story. 

when i told the contractor about it, i never got called from them again. he must have been a member of PETA:biggrinbounce2: not a big deal, i didnt like working for that company. 

i would have crapped myself if that thing jumped out while i was crouched down cutting off the stump! i ground out the stump and left the possum in the bushes.


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## Ed Roland (Mar 28, 2007)

If you carve your initials at eye level in a tree and come back 30 years later, where will the initials be?

opcorn:


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## buzz sawyer (Mar 28, 2007)

woodweasel said:


> If you carve your initials at eye level in a tree and come back 30 years later, where will the initials be?
> 
> opcorn:



Assuming the ground has not erroded, they will be where your eye level was thirty years ago.


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## Treeman587 (Mar 29, 2007)

inside the cambium layer by then


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## ropensaddle (Mar 29, 2007)

back to them cuffs was thinking maybe criminal hid in that 
tree until could get those pesky cuffs off just a thought!


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## Ed Roland (Mar 29, 2007)

DDM said:


> I found these about 60' in a tree last week.



Rope, u really think a criminal climbed 60' to hide and remove his cuffs?
:biggrinbounce2:


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## Blinky (Apr 1, 2007)

Treeman587 said:


> inside the cambium layer by then



A beech will show'em forever practically. I was looking at one with some 40+ year old names carved in it a couple of weeks ago.


About those cuffs... Improvised tie in point for an old cop turned arborist?


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## Treeman587 (Apr 1, 2007)

Yeah, those and the North American Willow Pines.


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