# What are the most oddball things you have found inside old trees



## ross_scott (Mar 17, 2010)

thought I would ask this as I am doing a logging course here in New Zealand to finish off some qualifications I started five years back so I can finally enter the logging industry and make a career of it. OK enough of the blabbering and onto my little story that happened today, I was out at a farm with the guys cutting up some old trees into firewood for a friend of mine (we have to do this before going to the skid sites for the log making training to help newbies get experience with handling chainsaws and cutting technique with no skidders or haulers around to worry them) anyway I was out there with my brand new stihl MS460 Magnum and was enjoying cutting up an old Tasmanian black wood tree and all of a sudden my freshly sharpened chain wasn't cutting too good so I shut down to check my chain and sure enough I had hit something that was not wood, so the tutor decided he would cut back from the cut where my chain went dull to get the job finished and leave the contaminated part of the tree well he got the good stuff off the tree and just as he finished the last cut an old beer bottle from the 1930's fell out of the beginning of the contaminated wood :shocked: I have seen trees growing around fence wires and metal stakes but never a glass beer bottle.


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## keith811 (Mar 17, 2010)

I found a hub cap once. saw a tree with a bicycle in it sticking out of each side. nails and bullets are common. found a coin of some sort once couldn't tell what it was after I hit it with 066 mag


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## ryan_marine (Mar 17, 2010)

I found duck eggs once. It really smells bad if you hit them with your say. Who knows how long they were in there. Some had nothing in them others were full and rotten.

Ray


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## Wood Hick (Mar 17, 2010)

Barb wire, fence insulators,horse hitching eyelets, etc are common in the eastern US. Several years ago either Field and Stream or Outdoor Life magazine had a small page depicting odd tree finds. The neatest as I recall were a Winchester rifle that was left in a crotch and the tree grew completely around it, and the best was a mummified coon hound inside a hollow tree, it still had the tags on it identifing the owner! My best ever was a hatchet, partially exposed about 25 feet up !


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## Hddnis (Mar 17, 2010)

Live possum.




Mr. HE


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## Mad Professor (Mar 17, 2010)

4 horseshoes used to make a split rail gate. Ruined a blade on a big circle mill.


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## joesawer (Mar 17, 2010)

When I was a kid, near Ridgeway Colorado There was a cottonwood in the Dallas Creek bottom that had a rifle grown into the crotch. 
If that tree is still alive it has completely covered the rifle by now because only a few inches of the barrel and butt where showing 30 years ago. I have no idea what kind it was, It had an octagon barrel and a small buttstock with a steel butt plate. It looked like a carbine.
Other than that I have found all kinds of tramp metal, a few bottles, and in Southern California the power company hung their lines on trees instead of cutting right of ways and installing poles. They hung tons of galvanized hardware in trees, some of it way up high.
I have a small sapling that some one hung a draft horse shoe over a limb and the tree started growing around it. I cut it down to save some future soul from finding it the hard way. I packed it out and it is at my dads sawmill now.


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## utilityman (Mar 18, 2010)

I found an old cant hook made by a blacksmith. The tang on the end was made from an old rasp. Someone had laid the thing in the crotch of a tree and forgot about it. The tree grew around it. I very carefully split the thing out. I use on my tree truck. What a nicely made, well balanced piece of equipment.


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## Frank Boyer (Mar 18, 2010)

There is an old 1920' to early 1930's car with a tree growing through it at the botom of a neighbors property. The tree keeps getting bigger.


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## griffonks (Mar 19, 2010)

joesawer said:


> When I was a kid, near Ridgeway Colorado There was a cottonwood in the Dallas Creek bottom that had a rifle grown into the crotch.
> If that tree is still alive it has completely covered the rifle by now because only a few inches of the barrel and butt where showing 30 years ago. I have no idea what kind it was, It had an octagon barrel and a small buttstock with a steel butt plate. It looked like a carbine.
> Other than that I have found all kinds of tramp metal, a few bottles, and in Southern California the power company hung their lines on trees instead of cutting right of ways and installing poles. They hung tons of galvanized hardware in trees, some of it way up high.
> I have a small sapling that some one hung a draft horse shoe over a limb and the tree started growing around it. I cut it down to save some future soul from finding it the hard way. I packed it out and it is at my dads sawmill now.



I love the Ridgeway area. I fell for a girl in Norwood,CO too many years ago and spent every spare moment running down there. Unbelievable country- rugged as heck. 

The only odd thing I ever scared out of a tree with my saw was a bat. While cutting a beetle-kill pine this bat flew out from under some loose bark and into my Carhart jacket while my saw was ripping away. Freaked me out for sure and I'm lucky I didn't cut my leg off when I jumped back.


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## isaaccarlson (Mar 19, 2010)

*I just decided the other day to find out what I hit in the big maple*

so I used my worn downest chain and started in from all sides until I hit whatever it was......destroyed the chain but it was gone anyway.....it was half a railroad spike from 1958 when the tornado came through....figures because the tree was only 100 feet from the tracks....I figure the tornado ripped up the tracks and broke the spike off at the tie and then slammed the tie into the tree and the bottom of the spike kept going when the tie broke....those things are hard. I also found a box of nails in an oak this winter....the hard way.


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## 1foxracing (Mar 19, 2010)




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## huskystihl (Mar 19, 2010)

family of Opossum 30ft up and momma was pissed and I was real surpsised. Sprayed by a skunk with a 32" bar in the cut, thought somebody maced me. Somehow your just never expexcting these things, good thing my hearts good eh.


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## mile9socounty (Mar 19, 2010)

Do mexican's that don't want to work count? The only strange thing I've ever found in a tree was a steel T-post. It looked like the fence was attached to the dead oak tree. Nope. I was wrong. I ruined a brand new chain very very fast.


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## stihl sawing (Mar 19, 2010)

I have posted this a few times before git here ya go. Also found a bunch of railroad spikes in a tree, Also hiy one with the saw. The pic is an old fence insulator, it was in the middle of a huge water oak. The pic was taken a couple of years after i cut the thing. My MIL saved the chunk so took a pic a while back.


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## 056 kid (Mar 19, 2010)

lots of animals, mostly squirrels. you see them wondering around all dazed like after you have fallen a tree. 

Has anyone ever had to fall a tree with a big bird nest in it. I have this thing that bothers me, im afraid that one day i will be forced to fall a tree with a hawk or some falcon in it. That would not be cool.


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## stihl sawing (Mar 19, 2010)

I forgot about this one, I dropped a huge oak one time and it was full of honey bees. When it hit the ground they were everywhere. I dropped the saw and ran to the truck. Sit there for a while before i went and got my saw.


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## isaaccarlson (Mar 19, 2010)

*never seen a skunk with a 32" bar......*



huskystihl said:


> family of Opossum 30ft up and momma was pissed and I was real surpsised. Sprayed by a skunk with a 32" bar in the cut, thought somebody maced me. Somehow your just never expexcting these things, good thing my hearts good eh.



that must have hurt!!!!


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## cat-face timber (Mar 26, 2010)

I can remember when I was little (yes a few years and a few pork chops ago)

My dad was falling a tree, and his bar had blood runnng down it.

He stopped, and told me to come over, he then showed me the family of bats that he cut.


I am sure it was not that big of a deal to him, but I will always remember touching the bat's fur and his wing skin....


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## Sparky8370 (Mar 26, 2010)

stihl sawing said:


> I forgot about this one, I dropped a huge oak one time and it was full of honey bees. When it hit the ground they were everywhere. I dropped the saw and ran to the truck. Sit there for a while before i went and got my saw.



Should have dumped a little extra 2 stroke oil in and used the chainsaw to do some bee keeping.


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## stihl sawing (Mar 26, 2010)

Sparky8370 said:


> Should have dumped a little extra 2 stroke oil in and used the chainsaw to do some bee keeping.


All i wanted to do was get the heck outa there. I don't like bees and wasp. Got stung twice just while ago by a red wasp.


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## joesawer (Mar 26, 2010)

6+ foot rat snakes, not one, not two, but three in one big dead oak tree I climbed for Alabama Power.


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## huskystihl (Mar 26, 2010)

joesawer said:


> 6+ foot rat snakes, not one, not two, but three in one big dead oak tree I climbed for Alabama Power.



I would have climbed a power line to get out of there! I don't do snakes.


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## indiansprings (Mar 26, 2010)

Last fall we found three bee tree's within 250 yards of one another, it was cold enough they weren't real agressive, we just left the tree's alone after they came out. We've had a dead tree just shatter when we fell it and inside was a den of flying squirrels. We used to see quite a few of them in the woods, but see them less frequent as the years go by. I've hit a lot of old barbed wire grown in deep.


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## joesawer (Mar 26, 2010)

huskystihl said:


> I would have climbed a power line to get out of there! I don't do snakes.



It gave my heart a pretty good stress test and was also a pretty good nerve test as for some reason they where pretty aggressive and biting. One of them bit my arm pretty good and with all the sweat and blood it looked a lot worse than it was.


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## huskystihl (Mar 26, 2010)

joesawer said:


> It gave my heart a pretty good stress test and was also a pretty good nerve test as for some reason they where pretty aggressive and biting. One of them bit my arm pretty good and with all the sweat and blood it looked a lot worse than it was.



Oh hellllllllllll no! This big guy I did a few jobs with logged from GA to california and back again and told me a story about getting into a nest of black widows and still has the chunk they removed from his calf from the bite he suffered. Snakes and spiders and i'm one big girl, I tore my acl in half drank a six pack and went to the dr 3 days later but show me a snake and I turn into jesse owens.


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## bowtechmadman (Mar 26, 2010)

Found me a raccon...scared the snot out of me when the blood started spraying on my chaps. Did the quick function test of all limbs before realizing the blood was coming from inside the tree.


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## rapidlee (Mar 29, 2010)

found some horse shoes in the roots of a sycamore and 10 ft up there was a chain hit the thing about 4 times. 
also came accross some cement inside an apple tree about 5ft of it. i was felling in a garden, apparentaly they used to do this years ago.
my boss hit a startermotor from an old car, also some coal tongs about 30ft up a beech tree.


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## stihl sawing (Mar 29, 2010)

Also cut into a squirrel's nest one time and the little :censored:had stole some womans pantyhose and had three or four pair stuffed inside. When i hit the pantyhose it stopped my saw like i had hit chaps. Took a while to clean all that stuff out of the saw. Thought it was squirrel remains for a second when i pulled the saw out of the kerf.


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## catbuster (Mar 29, 2010)

I found a 20" bar that got piched and the guy didn't come to get it. Just grew aroud it.


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## Cletuspsc (Mar 30, 2010)

The best animal story i have is finding a young gray squril in the top of a pine i was limbing, kinda felt bad for destroying his family, but the little guy followed me around for half the day so i put him in a beer box with some rags and took him home and we raised him up he hangs out with the dogs out side now we call em sam. I figure after shooting a few hundred with the .22 when i was young helping one couldent hurt.

i also cut a coon in half that was in the hollow of a big doubble red oak. felt really bad about that one. but i dont think it really suffered.

when i worked in the residential tree stuff i was flush cutting a big +/- 40" oak stump that was going to get ground out and i hit 6 railroad spikes all hammered in when the tree was about 20", that toasted a brand new 36" chain.


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## outonalimbts (Mar 31, 2010)

*Washington, DC- Tree of Heaven- Large 'bout 6' dbh*

I was finishing up on this removal, hit something hard in the butt log, Changed my chain, hit it again, this went on for 4 new chains- I finally got out the splitting maul and wedges- 

Found an old engine short block some one must have lost- Now I reserve the right to charge for damage to chains and saws.

Check out our web site in my signature block, below, watch the U-Tube video "Snake charming" about 45 feet up this live tree- Great fun, except for the poor snake that got cut in thirds before I saved the other one.

Was doing a White pine that covered in English Ivy next to a lake in Burke, VA. Ended up cutting a Copperhead in half, but didn't see it until the head half came after me... Thats why they call it "turn and burn".

:chainsawguy:


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## stihl sawing (Mar 31, 2010)

outonalimbts said:


> I was finishing up on this removal, hit something hard in the butt log, Changed my chain, hit it again, this went on for 4 new chains- I finally got out the splitting maul and wedges-
> 
> some one must have lost- Now I reserve the right to charge for damage to chains and saws.
> 
> ...


:jawdrop: That must have been a huge tree to hide an engine block in.


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## dozerman37 (Mar 31, 2010)

*bullets in tree*

we were logging near a shooting range about 2 months ago we got done with it. my uncle was constantly sawing trees and hitting bullets in them. man what a waste of good timber. he told me that at the mill they have metal detectors to see that all the board that comes out of it has no metal in it. he had a great story once. he was making his first cut into the tree and a little hole above it not thinking something would come out. and as real as i am telling this story to you all right now, out comes a little snake. he said it scared the day lights out of him, not a rattle or nothing just a harmless snake of some sort. ive seen a ton of dirt rot in trees. nothing other than bees tho. my story days will come im only 24.


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## gavin (Mar 31, 2010)

I work with a guy that has found a cannon ball deep in a tree near the water.


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## stihl sawing (Mar 31, 2010)

gavin said:


> I work with a guy that has found a cannon ball deep in a tree near the water.


That would be neat to find. Would not be neat to hit with the chain though.


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## electric saws (Apr 14, 2010)

*not bar oil*

While cutting thru a jet of what looks like bar oil starts spraying off. Doesn't look like the right viscosity so I keep cutting. Rain water collected inside, colored brown, maybe a gallon. Very entertaining, I just found the bottom of the chamber. Not a problem unless you're using an electric saw, zap!


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## thewalnutguy (Apr 14, 2010)

*clevis in log*

sawing an oak log on my Woodmizer sawmill I encountered a tractor drawbar clevis buried far beneath the surface of the log. As seen in the attached picture, the blade was not a candidate to be resharpened after this


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## stihl sawing (Apr 14, 2010)

thewalnutguy said:


> sawing an oak log on my Woodmizer sawmill I encountered a tractor drawbar clevis buried far beneath the surface of the log. As seen in the attached picture, the blade was not a candidate to be resharpened after this


Yep, kinda fried that one.


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## jeff_harden (Feb 14, 2013)

*Gettysburg Walnut Salb with .58 Minie Ball*

View attachment 279157
View attachment 279158
View attachment 279159


This slab is from Walnut tree on private property adjacent to Gettysburg National Military Park. Walnut Slab - 102" long, 36" at Narrowest Point and 53” At Widest point, 3" Thick. The .58 cal Minie ball placement is dead heart and head high.


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## timberland ts (Feb 14, 2013)

Have hit alot of things over the years but cut a racoon in half yesturday in a big hollow sugar maple the 084 made quick work of the poor guy.


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## Guido Salvage (Feb 14, 2013)

Was bucking poplar for the mill and cut a log and there was blood everywhere. Turns out I had hit a nest of squirrels, they were young and without any hair. To the best of my knowledge I never loaded it and it just rotted away. I have also hit bees/wasps, found the putrid water in the hollow and hit nails, fence, horseshoes, etc. My only encounter with a snake was following Hurricane Fran in 1996, an oak tree had dropped across the bottom of my driveway. Went back to the house and got a saw to and was limbing it up. My wife hollered and I found a 2' copperhead about a foot from me on top of the log.


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## madhatte (Feb 14, 2013)

I've hit plenty of bullets. Those things kill a chain pretty quick.

I cut an accordioned piece of aluminum out of a tree once, as well. We figure it was part of a rotor assembly from an old helicopter crash. 

I've also been puked on a few times pulling the extractor out of the increment borer in big, broken-topped OG trees. They rot from the inside out and the whole tree becomes a standing column of nastiness. Now't I mention it, I'm about due for another of those delightful experiences.


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## OlympicYJ (Feb 15, 2013)

madhatte said:


> I've hit plenty of bullets. Those things kill a chain pretty quick.
> 
> I cut an accordioned piece of aluminum out of a tree once, as well. We figure it was part of a rotor assembly from an old helicopter crash.
> 
> I've also been puked on a few times pulling the extractor out of the increment borer in big, broken-topped OG trees. They rot from the inside out and the whole tree becomes a standing column of nastiness. Now't I mention it, I'm about due for another of those delightful experiences.



Better stand to the side when ya pull er out! A forester I worked with salvaged high grade birch on Elmandorf. Wreaked havoc with his band mill.

Pi$$ fir is a pain too for gushing out so I've been told. I know that crap stinks. Had a bunch on a landing one time. Not a fallers favorite tree.


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## bootboy (Feb 15, 2013)

I've found rocks in trees, wire, hemp rope, golf balls, whiffle balls, but not a lot of any of it. No destroyed chains anyway.

I'm sure I'll get it bad one day though. I remember when I was a kid, about 7 or 8, I sat there one day in the front yard and pounded several DOZEN nails into the trunk of the sycamore in our front yard, about 3' high in the trunk. My parents still live there and the nails are long grown over. Many, many years from now, someone will ruin several chains.


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## OlympicYJ (Feb 15, 2013)

At a very early age I was explained what would happen if I nailed crap into trees. That's the one thing I did mind on haha

Now every time I'm drivin and see a fence nailed into a live tree I just cringe.


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## Fifelaker (Feb 15, 2013)

I have hit nails,fence wire,bolts,bees. I worked at a pallet mill years ago they got a lot of wood from a National Guard base. The bullets took out a lot of teeth on the 36" blades there were 100+ teeth stuck in the ceiling over that saw.
M daughter took out a nest of baby rabbits with a lawn mower does that count?


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## nmorton (Feb 15, 2013)

Cut through a black snake one time. It was in a hollowed out yellow locust. It was around 5 an a half feet long. Cut into lots of wasps and ants.


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## TreeGuyHR (Feb 15, 2013)

keith811 said:


> I found a hub cap once. saw a tree with a bicycle in it sticking out of each side. nails and bullets are common. found a coin of some sort once couldn't tell what it was after I hit it with 066 mag



Maybe the hub cap went with this wheel?

View attachment 279375


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## TreeGuyHR (Feb 15, 2013)

rapidlee said:


> found some horse shoes in the roots of a sycamore and 10 ft up there was a chain hit the thing about 4 times.
> also came accross some cement inside an apple tree about 5ft of it. i was felling in a garden, apparentaly they used to do this years ago.
> my boss hit a startermotor from an old car, also some coal tongs about 30ft up a beech tree.



Man -- that reminded me, I took down a scrap of an old English walnut that someone had filled with mortar. Wrecked two chains before I figured out was going on!


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## 1270d (Feb 15, 2013)

A few years back one of our fallers dropped a tree and found a puppy wedged in the top. Owl or something put it there i guess


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## madhatte (Feb 15, 2013)

OlympicYJ said:


> Better stand to the side when ya pull er out!



Never seems to work out that way. HOT TIP: use a key ring through the hole in the extractor. It won't break and you can still hold on to it with frozen hands.


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## northmanlogging (Feb 16, 2013)

One terra cotta pot, luckily I was just cutting the stump lower after making yet another nipple high stump...

Did find of chunk of 5/16 ish cable at about roughly 6" diameter, knee high in a 40" doug fir yard tree, 26 ton wood splitter did manage to break it free though...(I missed it with the saw) I think my partner still has it in his front yard...


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## z50guru (Feb 16, 2013)

Strangest thing ive come across was a butter knife lodged in some sycamore :confused2:

And then theres these pesky things:


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## bootboy (Feb 17, 2013)

z50guru said:


>



Haha! Dirt nap!


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## thewalnutguy (Dec 15, 2013)

found this brace when cutting up an elm that had fallen. Was about 10 feet from the base of the tree. Probably left by a deer hunter for screw-in climbing steps (in an area posted "No Hunting")


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## 1270d (Dec 15, 2013)

I dropped a thirty inch aspen snag the other day. Started blocking it up to fill a rut and a big ol fat coon game rumbling out of the other end. Thing could barely run as it had been hibernating and it was 10 below.


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## spindrift7mm (Dec 16, 2013)

No open holes but the eggs were loose and rolled out after the cut. One had piece of taffy inside, I was hope'n for a
$ 100 bill.


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## 7oaks (Dec 16, 2013)

6 foot black snake in the hollow of a black locust snag that came out in two wiggling pieces - one head first!


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## SecondGenMonkey (Dec 16, 2013)

A box of silver coins from the 30's.

The silver made a really cool blueish vein in the tree. I guess it must have leeched into the soil since it was buried under the tree.

sent using logic and reason from a device forged of witchcraft.


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## 1270d (Dec 16, 2013)

SecondGenMonkey said:


> A box of silver coins from the 30's.
> 
> The silver made a really cool blueish vein in the tree. I guess it must have leeched into the soil since it was buried under the tree.
> 
> sent using logic and reason from a device forged of witchcraft.




That's pretty cool. What coins?


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## SecondGenMonkey (Dec 16, 2013)

Quarters mostly. A couple dollars too, all coins were from 1930-1938 American coins with a few that looked maybe european, either Italian or Spanish.

Brought it up to the home owner and he said we could keep them so we did a 40-30-30 split. Gave most of mine to a friend for his wedding gift and got one hell of a surprise. He said that the dollars were worth about $350 and the quarters ranged between 40 and 200 in the condition I gave them to him.
I have one silver peace dollar and one standing liberty quarter left. Turns out I gave him a roughly $2k gift I found in the dirt. Lol.

sent using logic and reason from a device forged of witchcraft.


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## hunthawkdog (Dec 18, 2013)

SecondGenMonkey said:


> Quarters mostly. A couple dollars too, all coins were from 1930-1938 American coins with a few that looked maybe european, either Italian or Spanish.
> 
> Brought it up to the home owner and he said we could keep them so we did a 40-30-30 split. Gave most of mine to a friend for his wedding gift and got one hell of a surprise. He said that the dollars were worth about $350 and the quarters ranged between 40 and 200 in the condition I gave them to him.
> I have one silver peace dollar and one standing liberty quarter left. Turns out I gave him a roughly $2k gift I found in the dirt. Lol.
> ...


You may have given him $2k but those type of deals have a way of returning to a guy many fold. 

Sent from my LG-US780 using Tapatalk


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## kyle goddard (Dec 24, 2013)

I was finishing up a spruce removal. I thought what was at the top was just a square nest. Nope blue Herring. I now try to check nests when i climb removals.


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## bootboy (Dec 25, 2013)

kyle goddard said:


> I was finishing up a spruce removal. I thought what was at the top was just a square nest. Nope blue Herring. I now try to check nests when i climb removals.




Herring is a fish.

Blue Heron is the bird.


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## outdoorsman0490 (Dec 25, 2013)

Years ago I found an old sardine can one time when I dropped a double trunk, must have been put in the crotch when the property was logged off decades earlier. 
Recently, I was courting up a double Doug fir blown over by sandy and there was a drinking glass in between the stems about 10' down from the split, there was also a license plate bird house in there too.
On the more common side, cutting a sugar maple trunk at my cousins, the whole inside of the trunk was full of cement.
Lots of eye screws and cloths lines pulleys.
I will try to post a pic later of a tree growing around the driveshaft of a model t at my dad's friends house. When the fella passed, we cut the tree and the driveshaft and are going to make an end table with it.


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