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

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
6+ foot rat snakes, not one, not two, but three in one big dead oak tree I climbed for Alabama Power.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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:
 
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.

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:
:jawdrop: That must have been a huge tree to hide an engine block in.
 
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.
 
I work with a guy that has found a cannon ball deep in a tree near the water.
 
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!
 
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
 
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.

attachment.php
 
Back
Top