Firewood Stories

[boomfire]

Couldn't find any thread, decided to start one.
My home is backed to a forest, encounters with animals is common.

Couple of days ago, I was walking towards the back of my house to cut down some trees, saw some rattle snakes just chilling on rocks on a nice sunny day. I didn't see them until i was 3 feet away and jumped when i hard the rattle. Just startled me.

Today i was cutting some dead tree. I took a break for few minutes to drink some water and check 'work' mail. Then i started walking towards another dead tree, I had my earmuffs and helmet on, usually i can hear noises near by but unfortunately at 20 yards i saw a Huge bear (looks 400 to 500 lbs), stopped and staring at me. I usually carry a bear spray and a ruger 44 mag, and I wasn't worried. But it surprised both of us. We had a staring contest for about 20 seconds, before i slowly backed up to my chainsaw and fired it up. It startled the bear and took off. I continued to cutting the tree down.

 

[DonTee]

That’s crazy. Man I feel pretty lucky to not have any predators bigger than a coyote in my woods. I don’t even carry any self protection when I’m out cutting trees.

I’ve been having a big problem getting trees hung up lately though. I’ve been cutting EAB ash. In the past couple weeks I’ve hung up 8 out of 10 trees I’ve cut. Granted most of them were very tall ash in the middle of a densely wooded area, but usually I’m better than that.

Also there’s one ash that hung it self up 3 ways. It’s a triple trunk tree, and two of the trunks have fallen into other dead trees, with the 3rd trunk falling into a live maple. And these are big trees, and the trunks are bent under a lot of tension. I already tried pulling the with tractor winch. It only made the tractor do some wheelies.

I’m seriously considering putting a small explosive charge in the middle of the main tree and “loosening” things up that way. There’s no other way to do it safely. I’ve tried to let Mother Nature take care of it. For over a year....

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Bears and rattlesnakes reminds me of living in eastern PA for 22 years.

 

[Simonkenton]

That has the makings of an interesting battle. Fired-up Husqvarna vs. bear.
Even a grizzly is going to come out badly in that fight. He might eat the chain saw guy, but he would be missing a paw.

 

[Prof]

Bears and rattlesnakes reminds me of living in eastern PA for 22 years.

That has the makings of an interesting battle. Fired-up Husqvarna vs. bear.
Even a grizzly is going to come out badly in that fight. He might eat the chain saw guy, but he would be missing a paw.

I wondered about that a couple times. It would be a mess, but I think a chainsaw would about level the playing field with a bear.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I wondered about that a couple times. It would be a mess, but I think a chainsaw would about level the playing field with a bear.

As long as it has a sharp chain and it's ported. 😁

I passed a bear in the brush one day. I was walking back in with the saw and there was thick brush to my right. I heard my brother go running past me in the other direction on the other side of the brush. I asked where he was going in such a hurry, but he was already gone. I walked another 15 feet and almost stepped in fresh steaming bear doo doo. It wasn'y my brother, and he was definitely in a hurry because I had interrupted his poo-ing. 🤣

Still, I'd rather have a chainsaw in a bear fight than no saw, but the saw better be running!