Like a time capsule

[MoDoug]

While splitting a Post Oak today, it cracked open and I was surprised by the color inside. Inside near the center was an old staple and some nails. Wondering how old this tree was, I counted about 90 rings, the tree in the picture is about 12” in diameter. Post Oaks are very slow growers, and can live to 300 years. With the staple and nails being so close to the center of the log I'm guessing they were driven in about 70 years ago, around 1950. This was 4 years before I was born, back in the time of my parents. Stuff like this fascinates me.

 

[Grizzerbear]

My buddy said his dad once found a arrowhead in a oak tree. He didnt have physical proof but I've never known him to lie. It really makes you wonder the stories a tree could tell.

 

[johneh]

They look like a fence staples
still use them

 

[MoDoug]

My buddy said his dad once found a arrowhead in a oak tree. He didnt have physical proof but I've never known him to lie. It really makes you wonder the stories a tree could tell.

Wow, now that would be a find. I've found arrowheads and often wondered the story behind it, why it was there and what the person was like.

 

[MoDoug]

They look like a fence staples
still use them

That's what I'm thinking, it was a short fence though as the discolored area only went up maybe 40 inches.

 

[CatfishHunter]

It is amazing to see how trees heal over wounds. Finding anything such as a nail, staple, or arrowhead is absolutely fascinating. You never know what secrets a tree might hold.

The previous owners of my cabin had a lot of bird feeders around. I recently tried to remove one that's been up for at least 20yrs but most likely 30yrs or more. At this point the tree has mostly closed around the iron post so there is no way to remove it without damaging the tree. Someday somebody will find a bird feeder stem in a piece of firewood.

 

[jetsam]

My grandmother's farm had a quarter mile of driveway with barbed wire fence on both sides (both sides of the driveway were pastures). Everyone knew that you didn't use the chainsaw on those trees by the driveway, because before they put up fence poles for electric fence, they just hung barb wire on trees, and your chances of finding barbed wire inside any one of those trees was pretty good. (Found an actual metal pole inside one of those same trees one time too, that was great.)

(As a side note, finding steel in trees was more exciting back before chainsaws had chain catchers on them. And not the good kind of exciting.)

 

[usernametaken]

This thread got me googling things stuck in tree trunks. Give it a try and click images. Man, there are some fascinating pics out there. The most odd one I found wasn't metal... https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/55174...-tree-trunk-20-years-chasing-raccoon-georgia/

 

[weatherguy]

That must have sucked for that dog in his last few days. Shame no one rescued him.

 

[usernametaken]

What's even more amazing is that he made it 28' up the tree and it was still standing. That dog had perseverance. It also might be the last place anyone would have looked. It also bears the question... how did the raccoon get out?

 

[jetsam]

My dad dropped a lot more trees than me, because they cleared land and built a house mostly with 2-man crosscut saws.

He found a horseshoe one time... he never told me any stories about finding mummified dogs 30 feet in the air though....

 

[xman23]

I got a call from dad, come over and cut up the huge triple tree in his yard. I had forgotten as a kid I nailed boards up those trees to tree forts we built. I found those nails, tore up a few chains.

 

[John Galt]

This would destroy a cat, correct? The staple, not the dog.

 

[jetsam]

Doubtful one staple will do much. I've shoveled a few nails (and one long piece of steel wire) out of my stove over the years..

Galvanized stuff is bad, though.

 

[peakbagger]

When i was a kid I had elderly relative with a huge hardwood in the backyard. It had one trunk and then split into mutiple massive stems. For some reason my other brother and friends got a hold of lots of old bricks and filled in the gap between the stems with bricks until they had a flat floor. It was that way until she passed away. A later owner had it cut down. I always wonder what the guy who sawed it up said when he started hitting bricks?

 

[MoDoug]

When i was a kid I had elderly relative with a huge hardwood in the backyard. It had one trunk and then split into mutiple massive stems. For some reason my other brother and friends got a hold of lots of old bricks and filled in the gap between the stems with bricks until they had a flat floor. It was that way until she passed away. A later owner had it cut down. I always wonder what the guy who sawed it up said when he started hitting bricks?

...I would say he probably started $hitting bricks!

 

[Nealm66]

...I would say he probably started $hitting bricks!

Lol

 

[Nealm66]

Some of the backyard logging jobs I did would have that blue in the butt of the log. It was an automatic cull at the mill so you would have to keep firewooding up until it cleared. I realized the danger when I had a load delivered to an old guy with a huge 3 phase single blade mill and watched as he stood a few feet away from the blade cutting the log up. He told me one he had a blade come apart when it hit a railroad tie. Freaked me out watching him. Had to leave. The old guy was a millionaire that sold the place to a logger who used to take logs there when he was a kid under the condition that he had full rights to use the mill. He just enjoyed doing it

 

[sweedish]

Yeah, would suck to hit one if your chainsawing or milling a board. I’ve been told timber companies have no interest in logs that were near a road, house or fence rows for the reason that 30+ years ago someone stuck a nail in it. Last year I hit a peg from a tree stand that the tree had grown around.

 

[sweedish]

I also have a box elder that is growing around a ladder stand I need to remove.

 

[MoDoug]

I also have a box elder that is growing around a ladder stand I need to remove.

I have a dog chain wrapped around a walnut tree that's about 6 feet off the ground, it's being consumed by the tree. I probably should remove it too.

 

[Mark N MO]

These two splits contain screw in, porcelain insulators. They're about the size of a small egg. Both were from the same round, about 5' high. From an elm tree in a buddies rural back yard. Never saw them until we were stacking.

 

[Nealm66]

I have a dog chain wrapped around a walnut tree that's about 6 feet off the ground, it's being consumed by the tree. I probably should remove it too.

Something like that should kill a tree, literally chocking it out but I have seen them grow completely around a cable or chain many times. Although when I evaluate for removal, I have to give them a thumbs down and take them out. Hard to say for sure wether they would survive long term but I wouldn’t stake someone’s safety on it

 

[MoDoug]

Something like that should kill a tree, literally chocking it out but I have seen them grow completely around a cable or chain many times. Although when I evaluate for removal, I have to give them a thumbs down and take them out. Hard to say for sure wether they would survive long term but I wouldn’t stake someone’s safety on it

Point taken. I haven't even given it a thought till @sweedish mentioned his ladder stand. I'll have to take care of that sooner than later.

 

[jetsam]

These two splits contain screw in, porcelain insulators. They're about the size of a small egg. Both were from the same round, about 5' high. From an elm tree in a buddies rural back yard. Never saw them until we were stacking.

That's exactly how we used to hang barbed wire for electric fence!

Some trees had the wire stapled right to them (for a non-electrified run), and runs that were to be electrified hung off those white ceramic insulators.

I still have a barbed wire tool (which looks like the child of a hammer and a pair of pliers, and in fact serves both of those functions) as a souvenir of all those miles of fence I walked when I was a kid. (Funny that Mark In MO posted that photo, because all that fence was also in MO!)