What did you find in a tree today?

[ARLO]

I was doing volunteer work yesterday, helping to prune and remove oaks that were damaged in a recent ice storm. Found this in one of the oaks. It was on the backside of a lean and I did not even see it until after I had chunked down a big piece. Pure luck that I did not hit it with the saw. I guess the moral is that you should always look around on the backside before you make a cut.

 

[jmaher]

Just last week a co worker fed a bar through a trunk. Five feet off the ground, maybe. Full of concrete. Lol

 

[ARLO]

I have seen very old apple trees like that, with all of the hollow limbs filled with concrete. Not sure if that is an accepted practice?

 

[beastmaster]

There was a time when filling hollows with concrete, or even bricking up, was a common practice.

 

[flyingsquirrel25]

I have seen very old apple trees like that, with all of the hollow limbs filled with concrete. Not sure if that is an accepted practice?

Used to be an acceptable practice to fill cavities with concrete. It was thought to add stability and strength to a hollow tree. In actuality it reduced flex which was determined to actually create weakness in the filled area. Trees like to flex! It is no longer advisable. A good alternative, if the hole must be filled for some reason, is to use expanding foam. No more dull chainsaws!

 

[beastmaster]

We've used foam before, but I believe it's best not to add anything. It just traps moisture and offers a convenient place for bugs to thrive.
Another common out dated practice was drilling and putting in a drain pipe on hollow trees.

 

[JeffGu]

It was also pretty common to get a bunch of elves for slaves, build a cookie factory inside the tree, and make silly TV commercials trying to sell sugary snacks with no nutritional value to children. It's a primitive practice, but I think they've stopped doing it everywhere but the real backwaters of civilization... like in America and France, places like that.

 

[beastmaster]

It was also pretty common to get a bunch of elves for slaves, build a cookie factory inside the tree, and make silly TV commercials trying to sell sugary snacks with no nutritional value to children. It's a primitive practice, but I think they've stopped doing it everywhere but the real backwaters of civilization... like in America and France, places like that.

Yeah I miss those days

 

[JD3000]

But were the elves allowed conjugal visits from wood nymphs?

 

[jmaher]

I have seen very old apple trees like that, with all of the hollow limbs filled with concrete. Not sure if that is an accepted practice?

I live in an OLD port city. One of the oldest in Canada. (1785)
At one time, it was an accepted practice, no doubt. You're hard pressed to find a mature elm that DOESN'T have bricks and concrete filling cavities around here.

 

[jmaher]

But were the elves allowed conjugal visits from wood nymphs?

Wood nymphOs?

 

[JD3000]

How's the tush J? Healing up?

 

[jmaher]

Lol, fug you.

No, I'm doing really well. I appreciate you guys looking in on me!

 

[CutHighnLetFly]

I found concrete around 20' up in a piece of shit oak that shoulda been left to crumble at an oceanographic institute here on Cape. On a horizontal lead no less.
Also found it on a seperate lead around 12' up, as well as several copper drains.
Wicked cool stuff. Let's not even get into the treasure hunt/flush cut experience.

@Tom Dunlap "there's treasure everywhere!" (Calvin and Hobbes reference. Not sure if your a fan or if it was just a fitting avatar.)

 

[JD3000]

"Scientific progress goes boink."
Bill Watterson

 

[JeffGu]

If you ever find one of my ex-wives and a lot of concrete in one, just haul it to the landfill and keep quiet about it, ok?

 

[TCtreeswinger]

Saw some live oaks in new orleans that were bricked off. It was all curved to match the limbs/trunk defects really cool stuff. Unfortunately i lost the pics

 

[Merle Nelson]

Are drains not "best practices" for cavities holding water long after storms have past?

 

[Raven27]

I took down a dead Elm a few years back, as I was blocking down the stem, I suddenly hit metal. I was pisswd as I had just put the new chain on, I moved down more and got past it. I mentioned it to the client because he had planted the tree X years ago. He said, so sorry. When I was younger I set up a ropes course and had hammered in an anchor point into the tree and never removed it, well I found it.

 

[JeffGu]

It always makes me cringe when my chainsaw decides it would rather be a metal detector. They only do that when there's a fresh chain on them.