What's the strangest thing that happened while cutting in the woods?

[smokedragon]

I tease my slightly older wife that they are here for her.

Glad I'm not the only one.....

 

[byQ]

This didn't happen in the woods but it was funny. I put an ad on craigslist for a pile of firewood. The pile consisted of smalls, cut-offs, oddballs, shorts, big elm rounds, etc... It was like 2 cords of wood. Anyway, I put a price of $75 or $100. It was late fall so I got many calls (I'm in a low tree area).

A business guy said he would take it and he would be out tomorrow. I live in the country and there are 4 houses bunched together. The post office gave the houses the same address but used the letter a, b, c, or d, to separate each house. Guess what happened?

The fellow showed up, saw the correct numbered address, drove to the back of the property and started loading up. Unfortunately he was loading up my old neighbor's firewood! He had a big triple axle trailer that could hold a lot of wood, and had somehow loaded massive rounds into it. Before I found out what was going on, he had it almost full. I had to break the news - "..ahhh, this is the wrong wood..but I'll help you offload it." We offloaded and he came over and got the right wood. I explained to my neighbor what happened and why his wood was "restacked", oops.

 

[BEConklin]

once when i was camping with my wife i went for a drive to go and collect some firewood. We were out in the middle of nowhere with no other campers or cars to be seen. Anyway I drove up into the hills to until i found a suitable tree to chop up and fired up the chainsaw. When i was done I turned it off turned around and there was a dog sitting right behind me. Scared the crap out of me....the thing just walked off and i never saw it again. i assumed it was just a hunting dog that had been let go as it didnt look like a wild or feral dog...creep either way

I guess dogs like doing that to guys with chainsaws......though the dog that did it to me went an extra step and put on a headcone first.

 

[mark cline]

A couple of years ago the Bulletin (I think it was the Bulletin, maybe it was the Day) did an article on 2 large flocks in our area. One is estimated to be 40,000 strong. Some early mornings pulling into Backus you will see several thousand in the surrounding trees.

Remake of Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds....

 

[mark cline]

Many times , after concentrating on what I was cutting , I'd look up after feeling like something was watching me. Sure enough there are a few deer about 20- 30 ft away ,watching me.The scariest time was when I had shut off the saw and felt this weird feeling I was being watched, I turned around to see my Amish neighbor and his 2 boys , all barefoot, about 5 ft from me . I was so surprised , I let out a big scream , stepped back and fell over the log I was bucking. They laughed so hard , they almost wet there pants.

 

[logjammed]

So I cut out of work early today and went out to my front lot as we sold it and wanted to get as many of the dead oaks off it before we close on it. As I was walking and looking I saw a nice big sassafras tree that had lost it's top. As I started to cut it there was a very load screech so I stopped to look and see if it was one of our neighbors children playing near by in the woods but nothing there.

So I go back to cutting it down and again a load screech again I stop and look around and nothing. Back to cutting the tree and this time I get it dropped but as it hits the ground out of a hole near the top pops a Eastern Screech Owl. It flys over to a nearby tree and sits there watching me. Now I feel bad that I cut it down and look to see if there is a nest in it but nothing just a hole he must be spending his days in. It sat there for about 10 minutes then flew off to a nearby tree with a hole in it and went in that tree.

 

[logjammed]

So I cut out of work early today and went out to my front lot as we sold it and wanted to get as many of the dead oaks off it before we close on it. As I was walking and looking I saw a nice big sassafras tree that had lost it's top. As I started to cut it there was a very load screech so I stopped to look and see if it was one of our neighbors children playing near by in the woods but nothing there.

So I go back to cutting it down and again a load screech again I stop and look around and nothing. Back to cutting the tree and this time I get it dropped but as it hits the ground out of a hole near the top pops a Eastern Screech Owl. It flys over to a nearby tree and sits there watching me. Now I feel bad that I cut it down and look to see if there is a nest in it but nothing just a hole he must be spending his days in. It sat there for about 10 minutes then flew off to a nearby tree with a hole in it and went in that tree.

A couple years ago I was bucking up some wood with all my safety gear on and I thought I could hear something between cuts,but did not see anything around. It wasn't until I took a brake and took off my headgear off and noticed a pileated woodpecker about 15 ft. from me. It was like he was competing against my ms441. His pile of chips was pretty impressive. I could not the saw(or me) did not phase him.

 

[pen]

Had my wife come running out to the landing in the woods we were cutting wood at,,,,, with our one-month old first born with her! She could only get the car about 1/2 mile from us, and came walking in with him. I thought for sure someone had died / was dying / etc. Turns out, when she came home from grocery shopping she saw what she thought was our cat in the front window of the house on top of my end table. As it turns out, it was a racoon that had spent the day in the house

Heck of a mess to clean up when I got home. He knocked everything off the shelves in the basement garage, and chewed the handles off of the washing machine and dryer. Next he chewed through a screen door into the main part of the basement where he smashed a 22oz bottle of homemade beer, and drank every last ounce of it..... He wandered upstairs, pissed on the floor next to the toilet, and spent the day on the couch leaving only a pile of hair, no real damage upstairs.

Our cat spent the next few days essentially on the ceiling she was so wound up, but in all, it's a good thing he was happy-drunk sort of coon.

pen

 

[D8Chumley]

I got nothing near that good but wanted to subscribe to this thread so I could read some more good stories

 

[Paulywalnut]

All I can say is you're lucky it wasn't a spotted owl.

 

[smokedragon]

Craziest thing that ever happened to me was that I was bucking a tree. Kept getting the feeling that someone was watching me. Turned around and here was this husky (which sort of reminds you of a wolf) literally 5 feet from me. I freaked out, dropped my saw, it was a mess.

My brother was doing demo on an old barn one time, stepped on an old mat in the barn......smelled this strong smell that almost overwhelmed him and a few others. Turns out it was Citronella ants, millions of them.......they smell just like the candles, only stronger. Said the nest under that mat was 3 feet deep with ants.......yuck