"Old Indian Tricks"

[Okrafarmer]

I certainly don't mean to offend anybody by the name of the thread-- but I wanted to start a thread about tricks people have learned to do things that are otherwise difficult or impossible. In Maine if anybody had a trick to share, that would speed things up or make things easier,they say, "here, let me show you an old indian trick." And then they would show you some handy little way of improving what you were trying to do.

I'll start out: You're in woods, in a bind with no help to be had without hiking out. You need to pull out a stuck vehicle, etc. You have two chains, ropes, or cables, but they are not quite long enough to get from point A to point B. You could get your vehicle unstuck if the chains were just long enough to meet. You have a chainsaw. What do you do?

Answer: You cut a log long enough to take up the space between the two chains. You notch the ends enough for the chains/cables/etc. to be able to grip each end. Your log takes up the space and you now have a continuous line, and you get out. Been there done that!

[Shotgun]

Answer: You cut a log long enough to take up the space between the two chains. You notch the ends enough for the chains/cables/etc. to be able to grip each end. Your log takes up the space and you now have a continuous line, and you get out. Been there done that!

I have done that many times in da UP of Michigan. I carried a hand winch and often had to cut a maple pole 3 to 5 inches in diameter as an extender. I always had some cable and a couple (at least) chains. Sometimes I had to cut a couple extenders. It's a life saver method at times.

 

Norm

[pineywoods]

My grandpa drove an old 1929 model A ford all over the La swamps. got stuck lots of times. didn't have a winch, long walk to get help. He always carried 2 short pieces of chain and an axe. Cut a 4 inch or so pole about 8 feet long. Shove it in the mud right behind the rear wheels and chain it to the spoked wheels. Back up about 2 feet and repeat the process as many times as needed.

[MattJ]

I don't post often but this one was pretty funny.  First because I don't think any indians would have a vehicle to get stuck in the woods back in the day!

The second is because my grandfather used to get me in big trouble with his old indian tricks stories.  The first was I was in 1st grade and was watching him set up a siphon.  I asked how did he learn that and he said it was with his time with the Fugarwe indians (old Johnny Carson joke, that they wander around asking where the $%^ are we), except he pronounced it with much more f-word in the beginning.  He was a master BS'er, and even explained how they made the hose from birch bark.  Story sounded good to me so next week in school I brought some birch bark for show and tell and told all about him and the Fugarwe tribe.  My parents got to have a sit down meeting with my teachers later that week after that one!

[red oaks lumber]

how did the native american know if it was going to be a bad winter? by the size of the white mans wood pile...

[Dan_Shade]

that's funny, MattJ!

[Okrafarmer]

I have done that many times in da UP of Michigan. I carried a hand winch and often had to cut a maple pole 3 to 5 inches in diameter as an extender. I always had some cable and a couple (at least) chains. Sometimes I had to cut a couple extenders. It's a life saver method at times.

 

Norm

It certainly saved me a whole lot of trouble one late afternoon. I was at least half a mile back in the woods and broke through the ice with the John Deere B. No winch, no come-along. I had the two chains, and I used this method to attach one chain to a tree, and the other to the rear wheel of the tractor (through the holes used to mount wheel weights). I cut a 10" diameter popple log to the right length to get enough length for my chains. Then I engaged the clutch, stood on the left brake so the right wheel would turn, and wrapped the chain around the outer axle and the tractor was able to come forward enough to get a new bite on the wheel, repeated, and walked it up out of the mudhole. It was getting dark and was very cold-- if I had walked home, I wouldn't have made it back with any help that night and it would have taken two people and another off-road vehicle to get it out. If I had waited until morning and come back with my dad (working second shift so not available right then) it would have frozen fast in the ice and would have been even more miserable to get out.

[jdtuttle]

Getting an ATV unstuck without a winch. Carry a flat tiedown strap with you. If you get stuck wrap it around the drive shaft axel and to a tree. When the wheel spins it wraps around the axel & pulls you out. Worked for me on more than one occassion.
jim

[CX3]

Here is a trick I use a lot in the timber. 

If felling a tree or bucking a log, and she starts to pinch faster than wanted, and of course you dont have a wedge, break off some good green twigs and shove a few in the saw kerf.  It really will work try it. 

[tyb525]

Similar to Okra's tip,

Once I got our IH 656 stuck in a swampy area. Though I was gonna skid out some locust, but the ground was only frozen a few inches on top, underneath was bottomless mud. It's a narrow front so of course it just wanted to plow itself right down into the mud, and the rear tires worked great at digging holes in the mud.

Luckily, I had plenty of cables and chains on the tractor (always good to carry!) The axles are just flush with the wheels, but there was enough room for me to wrap a cable around both axle ends a few wraps (one cable per side), hooking them onto the rim, and then hooking the loose ends onto two big trees. I "drove" the tractor forward, pressing the brakes to try to get the wheels turning evenly, making sure one didn't turn more than the other, and slowly but surely the tractor winched itself up and out of the mud hole. I was able to make it the rest of the way out without breaking through again.

[pineywoods]

Chains, straps and poles on the rear wheels of a tractor are a bit on the dangerous side. Very easy to flip over backwards. Always do this in REVERSE.

[Magicman]

But if you still have an 8' Bushhog hooked up, it will keep you from rolling over backwards.  How do I know this 

[Okrafarmer]

Chains, straps and poles on the rear wheels of a tractor are a bit on the dangerous side. Very easy to flip over backwards. Always do this in REVERSE.

Yes they are, for a couple reasons. Most people only see one of the reasons. First, it could make your tractor rear up and go over backward. Often fatal for tractors with no roll bar, still a bad day even for tractors with a roll bar. The second reason is, for tractors with no roll bar, the log may be able to keep going up, around, and over the the back of the tractor and come up and clean you right off the seat. Pineywoods is right in that going in reverse will eliminate both these issues. However, if you are in that kind of a bind where you feel you don't have the option but to go forward, you can carefully do it just make sure you  use low gear at an idle and make sure there is no way whatsoever that your foot (or hand, as the Case may be) can slip off the clutch control. An added safety mechanism is to have your hand, if possible, on the kill switch for the engine. At the first sign of trouble, you instantly kill it. That's for your information only-- I won't stand for being liable if you kill yourself that way. All I know is I wouldn't hesitate to do it myself if I took the precautions I mentioned.

[Toolman]

Here is a good trick that my great-uncle showed me years ago. Him and I were deer hunting and he shot a 7 point buck. We ended up tracking this deer for about an hour till we found him. We had a long drag ahead of us. It was a warm day and we both were sweating and ran out of drinking water. We started getting pretty thirsty. Fortunately in the Penna mountains we have many wild grapes. He showed me "an old indian trick". He cut a long grape vine off as far away from the ground as possible and placed the end directly into his canteen. You should've seen the water pouring out of that vine! It's crystal clear and has a good flavor also. We made it back with the deer, our thirst quenched, with some water still left over in our canteens. I've shared that trick with alot of guys over the years. It never fails!

[Okrafarmer]

Nice! Were those muscodine grapes or some other kind? Folks don't try this with poison ivy!

[Toolman]

Uh, no! Please know the difference! It would be obvious though, the yellow/black goo that comes out of those vines would'nt be too pleasing to that palet.

[bandmiller2]

Probibly shouldn't admit this but if you get a part to install on a machine read the directions especially the warning part thats almost always the easiest way if your carefull.Frank C.

[whiskers]

Two chain binders can be used as a winch taking in a couple of chain links with each reset. Loaded a tractor onto a trailer once this way cause someone forgot to load the tugit.

[Okrafarmer]

Two chain binders can be used as a winch taking in a couple of chain links with each reset. Loaded a tractor onto a trailer once this way cause someone forgot to load the tugit.

Ha! My dad and his friend loaded a non-running International TD-6 onto a trailer using chain binders in 1980. Seems they traveled over an hour to get where they were going and weren't going home without it!

[whiskers]

[
Ha! My dad and his friend loaded a non-running International TD-6 onto a trailer using chain binders in 1980. Seems they traveled over an hour to get where they were going and weren't going home without it!
[/quote]

He sounds like someone I'd like to know. If the td-6 is still around and for sale let me know I'll bring my binders and be right there. Been looking for a dozer for a while now and haven't found anything in my price range on this coast. Seems like what ever I'm looking for is in Oregon or BC.

[Okrafarmer]

Unfortunately he sold it many years ago, after using it for many years (and doing major repairs at least 4 times). And it was in another state anyway.

[Bill]

Maybe not quite an ole Indian trick - but seems to work for me ( and maybe alot of folks already know it ).

Plain ole honey is a great antiseptic ( tastes pretty good too ). It kills germs and such just as good as most anything else. Seems they found some old books by the Egyptians ( couple thousand years old ) telling how they used it on open wounds and even the Roman army ( a thousand or so years ago ) used it after battles to keep their soldiers battle wounds from getting infected.

I 'll just pack some for pancakes when going upstate and its there iffen I need it.   

[Okrafarmer]

Maybe not quite an ole Indian trick - but seems to work for me ( and maybe alot of folks already know it ).

Plain ole honey is a great antiseptic ( tastes pretty good too ). It kills germs and such just as good as most anything else. Seems they found some old books by the Egyptians ( couple thousand years old ) telling how they used it on open wounds and even the Roman army ( a thousand or so years ago ) used it after battles to keep their soldiers battle wounds from getting infected.

I 'll just pack some for pancakes when going upstate and its there iffen I need it.   

Let me know how it works out for you-- I'd be afraid of attracting flies. . . . .

[whiskers]

and bears!

[Bill]

Well its been working for me for the past few years so I have no hesitation recommending it .

Iffen you want ta follow up on it there's a book out by former USDA researcher with more practical recommendations - think its called Green Pharmacy - but don't know that I ' m allowed to plug a book here ;-) but I've found alot of his ideas helpful ( and of course some that aren't - we do have our differences . . .   )

[Okrafarmer]

ok, sounds good!

[customsawyer]

You can boil eggs in a zip-lock bag in the coals of a camp fire if some one forgets to bring a pot. Take the bag with the eggs in it fill with water and close, make sure there is no air in the bag at all, place the bag in the coals at the edge of the fire and you can watch the water start to boil. When the bag melts the eggs are done. The bag can't melt tell it get the water hot enough to melt the plastic.

[Gary_C]

When the bag melts the eggs are done.

 

Then you grab that mass of melted plastic and eggs out of the coals with a tongs?

 

[Okrafarmer]

When the bag melts the eggs are done.

 

Then you grab that mass of melted plastic and eggs out of the coals with a tongs?

 

Or something else you might have handy.

[isawlogs]

 Or make a pot with white birch bark if ya got some handy . 

[Mooseherder]

When the bag melts the eggs are done.

 

Then you grab that mass of melted plastic and eggs out of the coals with a tongs?

 

No, you grab a long stick off the ground and fish out da eggs by rolling them outta da fire into the sand till they cool some.   Don't you know nothin'.

[Gary_C]

 

I think I'll grab the stick and roast some weinies instead.

[Okrafarmer]

I wonder if you can just roast the eggs in the coals? Wonder what would happen. Maybe they would explode. 

[Whitman]

When I was 13 yrs old an old gentelman taught me how to roast an eggs in a camp fire. He just picked the large end with his barlow and made a opening the size of a dime.Then placed it with care close to the coales and used a stick to move more imbers around it.Watch it closey or they will get over done.Old memeries and I can still taste it .

[isawlogs]

 Okra , ya can try it in the microwave  A side note to the test.. wait for the bossette to be out for a while to try.

[Okrafarmer]

Okra , ya can try it in the microwave  A side note to the test.. wait for the bossette to be out for a while to try.

I think I already tried it, with un-notable results. Just a side-note-- eggs and okra go well together, especially with a suitable spice combination. Eat more okra. . . . .

[JJ]

I have boiled an egg on camp fire using an 1/2 orange peel.
Worked, peel will not burn with water in it.

Also I have done the egg in microwave when I was a kid, and in hurry to catch the school bus (microwave ovens had just come out).
I missed that bus  .  one heck of a mess!

[WILDSAWMILL]

travling lunch put hamburger , onion, potato, lop of butter, salt & pepper in alum foil seal up tight. place on intakemanifold of 38 chev . 100 miles & turn over 100miles time to eat wood work on loging machine ill bet

[Okrafarmer]

travling lunch put hamburger , onion, potato, lop of butter, salt & pepper in alum foil seal up tight. place on intakemanifold of 38 chev . 100 miles & turn over 100miles time to eat wood work on loging machine ill bet

Sounds like you'd want to get that one right the first time!

[vtlogger1973]

When cutting timber on steep ground and that beautiful oak is too far from the road to reach with the cable, cut a tree that you can reach then cut the oak so the top lands on the first tree.  Chain the two together and winch them down the hill.  When you get the first tree to the road you may have to unhook and pull back up to the oak. They dont corner very well that way.  Its alot of work for one tree, but around here foresters like to mark the tough ones.

Also, any time a saw is pinched and in harms way, by grabbing the starter cord and pulling it out you can keep a hand on the saw, and get three or four feet farther away from danger yourself.  Alot of foresters around here will mark every tree that is rotten in the but, and sometimes it is pretty easy to get pinched whe falling them. It is safer than just hanging on to the saw when it is pinched in a falling tree.  I know that the safest thing would be to leave the saw and get away but Ipaid 1000 bucks for my last saw and this has saved me from smashing one a couple times. 
  Not every forester marks dangerous trees,  but some of them mark every single one of them.  They act awfully upset when you hand them the saw.

[Al_Smith]

Oh Lawdy you want a challange try unsticking a swamped dozer .I stuck a D4 Cat so deep the water was running over my feet and the fan was throwing water on my face .

Railroad ties and log chain got it out and about a half a day of shovel work .I also tossed a track once on a little Oliver HG ,in  danged swamp no less .Backed up on a thick oak plank and put it back on ,another half day shot .