Not Sure What To Call It

[Johnny Noshoes]

This was kind of the strangest thing I saw today. Cables passing through trees you see all the time in NY. This looks to me as if somebody decided to use a piece of a tree as some sort of insulator or I don't know what - hence the title. The steel cable is threaded through the cut piece of wood. It isn't an illusion I looked at it from both sides.

[Scuba]

1. It would appear the tree grew around the cable, then was cut out when the tree was removed.

Perhaps you can see a drilled hole from another angle?

[Johnny Noshoes]

4. I didn't think of that...

yeah lookls like a branch must've grown around the cable and they just trimmed off around it. Still weird though.

[ManiacJoe]

5. That is exactly what happened.

That the tree was allowed to grow long enough to surround the cable hints at bad cable maintenance.

[NV Whino]

2. Ha! Davey Tree didn't get there soon enough to whack the tree.

Note: in my area Davey Tree has the PG&E contract to whack trees to keep them from growing into the power lines. We have a plethora of trees with one side whacked off (lateral trimming, they say) or a big U whacked out of the middle. Davey is not well loved around here.

So, as for your photo… yay, tree!

[Solly Mack]

3. I like it.

[Cassandra]

6. Shishkebab?

[alfredo]

7. There may have been phone wire on it at one time. It looks like phone wire above, and cable below.