r/woahthatsinteresting 21d ago

Farmer drives two trucks loaded with dirt into levee breach to prevent orchard from being flooded

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11.0k Upvotes

u/RealisticSecret1754 21d ago

https://x.com/agleader/status/1635781856657539072 Here’s the tweet from the farmer himself after they finished covering the trucks with dirt. Thanks to u/jscarry for the source.

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u/Mission_Magazine7541 21d ago

There has to be a cheaper and more effective way to do this

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u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 21d ago edited 21d ago

I've seen/read about this method. Turns out this is cheaper than having your entire crop decimated via drowning when that smallish gap turns into the whole wall collapsing. The one I saw was entire dump trucks getting yeeted into the gap.

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u/TerribleIdea27 21d ago

Look at the orchard.

It's already drowning

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u/ltsiCOULDNTcareIess 21d ago

Yes but step one is to stop the flooding into the orchard. Once you do that you can pump the water out.

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u/TerribleIdea27 21d ago

What's the truck going to solve? The water flows underneath and besides it

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u/Graticule 21d ago

It reduces the flow, like plugging a hole in a boat with a towel. It still lets water through, but not nearly as much and can allow you to bail it out

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u/DougStrangeLove 21d ago

but there’s a hole in that levee dear eliza dear eliza there’s a hole in that levee dear eliza a hole

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u/ganjaccount 21d ago

So here's the thing with not knowing about a thing. You really have two choices when presented an opportunity to learn something. I'm guessing these guys aren't just random passersby who thought "OH shit, I better ditch my pickup in that breech because the impulse has me!" I'm guessing these guys actually operate in agriculture. I'm guessing these guys have the benefit of generational knowledge, and more than a passing familiarity with how to deal with situations on an orchard, especially given they operate an orchard behind a levy. I'm guessing they know a fair bit more about this than you.

And yet... You feel comfortable with, what I'm guessing is zero knowledge - practical or otherwise - of agriculture, levies, water flow, being all like "OH OH OH, THAT OBVIOUSLY WON'T WORK!!!"

Why can't you just accept that people whose livelihoods are wrapped in a thing probably know more than you about how to protect that thing?

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u/chromaticlizardcock 21d ago

Sorry bro, I’m a redditor making me an expert in all fields.

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u/Potential_downvote 21d ago

As a redditor, I accept this answer.

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u/burntblacktoast 21d ago

I wish I had the blind confidence to make every judgement call based on a minimal info and no frame of reference. It seems to have gotten some people very far in life. Lots of confidently incorrect as opposed to genuinely curious. I have found it very liberating to flat out ADMIT I don't know something if I don't. Like you say, there are few, but very clear, paths when you are at that point.

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u/Excellent_Release961 21d ago

Gotten people all the way to the White House in most cases.

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u/CricketInformal720 20d ago

The Dunning kruger Effect. It's what most people have. Those who have none or too little knowledge think they know it all and are too overly confident in it, and those who do have a lot of knowledge on a topic typically have lower confidence in that topic.

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u/skittishspaceship 21d ago

it has not got very many people very far in life. you are just as full of it as them.

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u/ASecretThrowaway_76 21d ago

Welcome to the crossroads of curiosity and complete lack of humility.

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u/LucysFiesole 20d ago

And in their infinite knowledge, they didn't stop the water flow like that. 🤷‍♀️

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u/herefortheshittalk 21d ago

With what will you fix it dear Henry dear Henry with what will you fix it dear Henry with what

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u/tk-451 21d ago

a chevvy dear Levi, dear Levi, dear Levi, a chevvy dear Levi, dear Levi with that!

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u/CanAhJustSay 21d ago

But there's a hole in the chevvy, dear Henry, dear Henry; There's a hole in the chevvy, in the chevvy a hole!

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u/Dudicus445 21d ago

He drove his Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry

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u/cleverinspiringname 21d ago

Henry always fuckin up levees and buckets

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u/ShadowAMS 21d ago

I read your comment as the song.
Childhood memories.

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u/DigitalUnlimited 21d ago

lookadat der hole der!

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u/AssistanceCheap379 21d ago

And the slower water might bring some dirt and debris with it that slows down in front of the trucks, which could potentially slow the flow of water further.

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u/_yourupperlip_ 21d ago

Correct you’re making a dam, like many of us did as children, and some still do to this day 😳😅

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u/Grigoran 21d ago

Interesting how it needed to be explained

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u/NomThePlume 21d ago

And the faster water around the edges might erode the hole quicker.

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u/dinnerthief 21d ago

Yea and slows it enough you can put more stuff there without it getting blown away

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u/xxneverdasamexx 21d ago

Slows it down..being slower, slows/stops erosion of the rest of the wall...gives time to make more fixes and pump water out.

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u/xxneverdasamexx 21d ago

Thats the logic behind doing this. Obviously it wont stop all the water.

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u/Rock4evur 21d ago

Doesn’t matter as long as the outflow is greater than the inflow.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

This right here. Keeps the levee intact.

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u/ltsiCOULDNTcareIess 21d ago

Original post below with farmers tweets and lots of interesting responses in the comments. Seems like they use the trucks to rebuild that section of wall. Probably just dumped a shit ton of dirt on them shortly after this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/C8Ju3aclTh

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u/jabroni4545 21d ago edited 21d ago

Once you have a big object blocking the whole hole then you can add other smaller debris/fill like rocks, dirt,etc to help plug the rest of the hole. If you tried adding smaller debris/fill to plug the whole hole, the debris would just get washed away by the hole. Hole.

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u/yeahrowdyhitthat 21d ago

Exactly. The video doesn't show all the socks and bowling balls that were added or this would make much more sense.

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u/facestab 21d ago

I appreciate this comment

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u/puffinfish420 21d ago

Dude they know what they’re doing. Farmers aren’t country bumpkins anymore.

This is an established maneuver to prevent a catestrophic flood and plug a gap quickly. You can see videos online from all over the world of people doing this

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u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 21d ago

And even if they were, they're country bumpkins with lots of practical experience.

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u/florenceee_ 21d ago

"Country bumpkins" are some of the most intelligent people I've ever met dare i say

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u/bpopp 21d ago

I live in MS. I respectfully disagree.

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u/Cloudboy9001 21d ago

I farmer once told me that the mass of the ass is equal to the angle of the dangle.

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u/diablito916 21d ago

and probably a couple extra trucks

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u/Iminurcomputer 21d ago

And even if they were, I know a few farmers with a half-dozen old trucks (this was relatively newish) that barely run but kept around for whatever reason. I always feel bad for their children that will have to deal with mountains of barely or not running old equipment they'll need to get rid of somehow.

And if you're in this business, you have a lot of "Just get it off my property" deals because, well, you actually have the property to keep old trucks around just in case. Other people need that garage space. I've sold a few running vehicles for a couple hundred in a pinch to get them off my hands.

Shit, I just remembered I gave a car away. Still ran but wasn't going to make it the 3 hour trip to where I was moving. Would've cost a bunch to tow it, and then I need to store the thing, AND get it fixed up. Too old for those donation programs. Just asked the apartment maintenance guy if he wanted it. "It's a Honda, I'm sure there are parts in there I could use." Left the title in my room and the car where it was parked.

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u/Yourewrongtoo 21d ago

If I saw a levy break like this I would rather see a couple trucks of country bumpkins than a bus of city dwellers. Be practical, the order of who would be most helpful goes Mexican cowboy, Mexican, white/black country bumpkins, 500 cubic yards of shit, city people.

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u/Public_Roof4758 21d ago

Reduce the flow of water. If you try to just dumb dirt on it, it wouldn't work, as the water pressure would wash away anything you out there before you have a chance to compact enough to hold

You need to first out something massive that will reduce the flow speed and not be carried away. It's also a physical barrier that will help any other material you put there to not be carried away

You could do that with big stones, but, in a crisis situation, it's not easy to thing anything this size, let alone transport it.

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u/Arbiter51x 21d ago

Ask yourself, does a branch stop a river? No, and yet the mighty beaver has been building damns that have changed the face of north American water sheds for centuries.

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u/Saltyseasonedtrash 21d ago

It’s okay critical thinking isn’t everyone’s strength

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u/Zekiniza 21d ago

If your ship is sinking faster than your bilge pumps can run then you'd happily cut your finger off to even slow the leak. This isn't intended as a fix it's intended to slow it down and give them more time.

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u/Bubby_Mang 21d ago

I can believe it. I bet those farmers wish a bunch of accountants and IT guys weren't driving market prices up on big trucks though :D

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u/Lopsided-Sale6838 21d ago

If this is so common, why don't they have a more effective/cost-efficient solution on standby? Like a trailer packed full of concrete bags, then just roll that in? I refuse to believe sacrificing two trucks is the ideal solution for a predictable (albeit low probability) crisis. Protect your assets lol

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u/paleologus 21d ago

Old farm trucks aren’t worth that much.   

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u/edfitz83 21d ago

He drove his Chevy to the levee

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u/malthar76 21d ago

But the levee was dr…enched.

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u/ReplacementNo8678 21d ago

I cant believe i finally understand that song now. Thank you

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u/RazorbackingColts69 21d ago

Yeah, those trucks probably had upwards of 250,000 miles and were more than likely beat to hell.

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u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 21d ago

Is this rly that common? Need to start building them levees better. I'm sure they would do it cheaper if there was a cheaper way. Maybe easier and more practical to chuck in an old truck than have a trailer sitting around all the time. But what do i know, I'm just one of them city folk.

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u/sweetsquashy 21d ago

I'm one of them farm folk, and the idea that buying a trailer and letting it sit idle for years in the off chance you need it to create an emergency levee is laughable.

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u/EmbarrassedMeat401 21d ago

This is probably cheaper on average than keeping a trailer full of concrete bags on hand.

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u/Write2Be 21d ago

What about the gas and oil leak?

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u/BobcatTail7677 21d ago

Even if somehow all of it did leak out, there is not enough gas and oil in those two trucks to cause any issues. It would dissipate in the flood water over a very large area, the gasoline would evaporate, and residual oil would be filtered through the soil and eventually broken down by bacteria as the water is absorbed. Normal healthy soil is REALLY good at filtering low concentration contaminates like that.

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u/Weak-Expression-5005 21d ago edited 20d ago

This, I dunno if just the current crop on the trees is worth that much given (iirc) this happened in the winter, but who knows what contaminants are in that water and what it'll do to the soil, plus the soil errosion, plus the potential damage to teh roots of the trees or the tree itself.

Not to mention, IIRC this is near the Tule River, which used to feed into one of the largest fresh water lakes west of the Mississippi the US until farmers (after the gold rush turned from mining to farming) irrigated the Tule river, draining the basin and converting it into farmland. All of it just waiting for a big storm to return the lake, and that's exactly what they got.

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u/AlexLuna9322 21d ago

Ahhh! The Chinese guys yeeting their trucks? That was fun to watch

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u/Lawdawg_75 21d ago

I still giggle when yeeted shows up.

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u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 21d ago

I still giggle when I use it. I'm such a child.

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u/CyberPatriot71489 21d ago

I’ve seen the Chinese engineering video you speak of

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u/Xylophelia 20d ago

Yup—tree crop loss is especially costly because it’s decades of loss. When Helene hit western NC, it wiped out most of NC’s Christmas tree farms (one of the largest suppliers in the southeast, and has supplied the White House tree most frequently) and it is insanely costly to their livelihoods. The trees people buy are ten years old. Every years planting was knocked out by the flooding. These farms won’t be able to sell another for ten more years.

Two trucks are way cheaper than losing an entire orchard.

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u/edwardothegreatest 20d ago

Mel Gibson invented this in The River. And David Carradine ( or was it Peter Coyote) had to twirl his mustache and say “Curses!Foiled Again!”

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u/Ok_Dust9325 21d ago

Farmers son here. That is cheaper. Everything you buy associated with a farm is a tax write off, including trucks and equipment. And an entire orchard being destroyed is more than 2 years productivity. It takes more than a couple years for a tree to fully mature. That truck doesn’t mean shit to us. You protect the farm at all cost.

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u/UnicornPoopCircus 21d ago

But it doesn't look very effective.

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u/Ok_Dust9325 21d ago

Well here’s the thing. It ain’t gonna stop it dead, but it’ll give you enough time to get the front end loader out there to dump the dirt and gravel. What you’re doing is buying time. Look, I’ll give you an example you can relate to. You know how in an action movie the guy will shoot the fire extinguisher for a distraction? That doesn’t solve the problem right? But it buys him the few precious seconds to save his ass. That’s what we do in these situations. Every second is money.

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u/capodecina2 21d ago

Get out of here with the “experienced guy who actually knows what he is talking about and literally does this for a living” input, we don’t need any of that here, this is the place for wild speculation from people who have never even seen a farm!

Good to see someone here who has the right answer. People will still downvote it though.

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u/Ok_Dust9325 21d ago

😂 sorry man.

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u/RusticBucket2 21d ago

False. This is the place for people insisting that they know and never admitting that they don’t have the experience to know.

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u/wanderme88 21d ago

You called? I know everything

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u/mkosmo 21d ago

Excellent analogy. And a fantastic example of the application of "perfect is the enemy of good" - sitting around finding the perfect solution will result in the loss of the crop.

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u/Ok_Dust9325 21d ago

Exactly. And we can’t lose crop. If we gotta get two more tucks, so be it. We got credit lines and they’re a tax write off to begin with. But our peanuts are our livelihood. And we can’t let a season go, that’s just not in the cards.

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u/mkosmo 21d ago

That's what I think folks are missing here: Having to buy a new $30k pickup is cheaper (even ignoring any tax math) than losing your season's crop. These aren't hobby farms, and the truck isn't a toy. It's a tool used to support the ag activity. No ag revenue would mean the truck is useless anyhow - and worse than worthless since it wouldn't be producting any value.

And with an orchard, it's worse than a season of impact. Those trees take years to mature.

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u/Ok_Dust9325 21d ago

Well good luck explaining that on Reddit.

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u/mkosmo 21d ago

With any luck, a few will read your comments and realize it's not stupid nor a stunt.

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u/EquivalentAnimal7304 21d ago

I read it!! 🤣

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u/Emotional_Share8537 21d ago

Yep exactly. Another example is like when someone is bleeding out from a wound. Get a shirt, your hand, anything to apply pressure and block the blood flow. Yeah, it's not the most efficient but the goal is to give you more time to do it correctly.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/Krynn71 21d ago

Redditors be like "just let me bleed out if you're not even gonna try and get a Louis Vuitton shirt"

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u/MajesticTop8223 21d ago

hell yea

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u/MajesticTop8223 21d ago

do you guys have big ass sump pumps you drop in after you slow the flow?

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u/Ok_Dust9325 21d ago

It depends. Occasionally but usually there’s little room to pump it unless you rent the trucks. If the damage is done, 9/10 what we do is let it evaporate for a bit, then throw in about 2 foot of sawdust and then a layer of top soil, run that over a few times over the course of a week then a layer of fertilizer and then more top soil. You’ve lose production for that year anyway so you’ve got the time

Edit: in the end, you only gain maybe a foot or two of elevation from where you started. See how the causeway there is so much higher than the soil level? That’s actually why we do that. So that in this case you can redo your field.

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u/TheOne_Whomst_Knocks 21d ago

Was just about to say this, I’m by no means rural/familiar with the actual intricacies of farming but imo it’s pretty obvious to see this whole thing is a game of buying time.

You’re not stopping that massive wall of water, but you sure as shit can stem the flow slightly

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u/SignificantTransient 21d ago

Not just slowing the flow but gives the excavator a place to dump since it won't all get washed right out.

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u/YoHabloEscargot 21d ago

You write good

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u/YungWook 21d ago

That sounds pretty realistic and all and all, but have you considered that some random guy on the internets opinion of a thing he hasnt ever dealt with is better than the generations of knowledge and experience passed down to you by your family?

Next time some sort of disaster happens, i suggest you stop and consult some redditors before you destroy a vehicle possibly worth a whole several thousand dollars to save the product you depend on to feed and clothe you.

On a serious note, if anybody else still thinks they need to chime in and say how useless the trucks are: even if they only stop 10% of the flow, they provide something for the new dirt to cling onto. The flood is literally caused by the dirt washing out. You throw new material in the hole here without a solid object, and it's just going to wash into the orchard faster than you can move it.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

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u/Radiant_Split_2294 21d ago

Putting a load of dirt in there would just wash away. Go get a second load, washed away again. You need structure. The trucks function like the sticks of a beaver dam. Now the farmer can dump dirt around and seal it up. Concrete blocks would work better but he probably doesn’t have any.

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u/bbrosen 21d ago

they will fill it in with more rocks and debris to shore it up

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u/EmbarrassedMeat401 21d ago

Nothing is terribly effective at stopping water. It's more about doing the best you can.

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u/Hell-Tester-710 21d ago

The key factor is time, and the fact that you're probably way out away from people and also there's not really anyone but whoever is present to help.

Big thing taken for granted by city folk.

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u/VonBargenJL 20d ago

I've read that in China they had flooding and they'd do this same thing, except using old tanks.

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u/birgor 21d ago

This is the fastes way possible, which in this case is the cheapest.

It's not something this guy invented, it's an established way to emergency seal dams. There are videos of much bigger breaches being filled with several loaded trucks driven in to the breach.

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u/ReallySmallWeenus 21d ago

It seems stupid from the outside, but there is logic behind it. You would not be able to place the equivalent amount of soil fast enough to seal it off without it being washed away; at least with normal equipment that would be available to this guy. By including a rigid object, ie a truck, it has the effect of the weight of the soil, the volume of the truck, and the fact that the truck can readily be washed away piece by piece.

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u/SkyGuy5799 21d ago

Youre severely overestimating the price of farm trucks

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u/BusterStarfish 21d ago

These trucks are a 100% tax write-off. He’s stopping the ruination of his crops and ensuring he gets a couple new work trucks for free.

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u/Ok_Dust9325 21d ago

I don’t see how people don’t understand that. They’re like “use this, use that” how the fuck are we supposed to haul it in? There’s no fucking causeway!! God damn these people need to get off the computer. This is the best damn option. And there’s a reason he’s a farmer and they’re not. We had a bad drought back in 2016, so we loaded up 4 peanut containers and filled them with water from the fire department for about 4k each. Why? Because the whole crop loss would’ve been over 150k!!! Jesus these people.

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u/TopCaterpiller 21d ago

Something being a tax write-off doesn't mean it's free. You still pay full price but it lowers your taxable income.

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u/sheppy_5150 21d ago

As this video is incredibly old, it's been argued that the loss in vehicles is way cheaper than the loss of crops and whatnot.

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u/SonnysMunchkin 21d ago

Reddit pros never cease to amaze me.

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u/NonWiseGuy 21d ago

What's a sunlight? I've heard people mention it before

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u/HERE_THEN_NOT 21d ago

It's a partical AND a wave.  Depends on how you look at it.

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u/sazaqayul3 21d ago

Well did it work?

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u/jscarry 21d ago edited 21d ago

Yep, and yet every fucking time this gets reposted that part gets left out and the comments are full of armchair experts calling it stupid and a waste of money

Edit: https://x.com/agleader/status/1635781856657539072 Here's the tweet from the farmer himself after they finished covering the trucks with dirt

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u/hanks_panky_emporium 21d ago

I feel that. Honestly I'm going to assume the guy with a multi million dollar crop knows what the cost to harm rate is when he dumps two fully loaded trucks into a breach. Farmers are way smarter than people give them credit for when it comes to their crops and their craft.

Two $20k' odd trucks or $6million in a dead orchard.

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u/Lv_InSaNe_vL 21d ago

Those are not $20k trucks either. Maybe if you added them up together, and then still you'd be stretching

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u/mugiwara_no_Soissie 21d ago

Yeah, like not only are they "cheap" trucks, they've likely been used a lot already anyways. Sure it's a waste, but shit happens and a solution I'd a solution

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u/Organic-End-9767 21d ago

Investing $15k to save $300k doesn't sound like a waste to me. It's a sound investment strategy.

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u/bsiu 21d ago

They are $20k trucks when it comes time for the write off.

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u/_ghostperson 21d ago

Did you say 40k? I heard 20x2.

Yea 80k that's what he said.

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u/DildoBanginz 21d ago

Recover the trucks, put into a bag of rice. Good to go for next flood.

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u/tuckedfexas 21d ago

Interiors will probably be cleaner than they were before lol

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u/LeeKat14 21d ago

Car Dealerships hate this one trick!!!

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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 21d ago

that part gets left out

Do you have that part for us to see?

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u/Big-Leadership1001 21d ago

>and yet every fucking time this gets reposted that part gets left out and the comments are full of armchair experts calling it stupid and a waste of money

Reddits full of kids who have never seen a farm and live an existence where trucks are expensive and trees are free.

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u/FernDiggy 21d ago

Good looks Jscarry

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u/Downstairsmixcup 21d ago

So this is only the first step to saving a broken levee. You need to throw in a large enough object that won’t move. Then from there start bringing in more dirt. If they had big enough trees that would have worked but this whole situation is very time critical considering that’s hundreds of thousands of gallons of water moving at once and that’s a lot of force at work. Which is why they used two full sized pickups loaded with dirt to work as the first layer to slow the water so they can put dirt down. If they try to just use dirt with no truck it will just wash away.

My grammar is awful. My apologies.

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u/kenzieone 21d ago

Your grammar is fine here dude don’t sweat it. If you want constructive criticism hmu but this paragraph is literally fine haha

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u/Phyzzx 21d ago

wouldn't have worked with just dirt; probably the same if they just used the truck and nothing to hold the back down.

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u/BrockMiddlebrook 21d ago

Nothing to apologize for, friend. Great explanation.

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u/WatcherOfStarryAbyss 21d ago

The missing context is that the trucks are then buried immediately. On their own, trucks full of dirt only buy a few minutes before the water would erode a new path.

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u/TatteredTorn1 21d ago

When the levee breaks, have no place to stay

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u/angels_10000 21d ago

Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan

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u/RokulusM 21d ago

I've got what it takes to make a mountain leave its home

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u/saveHutch 21d ago

That's why he drove his Chevy to the levee.

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u/frabjous_goat 21d ago

It certainly wasn't dry.

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u/sc083127 21d ago

Mind blown I never understood this lyric until now

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u/ShroudedHope 21d ago

When the Chevy brakes

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u/Comprehensive_Rule11 21d ago

Was looking for this comment, thank you

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u/Garruk_PrimalHunter 21d ago

Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good

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u/BadassBokoblinPsycho 21d ago

Lot of farmers in this thread

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u/mlkmlkmlk1708 21d ago

I cant really believe someone is in the comments saying throwing dirt into the gap with a shovel. would have been a better alternative

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u/Anonomoose2034 21d ago

Anything to feel superior to others ig

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u/VenomFZ6R 21d ago

Ooga booga I am greatest ape. All other ape stoopid googa ooga

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u/decomposition_ 21d ago

I wonder if you could drop the tailgate, floor it in reverse and stomp on the brakes to dump the dirt or if it would just get washed away instantly

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u/FrogsEatingSoup 21d ago edited 21d ago

It’d just get washed away

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u/kleenkong 21d ago

Wonder if they tried coffee grounds and throwing in a few sinks

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u/8lock8lock8aby 21d ago

I'm not a farmer but I don't see how people are having such a hard time grasping this. Like the cost of 2 trucks compared to your entire crop? Of course you try to save the crop.

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u/Public_Proposal_3567 21d ago

Probably ranch trucks. Long paid off, and beaten to hell.

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u/safe-queen 21d ago

yep. our truck is only there because it has a job to do, namely hauling heavy stuff around. if it was a choice between the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore the land that makes my money, or buying another used truck, i would yeet that in a heartbeat.

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u/ahmericha 21d ago

That was my first thought. Can always get another beater

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u/AC85 21d ago

Exactly. Dude probably has six trucks and picked his two most beat up to chuck in the levee

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u/Bawlofsteel 21d ago

LOL I love all the office workers gooning out being like ermmm there's still water getting in and water in the orchard :OOOO

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u/Medioh_ 21d ago

Oh come on you know those people are "smarter" than these farmers here.

Why would those dumb rednecks waste 2 trucks to save a few trees? Surely they're stupid and like to piss away money for no reason.

/s because this is honestly the take in some comments here

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u/GeneralBlumpkin 21d ago

Why didn't they just get a concrete truck and construct a dam, then use that dam to power their pumps to suck the water out? Are they stupid? /s

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u/cl2eep 21d ago

It's crazy how many people watch something like this and are comfortable making judgements about it being dumb while they clearly haven't a fucking clue.

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u/ghostnthegraveyard 21d ago

Before scrolling the comments I was thinking, "Damn, that's smart. I don't know what the hell else you would do to plug it that quickly"

Those after pics of the orchard from later in the day are amazing.

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u/cl2eep 21d ago

Yeah I think maybe people just don't consider how much money is in that orchard. A $5000 truck is nothing. Those are likely farm trucks that aren't even tagged. The truck delivers a ton of dirt in a hurry, then provides structure to hold up the rest of the dirt they're going to dumb on both trucks. They're not doing this out of useless desperation, this is the plan and it works.

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u/ghostnthegraveyard 21d ago

Or people like, "Why didn't they just use a 50,000 lb boulder and a 180 ton crane?"

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u/tuckedfexas 21d ago

Just spend 4 hours hauling it over nbd lol

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u/ThiefClashRoyale 21d ago

Especially considering people posted proof it worked in this same post

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u/ImportanceAlone4077 21d ago

Those are some expensive trucks

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u/Lady_Black_Cats 21d ago

The orchard is his money maker though so it's worth it

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u/animefan1520 21d ago

If it worked.... looks like it's too little too late to me

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u/SillyMilly25 21d ago

I'm going to assume the guy who is sacrificing two trucks and runs an orchard knows it's not too late.

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u/Lady_Black_Cats 21d ago

They can drain off the extra water after they fix the leak.

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u/ThiefClashRoyale 21d ago

Check the other thread. It worked!

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u/Anonomoose2034 21d ago

Well good thing you're not a farmer because it worked and he saved the orchard

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u/FilmsNat 21d ago

I'm pretty sure a farmer can write off 100% of the trucks they use for their business. This might not be a loss at all for the guy. I think they'll be able to repair both of them if they can get them out.

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u/PaulieNutwalls 21d ago

Remember, you never, ever, ever save money with a tax write off unless you are committing fraud. You still have to pay for the truck. Write offs do not mean when your taxes are due you get the full value of the truck deducted from your tax bill. If the orchard made no money because the crops were flooded, the tax write offs would be literally worthless and unusable.

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u/Chameleonpolice 21d ago

Those trucks cost nothing compared to losing an entire crop

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u/ChairForceOne 21d ago

Where I used to live, most of the half tons on farms and ranches, if they weren't 20 years old, had a V6. Just the most basic trucks available with a transfer case. 25-30k depending on the brand. Sometimes they'd get a fleet deal on a batch of 4-5 for a bit of a discount. I think they are also deductible as they were purchased as a business vehicle. You'd see 10 year old absolutely beat farm trucks still trundling around. They get their monies worth.

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u/yorkshireaus 21d ago

That's a write-off.

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u/midnight_mechanic 21d ago

Not as expensive as losing the orchard.

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u/WhatsaRedditsdo 21d ago

More truck!

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u/IncreaseOk8433 21d ago

🎵"Drove my Chevy to the levy, But the levy was dry....🎵

I mean flooded. Really, really flooded.

-Just doesn't have the same ring;)

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u/Joosell 21d ago

Haha, lots of uniformed people in here that clearly have had the privilege of not having to worry about something like this. "It doesn't make sense to me so obviously it's a bad idea." ROFL

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u/SieveAndTheSand 21d ago edited 21d ago

"For all of those haters and doubters - here is what it looks like now"

https://x.com/agleader/status/1635781856657539072

Edit: Here's an update of what it looked like three hours later, for those that can't be bothered to check the whole twitter post https://x.com/agleader/status/1635832710827741184

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u/Godlessttt 21d ago

Now that’s metal

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u/RomekCyborg 21d ago

For those doubting it worked: it actually did. See the aftermath here: https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ

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u/BlackHorseRun 21d ago

looks like orchard was already flooded

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u/DarthMutter13 21d ago

I think he misunderstood when they said, "Ford, like a rock. 🎶Ohhhh, like a rock.🎶"

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u/Demon-Cat 21d ago

Lots of people gettinf uppity over a method that works, and is cheaper and faster than anything else they have available to them.

And if you think this is the only thing they do, then use your brain for once. This is only the first step of several where they will cover the trucks with dirt (that won’t get instantly washed away thanks to the trucks) and pump out the water.

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u/cataluna4 21d ago

Will insurance even cover that?

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u/Ok_Dust9325 21d ago

Average Redditor: “the closest thing to a blue collar job I’ve had is fast food or a grocery store, but that’s stupid. Here’s how I would’ve done it!” Man, you know what a Red Wing is? That’s a workboot. Why don’t you go ask your parents why you don’t know wtf that is. 😂

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u/Nenoshka 21d ago

But did this work?

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u/Wishitweretru 21d ago

Yeet the trucks in there, then get the slower moving (less available) earth movers out there to fill the gaps.

Then you just leave the trucks down there, and is a couple years your truck tree is ready to harvest.

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u/Warlord2252 21d ago

Feels like one of those "it aint stupid if it works" things.

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u/bedatbull 21d ago

If he has insurance he might just be getting a new truck anyway

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u/seaofthievesnutzz 21d ago

Yea no insurance ever is covering intentionally damaging your property.

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u/EvaCassidy 21d ago

Cybertrucks would've been more fitting...

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u/Technical-Dentist-84 21d ago

I'm so confused.....throwing trucks into the water to stop a flood???

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u/Ok-Flounder4387 21d ago

Plugs up the hole enough to slow the levee erosion which can then be repaired. The cost of the truck is a tiny fraction of the cost of the crop.

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u/homelessjimbo 21d ago

Can't yeet dirt in alone as it'll just get washed away. Trucks slow flow enough that the big repair efforts aren't in vain.

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u/yeahrowdyhitthat 21d ago

They should plant the orchard on the levee instead.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

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