r/nextfuckinglevel • u/GrandSatisfaction150 • 7h ago
Dad saving his favorite tree from falling down during a storm
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u/R4PT0RGaming 6h ago
If I remember correctly the Dad planted this in honour of his daughters death. So hence his determination to keep the tree up. Although I can’t pin point the source of this or my memory.
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u/TheMasturbaiter 3h ago
Thats crazy, the day my sister died a storm blew over an apple tree in our garden. After that incident we tried to save it bc of sentimentality. Its going strong again.
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u/RandyJohnsonsBird 3h ago
I don't believe you but I gave you an upvote.
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u/Zeusimus23 3h ago
Yeeah. I agree. The tree looks pretty matured, and the guy looks fairly young, but that’s just — like —my opinion, man.
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u/Dicky_Penisburg 2h ago
To play devil's advocate, he's balding, could be in his 40s. Maybe the daughter died in infancy and he had her in his early 20s. A tree he planted could be up to 20 years old. Does this tree look older or younger than 20 years? I have no idea.
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u/ineptplumberr 4m ago
I planted a fig tree when my wife was pregnant with my daughter that will be seven in a couple months it still looks like a damn twig
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u/couldntchoosesn 2h ago
I mean, he could have bought that tree a few years ago while it was partially grown.
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u/johnnylemon95 2h ago
I mean… fair. But also, some trees grow really, really fast. And that tree isn’t that big, relatively speaking. I could totally believe that tree to be 10-15 years old. He looks old enough to have a child that died that many years ago.
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u/scrodytheroadie 41m ago
If I remember correctly, it was a tree at a local nursery that nobody wanted to buy, but his daughter loved it. They’d go weekly to get seeds and plants in the spring, and she always tried convincing her parents to buy it, but it was too big and expensive and they thought it made no sense to buy such an old tree instead of just growing one. Every year it got larger and larger. Nobody wanted it, but she continued admiring it. When she passed, her parents both knew right away that buying and planting the tree would be a perfect tribute to her. And, to be honest, I just made all of that up.
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u/Notactualyadick 3h ago
You're cynical, but still willing to give. For this I will give you a upvote and the sum of three snakes.
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u/KS-RawDog69 3h ago
Touching I reckon, but doing things like this is how someone gets to plant a tree in honor of his death.
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u/Unique-Arugula 1h ago
Trees that make it through storms bend. Setting aside the fact that he's not stronger than a truly strong windstorm, if what he's doing was effective it would be effective at helping the tree trunk to break in half rather than the whole tree tipping over and pulling the root ball out of the ground. If the whole tree tips over, you can get it lifted to put the roots back in the ground and sometimes it will survive. Trees that break in half never survive, although some species will use the last of their resources to put out "suckers" which are like baby clones of the tree.
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u/GuyPierced 3h ago
He should have planted an oak, and not a sweetgum tree.
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u/Early_Reindeer4319 3h ago
Maybe it would grow faster than an oak and he’d be able to see the tree mature?
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u/leverphysicsname 37m ago
Probably from the comments the other 790 times this gif has been posted in the past week.
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u/OnTheMattack 27m ago
There's another similar video of a man holding up a much smaller tree during a storm. I think that's the one you're thinking of. This tree is way too big to have been planted so recently.
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u/vahntitrio 6h ago
Having stood a tree a good deal smaller than that one back up, one guy isn't making a difference. A tree that size is very heavy, it took 8 men with the benefit of some tools for leverage to get the smaller tree back up.
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u/attlerocky 5h ago
Actually, he might be the only thing keeping it up.
I was visiting family a few years ago when a wind storm was going through. They have 4 fairly sized pine trees, one appeared to be on its last leg and with each big gust the roots were coming up and it was on the verge of falling. I helped hold it up while they tied rope around it and we staked it down. I visited them again a few months ago and it’s now going strong and is the biggest of the 4.
There was a video of a guy hanging onto his tipping semi trailer when a lady yelled at him because she thought he wasn’t doing anything. When he jumped off, sure enough it rolled. Sometimes seemingly small things can actually make a big difference
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u/FuckNorthOps 5h ago edited 5h ago
Forestry professional and arborist here. Maaaaayyybeee if his pushing is working in combination with the roots still holding in the ground. But with the weight of that tree and the foliage acting as a sail, there's no way he could actually hold that up on his own.
Edit to add: With context, I get the sentiment and don't blame the guy at all for the effort.
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u/Whatifim80lol 5h ago
But have you considered the possibility that the man was once bitten by a radioactive superman?
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u/FuckNorthOps 5h ago
Common enough condition that it should have been my first thought. Now I just feel silly.
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u/kermitthebeast 3h ago
It's like bro never watched Mulan. A single grain of rice can tip a scale bro.
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u/Accurate_Koala_4698 2h ago
The physics of him holding it up don't make sense. The tree wouldn't bend at the base if he didn't provide support or something. When trees get blown over it takes the earth with the roots, so even if he held it up with the strength of 8 men when the roots get pulled up, the ground he's standing on would get displaced too. The guy holding the semi was actually acting as a counterbalance, but the fulcrum isn't at the base of the tree here, it's probably like 2 feet under it
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u/hydroxyl_groups 2h ago
If anything what he’s doing is going to get himself killed or injured. A tree that size could easily break bones and pin him to ground if it fell. Limbs would go right through his flesh.
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u/GuiltyYams 34m ago
a guy hanging onto his tipping semi trailer when a lady yelled at him because she thought he wasn’t doing anything
It's here:
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u/JOTIRAN 5h ago
That trailer was rolling with or without him. It was just good timing when it happened
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u/Kimet10 4h ago
It literally started to tip away the second he let go
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u/JOTIRAN 4h ago
Yes and if he held on it would tip away that same second
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u/whiteflagwaiver 4h ago
Have you considered both of you are wrong and it doesn't fucking matter?
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u/Daniel_H212 5h ago
It's possible that he's keeping it from the breaking point. Keep in mind a tree that is still standing has its own material strength keeping it up too. It's not just the one person pushing it against the wind, it's whether the person + tree combined is enough to fight the wind.
The chances of him being in that zone where he's making a difference is small, but not insignificant.
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u/TheAsian1nvasion 1h ago
He’s not lifting the tree he’s just countering the wind. Completely different.
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u/TraditionalProgress6 1h ago
Nah, it is insignificant. The force the wind is applying on all those leaves, and with so much leverage compared to his position makes his efforts almost certainly pointless.
Sure, there is a chance that his effort turned out to be the straw that (un)broke the camel's back, but I wouldn't bet on it.
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u/CdRReddit 2h ago
I mean, generally speaking keeping something in the state it's in takes significantly less effort than changing its state, putting a horizontal tree vertical takes a lot more additional effort than keeping a vertical tree vertical
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u/vahntitrio 2h ago
Let's be generous and say he is applying 100 lbs of force 5 feet up the tree, so 500 lbf of torque.
Now lets say 20 feet up that tree there is 100 sq ft of surfaces for the wind to hit (it's likely much more). So 14.4 lbs of force per square foot (force of wind at 60 mph) × 100 sq ft × 20 feet = 28,800 lbf torque.
So good luck opposing it, and more importantly understand the forces involved in what might come down on you.
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u/syringistic 6h ago
Wearing scrubs... so it seems his work instincts kicked in
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u/sci_major 3h ago
I was just thinking he's seen something's and this is the hill that he will die on.
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u/Moist-Cut-7998 6h ago
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u/the_revised_pratchet 5h ago
Ironic then that this tree is commemorating his daughters untimely death :(
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u/Liquid-glass 7h ago
Would be funnier if he was trying to push it over on the neighbors house. You know for never returning the hedge trimmer
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u/TheMoorNextDoor 4h ago
Get out there and help him.
It might not do much but actually trying will be 1000x more meaningful and he will be forever grateful vs watching and recording him.
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u/outtyn1nja 5h ago
a 2x4 propped up against it would offer orders of magnitude more support than his feeble body.
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u/FrontPawStrech 5h ago
How about you stop recording and go grab a ratchet strap?
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u/Sensitive_Yellow_121 2h ago
Yes, and some 2x4's or 4x4's. I propped a big leaning tree up with some 4x4s and ratchet straps before, long enough to get someone to come and cut it down safely.
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u/Ricky_TVA 4h ago
We also have about 50 fruit trees on property, I know which one I'd save. We have a semi-dwarf peach tree that has given us hundreds of pounds of fruit in the 3 years since we've had it.
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u/Ok_Mail_1966 2h ago
lol, he isn’t doing squat. That tree is large, the amount of wind and the torque that the top of the tree is exerting towards the bottom is massive. The roots are holding, this guy is helping a fraction of a % and if it were to go he’d be crushed under it as it pushes him to the ground.
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u/sliferra 1h ago
The story is sad…. But stupid af.
Any storm that can blow over a tree could very easily kill you
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u/Doctor_Saved 5h ago
I thought this was a joke, like some prank trying to hold up the leaning tower of pisa. Is the dude really trying to save the tree?
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u/JJJHeimerSchmidt420 5h ago
If this guy has about a 6-8ft metal pole around, he has a much easier solution.
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u/DrunksInSpace 2h ago
My first thought? He’s got a God complex and is wearing scrubs… must be a surgeon.
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u/TexMurphyPHD 1h ago
Bold move but it paid off. Turquoise pants and shirt combo is hard to pull off.
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u/Distinct_Ad_4772 50m ago
This actually made me pretty sad he's trying so hard but he can't stay the whole storm
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u/OathOfFeanor 50m ago
Would be smarter to stake it down but whatever you need for the social media videos I guess
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u/WhimsicalTreasure 40m ago
Lost my favorite tree in a wind storm in January. I’d been visiting that tree for 20 years. I sympathize with this guy.
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u/BeefCakeBilly 14m ago
I don’t even have a yard, and I’m not sure what if any significance this tree has to him.
All I can say to this guy is, I get it buddy.
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u/rvbeachguy 11m ago
He is lucky, if lighting strikes, storyline will be different. Tell him not to go under a wet tree when it rains
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u/thehairyhobo 9m ago
Im about to do surgery on a cottonwood tree that is an absolute unit. This year I noticed slime flux leaking from a dying branch so Im going to lop it off this week and apply limb salve and apply a bandage made for tree wounds. Im hoping the trunk where the branch comes out of is still alive to coax the tree to form a burl around the cut limb.
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u/Cold-Practice3107 9m ago
For some reason I need a hero started playing in my head (and it's the Shrek 2 version)
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u/hvanderw 3h ago
He is literally making zero difference. This is stupid lol
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u/xbimmerhue 3h ago
Tree was planted in memory if his dead daughter
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u/hvanderw 3h ago
That's fine. I feel for the guy. It's just dangerous and you can't stop a tree from falling over like this.
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u/PomeloSure5832 6h ago
What an absolute idiot.
I can also see myself doing this on account for me being an absolute idiot.
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u/JugDogDaddy 1h ago
Nah, you’re correct. That’s an incredibly dangerous thing to do in wind storm. Even a branch falling from a tree is enough to crush and kill someone.
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