Poo Pot Maker Episode Recap

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Synopsis

Mike first goes to northern California to count dead salmon.

He then opens up the mail bag and answers a viewer's question about the snake researcher segment.

Just when Mike thought he had seen it all, he visits a cow farm in Connecticut that specializes in making gardening pots out of cow manure.

Full Recap

Mike starts the episode on the Feather River located in Northern California near Oroville. He is helping the Department of Water Resources do a carcass survey. We meet Jason and Ryon who are counting the dead salmon in the river. They are trying to estimate the total spawning population. Scientists want to monitor long term spawning trends and determine the effects of Oroville's dam.

Once the male salmon come from the ocean to the river and spawn, they die. The dead fish actually will provide nutrients for the babies when they hatch. The female digs a pit, expells her eggs into the pit and a male will come along and fertilize it. It takes about 45-60 days for the eggs to hatch and they will spend another 30 days under the gravel with a yolk sac to feed off of until they come to the surface.

The guys grab the dead salmon with a large hook, put a mark on their tally sheet, then chop the fish in half so they know it's been counted. The males will violently fight each other for the females so many of their carcasses show the battle scars. We learn that about 50% of the females will die each year without spawning. They can die from poor water flow, water that is too warm, disease, and even too many fish in too small of an area. There are many factors that lead to a successful spawning process.

Additionally, every week the team examines a random sample of 25 dead salmon from the deep end of the river. Within the sample, they look for coded wire tags (a 3mm cylinder about the of a pencil eraser) inserted in the salmon's head at the hatchery. A clip is cut into the fish's adipose fin so the researchers will know which fish have been tagged.

The guys chop the head off and bag it to take back to the lab where they will cut into it to get to the tag. Fish without tags are measured, cut to verify their sex, scraped for samples of their scales, then tossed back into the river. Next they show Mike how to collect the otolith (an ear bone) by splitting the head right down the middle. The otolith is under the brain and looks like a sac. Scientists can examine the otoliths for trace elements, nutrients and chemicals to learn the general health of the salmon populations. It is also used to determine the age of the salmon. Each year a ring is added to the salmon's otolith, just like tree rings from a tree.

Mike opens the mailbag to answer a letter from Stephanie. She wants to know how much Mike's snake bites cost from the Snake Researcher episode. Mike does the math and based on how much Kristin the Snake Lady makes per year, he figures in the 10 hours he worked he would have made $144.29. He was bitten 39 times which comes to $3.70 per bite.

Finally Mike is on a dairy farm in Western Connecticut. We meet Matt who runs the farm. His wife has a flower shop and Matt has come up with the idea of Cowpots. Cowpots are biodegradable flower pots made of manure. They are full of nutrients and will disappear when planted into the ground.

First, Mike gets to run the poo plow. He needs to push the cow poo into the methane digester. He has a hard time manuvering the machine and likens it to a Zamboni on ice. Matt has 250 Holstein cows that produce 150 pounds of poo per day.

The digester contains tiny microbes that are eating the poo and farting bubbles. The farm burns those bubbles for energy. When the microbes are done eating, the manure is processed to where liquids are converted to solids. There's a 12 foot tarp over the digester to contain the gases. A tube sucks the gas out and it is then shipped 200 feet to the barn where it is converted into energy to heat the house and barn.

Next we are taken inside to see the screw press separator. This is where the poo gets pumped up to the junction box. Inside the box is an auger that turns slowly and causes pressure against a slotted screen that separates the solids from the liquids. Solids are forced out the end while the liquids are pumped into the holding lagoon. The solids are used to make the compost used for the Cowpots. The tempurature of the poo is kept at 103 degrees and the process seems to replicate a cow's digestive system. Mike considers the whole operation a "mechanical butthole".

Mike gets to clean the auger and the plugged slotted screen. He also gets to clean the pump that feeds the separator which is buried under the poo pit. Next Matt makes Mike get into a boat in the poo lagoon. He needs to get the sticks and debris out of the pond so they don't go into the pump. They have 800,000 gallons of liquid manure annually which is spread over the crops that feed the cows. Mike nearly falls into the "sea of crap".

The remaining compost is used to make the Cowpots. Water and other ingredients are added in a mixer. Mike doesn't understand why they are adding water to the compost when they went through so much work to remove the liquid in the first place, but the reason they aerate the compost is so it doesn't smell. The pots are molded then put on a rack in an oven to dry. They will then sell for 50 cents apiece.