Dirty Jobs

Today Mike is at the San Francisco Wastewater Treatment Plant to talk about innovation and pay tribute to the entrepreneurs shown on past episodes of Dirty Jobs. We start on Matt Freund's dairy farm in East Canaan, CT. These clips are from Poo Pot Maker episode #2.38. On this farm they not only produce milk, but they also make pure organic biodegradable flower pots made out of cow poo. CowPots are good for the environment, have a natural fertilizer built into the pot and don't smell. Mike gets involved in the process of collecting poo and manufacturing the pots. He gets to do maintenance on the screw press separator which separates the solids from the liquid poo. Later Mike gets a special treat. He hops in a boat to help clear debris out of a lake of poo. The liquid poo is actually pumped into the cornfields as a fertilizer.



The next clips are from the Hoof Cleaner episode (#2.29). Israeli hoof trimmer Ami definitely has some innovative equipment for his job. He has a contraption that lifts cows in the air one at a time so they can easily give cows a pedicure. Mike gets to try trimming the hooves on his own. He gets shown up by Yahav, Ami's 11 year old son.



We then are shown clips from Avian Vomitologist episode #2.13. Don collects owl vomit and sells it to schools so students can examine the contents. Mike gets a bucket and helps Don collect pellets. If the owls didn't regurgitate the hair and bones of the animals they ate, they would die. Mike gets stuck squeezing into a barn and then has an owl jump on him. Once they've collected enough pellets, the guys take them back to Don's house for processing. They spread the pellets out then spray water and cornstarch over them. The spray acts as a binder so the pellets don't fall apart during shipping. Finally they wrap the pellets individually in foil.



Next are clips from a viewer favorite: Casino Food Recycler episode #2.20. Farmer Bob collects leftover food from Las Vegas casinos and rather than having it go to the landfill, he uses it to feed his pigs. First they need to sort through the rotten food to get rid of inedible items like plastic and silverware. Bob has some interesting custom built items on his farm. He has a giant stew pot he calls a cooker to make a soup for the hogs. The oil is siphoned off the top of the stew. We learn that the oil will be sold to cosmetic companies. The soup is loaded into a truck and Mike gets to feed the pigs. Bob also has a tank full of out of date ice cream that the pigs also love to eat.



Mike reads some viewer mail. Nola wants to know more about the boys who own their lobster boat. Jason and Josh Strout are 19 and 17 and they have been lobstermen for six years. These clips are from the Snake Researcher episode (#2.33). Mike tags along with the boys one day to empty lobster traps. He's a bit scared of the lobsters. He's also not very good at snagging the line holding the traps and then nearly gets pulled overboard. He was very impressed by his teenage bosses that day.



Finally we're shown clips from the Jobs That Bite Harder episode (#2.27). Mike gets to try out a shark suit made by Jeremiah Sullivan. The suit is made out of a steel mesh and protects divers from shark bites. First Mike gets to help make the suit which is tediously made with tiny steel rings. Then they go diving with sharks. Mike ran out of air during his practice run when he was 45 feet underwater. That made him nervous when they were out with the Caribbean reef sharks for real the next day. They were in the middle of a feeding frenzy with sharks everywhere. Jeremiah is knocked over by the sharks and we see arms grabbed by sharks. Despite all that, the suits worked! There was not a scratch on either of the guys when they came back to the boat.