Reality Bug

Working on the wind farm, again

Wednesday, August 20 2008 | Comments (1)

Mike takes on three jobs this week: maintaining a wind turbine on a wind farm, cleaning garbage out of a sink hole that was converted to a dump and working on a newspaper press.

Yep, another repeat. Get out there all you dirty people and start sending Mike your dirty jobs. Every time I watch Dirty Jobs, I wonder how long Mike can keep coming up with new jobs and every week he surprises me, except for repeat weeks.

This week was one of my favorite and scariest episodes. Being afraid of heights, it is always freaky to watch Mike standing on top of a windmill, 260 feet off the ground. Apparently it is freaky to you as well, because a few weeks ago this job was chosen as one of the ones you would least like to do.

So, as we've talked about this episode several times before, we'll just make this short and sweet and hope that soon new episodes will be back again.

The first job took place on the roof of a giant wind-powered generator in Carnegie, Oklahoma. Although it looked clean from the outside, it's always what lies beneath that keeps him employed.

Mike started by climbing to the top of the 241 foot structure to inspect the nuts that hold it together. The roof and instruments of the wind turbine generators vibrate loose from the constant wind. The crew has to climb to the top of these structures regularly to make sure the nuts are tight.

Apparently, climbing a 200 foot ladder takes a toll on the body.

"It's pretty much a full body workout," Mike said.

Mike was told before going to the roof that he must stay tied off at all times. The winds can get strong at the top and no one wanted to see him floating to the ground, well maybe the cameramen who he harassed the whole way up.

On the top there are several instruments that take measurements and relay them back to a computer on the ground. They had to inspect the caulking around the instruments and check the nuts.

While inspecting the top, they received a radio call informing them that large gusts were coming in, so they had to climb down.

The next phase took place in 'the hole,' as they called it. The hole was a crawl space near a rotating shaft that was spun by the rotation of the propeller.

So, Mike joined a new host in the crawlspace with a rag and a solvent. The rotating parts need to be oiled, but the rotation also causes oil and grease to get on the parts.

"The parts are huge, but fragile," Mike explained. "The oil and grease attract dust."

The dust causes the parts to fail, so at least twice a week the crew head up and clean them out. Once the grease and oil are cleaned up, Mike heads to his last stop - changing an oil filter.

To change the filter they have to hang upside down over a railing to remove several large nuts. Once the nuts are out, they carefully lower the heavy filter into a bucket and replace it with a clean one. That done, it's on to the next job.

"If you wanna get clean, or green, you gotta' get dirty first," Mike said, coining his catch phrase.

For his next job Mike headed to Kentucky to clean out a sinkhole that was converted, unwelcomely, into a makeshift dump. Local litterbugs throw garbage of all sort into the pit.

The crew Mike was with travel to these sinkholes and try to remove the trash. They have been responsible for cleaning out over 25 of these trash pits since the late 80s.

This particular hole was 100 feet wide and 75 feet deep and was filled with items ranging from bathtubs to broken bottles. The crew traveled to the bottom of the pit and began to fill large, poly-woven bags with the trash. The bags are hooked to a rope that is tied to a truck at the top. The truck pulls each back to the top where the garbage is taken by Bobcat tractor and dumped into another truck. The garbage is then properly disposed of.

"We never get everything," explained Thor, Mike's guide. "But we try to make a huge dent."

For the large items, like a tub or washing machine, they have to punch a hole in it and run the rope through. As they lifted the tub, Mike had a sudden concern.

"No body in there right?" Mike asked. "[that would] totally kill our show."

After learning the pick up part, Mike headed back to the top for a basic repelling lesson. Despite the size of the hole, litterbugs still managed to miss the pile, which left trash scattered allover the side of hole. Mike and his guide, Jerry this time, had to repel down the side to throw the trash to the bottom.

Mike was rather fearful of repelling over the side, not to mention the added difficulty of having a 65 pound camera pack strapped to his back.

"What do I have to worry about here?" Mike asked.

Jerry asked if he was allergic to poison ivy - Mike didn't know.

"Well, we'll find out," Jerry said.

The next danger, Jerry said, was falling rocks, caused by the repel ropes rubbing on the ridge.

"I am allergic to rocks hitting me in the face," Mike said.

The last caution was falling.

With that in mind Mike began his descent.

"I am absolutely crapping my pants," he said.

Finally, when the trash was off the hill, they repelled to the bottom and finished collecting it.

Mike's final job was at a newspaper press. Mike said that he noticed his picture on the the cover of his local paper, so he decided to head to printer and see how it was done. His guide for this trip was David.

The first step was for the designers to create a proof. The proof is a single print that shows what the page should look like. They use the proof to layout different plates.

The plates are large, flat pieces of aluminum that are chemically etched with the image for the paper. There are four plates, one for each color used - blue, red, yellow and black.

Once the sheets are put in the press, they run a test print to make sure the plates are lined up correctly. Mike explained that the test print may seem wasteful, but it's the only way to see how the plates line up.

"When I'm not here, something tells me they don't need so many tests," Mike said.

After running 2000 copies of Mike's paper, it was time to clean up. Clean up consisted of removing the old aluminum sheets for recycling and scooping out the paint for the cracks with a scraper.

"Now I'm black and white with red all over," Mike said, grabbing a stack of papers and smearing ink from his hands onto his image on the cover.

If you loved this episode, or even liked it a little bit, let that motivate you to get to the site and suggest other jobs that will put Mike in situations that you never want to . . . or have to pay the rent. Until next week, take care and keep clean.

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