Re-posting for member.

johnmat03
Junior Member
Posted 02-20-08 09:55 PM
Mike, I understand you may have family ties to Reedville, Virginia? If you do or do not that doesn't matter. I would just like to inform you of a dirty jobs mecca! Reedville, VA is a big fishing community located on the Chesapeake Bay. Omega Protein is one of the largest menhaden plants in the United States, they fish and process these dirty fish in Reedville. If that's not quite dirty enough, try fishing gill nets or crab pots or you could take part in the timeless Chesapeake Bay tradition of pound netting. Whichever you may choose I assure you, it is all very dirty.

-Mat

Mike,

Firstly, love the show! Keep it up.

As for a DIRTY job in Va, I was in the Navy down there for almost ten years and the dirtiest people I have ever even heard of (including you) were on the Aircraft Carrier. There is a unique bunch of folks on the flight deck that care for the arresting gear cables (there are four) that catch the incoming planes. The cables, as far as I can tell are made up of about 30% steel cable and roughly 230% of the nastiest grease I have ever seen. These guys (and gals) have a couple of equipment rooms where the maint. happens on these things--it's a manual process that involves greasing these things by hand. THEN they actually spend the day on the flight deck helping retract/position them for landing after landing.

Anyways, I thought you'd think this was a pretty good time, and in keeping with your theme for the show, even YOU are hardly EVER as dirty as these folks get every day.

landscape/hardscape crew member, Fort Valley Nursery, Woodstock, VA

I've wanted to submit this idea for some time now. Fort Valley Nursery is a three-family-owned nursery and landscaping business in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. But despite the small town location, business is booming...and dirty! My father is one of the co-owners and head of the landscaping/hardscaping part of the company. I worked on his landscaping crew for a few summers in high school and it is easily the hardest and dirtiest job I've ever had. One day you can be shoveling and wheelbarrowing tons of gravel and the next you can be digging large muddy holes in the rain. And I haven't even mentioned the mulch!! In the past couple years they've expanded to hardscaping, which has added another dirty aspect to the job. As Mike puts it, he likes nothing more than a big, dirty hole, and at this job, you get to make 'em yourself!

In Richmond there are a couple Ice skating rinks. One of them is Skatenation Plus. When the Zam comes off the ice after a ice cut it has to dump the snow in a large pit. People would not think it would be nasty but telling you the truth it is. We will have to clean all of the mud/crap out of the bottom of it.

Hey Mike got the perfect job for you!!! It involves your 4 favorite things: Dirt, Mud, Poo, and cramped spaces. I'm the Manhole Rehabilitation Supervisor for Stafford County Department of Utilities. And I'd love to have you come out and try your hand at Manhole Rehab (just so you know the manholes are live sanitary sewer.) with my crew and I. You would be assisting us in repairing manholes that are allowing tree roots, mud, mineral slime, and ground water from leaking into manholes.

After that some of our other crews could keep you busy and dirty as well, such as doing water main break repair (especially fun in below freezing temps!), water service leak repair (extra muddy) and Sanitary Sewer Force Main break repair (mud and poo at no additional charge!)

My dad used to work for an underground utility locating firm called So-Deep, Inc. His job was to enter sanitary sewer manholes and push a video camera on the end of a stiff cable through the pipes, looking for blockages or damage. Very savory work, indeed. I don't know if they still do that service, but these guys are here in my current hometown, and I bet they'd love to have a newbie come and do the downhole dirty work:

Richmond/Chesterfield
Paul Plunkett
P.O. Box 1923
Chesterfield, VA 23832
Phone: (804) 590-1125
Fax: (804) 590-1125 (Call before sending fax)
Toll Free: (800) 781-3164
Cell/Mobile: (804) 389-0945
email: paulp@hydro-physics.com

They have a website if you care to check it out. So does So-Deep (So-deep.com)

Love the show!

Emma Friedrich
Richmond, VA

oh hey mike got a great one for you im a back man at a company here in chesapeak, virginia
work for a company called tri-state utilities we clean video and line sewer and storm drain lines for the surrunding state of virginia, north carolina, and south carilina well any way im a skilled laborer for the company, but any way back to my suggestion for you we some times have to clean the pumpstations for the cities and well you can get realy dirty doing this. espeacialy if its a swer pumpstation here your dealing with grease and well all kinds of crap you get down there and your dirty i have a following lnk for you to check out http://www.tristateutilities.com/
any way hope to hear from you

Hello Mike. Great show and I am big fan. I have to say the one that stands out the most for me is the episode about APES and the wonderful people running that refuge. Now with that being said we have here in Virginia her "sister". Evelyn Flengas who runs a wildlife refuge here in Virginia Beach, VA called Evelyn's Wildlife Refuge, www.evelynswildliferefuge.org, and I feel that she is the American (in a way since Evelyn is Irish) "sister" and with it coming into the "baby" season this would be a very good time to get dirty by helping take care and feed the many different baby animals that will be making a visit to the refuge. My wife is a wildlife rehabber that works with the refuge and I am on the Board of Directors as well as the web master.
For a very fun and entertaining show please make time to stop by.
Thank you and say dirty,
David Coulling

Hey Mike and the rest of the Dirty Jobs crew! We have a horse farm (Lynden) in western Loudoun County, VA (Philomont). We make all of our own hay on our land and leased land in the area. Making hay is a VERY dirty (and hot!) job, especially when it comes time to square bale the hay. We'd love for Mike and the crew to come out and try his hand at tossing bales up to the top of a hay wagon stacked 6 bales high, driving the tractor perfectly to get the right amount of hay into the baler, cleaning the baler, stacking the hay on the wagon AND in the barn, etc. We are very near some of the other Virginia suggestions, so why don't ya'll make a trip up to the northern VA area and take care of a couple of dirty jobs.
PS Hay season runs from about Memorial Day to Labor Day. The hotter it is, the better the hay makes/cures

Idea for Dirty Job: My son-in-law installs and maintains furnaces that run on waste oil. For example, used motor oil. The company is Morris Distributing, the Virginia distributor for "Clean Burns" furnaces. The main office is in Verona, VA. For more info, contact Richard Ruth, cell phone 757-536-2481. It is a very DIRTY job!! Their customers include places such as quick oil change centers. The waste oil fuels furnaces for the customer to provide heat. It is a little known "recycling" use for used motor oil.

Hey Mike, ever thought about being a mechanic? I work for a clearing company in Bealeton, Va. I work in the shop, and I'm in charge of repairing Tractor-trailers and large clearing equipment, which includes cleaning the equipment, performing any mechanical repairs, doing any welding, and occasionally operating the equipment. Trust me, you will get dirty, but you'll also have a great time, and I think it would make for an excellent episode.

My name is Gary, and I can be reached at 540-439-4163 from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday thru Friday.

There are so many dirty jobs that sailors/civilians do every day you could do a month on them. CHT tank cleaners; Sewage lift station repairs; confined space welding; spool replacements under piers; Cr+ and CD plating pit clean outs; arresting gear repair; steam drum cleanibng; mud drum cleaning; refractory brick replacement in steam plants; needle guning; non-skid application. tHESE CAN BE OBSERVED IN VA; SAN DIEGO CA; BREMERTON, WA; HONOLULU, HI. AT THE SRF, OR SHIP YARD. THERE ARE LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF DIRTY NASTY JOBS I'VE DONE OR BEEN AROUND THROUGH THE YEARS. YOU HAVEN'T LIVED UNTIL A THREE FOOT RAT OBJECTS TO YOUR PRESENCE IN THE BILGE.

TERRY CONNOLLY, RPIH,REM`AND SAFETY WEENIE (LOL)

hi mike
my name is waylon im a gunner's mate in the us navy and im the work center supperviser for the mk 45 5" cannon work center and we might have what people call a hard and dirty job. me and the guys i work with tend to be a jack of all trades but our specialty is the 5" gun mount and if youv'e never been inside of a cannon
then you should deffenitly come see what we do because restacking a ammo magizne with a 1000 80lb 5" rounds is always a fun dirty job

5_inch.jpg (3 Kb, 0 downloads) the 5" cannon

I own a stone masonry contracting firm. We shape and set two tons of stone per day. The mixing of cement and the shaping is the dirtiest part of our work. I am currently on a job in Bath County, Virginia that will last another year. Go to www.greenestonemasonry.com and click on current projects to view the job.

I am totally going to have to agree with those before me that suggested the Smithfield Packing Plant in Smithfield, VA. I lived in Smithfield for 3 years, and it was the most disgusting smelling 3 years of my life. My dad actually worked at a shop across the street from the Smithfield and Gwaltney plant, and I could rarely ever go see him due to the smell. And it's not just a poo smell!!!

Re-posting for member.
JDowalo
Junior Member
Posted 02-24-08 06:45 PM
We have a great 'dirty' job for Mike.

We pour concrete footers & basement walls in Winchester, Virginia. From digging the footers, setting up the panels and pouring the walls to cleaning the panels when done...this job is not only very physical but also 'dirty'.

Not all job sites have easy access. Which means the 100 lb plus panels sometime have to be carried long distance by hand to the wall.

Each panel needs to be pin & wedged together (a panel is 3'x8') by hand according to individual house plans. Then, each 'wall' has to be checked to ensure it is square & level before the concrete can be poured & checked again after the concrete is dumped.

Jobs average one day, pending temperature & job size.

We would love for Mike to come pour concrete with us!

Busch Gardens in Williamsburg VA has plenty of messy animals to be taken care of along with around the clock maintenance and cleaning. I know that they get several awards annually for being the most beautiful theme park and for being one of the cleanest too, I'm sure they have some tricks of the trade. Maybe Mike Rowe could be a sweeper for a day or even clean up some vomit at a roller coaster! I'm sure the maintenance guys who inspect and fix the rides get grimy, especially during the hot Virginia summers.
And if Busch Gardens doesn't work out, you could always try going next door to the brewery.

VIRGINIA

Hi Mike!

I used to work for Lynchburg General Hospital in Lynchburg, VA. During my time there I came across a lot of soiled and very dirty laundry!

I always wondered what it would be like to work for Virginia Hospital Laundry in Richmond, Virginia as a laundry sorter and washer. I know it's a job that I definitely wouldn't want!

Re-posting for member.

Boyscout911
Junior Member
Posted 02-25-08 12:29 AM
Hey mike! Ok im 15 and im working on my eagle project. i hear you were a boy scout and i thought you would love to help another one out. we would love to have you, we are probably going to build a house or something, but if you want to help or if you have any idea drop me a line at smittyworben1924@aol.com we would love to have you down here in suffolk virginia!

Re-posting for member.

tlions35
Junior Member
Posted 02-24-08 10:28 PM
Good evening,

A couple of ideas come to mind where I work at APM Terminals in Portsmouth, VA but one really stands out. A lasher is an individual that secures the cargo/containers on the cargo vessels that come into port using greasy metal rods and turn buckles. This job requires some muscle along with the greasy rods. It's also quite a dangerous profession as you are working around cranes and other heavy equipment. Lashers have to be fast/efficient at what they do and can make or break the beginning of a vessel operation. Not many people know what kinds of jobs we do have in the port industry so this one would be rather interesting to cover. If you wanted to cover several jobs, like those of the ship gangs, you could probably cover multiple jobs in one show all on the terminal.

Best regards,

tlions35@aol.com