The "Reality" of Reality TV: Doomsday Preppers
As some of you may know, I'm a bit of an attention... uh... grabber. And so when the opportunity to be on national television arose, I jumped for it. My goal was to get my name and business out to the national audience. What I got was a watered down and slightly twisted variation of what I do and why I do it. So today we'll address some of the missed info and blatant failures to portray reality in reality TV. So I present The "Reality" of Reality TV: Doomsday Preppers...
The "Reality" of Reality TV: Doomsday Preppers
Many who saw the show, "Doomsday Preppers" that featured my friends, family and I, have been calling and questioning my motives and processes. Starting with "Hare-O-Ponics."
Hare-O-Ponics
We Grow Ours co-host and friend, Don Kupper and I came up with the idea to replace fish with rabbits in an aquaponic type system where the rabbit urine and manure are separated and composted in a manner that would feed plants and provide a high protein feed for fowl and fish. The manure would feed BSF larvae, the urine would be broke down and pushed through the plant beds, supplying the nitrogen (fertilizer). The plants would essentially clean the water for its reuse, thus preserving water and attaining higher sustainability.Now, this system is in testing right now, there are pathogens present and we do NOT recommend the process be used until we find out what we're growing, other than the food.
Rabbit Starvation Concerned Preppers
Second, rabbit starvation or protein poisoning; this happens when a person eats super high protein with almost no fats or cholesterol. Rabbit has very lean meat and if you ate nothing but rabbit meat, you'd have problems within 2 weeks. What DDP failed to relay to the viewer is that rabbit meat isn't all that we eat, we're growing veggies, fish, fruits and quail. Rabbits are a great source of protein and should be the keystone of a small homestead, but gardening should be practiced as well.If you find yourself with only rabbit available, you can survive on it if you eat the high-fat organs; lungs, small and lower intestines (cleaned), and the brain along with the meat. These items can be boiled with the meat and bones to render the fat into the meat, thus providing the necessary cholesterol... but for now, look around you, are you or your friends suffering from lack of cholesterol? Me neither.
The Doomsday Rabbit Poop-Powered Flamethrower
And now, finally, the rabbit poop-powered flamethrower... this was the "wow factor" they were looking for. When I first told the producers that my biofuels project involved methane production from anaerobic digestion their eyes glazed over... until I lit it on fire and blew a 6-foot flame into the air! Well, they asked if it could be used for defense, I said I have guns for that, but everyone has guns...so how do you weaponize rabbit poop? Well, you need a reversible shop vac, some 2" and 4" PVC, some couplers, a pilot torch and fuel... and of course powdered rabbit poop (coffee sweetener or flour work too). The result was staggering, 30-foot fireballs and happy producers. Then they went and screwed it up. The reason the poop needs to be powdered is to increase surface area for greater exposure to ambient oxygen, the narrator claimed I was making gunpowder, but as you can see, there were no solid state oxygen components added. The manure was just pulverized hydrocarbons. The oxygen comes from the shop vac and ambient air, not saltpeter or other oxygen that would be found in solid state fuels.
Fuel From Poo Too Good For Reality TV
My hope was to show the BTU value of rabbit manure and make a point that it is a viable fuel source for multiple applications. In fact, we built a gasification device to show the manure powering a generator... it never made it on the show though it was filmed extensively. Heaven forbid we actually TEACH people sustainability... In short, am I a crazy rabbit poop burning, redneck animal hoarder/ eater... yup. But you could also say I'm an alternative fuels specialist, focusing on sustainability at home, with food and fuel in mind. My purpose is to teach others sustainability and provide them the tools they need to achieve personal power and nutrition independence.Thanks for reading The "Reality" of Reality TV: Doomsday Preppers...Now, here is the episode of Doomsday Preppers
