November 8, 2007
Ash Springs Boy on National TV Show

By Dave Maxwell

Hunter Blood, 7, of Ash Springs and a second grader at Pahranagat Valley Elementary School, was featured on the 150th episode of the program “Dirty Jobs,” shown nationally on the Discovery Channel.

Hunter was invited to join in the late July taping celebrating the program’s 150th episode, which aired October 23.

He had been featured briefly in one of the program’s first shows back in 2005, on a piece about Pig Farmer Bob Combs, who processes food waste from Las Vegas restaurants to feed to his pigs in North Las Vegas. Hunter was about five at the time, his mother Christy Blood said. On screen, he is being coaxed by program host Mike Rowe, to give a promo for the show, prodding him to say his favorite program is “DirtyJobs with Mike Rowe.” After several tries, he gets it right. The whole segment charmed the viewing audience.

As the 150th program neared, the producers invited the public to vote for their 10 favorite episodes and those people would be asked to come be a part of the 150th celebration at the San Francisco City Dump. Viewers picked Pig Farmer Bob as one of their 10 favorites. The Combs were invited and told to bring Hunter along with them. The Blood’s called the program producers to ask if that would be okay and were told there wouldn’t be any room for Hunter to take part. Upon learning this, the Combs responded to the invitation by saying, “If Hunter doesn’t come, then we don’t come.” The producers relented.

Matthias and Christy Blood have been longtime friends of the Combs, and some people have thought Hunter is Bob’s grandson, but he is not. Matthias’ parents have been neighbors to the Combs for many years.

Christy said the family was given complimentary airline and hotel accommodations and flew to San Francisco the latter part of July. As it turned out, the Combs were not able to attend after all, but the producers still allowed Hunter to come and represent the Combs.

In the original episode, the Blood family just happened to be visiting at the Combs Ranch the day the film crew was on hand to do the filming. The precocious Hunter caught their eye and they found a way to use him in the program. Christy said host Mike Rowe was very friendly to Hunter and made him feel special.

Hunter didn’t do a lot in the 150th episode. He gave the go-ahead to one of the people to try their best to drive the special feed cart that Bob Combs uses to give liquid feed to the pigs. It proved to be harder than you might think. In addition, a portion of the original episode that Bob and Hunter were in was shown again during the 150th episode.

A large cast and crew party was held after the day of filming, but the Blood’s didn’t attend and flew home the next day.