Backyard Oil

If the the activities of Raylan Givens were not enough to convince me never to visit Kentucky, I found another reason - Discovery Channel's Backyard Oil. Backyard Oil is to Adair County what meth is to Harlan County and Marshall Raylan. The only difference is that the characters are real.

The short story is that several hill country farmers have learned that oil may exist about a half mile below the ground. This show follows their antics on trying to get some of that oil and become rich (by Kentucky standards). Lucky for them, they only have to drill about 2,000 feet and that can be done in a day or two with a compressed air drilling rig. They locate their drilling location with dowsing rods and coon dogs. They also show no regard for the environment, letting the blow pipe from the rig blow rock dust and oil all over the landscape. In the episode I saw, the driller was so stupid, he ran out of fuel and didn't know it.

I guess this is just another spin off of Duck Dynasty - a true life Beverly Hillbillies story. If I were on the Kentucky Board of Tourism, I would pay Discovery NOT to show it. Folks, This is not how it is done in the real oil field.