It was 33 this morning when I got up. Still warmer than yesterday (29) and the day before (23). Good news for boomer shooters.

Today is the big day and we have 982 targets for them.

Yesterday when I got up at about 0630 it was 23F. This morning it was 29F. That should help those who were complaining about the cold at Boomershoot yesterday.

This type of situation happens every year. We know that you, the customer, are looking for mud in your hair; every year, we work around errors where people don’t get to participate at as a full level as they might like. The solution wasn’t optimal (taking explosives made for Sunday and using them Friday), but that is behind the scenes; as far as the customer knows, Mary Boomer Poppins delivered magical explosives when there were none.

Ry Jones
April 24, 2009
Calm down kthx
[Thank you Ry.–Joe]

I’m sure someone else will give better reports than me. I’m way too tired. But lets just say the fire last Sunday didn’t scare me nearly as much as the one we had today. And we have a dozen people to fight this one.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and what surprised me most was that they seemed to enjoy me just standing around and telling stories as much as making explosives and blowing mud all over everyone.

And then there was the awesome picture Ry took. The target has HIGH SPEED flames shooting out of the sides just before it is reduced to it’s molecular components–and you can see the bullet hole in the target. I’m sure he will post it sometime. It’s just a question of him having bandwidth, both computer and personal, to do it.

Tomorrow we start cranking out targets while most of the gun blogger crew participates in the Precision Rifle Clinic.

I went to Office Depot today to pick up some supplies for Boomershoot. I bought three pounds (it annoys me they are by the pound rather than the count) of #6 rubber bands, 200 clip on name badges, and a self-inking stamp. Everyone was nice until I told them what I wanted on the stamp. Then I noticed a distinct chill in their attitude.

I’m not sure what it could have been but it must have been one of the following lines:

Extreme Danger!!
Contains High Explosives
FlashTek, Cavendish ID 208-301-4254
Lot 2009-4-      Shift 1

I just got a call from a 14 year old kid in Michigan that wanted to know a bunch of things about being an “explosives specialist”. The most memorable questions were:

• Q: What is most important about your career? A: Safety. Being very, very detail oriented and being careful.


• Q: What do you like most about your career? A: Making people happy and changing the way people think about gun and explosives.

I also told him that if he was serious about explosives as a career he should consider something other than doing Boomershoot type events. He should look into demolition, mining, and certain specialties in the military. I should have mentioned road construction but I didn’t think of it until after we had said goodbye.

As I reported yesterday due to a failure in communications one of the Boomershoot spectators showed up a week early on Saturday night. I felt so bad about it that we put on a private party for them. They got the full Boomershoot experience. From helping fold the boxes for the targets (a staff t-shirt will be delivered within a week or two), seeing the targets made, shooting boomers, seeing an awesome fireball (Caleb was some distance away and thought it had enveloped us) and even helping to put out a fire.

Son-in-law Caleb and daughter Kim starting the box folding. We ended up with about 65 crates of empty boxes.

Our guest after hitting her first boomer.

Notice there is still a smile as she prepares to engage the next one.

The second boomer in the early stages of earth movement. Notice the dirt moving outward?

Our shooter was 25 yards from the boomers. Almost Entertainingly Close.

Due to some technical difficulties I shot the fireball target and there was no one on the camera.
This is want it looked like about 15 seconds after detonation. Notice the flames to the far left.

After about 15 minutes of fire fighting. We were very glad it was near the creek and we had buckets to move water with.
Click to see a higher resolution version.

While at the Boomershoot site yesterday I didn’t have cell phone service (AT&T). Last year it was fine. Even yesterday it would, for a minute or so, have “four bars” but then it would go to zero. In one of those bursts of service, around 1330, I received notice I had a voice mail. I immediately tried to call out and retrieve it but even when there was signal indicated the call would not go through. “Oh, well,” I thought, “It probably was just the girls at the house wanting me to pick up something at the store on the way home. I’ll get the message on my way home.”

I checked the voice mail about 1715 on top of a hill as I was leaving the area. A chill went through me. It was someone from work that was, “Just leaving Seattle.” The time on the message was 1100. They expected to be in Orofino by 1700 in time for the Boomershoot dinner. Yeah, that would be in plenty of time for the dinner. Exactly seven days early. “See you tonight they said.” And, I was told, “I found accommodations at the Helgeson.”

They had stopped by my office on Friday to talk to my office-mate and then we talked about going to see Boomershoot this year. They wanted to watch and also see the explosives being made but exactly which Saturday and Sunday was apparently miscommunicated.

I called back but there was no answer and I left voice mail. There is no AT&T cell service in Orofino and I was pretty sure they have AT&T as their carrier. When I got back to Moscow I called their phone again, which went to voice mail, and then the Helgeson. They hadn’t checked in yet. I sent a text message to their cell. An hour later I called the Helgeson again. Yes, they had checked in and got my message but they had just left. I expressed my concern that they might not have cell phone service, which was confirmed. I said I would call back in an hour.

About an hour later they called me from a land-line in Orofino. I apologized profusely for the miscommunication and told them we were going back out to the site tomorrow and they would get a “private party”. They will get to see the explosives being made, get to detonate several boomers from “entertainingly close” ranges, have lunch with my parents, and maybe even test out a new fireball construction method I thought of.

Pictures tonight or tomorrow.

Both the conditions on site now and the forecast for the rest of the week look absolutely awesome. It’s a little wet right now but still easily dealt with. The forecast is for the weather to be clear or scattered clouds until Friday with temperatures sometimes reaching the upper 70s. That should dry things out. Friday night, after the High Intensity event there is a strong possibility of showers. Which would wash away any spilled Boomerite minimizing the chances of a fire. From then though Sunday night it is supposed to be cloudy with temperatures in the upper 60s with, again, a chance of rain Sunday night after the event is over. I couldn’t ask for a better forecast.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

The daffodils are starting to bloom on the shooters berm.

All the snow in the shooting areas is gone.

The road into the shooters area is nearly dry.

Even with one of the seats removed the van was packed with equipment and supplies.

The Taj was over crowed after the van was unloaded.

The target prep area was dry.

I “paved” the work area where we walked in mud last year.

I found three small patches of snow on the property. This was the largest at 1:21 in the afternoon.

The same patch of snow three hours later at 4:18. I suspect it will be gone when I visit the site today.