I just made the payment to Soldiers Angels from the Saturday Boomershoot dinner and raffle:

For those of you that were at the dinner and remember the exact numbers Bruce said $1645 was raised for Soldier Angels. That does not match with the amount I sent. The envelope Bruce gave me actually contained $1651. Then two people quietly shoved money in my hands as they left the dinner. That brought this year’s total to $1981.

Previous posts about Boomershoot donations are here: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.

Today Scott, Tim, and I got soaking wet as we put the 500+ stakes in the hillside for Boomershoot. And it was cold.

Tomorrow is forecast as 100% chance of precipitation until 8:00 PM when it drops to 90%

The generator didn’t work for a while this morning. I think the electrical system was wet. I covered it with a tarp and let the engine run and it started working again. Tim is bringing his generator as a backup for tomorrow.

antitango got stuck trying to turn around near Mecca.

I realized I didn’t have the scope rings required to put a scope on the rifle Sarah was going to use. I did get the rifle Ry is going to use scoped but it was so cold and wet I didn’t go out to zero it in.

Scott then got a flat tire trying to make it to Mecca. That makes the third tire to die while making the trip to Mecca since last September. Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three times…

Am I having fun yet? Actually I really enjoyed having dinner with Boomershoot friends and bloggers at the Ponderosa tonight.

Almost everything went well today. I got the Wi-Fi and micro-cell working. AT&T says the micro-cell is good for about 40’. That wasn’t really going to meet my needs and I talked to the people at the AT&T store and they said it would be much further if there were no obstructions so I took a chance on it. I still had 3 bars 250 feet away which is good enough for what I need it for.

I got my tent set up and all the bedding in place.

I cleaned up the interior of Mecca a bunch. I made room for and moved a bunch of the empty crates we store the targets in to the Mecca to be filled. After being filled they will be transported to the Taj Mahal for storage.

I had hoped to get all that stuff done yesterday so basically I am taking about twice as long as I had planned to get stuff done.

The really important stuff that I need to get done before tomorrow night (other than do my regular job, “work from home” is actually going to be “work from the middle of a field”) is to get the rest of the chemicals from the Taj Mahal moved to Mecca. The weather has been great with clear skies and the today the temperature was in the low 80’s. This was probably close to a record for this day of the year. But there is a 50% chance of rain tomorrow night and I need to get those chemicals moved before the field gets muddy again.

The solar panel has been doing great. It puts out over 100 Watts (rated at 130 W) during the middle of the day and it has more than kept up with the Internet, cell, and computer power needs.

Boomershoot is looking to be good this year. There is some chance of rain but it doesn’t look nearly as bad has it has some years.

As Sarah notes Paul Barrett will be speaking at the Boomershoot dinner next Saturday.

I am very pleased to have Barrett attend. He and his wife are coming all the way from New York City to attend.

You may purchase a copy of his book at the dinner and there will be a book signing after his speech.

You don’t have to be a Boomershoot participant to listen to the speaker. Speaker only tickets are $10 at the door.

Ry reports his room reservation he made last May at the Best Western in Orofino for Boomershoot 2012 was cancelled exactly 90 days later.

If you think you have a reservation there please check to make sure everything is still in order.

If you have lost your reservation there may be other places in town that still have rooms available. Here is a list of places with phone numbers where you can look.

I’m doing some thinking about Boomershoot 2013. I need to schedule around wet/snowy weather, Fire Season, the NRA Annual Meetings, Mother’s Day, and my wife’s work schedule.

I have tentatively chosen Sunday May 5^th as the date.

Can anyone come up with a good reason why that date should be avoided? I realize this is the probably going to be the weekend before finals at the University of Idaho but I’m not seeing a better tradeoff at this time.

Discuss as needed…

I ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon for Boomershoot last night. This included things like foam ear plugs, safety glasses, nitrile gloves, electronic hearing protection, a new flour sifter, and a shooting mat for the media types who show up and take us up on shoot for free offer. The interesting thing was the total price of the order after tax and shipping:

Thanks for your order, Joe Huffman!
Want to manage your order online?
If you need to check the status of your order or make changes, please visit our home page at Amazon.com and click on Your Account at the top of any page.
Purchasing Information:
E-mail Address:  ???@joehuffman.org

Billing Address:
Joe Huffman
8512 122nd Ave NE #6
Kirkland, WA 98033
United States

Order Grand Total: $666.66

For the crazy anti-gun people who believe guns are in hell this probably confirms their belief.

For the rest of the world who are more sane but still a bit superstitious they will probably just take this as a sign that Boomershoot 2012 is going to be a hell of a good time.

This morning I loaded up my Ford Escape with 400 pounds of Potassium Chlorate, boxes of ammo, Cafepress shirts, mugs, and miscellaneous other stuff and drove out to Boomershoot Mecca. I knew the ground would be wet and soft and I knew I might not be able to make it all the way out there but worse case I could leave the stuff at my brother’s place a mile or so away until the ground dried up. The last 150 yards were the only part of concern and I stopped to check it out before attempting to traverse it. I walked about 20 yards into the field and it was surprisingly firm in the track we had packed in the ground on our previous trips last fall and winter. I decided I could make it. I made it across the field and still had a fair amount of velocity when I tried to make a left turn up the hill onto the grass and weeds of the scab patch where the shipping container is. That was an error. I probably should have kept going straight and got onto the firmer ground ahead of me. I immediately lost all velocity and spun down into the mud.

The hybrid drive train is extremely anemic in reverse. It wouldn’t even spin the tires when I tried to back up. Attempts to go forward didn’t accomplish much either. I did manage to slide sidewise a bit into the softer mud of the field.

The sun was out and things were drying up so I figured I would have a better chance of getting out if I waited a few hours. My brother Doug showed up a little later. He was clearing out the drain tiles in the nearby fields. He came over to see what I was doing. He said the forecast was for 90% chance of rain after 11:00 AM. That made it an imperative to get the vehicle out almost immediately. He didn’t think the tractors would be able to get in any better than a pickup and another pickup out there probably would mean another stuck vehicle.

I already had everything else out of the vehicle and he helped me get the Potassium Chlorate out and the rest of the way up the hill and into the shipping container.

We both had shovels and starting digging the mud out from behind the tires. After we had three or four feet of soft mud removed from all the tires he pushed on the front and I drove. I flipped the back end around and up the hill to get close to a straight shot at the “road” back out of the field. The drive out threw a lot of mud in the air but I made it back to the road without problems.

The Internet provider guy showed up shortly thereafter and he took a look at Teakean Butte from the shipping container and said it shouldn’t be a problem. He would schedule someone to come out and install the service in a week or 10 days. I was annoyed. I understood they were going to install the equipment today. I could have sent them a picture of Teakean Butte from the shipping container if that is all they were going to do. Now one of my brothers will have to come out again and open up the shipping container for them to install the equipment. Nearly every contact I have had with these people has been unsatisfactory.

I had lunch with my parents and brothers. Dad made a really nice lentil soup.

Doug and I both went back out in the afternoon and I did some cleanup and arranging of things and he rerouted some cables and oiled the squeaking (almost crunchy) things on the doors. Other than getting stuck it was a pretty productive day.