Below is a graph of the traffic on my blog for the past week. As I mentioned yesterday there was a spike in activity. If I get much more I’ll need something more than a 2400 baud modem to handle it*.
* No. My websites are not actually connected via a 2400 baud modem. The web server, on top of my gun safe, is connected via a 768K DSL line.
We celebrated Xenia’s birthday yesterday. It was nice to have all three kids in the house for a few hours. Here is one of the pictures I took:
Xenia has information and pictures on her Live Journal.
I haven’t been following the scandal related to the University of Idaho’s University Place project. So I don’t really know what to make of this Google query that showed up in the list of referral links for my blog:
grand jury witness list University of Idaho Foundation (www.google.com)
It could have been almost anyone looking for more information on the topic. It could be a reporter. It could be a lawyer. It could be a “hit man” (or is that synonymous with “lawyer”?) As near as I can tell they are located in North Carolina.
Anytime someone is looking for testifying witnesses I start hearing alarms go off in my head. Any suggestions as to what, if anything, I should do?
I made an animated gif of the blasting of the big rock in our field the other day. The combustion products from the gun show up in the second frame, then dirt is thrown up around the muzzle, then the detonation occurs. This gives you an indication of the time delay between the bullet leaving the muzzle and the detonation of the explosion. I was 127 yards from the explosion. Just a little closer than I really should have been–there were clods of dirt that landed behind us. My brother moved behind my van as the objects fell from the sky. He was concerned they were rocks.
Before.
The jugs have water in them. Except for the red targets all the explosives are under the water jugs and dirt.
After.
Here is a picture of one of the larger plastic water jug remnants:
Click on the pictures for a high resolution version.
See also my previous posts on this topic:
Rocks and explosives video
Little rocks from big rocks and explosives
Earlier this week Xenia and I entered a bunch of photos in the Latah County Fair. She entered most of these. I entered this one:
All got blue ribbons except for three of Xenia’s. The Blue Fairy on the next to the last row got a white ribbon, the one of the cat and the flower got a red ribbon, and one was entered in a different contest which hasn’t been decided yet. She is very talented. Barb and I went to the open house at the High School last night and got to meet all her teachers. She is taking “Yearbook” this year and is one of the photographers. The teacher held up last year’s “Inner Visions” (once a year school publication for outstanding literary works) with this picture of Xenia’s on the cover. We are very proud.
I enjoyed hanging around my picture at the fair last night and listening to the comments of the people when they noticed it. I think I’ll do that some more today…
I had a phone interview this morning with a software company. It seemed to go very well. My skills in the area they need help with are a bit rusty but I know I could do the job. They said they are having trouble finding qualified people so my guess is that I’m in the running for at least a little while. I probably won’t hear back from them for at least a week and then from there even if things went perfectly it would be at least several more weeks before I could actually start work.
Xenia, Xenia’s John, and James were really excited about the job possibility and not just that it’s a job but because what I would be doing in this job (details after it is decided one way or the other). Barb is less enthusiastic because it is out of state. I share Barb’s concern on that issue but it is the number one company I would like to develop software for. That makes up for a lot.
My video digitizer is not working right. The audio is messed up. But here is the video anyway. At least you can see the big clouds of dirt. There was one attempt that failed to detonate when we didn’t have a “detonator target” on top of the main charge and I tried to shoot into the top portion of the milk jugs. Also, I think there was one blast on the first rock we didn’t video tape.
The complete collection of pictures for this adventure is here. Below is just a sample.
I got up about 6:00 this morning, took Xenia to her drivers ed class by 7:00 and was on my way to the farm. A little after 10:00 I had all my gear gathered up from the Taj Mahal and met my brothers at the house. We went to a field they had been removing rocks from for several days. There were two rocks that couldn’t be dug out with the equipment they had. Below is rock number one from the “back side”:
Rock number one from the “front side”:
The rock appeared to be directly connected to the earth’s crust. It also poked just above the surface of the dirt (prior to their digging with the back hoe and cat). We put one of my improvised shaped charges on top of it and got back 93 yards to shoot it. Here is a picture of the charge all ready for detonation by rifle fire:
The results were disappointing. It removed a small “cap” off the right side and showed just a hint of a crack basically down the middle. But not enough to brag about much. We hit it again in the same spot with the same type of charge. The crack got a little wider. We tried a different approach. A “water hammer”:
The detonating target for my rifle is on top. In the middle is about two pounds of HE in a thin rectangle. On the bottom is about two pounds of water in a thin rectangle. The thought was that the HE would accelerate the water into the crack and force it open further. The results were, again, disappointing:
We came back after lunch with more explosives and tried two milk jugs (about 10 pounds of HE) with rocks and water around the sides to help confine the charge. This yielded a significant break in the top side of the rock which we easily exploited with a large bar:
We put about five pounds of HE under this rock and another five pounds on top of that but still in the crack. Around that we packed dirt and water jugs:
This pulverized it:
We went on to Rock two. Having learned our lesson we packed about 20 pounds of HE in the side of it next to the bedrock and put dirt and water jugs all around it. It took four of the 4″ square detonator targets stacked on top of each other to reach a height we could see it from our shooting position:
I’ve never set off a 20 pound boomer before. In fact the 10 pound boomers a little earlier were a new record for me. We got back what seemed to be a reasonable distance which according to the laser range finder was 127 yards. I fired and clods of dirt (sure glad we didn’t put rocks around it!) landed behind us and off to the side of us. It had the desired effect on the rock however:
Video was taken as well. I’ll get that digitized and up before long.
I just pushed the “Send” button on another FOIA request to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This one will probably cause some people to mess their pants and perhaps lose their jobs. And that’s even if I don’t lift a finger from now on. The unfortunate part is that the people most directly in the path of this particular “instrument” are the one’s least responsible. It could cost PNNL a lot of money to deal with the implications of this. And that doesn’t count the embarrassment, loss of confidence, and potential loss of business they will suffer with their customers. Their best course of action at this point is to give up protecting the people that committed the felonies in the process of terminating my employment at PNNL. Things will be much more pleasant for everyone, except the felons, if they “see the light”.
I checked on the status of two of the other “blunt instruments” (there are five total now) that are working their way toward them. I don’t have anything to report yet although I expected I something before now. This latest one I will be able to report on in no more than two weeks.
Lyle (at UltiMAK) and many others have been wanting me to shoot clay pigeons with them for a long time. I can only think of one time, probably 12 years ago, when I have even seen people do it live rather than in some video. Lots of friends shoot sporting clays and trap, but I’ve never been to the range with them despite lots of invitations. It just wasn’t that interesting to me. I’m not interested in shooting birds for food. And my shooting activities are not intended to be entirely recreational. But Lyle got me out to the range yesterday. I brought my SAIGA-12, ammo, and some clay pigeons Ry gave me along with another pile that Lyle had. It sometimes took three shots but I got the first ten or so. As I got tired it got more difficult and I started missing. And when I tried doubles I couldn’t even hit one of them. But I went through probably 100 rounds and 50 targets. It was fun.
Now tell me what the practical aspect of it is for me.
Mr. Completely has the results posted. I discussed my entries here. In the over 4″ barrel class I came in 4th and 6th with the .22LR and .40S&W. Overall I was 5th and 7th. If there had been a center fire category I would have been number 1 in both overall and in the over 4″ barrel class. I had a score of 407/500 even after loosing a possible 10 points because I fired only four instead of five rounds on one target (or I suppose it is possible I had a “perfect double”–but not likely). The next closest score with a center-fire handgun was a 383/500.
Xenia’s John (I love calling her boyfriend, John, that. The triple meaning and all.) and I went to the range this afternoon and I shot Mr. Completely’s Postal Match #2 with two different calibers. .22LR and .40 S&W. Both were in the Long Barrel class. Click on each of the pictures for a full resolution view.
203/250 212/250
Total score for the .22LR 415/500.
205/250 202/250
Total score for the .40S&W 407/500. It should have been at least another five points higher but I only put four holes in the center target of the offhand target instead of five. I didn’t notice it until I got home and it was way past dark.
Not great, but I’m not unhappy with my results either.
The results of the rifle postal match have been reported now. I received this certificate:
Click on the picture for the full sized version. Also note that Analog Kid at softgreenglow.com also got a perfect score but apparently didn’t put himself in the running because he is running the match.
The results from my last pistol match are posted on the Lewiston Pistol Club site. I did rather mediocre when shooting against the clock but when we did the man-on-man portion of the event I did much better. It’s all about adrenaline management.
Once again Barb and I are leaving the Huffman-Scott “compound and arsenal” in the hands of one of our adult children with a couple of dogs taking the point position. Xenia is going with us this time so if I don’t find an Internet connection there won’t be a “Quote of the day” or anything else on my blog tomorrow. I’ll be back on Monday.
Joe, you’re the gift that just keeps on giving.
Barb Scott
September 1, 2005
On Pacific Northwest National Laboratory “reconsidering” it’s initial refusal to comply with Privacy Act and Freedom of Information Act requests for personnel file information on her husband, Joe Huffman. Their “reconsideration” might have had something to do with certain “encouragement” Joe had been giving them via various “channels”.
At 16:39 this afternoon I received a call from the person responsible for handling my FOIA/Privacy-Act information requests at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He said they had “reconsidered” my request for the rest of my personal file (or “Field File” as they prefer to call it) and it will go into the mail tomorrow.
Gee, I wonder what it was that caused them to “reconsider”? I can only think of four different “blunt instruments” they might have seen coming their way that might have caused an “attitude adjustment” on their part. I’ll be checking on three of those “blunt instruments” tomorrow to see if any of them had something to do with it. If all goes as planned I’ll be able to share most of the results with everyone here sometime next week.
Barb had a rather apropos quip when she heard the news. It will be the quote of the day tomorrow.
Actually it was a small U-Haul truck. They used the “shuttle” because the big moving van couldn’t make it into the confines of where Ry used to live. They called at 9:00 this morning to gain access to Ry’s old home. I had the key as Ry now lives in the Seattle area working for Microsoft.
On Saturday I helped Ry prepare for the move by taking my Astrovan over and hauling things to the dump. Ry’s main objective was to get out of town before Barb could see all the stuff I set aside to bring home, then find and kill him. But since she and Xenia were at yard sales all morning I figured Ry was safe. And besides, a lot of that stuff is going to friends and relatives of mine that I’m certain will be pleased to get it. Ry, his kids, and I worked all day Saturday to get things ready for the move. It was a small place but there was a lot of stuff to do. I left before it was quite all done. Then later Ry stopped by pick up a few rounds of linked .50 BMG ammo and to say good-bye before his drive back to the Seattle area.
Yesterday Xenia and I went over to do some cleaning. More cleaning needs to be done now that the stuff is moved out and we’ll get it done before the end of the month so Ry doesn’t have to pay another months rent on the place.
The movers arrived, called me for access and I was over there in 15 minutes. It would have been only 10 but one of the dogs “marked” one of my shoes I was going to put on. I pointed out the stuff to be moved and the room to stay out of because it contained my garbage can, vacuum cleaner, and a few cleaning supplies. There wasn’t much there and it was all packed and the small truck was rolling into town to the moving van by about 11:45. I followed the truck into town from Ry’s place. A sadness washed over me as I watched the truck drive away with the last of Ry’s belongings. At Mountain View Road I turned south and they turned north. I went on to UltiMAK to dump off the stuff Ry was giving to them and they headed towards the other side of town and the moving van that would deliver Ry’s belongs to him–340 miles away. I’m chatting on-line with him right now as I write this but I’ll miss the talks until the early morning light in my living room and the impromptu trips to the range with my chemistry set to try out a new Boomershoot mix.
Heavy sigh… closure.
I have the results posted from the August 7th Lewiston Pistol Club match. As I stated before I came in 4th overall. Acceptable–considering the lack of recent practice.
About 18:30 on August 19th (Friday night) Barb and I decided to go to the B-23 bomber that crash landed on Loon Lake and slid into the forest in 1943 for our 29th wedding anniversary. We threw some stuff in the Jeep and drove to Riggins expecting to find a motel in either Whitebird or Riggins. There were none. The fire fighters had taken what the tourist hadn’t. We ended up finding an open spot in a campground just off the Salmon river about 12:30 AM on Saturday morning and slept in the Jeep. After waking at about 6:30 we drove about 50 miles, mostly on one-lane roads, to Chinook campground. We hiked ten miles round trip from Chinook Campground to the crash site and back to replace a missing geocache (B-23). Barb had not been there before and was very impressed with the site. The pictures are here.
On the way out we figured we should go through McCall to improve our chances of finding a motel. We arrived back at the Jeep about 18:00 tired and sore. From the Chinook Campground it took us only an hour to reach McCall. Again, the motels were all full except for a luxury suite for $225/night. We drove to New Meadows. Again, all full. We called several motels in Grangeville. Again, all full. We drove north, dirty, tired, and getting hungry. At Pinehurst we found a motel with a Vacancy sign. We rang the bell and waited, and waited. Finally a man appeared to tell us his “No” sign was broken. We drove to Riggins and found a motel with two rooms available. We were thrilled! We showered and went to dinner. It was about 20:40 when we walked into the restaurant. Except for the cook and the waitress we had the place entirely to ourselves. Riggins appears to close up early on Saturday nights. It was great food and we went to bed tired and very happy. It was a great day in the woods and one of our best anniversaries yet.
Analog Kid at Random Nuclear Strikes is putting on the rifle postal match I am participating in. Here is my entry, 100 yards, .300 Winchester Magnum, Blackhills Match ammo. Except for the sighter target you can see a higher resolution version by clicking on the image.
Temperature was 74 F, indicated altitude of 2300 feet above sea level and my calculator said to use a sight angle of 3.75 MOA. I took two sighter shots and figured it was good enough:
Two sighter shots.
After the first shot on the real target (below, ball #1) I started aiming at the bottom of the circle which contained the number.
Completed target.
The shots on balls 10 through 15 were done by the light of my van headlights. It was about 20:15 when I fired my last shot and getting very dark:
