In preparation for the delivery of the 5000 pounds of fun this last weekend I, as Barb expressed it, rearranged some dirt and rocks around Boomershoot Mecca.

Here are the before and after panoramas:

It’s a little difficult to judge what was really done because in the first picture there are a lot of tall weeds blocking the view of the dirt and rocks.

Here are some pictures of one of the new piles of rocks to give you a clue:

I am a little concerned that I might have created conditions for some major snow drifts near the door to the shipping container. Drifts have formed before but they weren’t large and were of little concern. If the weather conditions are just right I can see the wind now dumping major amounts of snow in front of the door.

Most of the rocks were moved with the bulldozer but hundreds of the smaller ones were moved by hand. I was unable to smooth the dirt out with the rocks embedded in the soil. The really large rocks I could move with the dozer. But baseball sized to almost basketball sized rocks were tough. They would lift the blade if I didn’t apply downward pressure. And if I applied enough pressure to move the rocks I would move large amounts of dirt at the same time. I spent a couple hours moving them by hand and then smoothed the ground with the dozer.

The end result was a lot more area for vehicles to maneuver and park on the east end of the shipping container:

There is a much nicer path from the parking area on the north size of the hilltop to the shipping container now:

It used to be weeds and a maze of rocks to navigate.

The stack of half-length railroad ties is to block some of the sound of the generator. I used to have the generator on the south side of the container but when I was planning these improvements Ry suggested I make a spot on the north side because the power connector was on the north side and for the same power cord length I could get the generator further away.

I came up with and tested a new equipment wash station:

The bag of water is a three gallon solar shower. After about two or three hours in the summer sun it has enough hot water to give at least two people a decent shower. It also does a nice job of delivering hot water for washing the chemicals off of the mixing equipment. The barrel top works as a shallow sink. This is so much better than bending over some railroad ties on a rocky hillside and washing in cold water. The hot water will dissolve the chemicals much better as well as being more comfortable.

I also finally got the eight foot long grounding rod to what I consider the final depth:

I’ve been pounding on this rod when I visit for years.

I also leveled a much larger area for tents and sleeping bags on the very top under the trees. It’s hard to tell from the pictures. The lighting was so high contrast that you can’t really see how level and smooth the area is but it’s really nice when you see it in person even if it looks like crap in the picture:

Later this fall or early next spring I’ll plant all the bare dirt to grass with the possible exception of some of the area directly in front of the shipping container doors. I’ll put gravel there if I get the chance.

As I said yesterday I was at the Boomershoot site this last weekend.

The main objective was to take delivery on ammonium nitrate for future Boomershoots. Last time (see also here) I ordered 3000 pounds of AN and they brought a semi-truck and trailer. It was difficult to get it into a position close to the entrance of my shipping container production facility. So in the two days before the delivery I rearranged the dirt and rocks in front of the facility to make it easier to get into position.

This time I ordered two thirds more and they put it in something resembling a horse trailer pulled by a large pickup instead of the larger semi. Oh well, I like the changes I made and it was still easier for them than it would have been had I not moved the dirt and rocks.

At first we put down some rollers to unload the material. I’m sorry for the atrocious picture. The lens of my cell phone camera was dirty and I didn’t want to waste time cleaning it to get a good picture when the delivery guy was waiting on me:

After maybe five bags with me carrying them 30+ feet to the rear of the shipping container and the delivery guy mostly waiting for my return he put the rollers away and moved the pallet to the rear of the trailer. Then we both pulled the 50 pound bags off the back of the trailer and carried them to the far end of the container and stacked them.

From the time he was backing the trailer up to the container until they were all neatly stacked at the opposite end of the container was only 28 minutes.

I did a lot of puttering around after he left. I removed bunch of old cardboard boxes for disposal at a recycling center. I had moved a lot of things out of the way to have a clear path to the rear and I put those back where I wanted them. I put the AN from two years ago on top of the latest delivery. An interesting thing I noted when I did this was that the date on the new bags AN was September 4, 2014 and the date on the old bags was September 4, 2012.

I tucked the tarp in around the AN and put a plastic sheet over the top to keep the condensation and occasional snow (that sometimes blows in through the ceiling vent) off the chemicals:

The ceiling of the container is not really sloped. It’s just the distortion from the wide angle lens on the phone camera.

We now have 5000+ pounds of fun ready for use in Boomerite at Boomershoots 2015, 2016, and beyond.