I haven’t posted much recently. Boomershoot is pretty much all consuming for me. Last night was the first opportunity to get a full nights sleep since last Wednesday. I slept almost 12 hours. I feel much better now.

There will be more regular blog posts in the near future.

Ry topped his last whooper of a fireball which was in 2007. This was the most awesome one yet. There was 7.5 gallons of gasoline, 12 pounds of Boomerite, 16 road flares, many feet of PVC pipe and one bullet involved. Click on the pictures below to get higher resolution versions.

Lyle@UltiMak and Ry ignited the flares. Then Lyle shot the explosives.

Ry speculated the PVC pipe would survive to be used again next year.

 
 
 
 

Ry took a bow to all the cheers and applause.

Ry was wrong about the PVC pipe.

Update: Ry has comments and this video:

Update2: Nice picture and automated .GIF here (along with a general Boomershoot 2011 report from some of my staff that put in the most hours). And more video:

After going to sleep about 11:30 last night I woke up about 4:00 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. Last night I told son-in-law Caleb that we should leave by 7:00 AM so I have a little time to blog before loading the last of my stuff in my 4×4 and heading out to the Boomershoot site. I will probably continue to lack sleep until Sunday night when I will also have very sore muscles and have lost eight to ten pounds (I checked in a 202.8 pounds last night before going to bed). And friends and co-workers keep telling me, “Have fun at Boomershoot!” It’s not “fun” for me. “Rewarding” is a better word.

Four of my staff from out of state have checked in and will be ready to start preparing the site for the shooters shortly after I arrive. Others will arrive at various times throughout the day. My biggest task is delegating and communicating what I want done. It helps that I have staff that have done this for several years and don’t need much direction. But still, just keeping the tasks queued up is sometimes challenging because I want to do something just a little bit different than previously and I need to explain it or they need materials I haven’t got delivered to the proper location yet.

The site got more rain last night than I expected but the forecast is looking pretty good. It will be wet and messy out there for a few hours and perhaps all day today. The winds will be up to 15 MPH today too. That will help dry out the ground but it will be cold with the temperature never getting about 43F.

Joe (calling the local auto repair shop): Hello, my name is Joe Huffman, I have a 2004 Chevy Aveo that…
Repair guy interrupts: Hi Joe! How was Boomershoot this year?
[discussion of Boomershoot]
Repair guy: Someone was pushing Boomershoot at the last Tea Party meeting we had in town.

I think I might have met him four or five years ago. Daughter Kim takes the car in more frequently than I do and gets similar questions about Boomershoot.

It’s a small town.

I’ve decided rubber bands are the magic ingredient that made it possible for successful Boomershoot events. Each year we use many hundreds of them. This year I thought our usage would decrease and perhaps nearly disappear by 2012. But this morning I realized they might come to the rescue yet again in the way we attach targets to the “clothes lines” (“Boomer Line”?).

Here is a “clothes line” (from Saturday):

And here is close up of a target:

We are attaching the target with a plastic bag tied around the parachute cord which is suspended between steel fence posts. This knot is hard to tie quickly and puts the target closer to the paracord than I’m comfortable with. It worked last year but it still worries me that a shooter will clip the line or the explosion will damage the line.

I think we can use rubber bands to fasten the plastic bag to the line. The key is finding the correct knot and implementing it correctly such that the target maintains it’s orientation correctly. I think I have figured out the knot. I’ll test my hypothesis with the knots on Thursday.

This means I have to buy more rubber bands now. [shrug] Rubber bands are cheap.

I just wish they sold rubber bands by quantity rather than by the pound. It makes purchasing the correct number more difficult.

When it is dry enough to farm Boomershoot is dry enough to be pleasant. This year things are still wet.

My brother sent me an email late last week. He hasn’t started farming yet this spring because it has been too cold and wet. He came back to the farm 25 years ago and kept records of various dates such as when he planted, fertilized, and harvested various crops. In those 25 years the latest he has ever started the spring work was April 21^st. Hence every day he can’t get into the field it is setting a new record for him.

I was on site last weekend on both Saturday and Sunday. It was dry enough to get around okay in my 4×4 but the ground was very soft in places and I cut into the mud when driving to/from the Taj. There is also a small draw between the “Main” and “Lowlands” shooting positions. The range officers (and others) cross this area many, many times during the event. It had standing water in it and was very soft. If it is still wet on Sunday I will bring some concrete “stepping stones” to help keep people’s feet dry.

Both Saturday and Sunday it was warm and sunny and I’m sure it dried up a lot of the water but even at the end of the day on Sunday it was still wet enough that driving across the field multiple times to do build and place targets will create deep ruts. Yesterday was cloudy and it rained some in Moscow (my home) but the weather radar indicated the Boomershoot site missed most of the rain. The forecast for today is still on the cool side with a high of 47F but the sun is shining bright and the wind is blowing. That will help some.

The forecasts for the rest of the week indicate very little precipitation except for early Thursday morning (2:00 –> 5:00 AM). And possibly on Friday (with a chance of snow as well). Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be partly sunny and partly cloudy with highs of 53F and 59F. I expect this will result in a minor but net move toward dryness from what I saw last weekend.

I predict Boomershoot 2011 will be mostly comfortable but people are going get mud on their shoes and I wouldn’t be too surprised to see some vehicles get stuck in the mud.