Christmas 2021

[ThomasPowers]

Well we will have some days in the 60's next week, time to get the woodstove fired up!

[Frosty]

60s! I wear the extra strength antiperspirant for such extreme heat!

Still snowing in on Vine Rd.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Well I hope you are prepared for periods of isolation; got a copy of "The Shining" to watch?  A copy of Alferd Packer's "Recipes for the Snowed In" cookbook to peruse?  Perhaps the set of Donner Party Games?

Actually I've always enjoyed heavy weather, especially when the power goes out and we light the oil lamps and fire up the wood stove.  We don't see much of that here though.  High winds and dust just isn't the same...

[Frosty]

We're good, two freezers full of food, stocked pantry, large library hers and mine, plenty of movies on DVD and a gen set if power goes out for long, propane tank's full so we can cook and a good 7 cord of cut dry firewood in the shed.  Isolation is no sweat at least until the murder each other threshold is crossed but we have different rooms to hide in. 

Right now wind wouldn't be desirable, this is a very light snow. The colder the temps the more air is entrained and 15f snowfall is  20 to 1 +/- snow depth to rain. The 12" I measured last night would be .6" if rain. The mountains that cause our rain shadow got on average 20' the last time it snowed and this is a larger storm. TV and radio PSAs are largely avalanche warnings. The last snowfalls had a nice warm break to make for a slippery crust for all this super fine DEEP powder to lay on. Another bit of warm sunny and another snowfall and we'll be seeing some major slab avalanches. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[ThomasPowers]

I always thought that pre-emptive avalanche starting with fixed weaponry sounded like a fun job.

[Frosty]

You think firing the 105 recoilless rifle the Girdwood maintenance camp uses for avalanche control would be fun? You'd be amazed how hard it is to get certified to stand on the ground in the turnout where the gun mounts are. I've been a flagger keeping traffic away from the avalanche chutes. The rounds are red tracers and it's wicked cool watching them sail up to impact, the explosions are anti-climatic even if they trigger a good slide. The rifle is amazingly quite though, more a poof whoosh than a bang. 

The Girdwood maintenance camp is or was the second best armed avalanche mediation camp in America, there is or was one in Colorado with more ordinance.

Another fun avalanche mediation job is dropping charges from a helicopter, I flagged for those too.

There is an amusing story about when they started shooting strictly by coordinates rather than a salty old cannon cocker aiming the gun. There was a dog and pony show with several mucky mucks in attendance asking questions, photo ops, etc. and in the confusion the gunner used the coordinates from the wrong gun mount.

It was an EVENT with TV camera crews on the ground and in helicopters. One of the big local name TV news anchors was covering from a helicopter. De WHOLE SCHMEER!

Wellllll, Poof WHOOSH! Oooh watch the avalanche chute. . . Where's the KABoom? Shouldn't there be a snow shattering KaBOOM? This was also before they started using the tracer rounds, all the trail those rounds left was thin white smoke. So, the TV chopper gets clearance and starts a search pattern and while they're there they swing by a TV relay station and. . . 

No fooling ON LIVE TV, the Anchor man asks the pilot if there's a light on, over the door, he can see a bright spot. As they're approaching the camera guy zooms in and you can see a hole in the man door and daylight. When they swing around the back side the debris trail is scattered probably at least a mile down the peak. It was perfect, right smack on a snow field / glacier so it stood out in sharp contrast. $100,000 of expensive communications equipment in late 1970s dollars.

They couldn't have done a better job if they'd aimed for it. All the coordinate cards are now color coordinated to the mounts and there are stops to prevent certain aim points.

I believe gun crews are allowed peace and quite on the job by law. 

That is such a KODAK moment I hope my memory doesn't get bad enough to forget.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

"Avalanche remediation"? Kind of hard to mediate with an avalanche, I'd have thought. Especially since you do NOT want to be finding common ground.

[George N. M.]

The Colorado Department of Transportation crews usually use 105mm howitzers.  There are several advantages, greater range, no back blast, more easily towed to a site, and better availability of ammunition (the US military hasn't used recoilless rifles for some years.  Their function has been replaced by various anti-tank missiles.)  As ammunition ages you get a higher percentage of duds which means live rounds lying around in the avalanche tracks.

A number of ski areas have gone to compressed air cannon to launch explosives up onto the slopes.  Think "punkin chunkin'" guns.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."  

[ThomasPowers]

I heard the coyotes yodeling last night; but no snow on our mountains yet; probably cold enough at 10K feet but too dry; we haven't had any rain or other precipitation in weeks if not months!  Now sometimes they used to shoot 20mm up at the mountain as part of a test program; but most of the booms are set  charges done by EMRTC.

[Frosty]

The Girdwood bunker had 5 connexes packed to the top with 105 recoilless, and the gun was on loan from the Army. The newest round was pre WWII, some from the 30s. the late, Larry B. said there were very few duds and mostly those failed to fire and the reason NOBODY not on the crew was allowed within a couple hundred yards of the gun.

I have no idea what the current gun or ammunition is except it's old Army and a better way to dispose of it than burning it in the pit on the Army ordinance disposal range.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Frosty, The M27 105mm recoilless rifle was developed about 1950 and deployed in the Korean War.  It was replaced in the mid-'50s by the M40 106mm recoilless rifle.  The M27 was entirely suitable for avalanche control.  The only recoilless rifles used by the US military in WW2 were the 57 and 75mm versions which were developed mid to late war.  The 57mm was first test in late 1943 and deployed in 1945.

So, it is highly improbable to have 105mm RR ammunition manufactured pre-WW2, prior to the development of the weapon.  This is probably a case of someone "gilding" an already pretty good story.  Or someone confused the Korean War with WW2 when telling the tale.

Another good reason not to be close to a firing recoilless rifle is the back blast which is how the recoil is mitigated.  There is a fan behind the weapon which is a very bad place to be when it is fired.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

There’s a army ammunition plant at McAlester here in Oklahoma, that not only manufactures but also disposed of military munitions, 

Rewind to 3 years ago when my job ended and the business I worked for closed down, I bought what parts stock  I could afford and moved all the customers to my run down shop here at home, 

well I had never been home all day everyday before because of my previous job, but now working from home all day every day I started to see, hear and learn more about my property here in the country side, 

one thing I noticed was occasional “booming” that sounded very low but was very distinguished and repetitive every now and then, almost like thunder but there wouldn’t be a cloud in the sky,

I asked various customers that live around my county and some would say they’ve heard it too an some just thought I was crazy, 

well one day I was reading through some random Oklahoma news articles and I came across one that talked about people around the state hearing the same thing as well as some researchers who where confused why their seismograph machines kept picking up repetitive tremors 

long story short apparently when they blow up the munitions in McAlester apparently the sound travels through certain underground parts of the state and can be heard as a low rumble several hours away, 

so even though I’m 2 hours away from there I guess I live in just the right spot to hear that boom when they do their disposal over there, 

sorry my story don’t have anything to do with avalanches but I thought I’d throw that in there, 

[George N. M.]

Any story that involves things that go boom is appropriate and timely IMO.

GNM

[Frosty]

Well That did it George, I waded out to the shop through no fooling knee deep snow in sub zero temperatures uphill both ways and read some of the rocket boxes I collected from Girdwood camp, there were some big piles of empty "broken" boxes. Anyway, says right on the lid 105mm.

Howitzer.

Now wait a second these are "rocket boxes" everybody called them that. So I called the Girdwood camp and lucked out, one of the last old timers was there and had a few minutes to talk. Turns out when Larry B. took the job as foreman they were using RR for avalanche control and still was when I met him. Flagged for the crew, saw the back blast, etc. standing in the cold on the highway. Turns out Larry had a serious bee in his bonnet about having to use hundreds of RR rounds before the camp could get the howitzer to replace it. He got the job as foreman because he was artillery in the Army.

The bunker had 5 connexes of 105 howitzer some dating to the 30s and one of the dirty jobs new guys got stuck with after certifying for the gun crew was sorting through boxes of ammunition for rounds that looked bad and sending those back to the Army base for disposal. 

I guess it didn't take much to set Larry off, evidently he never forgave whoever stuck him with a bunch of marginal artillery back when.

New guys still have to sort through ammo for potential duds, they're down to 2 connexes.

Thank you George I misunderstood and had it wrong. I'd much rather be right than THINK I am. 

Blowing the communications relay off the mountain is still a cautionary tale on the gun crew.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol George I’m glad you approve,

Jerry, that is a hilarious story sorry I forgot to say that in my post, 

one stupid question I have is how do they get power up on y’all’s mountains for the relay stations?
 
I’ve never been to Alaska but I’ve seen pictures and it looks like y’all got some pretty steep hills! And if y’all gotta worry about avalanches I wouldn’t think high line poles wouldnt survive, do they bury the lines or do they have generators? 

[Frosty]

I have no idea how they powered them then. They are almost all solar and wind powered now while requiring less power and having stronger clearer signals. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Christmas is an odd day for me. I am an Atheist , so the religious aspect is lost on me, and it is also the day my Mom passed away. Being the perpetual bachelor that I am I also don't have that "special"" person to get a gift for.  After losing my parents, and some other friends, I do not wait for birthdays, or holidays to give gifts.  If I find something that I want to give to someone, I give it to them when I get it because tomorrow is not guaranteed.  I found a coffee table book at a library book store on old Chicago and gave to to a friend who grew up there.  A couple of weeks later she passed away from a heart attack. If I had waited, she never would have got to enjoy it.  Even as an Atheist I have seen how Christmas has been corrupted into just a mass orgy of consumerism. It isn't even Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff is up. Black Friday and the fights in the stores over stuff that will be broken, forgotten about, or thrown away in a year or less just doesn't seem very Christian to me.  I'll stick with my method of just randomly dropping off gifts for my friends and getting a text later of THANKS!

Now having said that, I do appreciate seeing what all of you make. To me that is more of the Spirit of Christmas. Taking the time to make something for someone in your life rather than just buying something.  Handmade gifts are also the ones that I cherished the most.

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

I always ask the majors of my students when I do a smithing class at the University; so I can slant the talk if I get a bunch of Mat Sci or only Bio and Comp Sci.  Yesterday they were Bio, Mat Sci and one MechE with explosives minor....made for some interesting discussions!

When we went out for Lunch the restaurant put the 7 of us in a back room and blocked the doorway with stacked chairs...they are used to tech students!

[JHCC]

Amen.

[TBinKC]

Well that Christmas 2021 post got a little off track.. So here's to trying to swing it back. Looking through old posts, I saw Icicles, a couple knomes, candle stick, talk about bells.. Any christmas tree ornament pictures? looking for ideas.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

This tree ornament has been a hit, everyone I gave one to loved it. They also sold well when we had our business going.

[FlatLiner]

Here's what I did for sets of six Christmas tree ornaments.

[TBinKC]

On 12/4/2021 at 2:36 PM, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

This tree ornament has been a hit, everyone I gave one to loved it. They also sold well when we had our business going.

Without the card, it would be a curious ornament. Thanks

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

TBnKC,

I think the point is, that the person who buys/makes/ hangs the ornament knows the symbolism behind it, 

Most people now days in the general population obviously are not gonna be in tune with their surroundings enough to notice it, because their to busy with their cell phones to even bother crossing a street safely, let alone pay attention to their immediate surroundings enough to see a nice ornament hanging from a tree, 

but the very few who do notice the ornament will more than likely inquire as to its meaning out of curiosity, 

personly I think it’s a nice ornament, a nice thought and a nice project for beginner and advanced smiths both to do for Christmas smithing. 
 

thanks for sharing Randy! 

[TBinKC]

I have been making ornaments for several years. I know I appreciate it and so does my family apparently. Made bells, angels, crosses, and others but steel requires some intricacy due to weight alone. I'm just looking for ideas. Thanks for input.