Burn Pit of Doom!

Well it's been 2 weeks since we set the Inskeep Farm ablaze and I think I've finally recovered to write you guys about it!

First, I wanted to say that the weekend in Culpeper was an extreme amount of fun! I would love to see more pics from you guys and some replies below on what you enjoyed the most. Frankly, mine was NOT the mascleta, but the Iron Pyro competition even though half of my show didn't go. (smh)

There are so many people to thank for the success of the weekend. I am sure I will forget a few, but it won't be because I am not grateful for your involvement but because it really felt like EVERYONE pitched in at various points. So let's just do this in stars/bullets (you know like any good product that has stars!)

• Joyce and Bev Knepp, John Sedlack and the Kellner Crew for bringing all the goodies!

• Marshall and his son for the pre-show display that warmed us up for the competition.

• Anthony Bova and Graylin for their amazing Iron Pyro competition shows, which did not disappoint! Both slipped in some really interesting effects:

  • Anthony's finale ground bombs courtesy of Kevin Poole!)

  • Graylin's amazing fan candle-rack

• I personally want to thank everyone I dragged into helping with the Board show (Bryan Toll, James Lavery, Anthony Lasky, Mark Burns, Justin and Kira, The NY Crew Joes, Kevin White, Pete Fitch and some other people i am sure i missed!)

• Kevin and Eric for being great teachers and putting on the hands-on rocket and mine building sessions. Sharing your knowledge is the best contribution for our club and I know we all appreciate your time, resources and patience doing that for us.

• Greg Bryson for wrangling all the 2.5, 3, 4 and 5 inch shells for the mascleta and the "Burn Pit of Doom". That was a labor of love and fear that will live on in CrackerJacks Lore for the ages.

• Your ever vigilant Board members Bob and Jane for helping with Safety and Fire Control throughout the event.

• Once more a GIANT THANKS to Kevin White for making crazy delicious carnitas for the after-glow! I know I was hungry when the day was done, but the tacos were fantastic and I wish I had taken some of that meat home with me. Mmmmmmm mmm!!

• All the open shooters that kept the field clean, especially Kelly Boyce and his kids for the Saturday clean up. (What a bunch of troopers!)

• Our unsung heroes however are the Inskeeps and the Cedar Mountain Sports folks who let us use their venue and burn up acres of land and encourage us to "come back soon!" Their support and graciousness is beyond our gratitude. Personally again, I want to thank Jonathan Inskeep for jumping on that backhoe-loader and braving the fire to help control it, and Ken Greene for helping communicate our situation with the silver-est of linings to the Inskeeps and the rest of the families around.

• Oh, and last but not least were Omar's special products and the spectacle they provided!

We also held Board Elections, and although no seats really changed hands we did pull in a new Secretary to help manage our communications.

• Bryan Toll and Greg Bryson were re-elected as Second VPs (for the South and North respectively)

• We picked up Anthony Bova as our new Secretary.

• As we move forward we will also be creating committees and event-only positions to help spread the load around and get you more involved in running your club.

So to recap this year, we managed to meet up quit a few times. Made friends in a few new places and upset a few folks in others! We will likely not be going back to Amissville in VA, but there is a potential for a new place in VA that we'll explore. We also had a good night in Reading at the gun club there, but we'll likely focus on the Erdman's gun club in Lykens for our 2-day event in PA for May of next year. As always, if you think you know a good place that could accommodate us, let me and the Board know. We'll do the legwork to get us there.

Next year promises to be a fun one as well. We'll post dates and locations in the next few months so you can plan your time out with us with as much advance notice as possible. We'll also do some updates to the website and try to socialize them in ways to get you off the CJML and onto the Forums for engagement with our community.

Until then!

~Maz and your CJ Board