I figured I should let you know that it's not a terrorist whose writings you read. My occasional reference to dynamite or other explosives go back into my younger years. I used to do some mining evaluation, which on occasion required blowing up some rocks. And I was recently asked what does it take to be able to buy dynamite. The last time I had any experience in this area was in the mid 70's and all that was required was a Utah drivers license and a place that sold dynamite. The place I chose was called Burt Explosives. Now it sounds like some type of a backyard operation. You would expect some fancy name like Petro Pyro Explosives Incorporated. But the most prominent one in the yellow pages was Burt Explosives. They would sell you any kind you needed. Dynamite in sticks, bags of slurry (usually called surfsize), and contrary to the name that it has it was not to see how big a surf you could create - it was used in the oil exploration and other geological exploration.

It's really fascinating how far we have come from black powder which originally was a mixture of what we call salt peter, that was usually in a crystal form that accumulated on the boards that created the stalls for cows and horses and pigs. You would combine this with a little charcoal (carbon) and sulfur. Grind it up gently and you ended up with black powder. The Chinese perfected black powder and created a whole science of explosives. I am not sure who it was that found when you mixed nature gases, sulphuric acid, and glycerin (as is used in soap), to make one of the strongest explosives in the world, nitroglycerin. One of the most unstable powerful explosives that man had ever devised. It was so sensitive that it killed an awful lot of people that were handling it.

Then along came a man, he was a noble man, and his name was actually Noble. He found that if you mixed nitroglycerin with sawdust and sand you gave it a degree of stability where it could be handled roughly and still be safe. It changed the applications of explosives drastically and the face of war even more. Today we have THE NOBEL PRIZES these include the Nobel Peace Prize. These prizes were created out of conscience. Mr. Nobel realized the ramifications of what he had done by making dynamite so easy to handle and such an intricate part of war. He made millions upon millions of dollars with his patents. And found he could not sleep at night. Plagued by the conscience of a decent man. Some say his conscience killed him. Others say he lived a longer life as a punishment by being made to observe the ramifications of what he designed to save lives gone wrong. As a reason he placed a large amount of money in the banking system to be passed out to the scientific community in different aspects each year with the proceeds of the interest his initial principal generated.

Now I have never earned the Nobel Prize. Though I am sure this was just a slight oversight on someones part. My use of explosives was for mining, but the largest application that I used Mr. Nobel's dynamite for was to reduce dead wildlife to smaller pieces. You see in the Uinta Mountains there are not large predators nor scavengers so when I came across or was notified of a dead moose, elk, or large deer I would usually use the two stick method; one stick down the gullet and the other stick in the opposite end tied together by a small piece of primer cord so they would explode simultaneously thus reducing this larger carcass into many small pieces small enough that the scavengers that inhabit the Unita Mountains to clean up otherwise a large carcass would simply rot and possibly pass on disease, pestilence, and foul odor. On occasion my job required me to blow up beaver dams. This is something I never completely agreed with but I understood the necessity of the process.

I figured I would write this blog just to set anyone's mind at ease that my experience with explosives and my motto, "there is no problem that cannot be rectified by the proper application of high explosives". I always liked firecrackers and fireworks. One must realize that while reducing the carcasses of large animals and rerouting beaver dams I had my own trustee steeds with me. They had to be climatized to the sounds of the dynamite that I had to use. I used a lot of fireworks which I found very interesting to watch my horses as they acted like little children once the first skyrocket went off they would all gather around and watch the sky for the next and the next. When I was through with their training and my fun I could almost sense their disappointment that there was not more. It really surprised me how much they actually enjoyed fireworks.

I send this in peace and love and assurance that I am not the mad bomber. I am just mad.

God Bless you all,
Ken, the afterlife messenger