SAWYER - A quick Fourth of July checklist.
The rockets' red glare? Could be, but other colors are also a lock.
Bombs bursting in air? You can count on that - courtesy of Mum Pyrotechnics, a Sawyer-area partnership that will light up the Independence Night sky with a free fireworks show.
For the past several years, Derrick Miller and Joel Myaer - the two Ms in Mum Pyrotechnics - have put on a free show utilizing almost exclusively fireworks that they designed and built in their workshop on Miller's property in the Sawyer area.
This year marks the first since another local man, Steve Uskiewicz, joined in the fun, and will also mark the biggest and best-organized show to date, the trio said Thursday when The Minot Daily News visited the site.
Last year's new "toy" was the ability to create green fireworks. This year, Miller said, strobes and "salutes" are the new bangs on the block. Salutes are actually cherry bombs with a more politically correct moniker in the post Sept. 11 world we live in.
"The general public kind of frowns on the term 'bomb,'" but is very receptive to the term salute, Miller said.
To build a fireworks "shell," Myaer said they put a few grams of gunpowder into a plastic orb, then tape it together with strapping tape.
"They all kind of look the same, but they all have different chemicals and make different colors and burn differently," Myaer said. That's why the final step is to write the contents on the outside of the shell when it is complete.
"They'd still go up and do something, but for example this one, I forgot what I put in it," Myaer laughed while holding an unmarked shell.
Bags of identical pellets called "stars" - the sparkle visible in the sky after the shell explodes - are also labeled with what color they have been blended for.
Miller said that this year's show will be choreographed and synced with music utilizing simulation software.
"I can see what it's going to look like in the air and get all the music to track with it," Miller said.
"We use an electronic firing system," Myaer said, this year utilizing professionally printed circuit boards and 16 boxes, each controlling 56 shots.
With several years of fireworks design now under their belts, they plan on making the show a little bigger and better every year.
"We're pretty much at the level we want to be at now, but we want to perfect it, fine-tune it," Myaer said.
"We'll add new little things every year, like this year we added fan racks," Miller said.
The 27-minute free show is scheduled to start tonight at 11 p.m. at Miller's farm, located on 135th Avenue Southeast. From Minot, go 10 miles southeast on U.S. Highway 52. Turn right on 135th Avenue (Ward County Highway 18) just past the Happy Acres smiley face and near Poynters Ag Supply. Drive 1.25 miles on 135th until the road drops into the valley, then take the first right.
For more information about Mum Pyrotechnics, visit (www.mumpyro.com).
