MINOT (AP) - Two Minot men have turned their childhood passion for fireworks into an annual show featuring their handmade explosives.

Derrick Miller and Joel Myaer, founders of D & J Productions, started putting on a small fireworks show about six years ago.

Miller and Myaer are partners in a weekend disc jockey music company, and started the fireworks show because they wanted a fun way to celebrate the summer. While that first show didn't go exactly as planned, it did allow them to learn from their mistakes.

"We planned for a 10-minute show, which turned into about two minutes. So that didn't work out real well," Miller said.

"The next year, we wired them up a little better, covered the fuses and learned from our mistakes, and we got about a 10-minute show out of it. And that worked out pretty well."

Miller then started experimenting with an electric ignition, which helped the show run better the third year. He then started making his own shots with black powder, and mixed about 15 of them into the next show.

Last year, they shot about 90 of their own shells. Miller said this year he plans to make it even bigger and better.

"And we're at the point now where we should be ready to go with the computerized system, choreographed and everything," Miller said.

If everything goes according to plan, there will be seven songs in the show, planned for about 30 minutes. Some 350 aerial shots will be fired along with 200 ground effects, which includes mines, fountains and possibly a waterfall, the men say.

The show is free, but Miller said they do accept donations.

About a dozen family members and friends help put the show together.

"I'd say for this show there's at least 1,000 man-hours that have gone into it," Miller said.

"It's not possible without all the volunteers," Myaer said.

Miller said the Fourth of July has always been his favorite holiday.

"It's one of those things that as a kid, I saved my money up for the Fourth of July. It was my favorite holiday of the year, and as I got older and had a little bit more funds, I could get the bigger shells and bigger effects and things like that," Miller said.

"When it gets done at the end and the finale has gone off and everybody cheers and screams, it's an amazing feeling," Miller said.

"It's worth all the hard work," Myaer said.