We’ve kept the crew super busy for many weeks building the fence, repainting the outside of the shop and doing a hundred other tasks around the yard. We’ve also had a list of long-overdue projects inside the shop as well, in case we had some rain. Each time the weatherman promised precipitation, it seemed to miss us, at least during work hours, so these tasks are yet to be done. One of the projects was to disassemble the FastCut CNC Plasma cutting bed for a thorough clean. We’ve been using it a great deal over the last two years, with many thousands of pieces cut. The slag and scrap had slowly built up in the bottom, and the well-worn slats needed replacing. With new projects now due to start, we could no longer procrastinate. Jay drew the short straw. The good news is that he had dressed in black today, so the soot and rust didn’t really show (much). The machine was easy to disassemble and cleaned up in a hurry, and we are now ready to jump into production once again. Stay tuned…
Kraay exit barn light fixture
Last year we designed and built a one-of-a-kind light fixture for the Kraay Family Farm's new exit barn in Lacombe, Alberta. It looked great in our studio as we built it on a custom-welded steel stand. As we sculpted the piece, we knew it would be viewed from underneath when mounted high in the barn, so we focused our efforts there. To get a proper view of the feature as we worked, we had to lie on the floor. The Kraays are of Dutch heritage, and their name translates to crow, hence the crow motif throughout the farm. One of the three crows was sculpted to hold a loop of the light fixture wire. This past week, I loved seeing the completed fixture for the first time. The Kraays had fulfilled my vision perfectly, with the installation and accessories. The rustic chandelier looked spectacular in the giant vaulted ceiling space.
Opportunity
Last week I was in Alberta for meetings in Calgary, Edmonton and points in between. I made a quick side trip to Drumheller, mainly out of curiosity. I hadn’t been there since our kids were little, more than 40 years ago. Things had obviously changed a great deal, but one thing was obvious to me. As a designer and builder of mini golf courses, I saw the town as the perfect place to build such a facility. There were plenty of hotels and tourist businesses. A quick internet search informed me there are more than a million visitors annually, with young families being the main demographic. My visit prompted me to search through my stored files for a concept drawing created a quarter century ago for just such a project. We don’t have the bandwidth to expand our operation to include such a venture, but if someone out there does, we would love to design and build it for them.
