Big progress

The thing about going away for a few days is that things continue to pile up while you are gone. But thankfully I have a great crew who continued to work hard while I was travelling. On my return I found many things had happened.

Up at Cultus Lake the crew there had been busy. Every trace of the old bumperboat and go-kart business is now gone. Site work is proceeding at full speed. The pool and building foundation holes are excavated. Tomorrow the forming begins and before the end of the week there should be a good deal of concrete flowing.

Chris dropped off the structural steel for the lighthouse/main sign this morning. This means we can proceed with the pretty bits in the coming days. This is going to be a very cool piece!

In the shop my crew has been busy laying on the colors. The Wilderness Adventure sign is now done and looking pretty fine.

Hailey also kept busy today putting the finishing touches on the Windmill Drop sign. I love the way they painted the vulture! I added the eyeball details with some black paint right after I took this picture.

The shop was a very busy place all day with plenty accomplished. Stay tuned for more reports...

-grampa dan

Time for details

The flight home from Trinidad involved almost eleven hours of flying. That's an awful long time to sit in one place and do nothing. The good thing is I was up at 3:00 am to catch my plane. When I discovered I had the whole row of seats to myself I simply curled up and slept most of the way to Toronto. That used up a little more than half of my sitting still time. For the flight from Toronto to Vancouver I wasn't sleepy any longer. There was only one thing to do...

It was time to draw. I had brought a half full sketchbook with me when I left home. Before we neared the home airport I had filled every page with enough ideas to finish the Trinidad project. The sketches were rough and quick, with many notes in the margins but all the information was right where I needed it.

A couple of the sketchbook pages were filled with the drawings for a center statue, needed to clearly tell the story of these special pirates. With the final ideas now emerging and then the final concepts following it is time to begin adding the many things that are hidden but carry special meaning to myself, my crew and the owners of the park, as is our tradition.

The hidden bits are pretty subtle in this piece. Venu's house in Trinidad is all made from hexagonal rooms. And so the planter is that shape. A few years ago I designed a fence and planter for his other business which featured a cute little fish. That project never went forward, much to Venu's disappointment and so the little fish and 'grass' fence reappears here. Good ideas never die - they just lie dormant until the right time.

As we relaxed tonight in front of the TV, I worked up the final finished concept using the ideas I had worked up on the plane ride home. It's going to be a cool piece, full of hidden meaning. You just knew I wouldn't reveal all.  :)

You can bet a bunch more fun things will find their way in as we actually sculpt this piece. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Recording my thoughts.

After another site visit in Trinidad today to determine project boundaries, existing tree placement, best viewing angles and many other questions, I needed to record my thoughts and observations. I did so by making quick notes around a few quick and rough sketches. These wouldn't make much sense to others who see them but for me they contain all I need and more. At home these quick scribbles and notes will remind me of the changes and additions to the plans that need to be made.

The work I can for this trip to Trinidad is now done and as soon as I get home I'll carefully draw a detailed and accurately scaled version for final review. Then we will be ready to begin the fun stuff. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan