Shop day - two.

We were busy in the shop today, first taking out the finished pieces, cleaning the shop and then loading in new structures to make pretty. Then we set to work. About then our steel order arrived - more than two more miles of pencil rod. Marty and Brando and Sarah cut it into manageable pieces and stacked it into the racks. The rest of the crew swung into gear painting, attatching diamond lath and mudding and carving more fence posts.

It was another fun and productive day. Matt polished off the wiring of the lighthouse topper and it is now ready for the fiberglass reinforced concrete and carving. I couldn't resist whipping up the weathervane for the top.

Up at the site they were busy too. The massive floor to the building was poured - all seventy cubic meters of concrete. It's BIG! The block walls were also filled with concrete including the cave laberinth for the kids. this area will be under the walkway that leads into the park from the east. Next week we will begin welding the steel frame around which we will sculpt the concrete to shape the inside of the caves. It's going to be a cool place for the kids to explore.

It's been a busy week with a lot of progress and changes to the site. It's sure great to have  team that works so hard to make it happen and have fun doing it day in and day out. Next week we'll hit it again.

-grampa dan

Shop day

The weatherman promised rain and the skies were dark and threatening and so we scheduled a shop day. This morning the rain held off however and so we decided to make a run up to the lake to deliver eight more fence posts. The tall ones were left without the sculpted concrete as they would have been far too heavy to tip into place otherwise. Even the shorter seven foot posts required four guys and plenty of effort to carry them into place and then tip them vertically to slide over the sleeves which were anchored into the poured concrete bases. The guys were sure happy to see the last post installed at the front of the park today!

Three of the crew stayed at the park to tie on lath on the welded rod I did yesterday while the rest of the crew worked in the shop. We got lots done. The lettering on fun directional sign was completed making it ready to be moved out of the shop tomorrow.

Bucky recieved his last paint glazes, allowing us to move on to the background areas and borders of the sign. He still needs his eye pupils painted.

I completed the welding on the lighthouse base structure and the crew then began applying the diamond lath in preparation for the sculpted concrete.

Then it was time for some creative welding as I fashioned the top cupola and roof structure for the lighthouse. It will bolt onto the base onsite. I used plenty of steel rod to fashion the tall pointy roof! It came together in about three hours.

Tomorrow is another one of those days that the weather could go either way. I'll make up my mind if it is a shop or a site day when I look at the sky in the morning.

-grampa dan

Going vertical

After months of drawing plans and measuring and marking out the layout on the ground the park is now starting to go vertical... being formed in three dimensions. Cultus Lake Adventure park is small by theme park standard but we make up for that by stacking things vertically. The perfectly flat building site we started with is flat no longer. The bumper boat pool is excavated four feet down. The loading area for the boats will be below a swing ride. A good sized mountain will be built over the food service building. Behind it the giant ferris wheel will tower over all.

In this shot from just inside the east entrance we are starting to get a feel for how much the walkway will climb between the gate and the bulding slab. By next week they'll be filling the area inside the block walls to form the walkway. A bridge will span the water course that will go from a small pool to the right and then spill into the bumper boat pool to the left. A giant round suspended slab will be formed and poured next week over the bumper boat loading area. The swing ride will sit on top of that. We have some very cool theming ideas for that area. Behind the pool is the first floor of the food service building. The massive suspended slab is to be poured on Friday along with the foundation for the sixty-five foot ferris wheel.

The property line around the west and south side of the bumper boat pool is now defined with the fence. Matt spent a second day forming the horizontal rails while Andrew welded them into place.

I spent the day under my welding helmet welding up the pencil rod framework for the theme work under the long fence. It involved forming and welding many hundreds of feet of pencil rod that will act as the structure for the creative work to follow. Fifty feet of fence is now ready to be wired.

Tomorrow the weatherman is promising a rain day which means the whole crew will crowd into the shop to do some more prefabrication. After two days of being outside in the cool weather everyone is looking forward to being back in the warm shop for at least one day.

-grampa dan