A good Monday

Today was bright and warm, a perfect day to be outside. It was also a day of three big installs at the work site. The control booth and sign for the Wave Swinger were installed today, changing the look of that area of the park in a significant fashion.

The tricky install of the day was the prefabricated tree that was welded high on the mountain side under construction. It looks pretty cool and will look even better when the mountain and plantings are done around it.

The final install of the day was all of the fence posts along the western edge of the park. (no picture).

With all of the art direction I had to do today - all over the work site, I climbed up and down that long staircase many times. By quitting time I was ready to have a little rest.

-grampa dan

It's great to be surrounded by creative people!

When I am struggling to come up with an original idea I will often turn to those around me for ideas. With a little encouragement some pretty crazy and brilliant ideas come up in a hurry.

Becke is especially good at this kind of thing. In the last few days I've been searching for an idea for a sign that would demark the bicycle rental business that is part the the Cultus Lake project. The 'bikes' are actually four wheel buggies that hold four people. Peter came up with the idea of four critters riding such a contraption. I loved the idea. But sculpting four detailed critters and a four wheeled bike on a sign would take the project out of our working budget. There is also the possibility that they could rent other kinds of pedaled transport in the future as well. So it was back to the drawing board.

Last night I threw out the question to Becke and she instantly came up with the name PEDAL POWER BY THE HOUR. It's catchy and doesn't define the operation too tightly, leaving lots of room for other ideas down the road. Then it was time to put an image (sculpture) to the name. That was my job. It took a few tries and lots of scribbling in my sketchbook, but eventually an idea came to life.

Imagine a bear pedaling a unicycle contraption on top of a skeleton clock (gears visible) that is perched on top of a tall pole. The chain from the pedals would actually (appear to) go down inside the clock to provide the power. (The clock will not actually work) The idea works for me and it would be relatively simple to build too..

Shared ideas are always better than what I could hope to come up with on my own! Thanks Becke!

-grampa dan

Labor of love

Hailey Hiemstra started work with us back when we still owned Giggle Ridge Adventure Golf. She caught my eye and I hired her away to join Sawatzky's Imagination Corporation. As Becke says, I stole all of her good people. Two summers ago she worked alongside Peter on our house. In September of that year they started dating and fell madly in love. Things quickly got serious.

This past week Peter worked overtime in the shop but he wasn't working for me. It was a labor of love. He was creating a special sign. Once the welding was done he carefully arranged and fastened on the LED lights.

Last night he took Hailey out for a nice dinner in a local restaurant. And with a text message to us that the coast was clear we sprung into action.

Later in the evening this is what Hailey saw as they pulled into their driveway.

Hailey said YES!

-grampa dan