You can call me your highness if you like

I could have insisted that my crew call me your highness today - on account of the fact that I spent most if it far from the ground, tethered into a man lift. I was welding the armatures for the posts and beams that hold up the front of the Summit Trading Post. I was really up there! As always the pencil rod frames hardly show up in the photographs but they are the basis for all that is to follow. I managed to get about half of the beams done today. By mid-day Tuesday we should be finished the welding on the building and I'll breathe a sign of relief when it's done. Welding miles of steel onto a wooden structure is nerve wracking.

At quitting time, just before I came back to earth I turned around and snapped a few pictures of the crew working down in the Wilderness Adventure entrance. They were wiring the posts today before the spindles are installed. The entrance to the park is past the red operator's booth up the ramp turn left and then over a swinging bridge (not yet installed). At the middle support for the bridge the kids can go straight ahead  over another narrow swinging bridge to the tree fort or turn left again and go over a third swinging bridge to the walkway that winds down a switchback path into the park. The gold panning flume will be just below the first bridge running down from the water tower.

Swinging to the right I snapped another picture. The crawl through log is near the bottom with the 120 lineal feet of caves under the wde walkway on the right. The shallow walking pool is behind the water tower with the waterfall mountain just behind that. A short tunnel goes under that mountain to the lookout over the pool. The barrel bridge will span the bigger pool. Behind that is the younger kids activity center. All the pieces for that area are prefabricated and ready for delivery soon. 

Next week we will finish the welding in the Wilderness Adventure area. The crew will follow with all of the lath and then we will start in on the fiberglass reinforced concrete. The weather will be warm enough right about the same time.

-grampa dan

Welding up a storm

Today we kept three welders busy all day. Chris' crew kept three more humming on other projects around the site. Each day we make a little more progress.

It was a landmark day as we substancially finished welding up framework for the mountain that covers one side of the building. Today Peter and I polished off the planters that hang over the stairs. Here's a shot looking down the stairs.

From further away the pencil rod hardly shows at this stage. Look close and you can see one little section of pencil rod missing at the bottom of the stairs.

From further way the rocks that are already pre-meshed stand out from the mountain. The sprinkler and drainage system will be installed early next week and then we will add the mesh to this portion of the park. The concrete skin is not too far away.

Underneath the swing ride platform on the bumper boat island it is taking shape nicely. We save this area for when it rains. With the rapic progress here it is obvious we've had too much rain of late.

Over in the Wilderness Adventure Chris' crew was busy putting in the supports that will hold the climbing net to the tree house. As soon as they are done we'll add the framework to make them look like giant logs.

The framework for the last of the themed railings will soon be done and our crew will follow getting them ready to be themed. It is a busy place every day as we race towards opening day... just a little more than three months distant. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Sneak peek at an imaginary place

It is great fun to imagine an imaginary place, then draw it, slowly working out the thousands of details to make it unlike any place on earth. Then those dreams become serious as we set to draw the real plans. That imaginary place is soon to become real, every imagined detail now needs to be fabricated. Now imagine building the various components in our shop while around the globe others work on their parts. Another team in a far away place will build the infrastructure while we labor here. Many months from now those many pieces will begin their journey to a far away tropical island and the specialized teams will gather to assemble and detail those many parts. Then that imaginary place that we dreamed will be actually be real for countless others to enjoy. 

It's going to be fun! Stay tuned...

-grampa dan