Signs a plenty

The day dawned very soggy with the rain coming down hard. Most of the crew hunkered down under the tarps to wire the lath onto the welded armatures. Sarah, Hailey, Jenessa and Angie came down to the shop to work on the many signs in production. Through the day the crew got plenty done.

In the shop the signs, in various stages of completion, got plenty of attention.

Hailey had done the bulk of the painting on the sign but Jenessa did the final touches.

Towards the end of the workday the skies brightened and it was time to take some of the completed signs up to the site for installation. The street entrance now sports the park's moniker.

The Trading Post is now identified as well.

The Buckin' Bronco ride also got it's sign installed today. We'll be sculpting the woodwork and rock work around it.

Big progress

Every day onsite gets more exciting. The pressure is building of course as the deadline quickly approaches. But each day many areas of the park get closer to finish as well. Today we finished the sculpted concrete work in the Wilderness Adventure area. The gold panning sluce box got the treatment today and looks very fine.

This afternoon as Peter and Matt finished the carving of the woodgrain on the gold panning flume I snapped this picture, the park is going to be beautiful when the painting and planting are done.

 The base for the functioning water pump that kids will get to use got it's theme work as well.

We also added the stones to all of the waterways in this area of the park, finishing things off nicely. I can hardly wait to see kids enjoying this wonderland when we are done.

Out in the Western area things are proceeding quickly. The welding of the many armatures is almost done. The boys have been busy applying the lath to this whole area as well making it all ready for the concrete work that will be done next week. We've been a little held up by the weather and tomorrow the weatherman isn't exactly cooperating but after that the sunshine looks much brighter. We did manage to get the first of the glazes on the water wheel building today and it is looking very cool!

Tomorrow is a landmark day for the park as the crew from Italy has arrived and the installation of the four new rides begins. The park is about to change in a BIG way yet again!

-grampa dan

Gotta have some cute Gruffles too!

I'm told the Gruffle crew simply wasn't complete without some ladies. And the vote was to make them cute. A cute Gruffle is a bit of an oxymoron in my mind but Peter and Hailey came up with some original ideas.

The thought was these little cuties were far more dangerous than they looked. Their job was in fact to be the cannon crew. Peter whipped up some sketches as a starting point.

I worked up two drawings based on these ideas but one look and everyone in the house voted them down. TOO CUTE! After some discussion it was decided the hair was too neat. They needed some gruffling. So I started over once more. They were still very cute without a doubt but now looked like Gruffles.

Peter whipped up a parrot pirate at the same time.

The parrot passed the muster on the first try.

These guys still needs names of course. Two more Grffles to go!

-grampa dan