Rain, rain, go away

With only fourteen work days left before the park opens and plenty to do we were a little disappointed to waken to a rainy morning - despite the weatherman's prediction of it ending before we woke up. As soon as the crew arrived it was time to break out the plastic and rig the tarps. The crew managed to paint more than a hundred feet of wall (both sides) before they were called away to carve woodgrain into fresh concrete.

Peter, Matt, Jenessa and I were laying on the concrete under the eaves of the saloon and on the little cabin by the lake. We had previously done all parts that could get wet if it rained. The crew worked hard all day and we made great progress. The Happy Horse Saloon concrete work is now done. We'll wrap up the cabin by the lake tomorrow. It won't be long until we can take the cement mixer back to the shop.

The big news today was the lifting and installation of the last large prefabricated piece - the giant beam on the west gateway.

As soon as the beam was securely in place Jack fired up the welder to finish off the welded steel pencil rod on the fence. Tomorrow, our goal is to finish the wiring and then do up the concrete on the very tall posts. The last two light standards and all of the remaining facia will get the sculpted concrete. We have one day of air weather before the rain begins once more.

The race to the finish line is on - rain or shine.

-grampa dan

Shortening the to-do list

With each passing day the to-do list is getting shorter. There's only fourteen working days until the park opens. Tomorrow the big beam over the western entrance is to be lifted into place. This means we can do the last of the welding and along with it the last of the lath too. The sculpted concrete work is coming along nicely with only four or five more days of work to finish it up.

Today we worked on a variety of areas including the saloon, the cabin by the pond and two planters. It is so good to see all the pencl rod and lath disappear behind the sculpted concrete.

That still leaves plenty of paint before we are done.

-grampa dan

Final version?

Imagine planning every detail for a theme park five thousand miles away. That's my job. It's both fun and challenging.

The plan for the project in Trinidad is now in it's tenth iteration and this should be the final go. We've gone over every detail, shuffling things around, adding and taking away as necessary. A single change oftne means having to make three more to make everything work together. Now, in the tenth version the changes are small.

I have the plan solidly in my head, plenty to build the park. But in this case I will only be on site on occasion. This means the plans need to be more detailed for I have to pass the vision to others to build all of the infrastructure and buildings. Our job will be to ice the cake that someone else gets to build using my recipe.

Current work is to locate every feature, the fence lines and determine the location and grade of the landscape.

Fifteen months from now it will all be real as life.

-grampa dan