Today was what we refer to as a big mud day in our shop. That's a day we trowel and hand carve lots of fibreglass reinforced concrete onto a number of large features. Today's task was the wood grained barrels of the four halves of the giant stills. We applied the concrete onto two of the large pieces, then did other tasks for an hour or so before returning to apply the mud on the balance of the pieces. The time gap is to allow the crew enough time to carve as this process takes longer than the application. Janessa played lead today, laying out the grain on all of the pieces. Peter and I helped with the sculpting. With one person doing all of the layout, the style is then consistent all the way through. The pieces looked fabulous when they were done and will look even better when they are painted!
Ready to roll
I cleaned out every dollar store in Chilliwack to gather the plastic daisies to cover the bottom of the parade float but there were just enough to do the task. They add a bright splash of colour to the giant, rusty steel dragon. We used the dimensional letters from the Hazelnut Inn sign on the sides of the trailer and applied a giant Imagination Corporation decal to the bright yellow hood of the little Jeep to identify our companies. Save for topping up the gas tank, we are ready to roll Saturday morning. This is going to be fun!
Launching the ship
We've all heard the story of the fellow who built a giant ship in his workshop and then discovered there was no way to get it out of the door without some serious demolition. Today was the day we would see if the Hazelnut Inn ship would actually fit out the door of our shop. We had of course carefully measured the door and the ship hull as we built it. The unique challenge was that our shop has a round door. It's widest point is at about five feet off the floor. To squeeze the ship hull through we would have to lift it to that height - no mean feat for something this large and bulky!
The solution was to borrow our neighbour's forklift for the task. Our good friends at Extreme Boat Sports were gracious and lent their forklift for the task. I drove it into the shop to pick up one end of the ship. Matt picked up the other end with our forklift. Peter and Janessa watched each side as we slowly eased it out of the door. There was a half inch of clearance on each side - just as we planned! :)
