It is always exciting to begin a new project! This week we began cutting and welding up the steel frames for a number of features for a nine hole indoor mini golf in the city. one of the features is a delivery truck which will act as then final hole and a photo op for our guests. Today, Matt and I finished welding up the frame and got the wheels on and began the floor of the cab. Tomorrow it will start to look like a truck.
Carving magic
I still clearly remember carving a door by hand for the first house we built back in 1981. Back then I used a mallet and chisel. I first laid it out by hand and then over the next days carved out our last name and some ivy leaves for decoration. I was proud of it and the door (with our name) is still on the house to this day, even though a Sawatzky hasn’t lived in the house for more than thirty-five years. Now, as Peter is working on the custom doors for the Hazelnut Inn things have gotten a whole lot fancier and easier too. Peter designed the 3D file on his laptop, sent it to our MultiCam CNC router and loaded the big custom made, edge grain fir door onto the router table. He chucked up a custom X-Edge tapered bit into the tool holder, then he hit the go button and watched the magic happen. A few hours later the carving was complete. It was absolutely perfect, without any roughness or splintering (unlike the door I did so long ago). We’ll still do a little sandblasting and plenty of hand finishing to make the door like no other and I can hardly wait to see the result! Stay tuned…
The joy of grandkids.
On my desk is a plaque with Juniper’s hand print. Below is the saying, ‘My fingers may be small but I’ve got grampa wrapped around them’ The same of course could be said of Phoebe and Henry as well. Each day, each in their own way, they continually do things that make me laugh, and make me proud. They also keep me young at heart and allow me to be silly and play continually for that is my most important job. There is truly nothing in this life more delightful and precious than grandchildren. I’m so very lucky to have them close each and every day. Life is good!
