Building a rock from the inside out

Today we spent the day working on the waterfall rock. Big Matt wired for the bulk of the day. Then I fired up the welder and started in on the remaining structure. The job at hand was to weld up to the upper portion (which would lift off. By defining this line they will fit togehter perfectly when we reassemble then onsite. There's still a bunch of work to do tomorrow but the toughest side is now done.

Monday morning it will be heading down the highway to Squamish with the top following a little while later. It won'ty be long until the water tumbles down the rocks. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Bridges in place!

Today was another fun delivery day for the WhistlePunk Adventure Golf project. First thing this morning we hoisted them up, one by one and then backed the trailer under them to place them.

It was a strange looking load as I drove down the highway. As per usual, I got lots of long looks, smiles and thumbs up along the way. 

When I arrived in Squamish Jeff wasted no time in hooking up the loaders and we swung the bridges into place.

In an instant the front portion and the back of the golf were linked. When the concrete crew pours the walkways they will add a final layer of concrete to the bridge decks. We'll trowel on a layer of fiberglass reinforced concrete to the logs and handrails and then carve them to look like wood.

The golf is coming along quickly! Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Bridging the gap

Whenever I take a few days off or some kind of trip I have to do a lot of catching up when I return. It has been like that yesterday, today and will most likely continue for a few days yet. Then I start the scramble to get ready for my trip to Indiana next week. But I don't think my life is any different than anybody elses.

We are keeping Becke, Janis, Kendra and Sarah busy in the house while the two Matts keep busy in the shop. My job seems to be running between the two locations to stay on top of everything. Between trips to both locations I am getting a little done in both places.

The project of the day in the shop is the two bridges. I did the bulk of the welding on the small bridge this morning and big Matt is applying the mesh. The fiberglass-reinforced concrete will be done on these pieces onsite when I return from Indiana. I'll be delivering the bridges to Squamish on Thursday.

Little Matt is busy doing the last of the welding on the big bridge. Applying the lath on that project will happen tomorrow.

The phone continues to ring about new, exciting projects for the near future and beyond. It is a busy time at our place for sure!

-grampa dan

Reflections

I'm a goal oriented person. Some things I am focusing on are far into the future. These are the big things that are not easily nor quickly accomplished. Other things are much closer. These would be the medium sized goals, things doable in less than a year. And then there's all the things I need to think about to get through each day. Included in these things are at least small steps toward the medium and big goals.

For the last four days Janis & I have been on Vancouver Island. We attended a family event (Happy fiftieth to Gay and Doug!) but mostly we purposely slowed our usual hectic pace down to a crawl. We didn't go sight seeing, nor do much of anything but instead let each day happen at a liesurely pace. It's not a pace I usually enjoy but for four days it was great. It gave me plenty of time to think about things.

The new house (a twenty year goal) is nearing completion and now almost ready to move in. It will most likely be the last really large personal project we tackle. But no fear for there is still plenty imaginative things to do around the yard to keep me busy for many, many years to come. The big Whistlepunk Hollow Adventure Golf project (for a customer) also nearing completion (a medium goal) our slower pace of the last few days gave me time to think about what the future might hold. We have a couple of good sized projects on the drawing board and in the works that will help us keep busy for a year or two. New customers will determine the paying projects we tackle in the future of course, but I can purposely shape and/or choose that work to a large degree.

After visiting Vancouver Island (where we lived for more than two happy decades) I am more than content with where we currently live. The work I am privileged to do is exactly what I enjoy. The young people who help me on a daily basis I also get to mentor and encourage them towards their dreams. I am surrounded by loving family and friends. It does not get better than that.

My conclusion after four days of reflection. Life is good. Let it continue!

-grampa dan

Drifting along

Today we spent some time at the beach. The day was cool, bright but overcast - perfect for what I had in mind. I was taking pictures of driftwood. The pictures will be used as bitmaps to create textures within our routing software and then sent to our computer controlled router to create dramatic woodgrain patterns in our projects. It is a cool process but one that requires very specific information and files to work as I imagine.

The photos I snapped today will have to be modified and tweaked substancially to get the results I desire on the CNC router but I got almost five hundred great pictures to start with. I'll be sorting through and only picking the very best. Here's a small sampling of the bunch.

The resulting files will be used in our own work of course but also offered to others (for sale) as a new collection of Texture MAGIC bitmaps to use on their routing projects. Stay tuned to see the results...

-grampa dan