After six weeks of prefabrication of features and a morning of getting ready it was finally time to head up to Cultus Lake Adventure Park for our first day working on site with a crew. The site was busy with the concrete formers, block layers, electricians, the excavator operator, welders and the owner's crew already there working hard. While my crew unpacked our tools and materials and started work I helped the owner mark out the walkways, retaining walls and features oround the east entrance. We referred to no plans but instead simply paced things out and sprayed marks on the ground. As soon as we moved out of the way the tractor moved in and began scraping the earth, the operator watching our hand signals to know how deep he needed to go. The park is being built to a visual standard rather than the drawn plans which are instead only a starting guidelline. As-built plans will satisfy the engineers and building inspectors when we are done.

In between the laying out I bounced over to the other side of the bumper boat pool keeping an eye on the work my crew was doing. They needed little direction for they knew how things worked. The boys worked on the final wiring of the tall posts while the ladies began splashing the first color onto the lighthouse base and sign. Look close in the picture and to the right you can see five members of our crew hard at work. In the backgound the bricky is laying the first of the concrete blocks. Everywhere conduits and rebar are sticking out of the ground, ready to hook up to and become the starting point of something cool and fun.

Tomorrow, for the first time since the project began, we will begin the vertical work, tipping the fence posts into position and starting the welding of the fence structure. We'll also begin work on the themed bumper boat pool edge and planters.

It's time to rock and roll! Stay tuned...

-grampa dan