I'm convinced that we don't ever outgrow our desire to play in the dirt. It's fun!
Today Peter and I finally got to sculpt a project we've been looking forward to for some time. DIRT! The challenge was to create a treasure chest half dug out of a dirt bank. Sounds easy but to make it believeable is a definite challenge which we've never tackled before.
Peter welded up the armature a few days ago and the wiring crew attached the lath. Today at last the special fiberglass reinforced concrete was mixed and then troweled on extra thick. Lumps and bumps were added in exact locations. These would become various sized stones in the dirt. It all had to look unplanned and haphazard. Then the whole mess was allowed to set to just the right hardness. Then the sculpting fun began. We used our usual tools but also tried a variety of new ones to create a dirt texture. The result looks like... a treasure chest dug out of the dirt!
Once cured, painted and delivered the piece will be put in place and then soil mounded up behind. Careful planting of the landscape materials will ensure it looks like it has been there forever.
The treasure and dirtbank will be placed by the thirteenth hole of the mini golf. Nearby, the guests riding the pirate train will get a glimpse of the unburied treasure as well. The golfing green will be a double pathed hole with a raised island portion in the center. In that island there will be a pile of dirt and rocks with the treasure hunter's shovel stuck in the middle. That too was sculpted today.
The treasure has been found!
-grampa dan