Celebrate Good Times

In a few short days, my daughter will be eleven.
The time has passed very quickly. New parents, believe me when I tell you that all
the people telling you to enjoy the little things now are right.
In one part of my brain, my little girl is still very much the baby I was so happy to meet
eleven short years ago.

She's the girl who loves stuffed and real animals and wants to surround herself with them whenever possible:

And she's the one in the family who likes making other people laugh as much as she likes to laugh:

So last weekend, she informed us that the weather at the end of November is never good, and her birthday party would be held that weekend.  Very logical.  She invited several friends and we celebrated.  In the next picture, she's about to unwrap a present:

The next photo proves that sometimes pure joy is just too fast to capture:

So how do you wrap up a great party with friends? Lunch in the leaves the next day, of course:

So Happy Birthday Elena Bobena Gozena Baru! I certainly certainly do love you!

For my own part, the big news was moving the cnc machine to the new shop!

Tomorrow I'll be wiring her up and then it's time to get to work! Projects are already begun!

I need gas.

Working at home today paid off.  Both the welder and my helmet arrived.
I've taken them to the shop and now just need to get some Argon gas
and I'm ready to go! I don't know, should the helmet be a little more steampunk?
Yeah, I thought so too.

Tomorrow the wire for internet should be run underground, and then it's on to the cnc machine.  I also have to pick up the lath and pencil rod... NO time to waste!

Lets Clear This Up

I've been moving the last of the equipment (other than the cnc) to the new shop.
I've also been working on various projects within the new shop...I rebuilt a dust collection box out back, and then with the help of a good friend named Grant, we cleared debris and piles of dirt from the back of the property:

My new shop is the white building in the background. I'm taking the photo from the newly cleared back portion of the lot.  As you can see, there's certainly room to grow.  We cut down a junk tree and grant pulled out the stump, then hauled off lots of brick, rock and debris.  Then he used the bucket to do some minor grading and to smooth the newly cleaned area. 

I've been at home taking care of some minor issues...one being the completion of wiring so that I can have internet access at the new shop.  There have never been wires for cable, so they have to be run underground.  It's taken over a month to get it all settled, but the markers for where they'll put the line are now in place and by tomorrow I should have wire to the building.

Today has been a day to clean the garage as the equipment has thinned, and to wait for a package that I have to sign for: My new welder.  I'm pretty excited and have left room in the trailer to move it to the new shop once it arrives. 

I've had a few minutes to look through a small sample of pictures from British Columbia and my visit to Imagination Corporation.  Here are just a very few pictures I took at the Fox & Hound pub.

Dan proved that his interior work can be every bit as amazing as his exterior, and you can clearly see what it is I went to learn!  What a great adventure!  Next: Some images from our visit to MultiCam!

Look At The Results!

Each person in the sculpting workshop brought their own creativity to our assignment for a dinosaur or dragon head.  There were super results!

 

Given a chance and some basic instruction from a great teacher, it's clear that each of us has a unique vision and far more creativity than we sometimes allow ourselves to believe.  It was a pleasure to meet all of these folks and work beside them.  Not everyone was able to finish their project, as we had many many places to visit in addition to the many other projects we completed.  Some folks had local businesses and were dealing with work in addition to the class...and others were Dan's employees helping out with keeping us full of food, materials, tools and help...  It was a pleasure just to see these heads come alive.

GET TO IT!

I have plenty more to share about my amazing workshop experience in Yarrow, B.C. but I wanted to show some recent purchases.

I knew before I left for the workshop that on the other end would be some new tools...a welding machine in particular.  I have the welder and helmet and some chopped fiberglass on the way- but pictures serve a great purpose! They can help remind us of all those little tools, products and things we might otherwise forget.  Here are just a few:

Some protective gear for welding, bolt cutters for cutting steel pencil rod, various wire cutters, concrete mixing paddles and drill, concrete tools for mudding and carving, files for dealing with sharp edges on steel, wire to attach diamond lathe to an armature...still plenty more to pick up in the next few days...there's work to be done!  I don't want to forget the feel of the concrete when it's just the right consistency. I don't want to forget that I only need to twist the wire one and a half times...these little details and a hundred more that make up the important part of what I learned. I'll be putting them into practice soon, so that they don't fade!  I think the first project will be a new mailbox for the new shop.