Blue Sloth

Working Late

South Main Project: Update 37

Coliseum

The Coliseum is complete. Kelly's lions grace the entrance. And the waves are almost upon us. Perfect timing.

Rain

South Main Project: Update 36

It seems like every afternoon a thunderstorm rolls in. I work in the rain until I hear the roll of thunder. Then I sit inside the studio and watch the rain fall until I'm satisfied that it's just a rain shower and go back out to work . . . only to be chased back inside a few minutes later by another crack and rumble.

Orchard, Iowa

Sloths Sculpting

Davidson's Angel

South Main Project: Update 35

Meanwhile back at Blue Sloth Studios, work continues at a strong clip. I work in shifts of four to five hours. Anything longer results in far too many careless burns, and the fatigue begins to affect my ability to make sense of the complex relationship between the pieces. I could keep welding past that point, but I've found from experience that I just end up ripping the pieces down the next day.

I work late into the night on the second shifts, and find the cool air and darkness peaceful. I am behind on pictures, so I'll let you catch up over the next few days, interspersing sandcastle images with angel progress. I am quickly nearing a momentous and marvelous point where I will begin hanging wings off of my creation's slender shoulders.

Kids Arrive

Summer Sandcastle Contest VI

The kids arrive on the beach after their trip to Brookgreen Gardens with their Nana. I have helpers! And Nana has brought a cooler of drinks. There's nothing better than to sit on the beach after digging giant piles of sand all day long with a carving tool in one hand a a cold drink in the other, slowly whittling away the sand as the waves creep closer and closer behind you.

Kelly and Isabel set to building the monumental sculptures that would adorn the entranceway to the Coliseum. Yes, Alice got it right. I continued to carve out my archways, and Alex built some long lines of tanks and roads to be destroyed as quickly as they were constructed - and then he headed off into the surf.

You will now get to see the completion of the sculpture, and it's inevitable demise at the hands of the ocean.

Arches Begin

Summer Sandcastle Contest V

Wall-E

This is one of the two films I am most excited to see this summer. I'm taking the family for fresh pasta outdoors, and then to the premiere. This is one of those films that I am probably more excited to see than the beasties are. And everyone has been saying Wahhhhhhllllllll-eeeeeeeeee for months in the car when we talk about it. Isabel does it the best.

Sandcastle Contest IV

Four hours have elapsed. Tide is on the way in. Outer wall has been built, one sand pancake at a time, the gaps have been filled with slip and smoothing has begun.

Summer Sandcastle Contest: Day III

Sorry for the delay. Up 'till one this morning working on the angel before I couldn't think straight. Came inside and realized I hadn't eaten all day. Foraged for shrimp and potato salad. Collapsed. Couldn't sleep. Woke up at 4:14, tossed and turned. Gave up at 6:00. Back at work by 8:00. Isabel who had breakfast at 6:00 was carried outside by her big sister just as I was starting my first welds. "Daddy, daddy?" Woeful expression on my barefoot daughter's face. Her big sister has carried her outside. "Daddy? Isabel hasn't had breakfast yet." I shut down my torch, flip up my goggles, turn off my iPod, remove my noise cancellation headphones, set down my torch, filler rod, and steel. "What?" Kelly repeats, "Isabel hasn't had breakfast yet." She looks concerned. Let's not forget Kelly has just fixed her own breakfast with no problem not ten minutes prior, after oversleeping and missing her early-morning swim practice. "Yes she has. She had oatmeal and made Play Doh animals two hours ago." Kelly looks at me blankly. "Oh." I frown at my daughter. "Did you have breakfast today?" She looks at me innocently: "Yes." I smile back as I slide my goggles back down. "Good, Kelly she's fine. She had breakfast. Everyone brush your teeth, wash your hands, put on your shoes and come outside. It's beautiful out, we're going to have a great day." Of course I was wiped by 10:00 and started burning myself by 11:00. Since the burns are turning into scars that I will have for the rest of my life, rather than wounds that heal (think branding yourself with steel heated with a 2000 degree torch) I decided it was time to knock off for the afternoon. I have to drink water constantly with the heat. And add in my pot of coffee and I felt like I couldn't stop peeing. Sweat just pours off me. So hot outside. Came in, took my first shower since Monday and felt like a new man as I put on a real shirt (with collar! clean!) and took everyone for the fine dining experience of Bojangles. Ridiculously over-battered fried chicken never tasted so good. I won't even tell you what size family pack it takes to feed three beasties, one sloth and a mola these days. Alex has been begging for Boom Blox for Kelly's new Wii (birthday present) and we scanned the reviews before looking for a used copy after lunch (universally loved by critics). Got it home and it's safe to say it's one of the best games I've ever played. It's as close to virtual reality holodeck as you're going to get in the next five years. You can grab, push, yank and throw blocks. You can heave baseballs and bowling balls at blocks. You can create your own levels and designs. It is intensely fun for a family with school-aged children. It is even more fun if you can get the kids to give you a chance to play. Just amazing. Some of the multiplayers levels are like the world's greatest Jenga games (without having to rebuild the blocks afterward) where you try to remove blocks without toppling. Others are like the greatest games of "knock down the tower" with cows and penguins and pandas dancing and cheering you on (the soundtrack is addictive too - maybe I just need to get out more). Anyway, we played that until I looked at the kids around 8:00 and said innocently enough, "Are you guys going to want dinner or have you had enough to eat today?" Off to store. Back, Kelly cooked the burgers, I think I had everyone in bed by 9:45. Hey it's Summer. Wife creature came home about ten minutes after everyone had fallen asleep. Perfect timing. I cooked my steak, sat down to eat and realized I hadn't posted. Here I am. Steak is cold. I have movie to watch. I might make it through the previews before I fall asleep.

Inside Out

Summer Sandcastle Contest II

Two hours have elapsed in today's pictures. Yesterday's picture was after one hour of digging. My mother has taken the kids miniature golfing, so it's just me and a shovel, sunshine and lots of sand. I have spent two hours of digging a mound, hauling buckets of water from the ocean, pouring the water over the loosely packed sand and packing it tight with my hands. I am now beginning the excavation process, from the inside out.

Summer Sandcastle Contest

I had a dream. Nice things, dreams. I love waking up and remembering the details. This morning I blinked and stared out at the glorious sunshine and felt a strong desire to recreate something not from my imagination, but from my travels. I wanted to build something from the real world out of sand. So I set to work doing something different.

I'm going to post pictures of my progress during the day, from humble beginnings to wave-ravaged end. First one to guess what I am building wins a small piece of my angel.

Bocce Racetrack

On a rainy day, I decided to try something new with the kids on the beach. I built a small tower of sand atop a sand berm and began slowly building a racetrack for the heavy bocce balls. It took trial and error to roll them a short distance and slowly pound out a hardened path for them to roll on.

The kids loved it and we built three side-by-side racetracks, with banked curves and long straight-aways. We continued to mark our "new record" rolls as they progressed further and further down the beach.

Arch Castle

The carving on the castle towers continue apace, and the finishing touches are applied as high tide draws near. The waves fill the moat at first, and the kids scramble to find a seashell that represents them and place it carefully somewhere on a tower. We then await the inevitable surge of water that will topple our all-day creation, marveling at the power of the ocean.

The shells become our avatars and there is some excitement about whose shell will survive the longest. Oohs and ahhs are heard as big waves splash over the battlements and sometimes re-arrange the locations of our avatars. There is usually some replacement of the shells as we speculate about rescue teams throwing ropes down cliff faces and lifting us back from partially collapsed buildings.

The seashells are rescued for good as the last of the towers fall and we stand side by side in the fading sunlight watching our million ordered grains of sand slip back into the waves.

Sculpting the Towers

Construction is completed and sculpting begins.

Building a Summer Sandcastle

I am building a sandcastle with my kids. The basic design has been laid out and a central mound has been created by throwing sand from the moat excavation into the center. Four bridges have been built with two towers guarding each entrance. There will be a central spire, in the form of a monumental arch, four smaller surrounding towers, and eight guard towers outside the four bridges. The twin towers which will make up the legs of the arch have begun to rise.

Kelly is involved in all facets of the design and building now, helping me conceptualize and even helping me dig (we bring four real shovels to the beach now). Isabel and Alex dabble all afternoon until we get to the carving process when they get very interested. The carving of the towers is the most fun, and all three beasties are getting good at it.

However, there are long stretches where everyone is surfing on their boogie boards, or eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches under the umbrella, watching dad work. It's hard to get good help these days . . .

Beach Beasties

Isabel in the Sand

Building sand castles with my kids is one of the nicest parts of being alive.

Sloth Recipe

Ingredients:

One medium-large sloth
Two bottles Aberdeen Cabernet
Three pounds of shrimp, fresh off morning shrimp boat
One pound lump crab meat
Half pound of butter
Dozen ears of corn from roadside market
One stretch of sandy white beach, three miles from inlet to inlet
One ocean, tide rising
One ocean breeze, 15 knots
One clear blue sky, no thunderstorms in sight
Four steel shovels, three buckets, two beach chairs, four towels, and two dozen assorted beach toys
One mini cooler full of soft drinks
Second mini cooler full of sloth drinks
Third mini cooler full of shrimp salad sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, and chips

Add:

Three exuberant beasties
Three boogie boards
One sloth willing to dig endless holes in sand
Good waves for surfing
One bottle of continuous spray suntan lotion

Directions:

Coat beasties with suntan lotion
Carry all ingredients save for shrimp and crab meat to beach
Dig hole for umbrella and arrange chairs, toys and beach towels for beasties
Dig holes for all beasties and four giant mounds of sand for sand castles
Alternate between surfing with boogie boards and building castles for six hours
Feed beasties and sloth as time allows
Mix with sunshine
Complete castles as high tide breaches the moats and begins to tear down ramparts
Watch the carnage (consumption of sloth drinks optional, but recommended)
Begin to marinate sloth in red wine
Move beasties to pool and throw five hundred underwater torpedoes for them to recover
Feed sloth shrimp dip and crackers
Continue marinating sloth
Bathe beasties, put them in pajamas and start boiling shrimp and corn
Prepare drawn butter for crab meat
Mix salad and slice sourdough bread
Prepare horseradish sauce for shrimp
Pour wine, seat beasties and season sloth to taste

Enjoy!