Port Blakely Tree Farm's sculpture for the 2006 Sand in the City competition. Even though I am not working for Port Blakely right now, they asked me to help out with the sculpture for Sand in the City. We took 2nd place. It has always been an exciting, fun event and this year was no different. I helped sculpt the log and bear to the left of the picture. The team pretty much has the mixing of the sand and water done in about an hour and a half. The process of mixing the sand is very important to the success of the sculpture. They layer it by first putting down a base of sand, place the form (made with 2x4's and plywood), put a 4"-6" layer of sand down, sprinkle it with water, mix it thoroughly, tamp it down with heavy steel tamps, and repeat until the form is full. I know they were done way before everyone else, which really helps to have the extra time to sculpt. We started filling the forms at 9:30 am, we finished sculpting and had our plot cleaned up by 3:15, 15 minutes to spare before the whistle blew at 3:30. This is our 4th Sand in the City competition that we have participated in. The proceeds from the Sand in the City go to the Olympia Children's Hands on Museum. It bothers me to see this picture, because I see so many things that I wish I would have changed, but after sculpting in the sun for so many hours, I said, "It's good enough!" A recent picture of Steve at Dick and Mary Carol's 5oth wedding anniversary. They are the parents of my good friend Tammy, I helped her prepare for the event, she did an awesome job!!