The catus garden has filled in nicely where the old Silver Maple was. Only 2 catus didn't make it through the winter.
|
|
We added a third stream including 2 waterfalls. I finished this in two 14 hour days.
|
|
And this is the finished product.
|
|
We had our first ever open house in late July. It was attended by approximately 125 people. I ran two trains continously for 5.5 hours with no issues. The garden was well received and the visitors were very interested in viewing a "garden under construction" as most gardens that have open houses are 100% complete.
|
|
As mentioned in previous year's photos, I wanted to have a scale model of the Canyon Diablo bridge. I went to Arizona, measured and photgraphed the bridge and drew it up in CAD. A welding shop used the drawing to first cut out a template of the side of the bridge, shown here. He used the template to weld up the framing.
|
|
This is the real Canyon Diablo bridge in Arizona, approximately 35 miles East of Flaggstaff.
|
|
The welder gave me another copy of the template that I used to enlarge my canyon in order for the bridge to fit. I needed to widen the area by approx. 12", and deepen it by 4".
|
|
And this is the finished bridge in place. Most of the light colored rock under the bridge came from the actual canyon that the real bridge spans in northern Arizona. I made forms and poured custom sized/shaped concrete abutments for support.
|
|
Another shot of bridge with a meet on it.
|
|
Since we had planned on having irrigation from the very begining, it was not very hard to install the water lines, valves, and wiring. |
|
The Super Chief at the West end of the garden. |
|
A view from the roof. I try ro take one of these shots every year, just to compare our progress from previous years. |
|
Our pond at sunset, with our Koi wondering what I am doing laying down on the rocks with a camera. They thought they were going to be fed! |
|