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 with 2 water falls. I finished this in two 14 hour days.
And the finished product.
We had an open house in late July. It was attended by approximately 125 people. I ran two trains continously for 5.5 hours with no issues.
As mentioned in previous year's photos, I wanted to have a scale model of the Canyon Diable bridge. I went to Arizona, measured and photgraphed the bridge, came home and drew it up in CAD. A welding shop used the drawing to first cut out a template of the side of the bridge, show here. He used the template to assemble the pieces.
This is the real Canyon Diable 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 bride 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!