12/23/11 L-R: Mark, Andrew, Sally, Nathan, Sam, Sieglind, Christina, Tedd, Tim, Joy, and Joy is holding Linus.

Just in case, like me, you noticed the "Midnight Howler" logo in the lower right of the picture, that's a neighbor of theirs. Here's Sieglind's story of that and also how the new bridge came to be:

"A neighbor who lives in back of us has a dog "Hotel" The Midnight Howler and on the side does photography. She came by a few years ago when she moved into the area and asked if she could use our "park" for photos with her clients. We said sure and so now and then she comes by and takes pictures. She also uses our neighbors sections as well, and has often said "whenever you want pictures taken I will be happy to oblige and do it for free as repayment for using your area." Sooooo when everyone was here I thought "now is the time!" I called her on the afternoon of the 23rd and asked if she thought she had some time to do it and within 15 min. she was here and took the pics."

"The bridge is one of the latest remakes that Sam did last year. I had been wanting to add sides on the bridge for a long time so we finally got to it. The planks for the floor of the bridge came from our Catalpa trees that Tim cut down in the nineties. So when Sam started to work on it he noticed that it needed a whole remake and new planks as well since they had quite a few holes in them (knot holes that had fallen out and started decay.) By the way we still have them, the planks, down by the path along the water that extends from the "boardwalk" that also got done last year. We eventually will put small gravel on the path but for now the planks work."