Maybe not something so blatent, but a hint would have been a little simpler. Perhaps some sort of an unusual indicator where the 12th puzzle is that makes it obvious that you would need a builder-like for the creek, you knew that you would need a builder to clear the rocks (well, they became a builder). I don't want to say my suggestion outright because it would probably give it away, but hopefully this is enough.
>As far as I can tell, not a single person has found and solved puzzle 12 without someone giving them a big hint or specifically telling them how to solve it.
Well, although the "master builder" hint was a big one in my book as it would have taken me a lot longer to find the 12th puzzle, that was about for me. Barbara did send me a few PM's of encouragement, but she wouldn't let me give up on finding it on my own (as much as possible). I mean, I could post all of her PMs here and they wouldn't give anything more away (Thanks again for that Barbara
). The rest was just coming up with a bunch of ideas through logic and trying them out (I also found a few things that could be better used). Although, now that I've found it, my builders can't seem to finish the task. Even after the 10 years or so left for them (where I saved it), they can't seem to finish the job. Oh well, just gotta keep at it.
-spaceman