While I would rather be looking at a major garden in Japan, I substituted working in my own garden this weekend. We still have snow on the ground but the weather has been in the 40s and it’s melting fast. I spent much of the weekend picking up old autumn leaves. I also unwrapped a few of the evergreens and they are a pleasant spring green contrast. The deer have nibbled on a few plants with my peach tree being the only tree suffering from major damage. I have a rhododendron next to the house that a rabbit has chewed away most of winter.

Here’s a movie file from our outdoor camera – every night a few deer cut through our garden to/from somewhere.

I see some bald eagles flying in the skies around Little Siberia, but I do not think there is an active nest nearby. We have a rather large owl that lives near us, but he seems more interested in mammals. The latest round of raccoons were relocated last year and (knock on wood) no blue heron sightings for at least two or three years. I have pair of bald eagles that I enjoy seeing as I drive back and forth to work. They have built their nest in a tree next to the highway not too far from some lakes. They usually return to the nest in March and disappear by mid-November.

The pond builder decided to put up a mini bakki shower for the koi and set up the QT tank. We will be having new koi come home so we need to stagger the quarantine tank use. We could set up another QT but I’m hoping to get by with just one this year. The QT pool is 5′ by 5′. The koi have now taken over most of the garage and we are both parking outdoors.

A little Minuma goshiki flew in today from PS Koi. She was purchased last fall and has spent the last few weeks in quarantine. 43 cm at purchase, she was 44 cm (17.3″) today. I am a little unlucky when it comes to goshiki. One koi was looking fairly nice and she somehow scratched the top of her head. Nothing subtle, just an ugly, artificial looking line on her beni. She’s swimming around at the Normandale Japanese Garden now. Firecracker, a beautiful little goshiki purchased from GenkiKoi decided to jump through a hole in the net, flail around and seriously tear up a pectoral fin. It has taken two years for the fin to finally grow back. Might be showable this year. This new goshiki will need to fatten up and she should darken with age. She might be showable next year – if we don’t have any beni mishaps. 🤞🏻

We also scheduled some tree work. We had the large red oaks trimmed back, the silver maple got a haircut and two trees were taken down in our front yard. We had a large birch that has been on its last legs for a few years now and two ugly spruces. The birch and one ugly spruce came down. We’re thinking about having a new Norway pine planted. We’ll have to contract a nursery to put one in for us. They grow fast but we want one that is already 10 feet tall. It’s not going to fit in the pond builder’s truck.

Spring warm up is definitely on its way. While we can get a snow storm as late as April, I’m crossing my fingers that the koi will be out in their pond early May!