Today was a sad day. The pond builder started the process of closing down the lower pond. He’s very sentimental and puts a lot of love into pond building. This pond demanded annual painting and he had just finished re-doing the side boards. Since the koi like to play under dripping water, he put an additional water feed in one of the corners. A few weeks ago, we saw raccoon tracks around the pond and saw that the pipe for the water flow had been knocked off. We really should have investigated further but we had a lot on our minds (like buying a farm in North Carolina). One evening, the pond builder said “I think we have water behind the liner.” Turns out there was a little spot in the corner that allowed some of the water to flow behind the liner.

He carefully took apart the top boards and pumped out the water behind the liner. He checked the pond and while there was no water on the sides, he could tell there was some water between the concrete floor and liner. As we surveyed the pond, we decided that perhaps it was a sign to close the pond down.

Our forty acres in North Carolina currently has no koi pond. While we’re still figuring out how to maintain two homes, we are trying to think through our koi ponds. We will most likely start with an above ground pool in the garage. It’s a very sunny garage and will accommodate a fairly large pool easily. Of course we would need to buy more equipment, or perhaps use what we have….

We now plan to ship our ProfiDrum CombiBio to North Carolina and the pond builder will spend a few trips creating another indoor pool for the koi. Then we will need to start moving koi. Not sure if they will be driven, fly and certainly not all will head south. We will keep our upper pond open until we sell the house someday. It’s a lot to think about particularly when we think about what else has to be taken care of on the farm.

Today, the pond builder started taking off the components and cleaning. There are many items that we can use reuse. I’m going to think about what I could do with the area. The pond will have to be broken down and filled in. There’s a lot of concrete that will have to leave the area as well. Eventually we should be looking at a patch of grass and garden. Naturally we have a young crabapple tree that will need to be moved in a few weeks so that construction equipment can be brought in.

Meanwhile, the koi have all been doing well in the upper pond. The small tosai have grown a great deal and are not pushed around when it comes to feeding. I do think my feeder’s battery or controller is malfunctioning. The poor koi may not have been getting as much food as they should this growing season. Thank goodness we have wall algae they like.

Firecracker showed up with two spots that needed treatment. I suspect they might be injuries from swimming on top of koi when trying to get food. Maybe a little anxious to get a pellet and nicks the wooden frame holding the feeder. Since there were no behavioral changes, we decided to apply a little potassium permanganate paste. We’ll watch and hopefully see changes for better this week.

If you look closely at this photo, you can see the spots where potassium permanganate was applied. Our water has taken a decidedly greener tint the last week. Clear but green – the weather is getting a little cooler again so perhaps the UV light can catch up.

Not much else going on in koi world. Next year I’ll be blogging under the URL carolinakoilady.com I have already made a few changes on this website to keep our North Carolina koi adventures separate from our Minnesota koi keeping.

While it was sad to see the beautiful lower pond being dismantled, I know the pond builder is going to make another beautiful pond for me in North Carolina…maybe two!