2024 started with a road trip from North Carolina to Southern California. We completed the trip over four days and ±2500 miles. Before flying back to North Carolina, I had the opportunity to visit the Dreamworks campus in Glendale. The campus included a vast water feature consisting of waterfalls, pools and a very large, shallow koi pond with at least thirty koi. The koi were placed by someone who had most likely rescued them from owners who were closing their pond. I believe the friendly koi need a little more looking after. They were quite thin and some were definitely exhibiting some bacterial issues.
A few days after I returned from the road trip, a powerful winter storm brought all sorts rain and wind to the east coast. We started January 7th with a lot of steady rain and at one point I thought it seemed unusually windy outside. My wind chimes were quite loud and the porch furniture was sliding around a bit. As I looked out the front door, I saw a large branch of a cedar tree break off in front of me. Thinking it was not wise to be near a window under these conditions I walked towards my kitchen and noticed that the driveway was now covered with a large tree. The other eastern cedar had snapped about 20 feet up and the upper 30 feet had crashed into our garage door. We were lucky that our personal vehicles happen to not be in the driveway as they usually are. The pond builder worked tirelessly for the remainder of the day clearing off the driveway. We are not planning to cut down the leftover 20 feet. As a result of that storm we have had a few more trees fall over in the forest or are leaning significantly.
Our koi pond cover survived the little microburst with minor damage. We had broken hinges on our windows but the whole structure stayed put. The pond cover has been doing a good job. We have had some very cold nights (down to 13°F) and it maintained the water temperature above 47°F. Today, the temperatures have climbed to 70°F and the water temperature is now 55°F. All of the koi seem to be doing well. I stopped feeding them at 50° since no one was interested with the few pellets that I threw into the pond. Today, about half of the koi were interested in the pellets. If the warmer temperatures hold, I will be feeding them more frequently.
A lot of the koi dealers are in Japan for their winter buying season. There are a lot of fun little tosai for sale. Tosai are like buying lottery tickets but they are interesting to grow. Last week I purchased two little kikusui koi. I have yet to grow a kikusui past 12 inches. I have had problems with these little metallic, red and white koi.
Out of the three that I purchased in years past, something bad has happened to each one. Jumping out of the pond, swimming into the filtration system, disappearing – a very unlucky variety in my ponds. I have purchased two and hope that at least one will be over twelve inches by late summer.
The chickens are maintaining well in the colder temperatures we have experienced the last few weeks. There has been no need to put a heater into their hen house. We have had to help with frozen water feeders. Some of the hens continue to lay eggs, not every day, and some have not laid eggs in weeks (or months). The flock is kind of in the freeload mode demanding scratch, worms, and other treats that the pond builder finds at Tractor Supply. The other day I prepared some scrambled eggs for them since it’s a good source of protein. Perhaps it will jump start their egg production again.
While I wait for spring, I have been making DIY seed tape for vegetables that always need thinning. Different lettuce varieties and asian cabbages get attached to folded lengths of toilet paper with flour and water. I’m amazed that the lettuce we have been growing survives under floating covers in the cold weather. The chickens have been a bigger problem than weather this winter. Another sign that winter is on its way out is delivery of new plants. The first two japanese apricot trees (mokel ume) arrived from Edible Landscaping and three more apricot trees (bungo) from Raintree Nursery will ship in late March. These are semi-dwarf trees that are beautiful when they flower and the fruit can be pickled. The blooms of mature trees start in late winter weeks before the cherry blossoms.
We are putting more effort into composting this year. We ordered a truckload of compost to amend the koi pond area and spots around the farm. We have also set up a compost bin in the greenhouse for passive heat (I don’t think it’s really working)…and we have set up a new compost area with four GEOBINs. Someday we’ll get it right. Adding some worms might be helpful.
The beehive project continues. I received some beekeeping books from another koi judge, Larry Gill, who keeps koi, judges koi and also has 11 hives (at one time he managed 27 hives). I don’t think I’ll ever have that many hives but I could see managing up to three some day. It’s really a lot of work and there are a number of things you need. In my case I have had to purchase flow frames, brood box frames (which had to be assembled), some kit that had 30 beekeeping tools, a bee suit, paint (and I will be painting the hive this weekend)…and that’s before buying the bees. I am planning to buy something called a NUC (nucleus colony) this spring. It seems to be the best way to start a new hive. I read that hives will attract nuisance animals like raccoon and skunks. So I’ll need the pond builder to build some defensive cages or fencing around the hive.
Tomorrow is another rainy day so I’ll be painting the bee hive and making more seed tape. If I get really motivated I might start some plants from seed. Every year I’m starting seeds in late February that I should have started in late January. I have set up the grow lights and heat mats so there really is no excuse except laziness. Then again I might be doing one of the other million tasks that need to be done like cleaning up the woodlines, drainage control projects, sowing grass seeds, planting a forage patch, journaling about the the 2024 garden, watching some vertical gardening classes that I signed up for and have never watched live on Facebook, bottling this week’s batch of kombucha – there’s always something!