I am very hopeful that this year my older fruit trees will produce more than a handful of peaches and pears. I believe I have only tasted four peaches, one pear and a handful of figs the last two years. The deer have been sampling young fruit and soft branches every year. The new peach tree line is blooming and resembles cherry trees. As the trees get larger I’m sure every spring will be picturesque in front of the house. I am already behind on the task of spraying fungicide on my fruit trees. Spring always seems to surprise me.

I started the seeds early and experimented with light in the greenhouse at night. Not really a good idea. The seedlings did poorly with too much light, too warm on the mats, and large temperature shifts during the day. This week I have started some new trays with tomato and cucumber seeds. The squash plants did well and I think the larger planting container was responsible. I joined an online Facebook group that is running a course on vertical gardening. Many participants are posting photos of some pretty awesome seedlings they have going…maybe next year.

The hens are laying eggs more regularly and we are collecting seven or eight eggs daily. They spend much of the day eating the grass seeds that the pond builder keeps spreading in the hopes of growing more grass. We have purchased coated seeds that birds supposedly do not like – our chickens eat those too. The hens have very good hearing and observe where their treats come from. They will run to the breezeway door when they hear it open and will stare intently at the buckets containing scratch and worm treats. We often find them hanging around the breezeway door, pecking on the glass, hoping we will come out and throw some dried worms. They have trained us well.

Death came from above today. We lost Mathilda the imbecile hen. She was our remaining young barnevelder and all we could find of her today was a pile of under-feathers. She was never very bright and always lagging behind the other hens. We feel sorry for her but Nature always picks on the weakest. We are going to stick to easter eggers from Tractor Supply because they seem to be smart, lay well, and are less broody. We plan to pick up six chicks over the next few weeks. The chicken run project will take a higher priority – we need to put a real roof on and create some lower siding for them. The run will need to be expanded as well.

Today was our first in-person meeting for the Charlotte Koi Club. It was a rainy day but we started indoors listening to a local pond building company talk about building/maintaining ponds; then we walked outside around the demo ponds that are under construction and looked at some koi for sale. This company has a flagship store in Greensboro and this Charlotte site is still under development. In about three to five years it will look lovely. The company is very nice and will give our club members a 10% discount on store purchases.

Later this month, the pond builder and I are flying to Las Vegas for the All American Koi Show. I wasn’t planning to attend but excitement for this event is growing. Since we’re going, I went ahead and registered a show tank and will purchase some tosai (small koi) to compete. I won’t be winning anything but it’s just fun to participate. I will also be taking a friendship award from my home club. Friendship awards are just small items that members from the a club award to a koi of their choice, for any reason. In some shows, the award might be given to a novice koi exhibitor or to an unusual koi that didn’t quite make it to one of the standard awards. I picked a canvas bag with the show logo as our friendship award – since many people are flying, it seems to be an easy item to pack.

The home koi are doing well in pond water that is staying above 60°F. Pond builder is planning to take off the winter cover next weekend. I did treat the pond with a broad spectrum disease treatment product because a few koi looked like they might have had some slightly reddened areas. These appear to have resolved. I also purchased some fresh praziquantal because some local friends have said the flukes this year are terrible. I have never treated my koi for flukes (knock on wood) but I’m always into being prepared. The shiro utsuri and kohaku that came in a few weeks ago are now in the pond.

I’m looking forward to watching my koi without the winter cover. We also need to get cracking on the wood facade for the pond. Pond builder will be doing some shou sugi ban (burnt wood) for the side pieces. In Minnesota we ended up just painting to mimic this effect but will do some proper burning for this last pond. So many things are starting to populate our weekend “to-do” list. Spring is about two weeks away and I’m feeling a little behind on my farm tasks already!😂