A hobby farm is defined as a small farm that is maintained without expectation of being a primary source of income. In our case the hobby farm is like a money pit. I saw a video on Facebook that sums up our life perfectly. A man is holding some plant and states “Why should I pay $7.00 for this in the grocery when I can grow it for $200.00?” Good thing the pond builder is not planning to retire from his day job any time soon.

KOI

The koi pond is doing fine. We have started building the frame around the pond that the shou sugi ban will be affixed to. We have also had to add another shade cloth because it just seems too hot and sunny.

I received a shipment of little tosai from Mystic Koi about two weeks ago. They were purchased to participate in the All American Koi Show and one was a buy done through a drawing at the show. The little tosai shipment was delayed a day, the ai goromo had a flaky moment, but they are all fine now. I have named them after hotels in Vegas. They have been eating well and I felt my quarantine tank was getting a little cloudy too quickly and too often. Tired of doing water changes, the tosai were sent to the big pond. They will be living in a floating quarantine net (3x3x3) until they are all about 14 inches.

The larger koi are not sure what to make of the floating net cage. They stay pretty far away from it. The tosai keep looking for a way to escape. Meanwhile the quarantine has been reset for the next little koi that should be arriving from PS Koi, Indiana.

KOI SHOW

While I love to work on the farm every minute of the weekend, there was a koi show in Raleigh, about 2.5 hours away on Saturday. It was so well organized and ran very smoothly. There were a lot of amazing things besides beautiful koi. Great support from some of the best koi dealers in the United States. I missed getting photos of all the dealers but here’s a sampling:

It’s pretty amazing to have so many high quality vendors in one spot. The show had some great weather and the turnout of people who had never been to a koi show was phenomenal. I love to eavesdrop on what people say looking at koi and you hear all the statements that truly reflect genuine koi appreciation. People are excited about little koi, big koi, sparkly koi, artistic patterns and no one is finding fault with any of the koi. I think when people get into showing koi, we often look for faults first before looking for the good. I definitely like hearing young people say “I really want one of those…” – I want to say “yes Mom and Dad, go home and build a koi pond!” Of course one of the best parts of a koi show is seeing some of your favorite koi keeper friends.

CHICKENS

The five little chicks are about one month old and they were adding to the “eau de zoo” in the breezeway. They were also very messy, scratching wood shavings out of their cage. So the little girls were also kicked out of the breezeway this weekend. We purchased a small coop made of steel and cedar at Tractor Supply. They will use this coop for about six weeks before transitioning to another coop which is part of Chickenland. We still provide them with a heater so we needed to leave the new coop closer to the house.

The older hens are busy tearing up plants that I don’t want them to, eating lettuce intended for us, and laying eggs when they feel like it. We have nine hens who should be laying an egg a day and we usually only get 5 or 6. We have two hens that are brooding – meaning they want to hatch eggs. They sit all day in the nesting boxes and we have to physically take them out to encourage them to eat and drink water. I often place them on a large log and they will sit nicely for a while before going back to the hen house. I had another chicken that looked like it had poopy butt (like pasty butt in chicks) – so I gave her a soak in epsom salt. It did seem to work – we have gotten a few more eggs from her recently.

BEES

Honestly these bees are currently the most low maintenance of our hobbies. I say this after only two weeks as a beekeeper but the hive is still alive.

JAPANESE MAPLES

This is going to ramp up as a new hobby. We have some japanese maples that we put in around the pond and a Japanese Maples/Azaleas garden on the southwest corner of the house. I have a koikeeping friend who is the ultimate influence when it comes to japanese maples. Of course you can make the argument that japanese maples are far cheaper than japanese koi. We will be carving out a new Japanese style garden near our invasive Moso bamboo forest.

I’m doing my homework and learning more about japanese maples. There is a gentleman who passed away last year, Masayoshi Yano, who was a leading expert in the study of japanese maples. He wrote a book which is no longer in print and won’t be published again according to the owner of the rights for this book. However, they have put it on a CD-ROM which you can purchase. The fax to Japan has no English version, so I have enlisted the help of my sister to source this CD-ROM. It is beyond me why they won’t just publish an e-book. I probably don’t need the book but Mr. Yano was a photographer, in particular a food photographer. I’m sure his photos of maples are equally beautiful.

PEONIES

Another semi-low maintenance hobby. If I didn’t have to weed the side garden it would be great. However this garden has been a challenge since day one. The chickens have made it trickier by digging at the roots of new plants. I have now put down some thin cedar lengths which they seem to avoid. My new plan is to now weed and plant 72 dwarf mondo. Maybe in a few years, they will choke out the weeds. I do enjoy the peonies even if they are blooming only a few weeks. Two plants were already here and the rest were brought to the farm from Minnesota when we moved.

GARDENING

There are always gardening tasks to do and never enough time. At the koi show, there was a vendor of aquatic plants. While I don’t walk by the area often, I thought it would be fun to plant bog/pond side plants in the gully where our pond water drains into. There are now some areas with permanent water. I’m a little concerned if there is enough sun but perhaps I will get lucky.

The vegetable garden and assorted fruit areas are looking good so far. I’m always hopeful at the beginning of the season and discouraged when the pests move in. I have added plants that are supposed to discourage pests or attract insects that kill the unwanted pests – we’ll have to see. Meanwhile I’m ready with my neem oil, fruit and vegetable sprays, diatomaceous earth, and if it’s really terrible, some Sevin insect killer.

I still have more garden beds to plant around the farm and recently found volunteer plants in one of my compost bins. They look like cucumber/squash/zucchini seedlings. I believe they sprouted from the cuttings that I threw into the bin as I trimmed the seedlings prior to transplanting.

HAY

We are getting close to the spring cut of hay. Last year the hay farmer harvested 142 large round bales. We think he may surpass that count this year. He has been doing a good job improving the quality of our fields with regular fertilizing. Our harvests have increased significantly from 35 large round bales in spring 2021 and 49 large round bales in spring 2022.

So that’s our hobby farm to date. I’m sure we will continue to add projects and hobbies for many years.