Just when I thought our projects were just poking along – we have completed a lot of work the last three weeks. Work on the pond roof started earlier this week and I know it will make a big difference for the koi.

The concrete work will be a three feet skirt around the pond. There will be some sort of small stone for contrast from the pond edge and the rest of the three feet will be a skirt rolled with a flagstone texture stamp. I think the contractor said he was going to use concrete for the corbels. The fascia boards are made of LVL (laminated veneer lumber) to ensure strength and no warping.

The pond builder completed some more of the top board around the pond. It’s stained in natural cedar tone, similar to the one we had in Minnesota. He discovered his chop saw is slightly off which explains why he was having so much difficulty with some of the angles. We have covered the end of the pond with some beams and he’ll be drilling a rod through them to keep them from warping. I have asked if he can put in a window frame to throw in food and to see what the koi are up to. They love parking underneath the cover.

It is so nice to watch the koi under the new roof. I think I love the shade more than the koi. The koi swim around lazily in the water and the shade makes it easy to observe them closely. The water temperature has been almost 79°F daily and they don’t seem to eat that much during the heat. I have switched back to a wheat germ food since it might be easier on their system. We’ll have to see if the roof will drive the water temperature down.

I did have a little koi mishap a few weekends ago. I decided to move the four tosai from the quarantine tank into the big pond. My lovely little lemon hariwake was pausing near the pipe that pulls water through the pump. I had turned off the pump and decided that I would lower the water level of the quarantine tank so that it would be easier to catch the little koi. I switched to backwash on my bead filter, turned on the pump and the poor little hariwake was not prepared. It was sucked into the system 😩. One minute you’re a happy koi going on a big adventure, the next minute you are fertilizer for a japanese maple tree. The other three tosai made it to the big pond, two kikusuis and a heisei nishiki.

Another recent koi activity was to judge the Montreal koi show, July 8, 2024. The koi show is held in the Montreal Botanical Garden, under the trees in the Japanese garden. While it is a small show, there is a lot of foot traffic and interest from the people touring the botanical garden. The MBG staff and Mountain View Koi Club members were all so nice and the end result was a really fun show. I don’t think there are a lot of koi keepers in Canada but the ones I met love their koi very much. Like the members of my home club, Charlotte Koi Club, the koi keepers I met have a variety of interests and talents outside of koi. My host is an illustrator and cartoonist, his wife is an author, lots of gardeners in this group, and world travelers.

While I was away, the pond builder dismantled our greenhouse. I have had difficulty getting it to work the way I would like and I think starting plants in my garage with grow lights and heat mats will be a lot easier to control. We plan to turn it back into grass for the rest of summer and in the fall, we’ll move three cherry trees into the area. Who wouldn’t want a rainier cherry tree within steps of the house??? The greenhouse was also spoiling the view of our new garden area.

Our Japanese maple garden continues to grow. I don’t know when it will ever be “finished” but I have been busy putting down weed block, having the pond builder empty about 75 bags of pea gravel…then move all the pea gravel from under the greenhouse to the garden site, planting things, moving rocks, putting down mulch, and chasing chickens away. The chickens love to root around, scratch and spread the mulch where I don’t want.

I made a video of my garden as of today. The japanese maple supplier, Robbie Beam (Grove Creek Japanese Maple Farm) is going back to Oregon soon. I’m revisiting/revising my wishlist of maples…

We are always very tired at the end of each weekend but we do enjoy our project work.