September has been a pretty good month for us. We’ve had a setback or two but overall we feel we are getting ahead. The biggest accomplishment was the completion of the koi pond. The pond builder was so happy to nail in the last piece of shou sugi ban siding. He has officially retired from pond building. I guess the pond builder will become the tree planter next. I have plans for another 80 or so trees (japanese maples and assorted fruit) to be planted on the farm. I’m guessing he’s already planted about 100 trees for me since we purchased the property.

The little concrete amoeba pad on the southwest corner of the house has been completed. I’m hoping to spend some more time out here in the fall and next year. The fabric and concrete should keep weeding down.

We took a little weekend trip up to Northern Virginia and it happened to be the same day as the ZNA Potomac koi show. We made a short side trip to check out the koi and see who was at the show. Kind of cloudy, a few sprinkles, but the koi looked nice and everyone seemed happy. Taro Kodama’s customers received major awards at this show.

We pressed our contractor to complete the work by early September because we were the designated hosts for the September Charlotte Koi Club meeting. Our landscaping is work in progress but so glad the pond was done. We had a demonstration by Steve and Sandy Zimmerman on reducing shimi (black spots on the koi that shouldn’t be there…) on a koi. I was planning to rehome the demonstration koi to another club member but we noticed a tear in the tail. So I rehomed another koi to him and when the tail of the demo koi looks good, he can take it to his pond. While our pond is large, I try to keep the number of koi down to a manageable level. It’s especially good to make some space in the fall because in a few weeks the dealers will be heading to Japan and there will be new koi for sale. If I had a lot of koi in the pond, I would feel like I couldn’t really buy something new.

Just when you think you can relax, God says “not so fast.” The pond is done, we hosted the meeting, and on Sunday we’re thinking how odd it is to not have something pressing to do. It has been raining a great deal in North Carolina and we really think nothing of it. Tuesday morning, we’re getting ready to leave for a business trip and I looked out the window towards the pond. It just doesn’t look right and then I realized that a tree has fallen on our new pavilion. We went out to assess the damage and tree planter said “I can get some of this off before we go to the airport.” In 30 minutes, he cleared off a number of branches and propped up the trunk a bit to reduce the weight on the pavilion.

A few days later we came home and the tree trunk has stayed in place. We have a few gashes in the shingles but everything seems sound.

Today we removed the rest of the tree because we were not certain if the weak spot of the trunk was going to lead to another portion landing on top of the pond pavilion. Using the tractor for some tension and then pulling it after the cuts resulted in the tree being downed safely, where we wanted it. It took the tree planter about five more hours to clean up all the tree parts from the area. We really were lucky that the tree fell on our pavilion after it was completed. It would have been disastrous if it dropped while the pond had no cover or while the pavilion was being built.

The koi are pretty oblivious to what’s happening outside of the pond. I guess this is a good thing. I did lose another koi at the beginning of the month. Abbot was my oldest koi and had recently started to swim by herself. She did this for about two weeks and we found her belly up under the water return. I don’t think she was particularly old, maybe 8 or 9 years.

My first beehive has been a failure. We had a lot of rain in July and we had been thinking that there was less activity around the beehive. We checked the hive after our trip to Virginia and saw fewer bees and no honey cells. Thinking that the bees needed supplemental feeding, I ordered some bee feeders from Amazon. Two days later, I took the bee feeders out to the hive and all the bees are gone. No dead bees around the hive, they just have disappeared! I have taken the frames out and will try again next year. I spoke with another beekeeper who recommended that I look into Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) bees. These are bees that are a little more resistant to varroa mites and do a better job of cleaning up around the hive. Who knew that my bees could have been slobs…. Another theory is that my nuc had an inferior queen.

Thank goodness my chickens are doing well. The girls are pretty much like puppies, following us if we are outside, hoping we will give them treats. The tree planter is the big softie. They literally run if they see him coming out of the breezeway. They have trained him well because he will immediately go get a handful of dried worms for them.

— The eight weeks old chicks have just started free ranging and they stay within ten feet of their coop. All the other chickens tend to scare the little chicks.

— The twelve weeks old hens have started to mix with the older hens but generally get bullied. They are probably our favorite chickens right now. Super friendly and pretty.

— The 22 weeks old hens are fairly well integrated with the older flock. They spend time bullying the eight and twelve weeks old chickens.

Our next project is a new chicken coop. We have a 10 x 12 shed being installed near the current coop on October 1st. Our current coop area looks kind of janky now and it’s really not sufficient for twenty plus chickens. With the shed, we will be able to subdivide it and store food, collect eggs out of the rain, have plenty of roosting space. We’ll also have to build a new covered chicken run. We have some ideas of creating better feed and water stations for the flock as well.

While I have a lot of work ahead in the japanese maple garden, the fall vegetable garden is starting nicely. The growing season in North Carolina is fairly long and I should be able to harvest a few summer season cucumbers , green beans, and tomatoes before the first frost. I have finally planted some early winter vegetables on time. Our long term goal is to be able to consistently grow a lot of vegetables to eat fresh, flash freeze and pickle. We have many plants that will increase your GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) levels and combined with eggs, active work around the farm — we should be able to avoid becoming part of the 10% of Americans with Diabetes 2.

Parisian pickling cucumbers and carrots… round three of green beans…Brussels sprouts and Japanese sweet potato…frisée, blueberries, onion, jalapeño peppers, and strawberries

Round three of green beans…purple cauliflower and regular cauliflower…assorted lettuces… broccoli

Behind the house is leftover summer tomatoes and herbs…and new beds for kale, bok choy, winter cabbage, Japanese green onions, and assorted lettuces.

So that’s been our exciting month of September on the farm. Tomorrow, September 22, is the Autumnal Equinox and first day of fall. I’m hoping we don’t have too many trees falling this fall.