I should have been judging the South Carolina Koi & Goldfish Show this weekend in Greenville, South Carolina but Mother Nature had other plans. Hurricane Helene created quite a destructive path through Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. The result has been widespread loss of power, flooding, and road closures. I’m sure it was so disappointing to the club that spends the entire year planning for this event, and even had the venue set up on Thursday. Now many of the club members are dealing with keeping their koi alive until power is restored – which might take days or weeks.

On the farm, we had about 6 inches of rain but the power stayed on.

Since I now had some extra time, I decided to measure my koi. I usually do this once a year, sometimes twice if I’m really motivated. It’s good to keep track of how the koi are growing. When I lived in Minnesota, we would do this twice a year since we would move the koi to the outdoor pond during the spring and back into the garage pond in the fall. In North Carolina, the koi can stay in the outdoor pond all year long, so I tend not to think about this task. The koi collection is currently at twenty five koi and we measured twenty two of them. Three of the koi look like they are less than 12 inches and just a pain to catch so we skipped them. I created composite photos which show the current size in inches, breeder, and their name. Everyone says you shouldn’t name your koi, but I do.

We’re pretty happy with the growth of all the koi. Only two of the koi are from our pond in Minnesota. We have come to the conclusion that it’s far easier to grow koi in North Carolina. Average growth for the koi last measured in July 2023 to today has been four inches. Tosai purchased in March have grown about seven inches each.

While we were busy measuring koi, the chickens have been up to no good. Their latest bad habit has been trying to claim the garage as part of their territory. Water spray and the broom gets them out, but some of them continue to sneak into the garage. A few of them love to sit in the UTVs.

I moved my raspberries and some blueberries to the old house garden. The pinky winky hydrangeas were a little too oversized for the garden and lazy me doesn’t want to walk too far for fresh berries in the summer. We’ll have to do some chicken proofing next year when the berries are forming. The tea garden is poking along. I’m sure a little more diligent watering might be called for. The idea of growing your own tea sounds like fun but in reality much more difficult than I expected.

Finally, I have been looking at my japanese maples who have had a rough adjustment this summer. The heat and sun has scorched many of them and I’m not expecting a lot of fall color. Most of these trees should be just fine starting next year. There are some signs of the colors I might get to see next fall. The Japanese maple tree dealer just received a large shipment of maples. I hope to go check it out with a friend and tag some trees with my name before the weekend.

I’m feeling pretty lucky that I was able to just putter around the farm this weekend. We always talk about adding in some solar power stuff and maybe we should do it sooner than later. I always think if you are prepared for a disaster, it generally never happens.