Late Summer on the Farm

Life seems so much easier now that the pond is running and the koi are out of the garage. We still have a gazillion tasks like finishing off the last wall of the equipment house, pergola, wood cladding around the pond, landscaping – basically years of work ahead and nothing is ever totally finished. However,…

Judging an International Koi Show

If only every show was like Euregio 2023! I had a wonderful time in the Netherlands this past weekend as a member of the judging team. The judging team included US judges Larry Gill, Michelle Gravenish, Ray and Teri Alexander…Dutch judges Ruud Besmes, Richard and Anja Albertsboer…British judges Kieron Burns and Gary Hillier…and Indonesian judge…

Still not done

We had a goal to move the koi into the pond by May 15th. That would be about two years after we started cutting down the first privets in this area. Unfortunately life interferes and we do have real day jobs. When I pout, the pond builder pointed out that our jobs fund the pond….

Tamago Kake Gohan (TKG)

The first farm egg finally showed up two days ago. Today I had some tamago kake gohan (TKG) for the first time in decades. Raw egg over hot rice – super yummy! When I was young, we purchased our eggs at a local egg farm. Eventually they closed and we had to buy our eggs…

21 months and we’re at another milestone

Friday, January 6, 2023 was a big day. Concrete work for the koi pond is finally done! There might be some more random concrete in the future but our pond walls and lower half of the equipment house are finally finished It took us about six months to decide where our last koi pond was…

Pond Story 2022

We really had high hopes to have a completed pond by Memorial Day 2022. That idea became the 4th of July Pond. Then we were hoping for a Halloween Pond. I believe I can safely say that our pond should be complete in Spring 2023. My koi will have spent almost two years in our…

18 months (and we’re still not done)

Our pond walls were finally poured today. A huge hurdle we have finally crossed. Just getting the pond area cleared took us about a year. We were distracted with all interesting things we were digging up. We found a concrete guy who agreed to take on our project. The concrete bottom was poured, not entirely…

Work on the Koi Pond has resumed

“Did you guys plan on doing this while I was visiting?” asks the pond builder’s son as he toils away today. No we didn’t, but thank goodness the pond builder’s son was hanging around the farm in between his Army assignments. We hired the Octaform consultant to come out for two days to help us…

It’s been a busy fall

…but the pond is still not built, super sad face. Today we were notified that the new set of inner panels were completed yesterday and shipping is being set up. It’s too much to expect them to be here next week – maybe the week after that. So no progress on the pond but I…

What we do without a pond

Without a pond to play with, we have been able to pay attention to more farm tasks. The tree clean up of our forested areas is always there and every storm brings down branches and sometimes a tree. Growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables is a constant learning lesson. So how are my koi and what’s…

Maybe the pond will be done by Halloween

Big disappointment with our last pond build. Our local contractor might be well versed in concrete, but he’s not so good at Octaform panels. We have been very unhappy with his efforts and after a joint zoom conference, Octaform sent out a consultant to work with our contractor for a day. The Octaform consultant spent…

4th of July – no pond

We were hoping to have the koi in their new pond this 4th of July. That timeline didn’t quite work out. Little things like work schedules, work travel and unforeseen difficulties getting the stuff together have delayed pond opening. Perhaps it will be ready when we host a local koi club meeting in early August….