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9/24/09 - Today’s harvesting,... and the definition of ‘Lotus Land’
(Preview)
I’m often asked ‘Why do I call my Koi farm Lotus Land,... when all I produce is Koi,... no plants,... no Lotus?’. Well,... Lotus Land is an old literary term that means “a state or an ideal marked by contentment often achieved through self-indulgence” At harvest time the name Lotus Land is very fitti...
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9/23/09 - Fall Harvesting - Day 3
(Preview)
The details are falling into place for my Fall Harvest Sale this coming weekend. Today was incredibly humid,... and the early morning was quiet,... except for the calling crows and...
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9/21/09 - Harvesting begins,...
(Preview)
Today I began the week-long harvesting of Koi for my Fall Harvest Sale. This work actually began late last night, when the gas powered pumps were fired up around 9:30 pm, and the first pond was pumped down over night. In this first pond were 75 day old Kohakus, measuring an average 5 inches. Here are a...
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9/6/09 - Preparing for Fall Harvest,...
(Preview)
The early morning air is getting noticeably cooler, and the trees and leaves are looking a little different around here. The Koi in all the grow-out ponds are active and eating well,... both the new fry from this season, and the older Koi. In preparation for my Fall Harvest Sale coming up in 2 weeks, I pu...
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7/15/09 - Summer update
(Preview)
With the very hectic days of Spring past me now, the farm is in cruise mode for the Summer. All of my breeding is done for the season,... finally. Because of the odd weather here this Spring breeding was pushed back some on the calendar. On July 15th I just put my last hatchlings out to their fry pond,.....
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4/16/09 - Harvesting Tosai
(Preview)
Work today reminded me a lot of harvesting in the Fall. The day started early, the air and water were both chilly,... but instead of brown leaves falling from the trees there were flowers blooming and small green leave buds popping. By 1 pm the sun was bright and hot, and harvesting of tosai pond #10 be...
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4/14/09 - New Age Showa - sample
(Preview)
A sample of my New Age Showa, a genetic line I began working on here in 1999. This male is from 2005, the 2nd tier in the outcross. The 3rd tier was produced this past Spring ‘08. Several of the offspring from that pairing will be grown out over the Summer. My goals in this ‘New Age Showa’ line are better b...
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3/21/09 - An artist's view of Lotus Land
(Preview)
Lotus Land Koi Farm had a special visitor on Saturday, March 21. The very talented artist Laura Frankstone and her husband David came over from Chapel Hill, NC. Laura tavels the US, and many other countries in pursuit of her art subjects. She contated me last month while doing research for one of he...
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12/12/08 - Winter Work - video
(Preview)
(video link) http://www.fototime.com/DD8F49A7240AB11/conv.wmv (video for Mac link) http://www.fototime.com/DD8F49A7240AB11/orig.mp4
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12/3/08 - The Mystery Of The Coin
(Preview)
I was standing at the edge of one of my grow-out ponds here recently, and found this coin laying in the dirt by my foot. The pond was built with a dozer 5 years ago, and I found this just after a rain, so it might have been pushed up in the dig, then uncovered with the rain. The coin is from Kuwait, and dates ba...
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11/7/08 - Nisai Kohaku Harvest
(Preview)
It’s early november, and my harvesting continues here in North Carolina. Today I harvested pond #8,... a pond of nisai, or 17 month old female kohakus. The pumps were fired up before daylight and the pond is drained down to less than a foot of water,... and the koi are netted up and bagged one at a time,...
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10/21/08 - harvesting Pond #7
(Preview)
Lotus Land Koi Farm Pond #7 was harvested today. Here are some pics and video from the day. (streaming video) http://www.fototime.com/E48E11D635EA219/conv.wmv (for mac) http://www.fototime.com/E48E11D635EA219/orig.mp4 [img]http://www.fototime.com/{E3B...
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10/14/08 - The Cary Young Koi Show - 2 for 2 X 2
(Preview)
I made the 2.5 hour drive from my farm up to Cary, NC this past Friday for the 1st Carolina Classic Young Koi Show. The weather was a little dreary on Friday, but cleared up nicely for a great Koi Show on Saturday and Sunday. Congratulations to the Shaffer family for going 2 for 2 - Baby Grand Champion at las...
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10/6/08 - The weekend's Koi shows.
(Preview)
This past weekend was an exciting weekend for me. Lotus Land Koi Farm clients showed great presence in East Coast Koi Shows - Teresa Lawrence’s Showa was awarded Best In Variety - Showa, and also won the AKCA Award at the First Coast Koi Show in Florida, and at the 2nd Annual Greenville Koi Show, the Mung...
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9/26/08 - Fall Harvest Sale
(Preview)
My 2008 Fall Harvest Sale is officially under way. The playing in the mud is all finished up until November, and the filtered ponds here are filled with Koi from the past weeks harvests. Some good Koi friends stopped by today, and we had a great time looking over a lot of whats been harvested,... literal...
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9/23/08 - Harvesting tosai Kohakus
(Preview)
Today was another incredible day! It began at 5:30 am with the pumps firing up to drain Pond #10,... a pond of Kohakus born the 1st week of May, ‘08. I was really pleased overall with what I saw today,... good consistent high quality, good growth, great bone structure and color development. Sizes varie...
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9/22/08 - Nisai harvest
(Preview)
Work for today began at 5:30 am with the draining and seining of a Nisai pond,... Kohaku, Showa, Hariwake, Soragoi, Matsuba, and Yamabuki Ogon, all born here 16 months ago. Fellow Koi nut and good friend Chuck Shaffer came out to help play. As is tradition, he brought a cooler of cold beer,... for drink...
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9/19/08 - Sanke tosai harvesting
(Preview)
I skipped breeding of Sanke last year altogether, but continued this season, and am very happy with my crop. I have a few different styles of Sanke in my parent Koi stable. This season I chose to use a male from Sakai Yamamatsu’s farm, and a female born here at my farm in 2001,... both parent sides are able...
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9/17/08 - Pushing Forward My New Age Showa Line
(Preview)
Today I harvested a pond of tosai I call my New Age Showa, 3.5 months old at this point. This is a branch of my Showa gene pool that I began in 1999 with the blending of Takeda Showa and Sadazo Sanke. Nine years later I’m at the 3rd generation of that cross, and am seeing some of what I wanted to see - a longer lea...
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7/20/08 - Summer update - 2nd round of sorting
(Preview)
I began my 2nd round of culling this week. The ‘08 crop is looking very good so far, excellent quality, good numbers, and good growth. The first round of culling is incredibly physical hard work,... tedious, and time consuming. The 2nd round is much more enjoyable for true Koi appreciation. The work l...
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6/7/08 - The 6th Annual Charleston, SC Pond Tour
(Preview)
I drove down to Charleston, SC this weekend for their 6th Annual Pond Tour. As always, the ponds on the tour were beautiful, and each unique! Here are a few snapshots from the tour on Saturday. Video coverage of several ponds, and the Grand Finale Party will be in an upcoming Issue of KOI FIXX DV Magazine...
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5/23/08 - Spring sorting - Tosai
(Preview)
In early May I do my final sorting of tosai, or selections for the summer grow out. Heres some video of todays chores,... a few groups going out to their new ponds for the summer. These young koi are all approaching 1 year old now, and many will have passed 6 checks after today, for overall quality, and che...
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5/9/08 - Spring Breeding
(Preview)
Spring breeding is under way here at Lotus Land Koi Farm. Though there have been a lot of very long days prepping the farm for the new fry of 2008, and long nights staying up with my breeding pairs, the season is off to a great start! I have excellent hatches of Kohaku and traditional Showa already, and thi...
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4/6/08 - A few Koi going out to the mud.
(Preview)
Here is a quick video shot yesterday of a few fish being prepped to go off to summer camp. Their summer pond has been filling for the past month. Well try and take another look at them in November when they come back up. The heavy rains here stopped any more fish from going out for a few more days.
(streami...
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2/4/08 - Looking at a few tosai
(Preview)
I spent some time today looking over a few tosai from a group that I had stashed away here for the winter. Ill be growing these, and some others, over the summer. Look for them again in the Fall as 17 month old Nisai. Theres a Hariwake in the video thats particularly interesting for the type. (video for PC)...
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12/21/07 - Some pics from Fall on the farm
(Preview)
A 30 month old female Showa comes up from the mud. Sister Sankes just up and into clear water. The Sanke on the right was held back from the grow-out ponds when she was Nisai because she couldnt be sexed t...
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11/3/07 - The Charlotte Koi Show
(Preview)
Lotus Land Koi Farm clients had an excellent showing at the recent 10th Annual Charlotte Koi Show. Koi bred at Lotus Land Koi Farm won "Best In Size" in 3 of the 7 size classes. Other awards included "Best Tategoi", "Best In Variety" - Hikari Muji, "Best In Varie...
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10/25/07 - Harvesting Pond #7
(Preview)
It rained all day today, the first real rain we've seen in my area in over 3 months, hopefully bringing an end to the severe drought across the US southeast. The rain was a welcome sight, and didn't stop the harvest of Pond #7 here in North Carolina. Chuck Shaffer, netting wizz, and beer drinking buddy ha...
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10/15/07 - KOI FIXX Reaches 100 Hours!
(Preview)
KOI FIXX DV Magazine recorded its 100th hour of video coverage of our Koi world at the recent Atlanta Koi Show, and further with coverage of Koi America two weeks later. This is just the video thats been shot with the primary KOI FIXX video camera. Hours and hours have been shot also by other videographe...
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10/3/07 - Tosai Kohaku Harvest
(Preview)
Today Koi pal Chuck Shaffer made the 2 hour drive over to help me harvest a pond of tosai Kohakus. We drank cold beer and played in the mud mid afternoon (seined), then sorted through baskets of young Kohakus after we got them all up from the pond. I'm very pleased with this group, so many excellent young K...
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