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,... literally hundreds and hundreds of 5 month old Koi - Kohakus, Sankes, Showas, Hi Utsuris, Ki Utsuris, Shiro Utsuris, Ginrin Utsuris, Hariwake, Benigoi, as well as some interesting and unusual Koi, and a tank of around 125 freshly harvested 5 month Kohakus ranging in size from 7” to 10”, and Nisai Yamabuki Ogons, Kohakus, Showas, Soragoi, Benigoi. I spent a good part of this morning pulling up some larger Koi that will be marked way down for the sale weekend,... 14” to 20” males and females,... amazing Koi deals, and true to the title “sale”!
One of my visitors today was Steve Hamilton, a great Koi friend from way back. Steve founded the Piedmont Koi & Watergarden Society, a Charlotte, NC based Koi club in 1992. We reminisced about the many fun Koi road trips we’ve taken over the years,... beginning with the first to the MAKC Koi Show at Longwood Gardens back in 1994. In addition to sharing fish tales we netted up a few larger females just to look and enjoy, comparing body shapes and skin characteristics. I didn’t get any photos today because of the rain, but here are a few more from the week. I’ll have some more up over the weekend.
-- Edited by Lotus Land Koi Farm at 23:38, 2008-09-26
Long-time friend Tom Dimig and his son Patrick made the drive up from Columbia, SC to hang out and catch up. While the kids went out and tore up the farm on 4 wheelers and the pit bike, Tom and I pulled up a few fish that he’s been boarding here. This is a male Sanke that was born here in 2005. With his keen eye Tom purchased this fish when it was tosai. He’s also an expert bonsai trainer and artist,... which seems to spill over into his understanding of Koi.
This Sanke is an excellent example of how phenomenal male Koi can be. It slowly gets better every year.
Look closely at the sharpness and thickness of the beni, and the skin in the area close to the dorsal fin.
I’ll have more harvesting to do at the end of October,... more tosai, more nisai, and the big girls. I’ll get photos and video of those harvests up here as well.
-- Edited by Lotus Land Koi Farm at 00:14, 2008-09-30
