[jnorth]

Below is an article I wrote for our clubs newsletter. I thought I'd share it with you all. You might laugh at first but trust me Turelle is a heck of a koi keeper and does an amazing job for his space and budget limitations.

The Little Pond That Could.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting members Turelle and Pam Holmes at their house in Manassas Va. Turelle had told me about his pond but seeing is believing. The title of this article is a little misleading. It really should be The Koi Keepers That Can. You see this pond is only 1200 gallons and usually has somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty koi in it. When I say thirty koi I don’t mean thirty 5 inch koi. They range from 8” to 24”. Don’t try that at home folks! For the past several years Turelle and Pam have won numerous awards with their koi. This includes multiple All Around wins at the annual MAKC shows, several best in variety for their stunning shiro bekko and numerous other awards including several at our last show. This kind of track record flies in the face of the traditional koi thinking of bigger is better...or does it? The fact is Turelle and Pam's level of dedication to the hobby is enormous. They have shown over and over that it doesn’t take a big pond with big money and expensive koi to compete and win at koi shows. What it takes is big dedication backed by solid husbandry skills. The photos speak for themselves so I’ll let them do the rest of the talking.