blueberry farm visit

[dick benbow]

Been months since i talked about activities at the blueberry farm. Was there yesterday to measure koi from a growth contest and to do the last cull for the year on our shiro Utsuri babies and move them into the greenhouse.

One of our Shiro utsuri's from the previous year won the growth contest. Beautiful koi. Entered in the Puget Sound Koi show, it took first and that had to have slowed the growth done some. Fish's face had really whitened and was nice.

The babies were 3 1/2 inches and we saved about 100 of them. Looked like only one Gin Rin made the cut. We had 3-4 wannabee tancho showas in the mix and i would say about 2 wagoi shiro's looked to make the grade as worth hanging on to in the spring.

just a conversational thread here....so much focus/concern on SVC/KHV that might be fun to think elsewhere.

I'm hopeful in October we'll get a thread that asks who all is going to Japan for the drainage. It's a magical time and something every Koi Kichi should experience atleast once in their life...BUT it's like a certain named brand Potato Chip, hard to go with just one!

I hadn't checked my Passport in a while and found it had expired, so will have to get that taken care of next year as I'd like to go one more time maybe....
next year. But I have the drainage at Nisei Koi Farm this fall to keep me excited about the hobby.....

[jnorth]

Got any pics Dick? I'd be more then happy to post them for you. Hopefully I'll see you at the end of October in NJ.

[Danjols]

Dick, you mention fall harvests, one in Japan (actually many) and another @ Quality Koi. Greg, Judy, Sharon and I are going to both. Matsunosuke harvest is really something to behold, encourage all that love koi to make this trip, if not this year go in the future. Birthplace of our passion, takes you're breath away every time you visit.

Blueberry farm, this year that harvest (blue berries) was outstanding. Could not keep my hands out of the vat filled with those delicious blueberries. Noticed you had a mouthful of berries quite a few times during Puget Sounds young koi show this year.

You sound a bit like a coach when speaking of "making the cut" while culling. Looking forward to this Oct. 7th when you drop in for our fall review of those little guys in our pond from Toshio, we will have a local crowd on hand to watch and learn.

[dick benbow]

sorry Jim, just worked took no pictures, but appreciate your offer. Looking forward to seeing you at nisei....

Dan, it will be fun to see how toshio's tosai turn out....we have 7 koi to check out, 3 sanke and 4 showa, all personally hand selected my Toshio sakai. They break down into (for lack of better explaination) class A...AA...AAA and one honest to goodness dropdead georgeous true tategoi.

They were photoed and measured and copiuous notes made on what they looked like and what we anticipated in the changes. Weekend after next we'll re-photo, re-measure and see if any predictions were accurate.

The koi were kept in a new cement pond of giant proportions (close to 40.000) so I expect the growth to be good and the black to be furthur along than expected. Dan had a tosai from this same year class put out in the mud
in japan so we'll see how our cement pond compared with japan's mud pond.

This entire excercise is strictly for learning, with great respect and gratitude for the time and energy toshio ( the masterclass teacher ) put into hand selecting these koi knowing that we would learn and see culpable results.

as they say in broadcasting..."stay Tuned".....