2006 Fall Harvest Koi Arrive

[Danjols]

Last evening we enjoyed Christmas in April with our new arrivals straight from Japan. The koi pictured are now in our 3,800 gallon QT pond inside our pond room. We picked them up at our local airport in Spokane, were settled in by midnightThursday, picture was taken at 7:30 am Friday morning.

Thank you Russ for helping out with shipping & import, Sharon, Judy and Greg really had fun checking them out as we inspected them prior to introducing to fresh QT pond water. We will keep them in this facililty up to 6 weeks running through heat cycle testing along with any other observations we deem needs help.

Enjoy the picture,

Dan, Sharon, Greg & Judy

[dick benbow]

It's always fun to see new fish and i can see that "santa" AKA Toshio was very good to you! Bout time you got some good help with the shipment!

Also it was good to see besides the future new contenders for GC that you actually broke down and got a doutsu and shiro and yamabuki. Your image of strictly Gosanke is beginning to crack a bit.That said I see some awsome sanke and showa in the pipeline.

thanks for posting

[KoiCop]

Thanks for sharing the photo.

Beautiful fish; beautiful QT.

[koiczar]

Hi Dan

Glad to see the shipment arrived and in good health. All look to be settling in to their new temp home. Say hi to Sharon for me.

Mike

[MikeM]

Quite a collection to get in one shipment! Congrats!

[Russell Peters]

Hi Dan and Sharon,

I am really glad to see that they arrived safely. I haven't heard from Sue so I am assuming her Koi arrived safely as well.

Looks like you got my two step.LOL

[Bob Winkler]

purty!!!

[Danjols]

Friends in Koi,

Dick-Greg and Judy own that great looking Yamabuki, in October she was just over 12 inches and now six months later measures 20 inches. They also picked up the Doitsu along with one of the new style Showa, Inky-Inky Sumi (sounds like the title to a Country Western song). I might mention, these were all part of the Grand Fall Harvest celebration after a wonderful banquet hosted by the Sakai family the evening before and after Saturday's havest activities.

Don- thank you for mentioning our QT facility. It did not take me long (5 yrs in the hobby) to understand how important a facility like this can be. We are able to control conditions (water quality, temp, medication,etc.) easily plus 24/7 observation with our inside QT. The purpose of the size, long extended periods of time are sometimes required in helping out koi health issues. This last winter we kept a few of our special koi inside to heal-up a few dings and such, really helped out. If I were to do it over, the first body of water I would build, you guessed it, a top notch QT facility.

Mike (KOIZAR)-In the past we have imported into SEATAC, direct flight from Japan. Only thing, a bit expensive compared to shipping into SAN FRAN airport. This year Russ said he would help us out by bringing them in with some of his koi shipment. Once we figured out the koi would not have to be un-boxed but simply put on another flight from Oakland (thanks to Russ's help) direct to Spokane (non-stop) we decided to go this direction (first time). Very happy to say, the koi arrived in great shape, there really has been some advancements with shipping from Japan allowing more time in a bag the a few years ago.

Mike-Sharon and I have been upgrading our koi collection for about six years in a row now. We thin out, (sell or give away) koi every year in order to make room for the new ones. Some of the koi pictured are Greg and Judy's (their first trip to Japan) and they have upgraded their pond to a point the new arrivals will have a great home.

Russ-talked with Sue, she is extremely happy and thank you very much for helping with her shipment. She now has 100 brand new high class Gosanke to sell from her establishment in Tacoma, WA. Oh what a wonderful hobby this is, Koi Kichi helping Koi Kichi, can't get any better than that!!!! The two step will visit Portland's Koi Show this year, give you a chance to see her again!

Bob-wish you could drop in one of these days and look at all the "Purties". Sharon says howdy as well, looking forward to the next time we run into one another!

I have attached a few more photo showing us enjoying Christmas in April.

Enjoy

[dick benbow]

Should be a great weekend for lots of folks. You guys with your new fish, Russ's customers with something new to oogle. I'm planning a visit to see Sue's new fish on sunday after the sukiyaki lunch at the Buddist temple in town. I want to see if what i learned at the seminar will come in handy accessing the new koi from toshio.

Brought into the hose my wife's favorite Bonsai, a lilac in bloom and fragrant
to sit in out tokonoma with a 100 year old japanese scroll of blooming peoney. used a kusamono of native violets in bloom. Looks like spring!!!!

This morning I'm off to a bonsai nursery near Mt Rainier (volcano) to look for
my favorite subjects----quince!

Well Dan, I should have quessed that all that non gosanke stuff wasn't yours....I just had hopes

[Russell Peters]

Hey, it is ONLY six months to the 2007 harvest.