There's more to Koi Farming than meets the eye and it's not always easy to appreciate the amount of work that goes into not just constructing but also maintaining and improving our farm. Even we don't always remember just how much work we have done to get this far! So, in order to let you know the kind of work that goes on behind the scenes I thought I'd do a little update.

Over the last few weeks we have been very busy improving the farm and grading fish. Sounds pretty straightforward but to be exact we have:

Taken down an old barn which we have never used and aren't likely to, in order to improve access at the main gate.

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This involved ordering in lots of crushed concrete which was used to make good the ground where the barn had been and which was also used to repair and improve the surface of the farm driveway and the approach to the entrance.

The dig out from when the tosai house was built has been landscaped. (We had to hire a small digger and dumper for doing both this job and dismantling the old barn.) There is still some final compacting to be done on this ground before we seed it.

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New filtration system in the first polytunnel. We plan to replace all our original filters with this type of system. One of the big advantages of using this design for us is that not only does it work really well but it's much easier to maintain and takes up less space than the previous system which used settlement chambers.

All three buildings have been painted and we are waiting for the delivery of the final flashing to go along the top of the tosai house.

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Mark has made a channel for the Japanese style auction on 7th April.

Several small trees were blown down in the high winds and they all had to be cut up with a chain saw, logged and cleared away.

The grass has started growing and has already had two cuts!

All the nursery ponds and one growing on pond (all already drained) have been worked on to make sure they drain and dry completely.

We harvested 200 fish from No4 pond and will now be draining it down and catching any remaining fish left in it.

We have re-graded and re-sized every single tosai on the farm, both those we are growing on and those which are available for sale.

So, as you can see, we have been quite busy over the last few weeks!

Lisa