Clear Creek Fisheries

 

 

 

 

 

We added a few new koi to the pond this afternoon. We went to Clear Creek Fisheries and picked out three fish from their large indoor tanks. It's been a beautiful sunny day for a change and it's was fun to see the farm and the acres of ponds.

Clear Creek is an old family run business and sells mostly game fish for stocking large ponds, but they had a nice choice of koi today. The owners also have horses, ponies, goats, sheep and a herd of fallow deer. The small, sweet deer keep their spots as adults and have beautiful velvety antlers.

Our new koi are now home and seem very content in their new pond, happily swimming and eating with the group.

 

In the Garden. . .

This week in the garden. . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the lotus are starting to bloom in the koi pond

 

we have an adorable tiny turtle living in the small goldfish pond

 

the perennials are in full bloom

 

Jasper loves the morning sun!

 

Just for Fun

 

 

 

It seems I'm usually making and crafting for my Etsy shop, and sometimes gifts for others, but I don't very often make or sew for myself. But I made two plush koi fish just for me.

As I enjoy watching our koi and goldfish in our backyard pond, I can't help but admire the colorful spots and patterns. So I tried to duplicate the look by needle felting sweater wool to make soft plush koi pillows. I started with the orange koi with black spots and then made the "calico" koi, white with bright orange and black spots.
They now reside on the back of the family room sofa.

Happy Fish

 

 

All of our koi and goldfish are very happy in the new backyard pond. They have lots of room to swim and have all gotten much bigger in the extra space.
Some of the goldfish, the first inhabitants of the new pond, spawned when we first put them in the pond. Quite a few of the baby goldfish have survived and are about three inches long now!

After all of my husband's hard work on this project to dig, fill and landscape the pond, it's been so relaxing to sit and enjoy the beautiful fish enjoying their new home.

Pond Progress - Quick Weekend Update

My husband has been working on the new filter system for our smaller koi pond, and it's now up and running. We're very pleased with the results as this is a smaller version of the filter system he'll be building for the new koi pond.

He cut down a 55 gallon plastic storage drum, fitted it with pipes to go to and from the pond and filled the drum about 2/3 full of lava rock. The lava rock will be the filter medium.

 

He set the pump in a plastic bucket and weighted it with rocks so that it would stay in place on the bottom of the pond. Then he attached the fitting he created to the pipe that takes the water from the pond into the filter.

 

He added some basic furnace filters on top of the lava rocks for additional filtration and plugged in the pump. Water started flowing right away.

 

The filtered water then flows back into the pond.

This is what the water looked like when the filter system was first started. As you can see, it's a little green with algae and kind of murky.

 

But in just a little more than 24 hours, the water is clear and we can see the koi much more clearly.  We're thrilled with the filtering results and are anxious to get starting on the filter system for the new, big pond.

 

 

Click here to see a short video of the koi.

 

 

Pond Progress - Finally We Have a Pond!

We made great progress this weekend on our new backyard koi pond project. 

 

The ground has dried out from last week's rain and we were able to finish the side walls. 

 

Next we unfolded and fit the protective underlament for the pond liner.

 Then it was time for the big moment, actually laying in the pond liner.

It is very heavy, I believe the shipping box said 70 lbs. My husband and I were able to lay the folded liner into the pond and then he climbed in to unfold it. It's a thick, rubber-like material and since it's black, it got hot to the touch very quickly.

 

 The next big thing was to get one of the lotus plants out of our smaller koi pond and move it to the new pond.

So our first water plant is in place and we've added enough water to cover the lotus plant.

 

Still quite a bit to do:

build the filter system

run an electrical line from the house out to the pond to power the filter system

collect rocks to finish the edge of the pond

collect some native water lilies to go in the pond

Then, of course, move the fish from the smaller pond to their new home. . . I think they'll love it!

Pond Progress

Here's a quick progress update on our new backyard koi pond:

 

Due to some heavy rain over the past few days, work has come to a halt until everything outside dries out a little more.  

In these photos you can see the basic shape (14 feet by 14 feet) and depth (about 30 inches). The sides still need some work to level the soil around the rim and then we'll be ready to place in the pond lining.

More Pond Progress

 

Digging is in full swing for our new koi pond! It' supposed to be rainy and wet for the next week, so my husband worked really hard over the weekend to get as much done as he could. The basic shape and depth are complete. It's almost time for the liner to go in. Then it will seem like a real pond instead of just a giant hole in the backyard!