Organic Koi

At long last the cold east wind that has been spoiling what should have been lovely warm sunny days has gone. Spent the morning doing odd jobs and taking delivery of some used farm equipment from Siegfried who gave up farming a few years ago and has now sold the farmhouse and yard. One of the items a rear hitch spear will be useful for moving large rectangular straw & hay bales and he threw in a self made cage to attach to the front loader. I will enjoy putting Angie in it and heaving her up the side of the house wall to paint the upstair window frames!

Later finally got around to painting the metal frame of my tipper trailer with rust poofing, at least the parts that will be covered by the new floor I hope to put in tomorrow. Need the tipper to move the soil that will come when I dig out the new geese pond planned for one of the fields.

Late afternoon set off for Kumbach about half an hour away to look at something I was interested in. Nothing came of that but the meeting point was at a Koi farm. Turned out to be a lovely location, 9 lakes covering about 4 hectares, fed by natural springs filled with Koi and to my initial astonishment decorated with seveal living swans and ducks. Knowing that a Koi isn't quite in the same price category as my "Buy 10 get 12 for 9.99 Euros" goldfish, i thought the swans must be enjoying the most expensive fish food possible, probably more tan pure caviar. However I was assured the above and below water companions get on well together. I forgot to ask if Herons were a problem. 

In fact the owner of the farm, Andre, lives a few hundred kilometers away in northern Germany and our contact only started yesterday with a very pleasant phone call about his ad on ebay. I was shown the item by a neighbour who was acting for Andre, Michel a very friendly guy.

Even though the ebay sale didn't happen, I lapped up the evening sunshine, the trees starting to show their autumn colours reflecting on the water and with the swans gliding over the surface. Could have stayed there for hours sitting on the banks with Chris Rea croaking on the earphones but without an angling rod in my hands. Thanks Michel for giving up your evening and Andre, perhaps we will meet up one day.

Only after I got home did I discover the Website for the Koi farm. The "Bio" sign on the Blip had "irritated" me at the time - Bio = Organic and Koi, I couldn't make the connection. On reading through the info on the web (only in German) it became clear. In essence they raise the Koi here in natural ponds: no Miles and More points for these fish, no nicely heated tanks full of chemicals, lit by flourescent lighting to keep them alive. No, Simply natural water, mud, bugs, the odd whack from a swans foot and 24/7 living in the Bavarian environment, summer and winter. Find the idea excellent and if I was to have a Koi would now only ever buy one from such a farm. Congratulations Andre and team. Wish you all the very best. I do need to find out whether geese are as Koi friendly as swans. If so perhaps I should build the new pond somewhat bigger and deeper than planned.Sadly can't recommend the farm to the UK/USA Blipers as transport would go against the principals behind the Organic idea.

In the Extra photo you may just be able to make out some Kois in the shadow of the hut-