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For
most of my life I have been involved to some degree with koi and ponds. My parents started my obsession with koi by putting
in a small koi pond when I was just 6 years old. My husband Bill and I built our own koi pond approximately 13 years ago.
Like many other people, after we discovered everything we did wrong in building the pond, we joined a koi club to learn how
to make it right. Currently we belong to three clubs, Northwest Koi & Goldfish Club, Cascade Koi & Goldfish Club,
and Oregon Koi & Watergarden Society. I attended my first PNKCA Convention in 1995 and have been addicted ever since.
I have been a PNKCA Representative and AKCA Representative since 1995. I have enjoyed learning about koi health from many
generous and knowledgeable people in this wonderful hobby and hope to give something back to the hobby by helping others now
that I have graduated as a KHA (Koi Health Advisor). Several years ago I was also very fortunate to have been asked to be
part of the Koi USA Staff as Features Editor. I am really looking forward to serving on the PNKCA Executive Board as Chairman
with such fun and dedicated people as Gene, Raeleen, Anne and Phyllis.
Phyllis
and I started ponding when we moved to Idaho in 1996 after living in Mukilteo near the water. After we attended a pond tour,
we joined the Inland Empire Water Garden & Koi Society and have been active ever since. We are also members of the Puget
Sound Koi Club, the Northwest Koi & Goldfish Club and the Washington Koi & Water Garden Society. Our love of
koi became more of an obsession after two trips to Japan where we had the opportunity to meet some of the best koi breeders
in the business. Now we are finishing work on our third – and last – pond in Hayden Lake. I look forward to serving
with this great team of officers.
Michael
and I joined the Northwest Koi and Goldfish Club after attending the annual koi show at the Portland Forestry Center in 1998.
We started out with a small knee-high pond in the backyard and decided to keep a couple of koi. That is all it took to start
the "craze". We now have a bigger outside pond and are finishing up an indoor pond. I have been the treasurer for our club
for 2 1/2 years. We truly enjoy this hobby even though there are times we feel overwhelmed. The people we have met make it
all bearable.
I got into Koi keeping when I bought a house in what is now Sammamish, WA with a pond (very shallow
- 15 inches max). The previous owner told me that goldfish did well, but that koi wouldn't survive in this part of the
country. In all innocence I asked "What's a koi?" As it happened, the local garden center (Molbak's) was having a talk on
watergardening soon after I moved in, and it was there I met Ed Barnett. The next day I went to this new place that had just
opened called Moorehaven to see some real koi. And by chance Ed showed up there, too. The next year my pond was
deepened to 5 feet, gunite was blown in, and a filter system added. Then came the koi. With some minor changes the pond is
about as it was then - with all the associated learning curves refilters and diseases. And racoons. Such is life!
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