Apri l HappeningsWhat a glor ious Apr i l ! Pond temperatures are back up, the f ish

are feeding l ike there’s no tomorrow and the algaehasn’t been much of a problem.

We’re preparing for a busy month. The Apri l speaker wil l beSteve Iwaki, a master bonsai art ist . Steve wi l l talk about bonsaias both an art and a science.

The Cupert ino Cherry Blossom Fest ival i s upon us again. This i salways a fun event with lots of booth vis i tors and a very popularkoi display. I t ’s also a very important feeder event to attract v is i -tors to the Pond Tour in July. The date/t ime is Saturday Apri l 25and Sunday Apri l 26, both days f rom 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM .

A year ago, Mike Perret organized a sanke and showa tosaigrow-out contest . Twenty-two club members purchased a totalof 39 f i sh and picked them up in ear ly May 2008. Here we are ayear later and i t’s t ime to pick the winners . This wi l l be done bytaking photos of our f i sh and br inging them to the May Clubmeeting. Mamoru Kodama of Kodama Koi Farm wil l be thejudge. We’re extremely fortunate to have such a dist inguishedkoi expert to evaluate the entr ies. Rules and procedures forjudging day wi l l be emai led separately to the part icipants.

We owe many big thanks to Terry Denevan for tackl ing the jobof producing the monthly “Meet Our Members” page. Terry’sphotographic sk i l l s and easy-going sty le of wr i t ing helps us getto know our member-f r iends in a most enjoyable way. Our col-lect ive hats are off to you, Terry.

I f any of you have an incl inat ion to volunteer as a subject for afuture Meet Our Members story, please contact Terry at 408-279-4567 or by email at tcdenevan@comcast.net.

I f ind club membership to be a very sat is fy ing exper ience. Cyn-thia and I began our membership hoping to learn about ponds.We quickly learned to appreciate that we had joined a verybenevolent and fr iendly community of people who just hap-pened to have ponds as their common bond. And, yes, welearned a lot about ponds along the way. Our aim is to preservethe community spi r i t of the Club and enhance it wherever poss i -ble.

The remodeled Club web si te is up and operating and we inviteyou to check i t out at www.sckoi.com As always, al l suggest ions,comments, etc. are welcomed and appreciated.

Larry Templeton

APRIL 2009

CLUB ORGANIZATION

President open

Vice President open

Secretary open

TreasurerJulaine Mullaney

(408) 266-1791

Board of Directors

Terry Denevan

Cal Hansen

Eduardo Massa

Ken Snarr

Larry Templeton

Meeting CoordinatorTerry Denevan

(408) 279-4567

email, newsletterLarry Templeton

(650) 948-7460

Web site master Larry Templeton

Audio visual Larry Templeton

Pond Tour, Holiday

partyRita Hughes

(408) 227-4388

Dealer RelationsCal Hansen

(408) 394-4642

SpeakersBill Mundy

open

Librarian Cal Hansen

Club Reporter open

Membership open

RefreshmentsMarifran & Bill Mundy

(408) 297-3741

Club equipmentKen Snarr

(650) 969-0715

Koi Health AdvisorSanjiv Kapoor

(408) 223-8776

AKCA Representative Larry Templeton

Art Director open

Emergency Pond

Services

Mike Perret

(408) 226-7802

Ken Snarr

Meeting notesCharity Lloyd

(408) 971-2797

Meetings & EventsMonthly Club Meetings – 7:30pmThe third Friday of each month.American Legion Hall, 1504 Min-nesota Ave, San Jose

April General Meeting

Friday, April 17, 7:30pm

Speaker: Steve Iwaki will speakto us on the art and science ofBonsai. Steve is a master bonsaiartist, teacher and president ofthe Sei Boku Bonsai Kai club.

Pond Q&A as usual

Refreshments by Marifran & BillMundy. We all look foward totheir special intermission goodies.

Attendance drawing prizeDave White’s name was drawnbut he wasn’t present to collect.The April prize will be $110.

Board of Directors MeetingThe board meeting will be heldimmediately following the regu-lar monthly general meeting atabout 9 PM. All Members arewelcome and encouraged to at-tend.

Club ActivitiesOur Club provides a wide vari-ety of experiences, some to helppeople learn about designing,building and maintaining Koiand ponds, some to bring innew members, and some for justplain social enjoyment. For ex-ample:

• Monthly meetings with speak-ers, Q&A and refreshments

• Annual Pond Tour

• Pond Socials in the summer

• Holiday party

• A library of pond-relatedvideos

• Representation with the Associ-ated Koi Clubs of America

• Booths at events such as theCherry Blossom Festival andseveral Home & Garden Shows.

Many of these activities are ef-fective at bringing in new mem-bers, which is essential for thecontinuing existence of the

Koi Growth RatesThe innocent question was, “Howlong should our fish be?” This ledto an hour-long cruise on the in-ternet. The answer, of course,was, “It all depends”. Which itdoes, of course, on breed, age,tank size, environmental condi-tions, feeding schedule, waterquality and more.

There was lots of info availableand it was interesting. More onthat another month. But, here’s atable with averages for length,weight and feeding requirementsas a function of age. Feedingquantities would be more in mid-summer and way less in winter.

There. That should start a few ar-guments

age length weight feeding

years inches lbs oz/day

1 9.2 0.5 0.1

2 15.6 2.3 0.5

3 20.1 5.0 1.2

4 23.4 7.8 1.9

5 25.7 10.3 2.5

March General Monthly MeetingQ&A

A guest brought up the problems he was havingmaintaining a shallow Aquascape pond. Theywere quite typical including pump failures, preda-tor incursion, inadequate filtration and excessivefilter servicing.

Speaker - Dan Rutledge

Dan Rutledge gave a most informative and well il-lustrated talk on the differences between koiponds, watergardens and hybrid ponds. Hetouched on many subjects including pond design,plumbing, drainage and filtration, liners, rockplacement and maintenance issues. Dan showedmany examples of beautiful ponds and watergar-dens that he has designed and built, ranging insize from very small to very large.

March Board of Directors MeetingRita Hughes spoke about our planning for theCherry Blossom festival, the Pond Tour and futurehome shows/festivals. Signup sheets for booth dutyfor the CBF are full but we still need volunteers to

assist with the setup and teardown.

We need to start thinking about which events wewant to participate in next year.

We are just beginning the planning for the PondTour. Rita Hughes will lead the planning and organ-izing team. Ken Snarr is selecting ponds.We need avolunteer to handle publicity for the Pond Tour.

Larry Templeton volunteered to prepare the mapand information booklet.

We will begin emailing the newsletter to all of ourvendor/advertizers. We will also print extra copiesof Splash to distribute to vendors.

The Club info cards have been printed and CalHansen will begin placing them at koi-associatedbusinesses throughout the valley.

Future SpeakersAprilIn April, bonsai artist Steve Iwaki will speak on theart of Bonsai and his approach to growing beauti-ful Bonsai plants.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Steve is the son of aJapanese gardener who also has a passion for theart of bonsai. Steve learned from his father thekeen sense for creating unique landscapes byshaping the plants with an asian influence.

Steve is a member and president of the Sei BokuBonsai Kai, club founded 25 years ago in SanMateo. He shares and teaches his knowledge ofbonsai with his fellow members and is involved withthe Golden State Bonsai Federation.

We thank Charity Lloyd for making the arrange-ments with Steve.

MayIn May, we will have two most distinguished speak-ers. Mamoru Kodama is the President of KodamaKoi Farm, Inc. and a Director of Miyoshiike Co., Ltd,the parent company. The Kodama Koi company isone of the most respected and prestigious Koidealers in the world and operates Koi grow-outfarms in Menifee, California and Mililani, Hawaii. Hewill be accompanied by his son Taro Kodama whois Manager of the International Service Depart-ment.

Mamoru-san is renowned in the industry for his abili-ties and accomplishments in selecting and growingchampion Koi. He authored two books on selectingchampion Koi that are considered bibles in thefield.

The Hawaii farm is one of the largest in the world. Ithas fifty 5,000 gallon quarantine tanks and seventy37,500 gallon grow-out tanks.

The Kodamas will speak at our regular Fridayevening general meeting on May 15 and on Satur-day, May 16, will be hosted by the Club on a pri-vate tour of 5 local ponds. Following the tour, Larry& Cynthia Templeton will host the Kodamas at theClub’s May Pond Social. All members are encour-aged to come and enjoy a very special afternoonwith the Kodamas.

JuneOur June speaker will be Anthony Quintero, theowner and operator of Koi Enterprises in Sacra-mento. Again, we owe Charity Lloyd a big thankyou for making the arrangements.

August and beyondTBD. If you have an idea, please email us atSCVKWG@gmail.com

Meet Our Members........................................... Bill & Joan Stoye

Inviting! The pond and water garden of Bill andJoan Stoye seems to say, come closer, stayawhile. The pond is nestled along the walkway totheir front door and measures twenty-eight byseven feet. Their beautiful pond is two feet deepand holds about three thousand gallons of water.It is the home of one hundred and twenty-sevenhealthy and colorful gold fish and is attractivelyfenced in where their front yard once grew.Keeping an eye on all those fish are two robust,red-eared slider turtles—Gretchen and Gertrude.

The Stoyes have lived at the same Campbell ad-dress for thirty-seven years. In addition to enjoyingthe fish pond and water garden, Bill belongs tothe Traditional Small Craft Association. Heowns a sixteen foot sailboat and enjoysboat restoration. Bill is also a member ofthe West Valley Masterworks Chorale. OnJune 29th the group will perform atCarnegie Hall in New York City, “All activi-ties that keep me out of trouble.”

For thirty-six years Bill worked as a me-chanic for United Airlines. During the pastnine, Joan has been a receptionist at theSaratoga Senior Center, work she thor-oughly enjoys.

Bill finds his pond and water garden phys-ically rewarding and mentally challeng-ing. “I built the pond because I wasnaive. My fish and turtles are fascinating; Idon’t enjoy work, but thoroughly enjoythe necessary effort.”

When asked about challenges, Bill says, “It can take me three tries toget it right, but I have never had a problem that I couldn’t workaround. Belonging to the Santa Clara Valley Koi and Water GardenClub has made solving pond problems much easier.”

Joan repeatedly noted, “The peace, quiet and serene atmosphere thepond experience provides each day makes all the effort worth while.”

During the interview, I watched Bill hand feed, as well as pet, several ofhis brightly colored fish. I was fascinated as I watched the many goldfish follow Bill as he walked back and forth along his water gardenwalkway.

“A pleasant serendipity for both of us,” says Bill, “has been the social re-lated aspects of the pond. It’s a big draw of neighbors and their grandchil-dren. While we have lived most of our lives in a mature and establishedneighborhood, we knew few people. An unexpected consequence of ourproject; the pond has brought the neighborhood together.”

photos and story by Terry Denevan

Treasurer’s ReportThe club remains in good shape finan-cially. As usual, most of our income isfrom the pond tour and memberships.Both income streams are predominatelyin July. The rest of the year, it’s mostlyoutgo, and that mostly for rent on themeeting hall and printing and mailing ex-penses for the newsletter.

March 9, 2009 through April 9,2009Opening balance $5,880.57Deposits 0.00Outstanding checks -42.00Expenses -516.47Closing balance $5,322.10

In addition, the Club owns a CD with avalue of $12,572.76 as of 1/5/2009. TheCD was renewed on 2/5/09 for a periodof 1 year at an interest rate of 2%. Thenext renewal date is 2/5/10

As always, our appreciation goes toJulaine Mullaney for all the hard work sheputs in as Club Treasurer. Her reports arealways accurate and easy tounderstand.

AdvertisingRates are for 11 issues (one year). All ads appear in both thenewsletter and on our web site!

Business card $35.00 Half page $175.00Quarter page $95.00 Full page $325.00

If you place an ad in mid-year, your cost for that year will beprorated based on the number of months remaining until July1. To place an ad, please send ad copy (.pdf or .jpg file orhigh quality printed form) to the email or snail mail addressbelow and we’ll send you a bill.

MembershipMembership dues are $30.00 per year, payable on July 1. Ifyou join in mid-year, your dues for the that year will be pro-rated at the rate of $2.50 per month to the next July 1 and$30.00 per year thereafter. To join, send your personal info(name, address, phone no. and email address) either byemail or snail mail to one of the addresses shown below.

Contact UsFor details on either ads or membership, please email:scvkwg@gmail.com or come to one of our meetings. The lat-ter is certainly preferred as we’d like to get to know you!

To contact us by mail, our address is:

SCVKWG

P.O. Box 9006

San Jose, CA 95157