Speeding up the Spring

Anybody living in Kimberley knows what kind of Spring we've been having and how it is dragging out with respect to the melt. Once an area is exposed the surrounding snow goes rapidly but if there is any shade, especially during the afternoons, the melt is definitely slow. This week we decided that if we are trying for an April opening we should address those lingering snow areas. Spreading dark material is the one way to speed melting but since the snow is fairly deep in some areas we had to knock it down to a level we could work with. (see
http://kimberleygolfclub.blogspot.com/2009/11/snow-at-beginning-of-week-was.html for a bit of history re: snow removal from the fairways). The tractor was used to drag snow into the exposed areas in the rough.

Tractor dragging snow

We followed up by spreading a sand/organic mix over the remaining snow and sat back and hoped that the forecast was wrong and we would get some sun. However, this morning (Friday, April15) we arrived to work and found this:

The picture looks worse than it is but there was a couple inches. Not very much but what it does when it melts, obviously, is make everything wet again and adds to the further delay in getting equipment onto the course for clean up. Opening could still be next weekend but at this rate it is tough to commit and I promise we won't have all the clean up completed. Stay tuned.