Pulling the River Pumps

It took months but we finally got the last job from summer competed.  The wear the pump shafts saw over the last couple seasons required us to remove the pumps and send them away to be refurbished.

Removing Access Hatch

Pulling First Pump Through Roof

Both Pumps Loaded for Repair

The unknown is the cost.  Last time out it cost $10 000 for both.  Until they get the pumps apart and look at the wear the actual cost is hard to say.  Guaranteed it will not be less.  To compliment the maintenance work we completed this fall at the river intake we are looking at ways to mitigate the wear the pumps experience during run off.   One idea is installing a screen sized for the material suspended in the water during run off that is the entire length of the pump (i.e. from the blue pedestal all the way to the bottom bowl).  It's more involved than I'm letting on but the catch with that one is you have to be able to clean it.  Not impossible for us but not that easy either (go here for a reminder?).  The other option is a well but to meet our demands that could cost in the ten's of thousands.  I pretty sure this year will be an exploratory year since grand expenditures aren't really in the cards.

Man, I Hate November....

If there was one month I could do without it would be November.  No golf, no skiing, grey skies and sucky weather.  The last 7 to10 days have seen conditions change from snow and winter to open turf, slush and ice because of rain and then back to winter.  I can now say removing the snow from select greens earlier on was the right choice, especially since the surfaces were covered with a nice snow layer soon afterward.  I left some of the slushy snow on one section on 9 green and watched what happened to the snow conditions and observed that if I had left the wet layer of snow on those greens I'm pretty sure we would've had the beginnings of an ice layer.

Layers on 9 Green

I didn't get to pat myself on the back for long because the weather went funky again and we got rain and mild temperatures and we were right back into another tough spot 7 days later.  This time I did not remove the snow mostly because of the amount and the wet weather.  There was enough snow and so much moisture in the snow that the blowers would not have been able to throw it far enough without us having to double handle it.  Further, once you start to blow snow that wet you have to get it off because it is guaranteed to form ice.  Anyways, the hope was for mild temperatures for a few days and maybe even rain like we had earlier on to get the snow to a more manageable level.  No luck.

Multi layers #11 Green

Now we have 7 cm fresh snow over about 3 cm "tight" corn snow over very thin ice on those greens we did not blow the first time out.  The greens we cleaned have about 6cm snow over 2 cm tight corn snow layer.  All surfaces are unfrozen and if we get a good cover before the temperature really drops that could help keep that corn layer from getting more ice like.  

All bets are off....

As alluded to in the last post, this time of year is tricky.  Early in the week the weather forced my hand and I had to make a choice.  The rain and the "warmish" weather did a number on the snow cover on the certain greens.

2 Green,  November 19th

The greens on the front that can be difficult are covered with impermeable tarps and look like this:

1 Green Tarp

For both these situations there was not enough cover to worry about ice formation but only because the ground is not frozen.  In this situation, however:

4 Green

I was slightly more concerned.  Ice could become a problem if the temperature dropped significantly so we blew the snow off of #4, #5, #10, #18, and #8 greens with the hope of "managing" ice formation (the upper putting green, 2, and 3 greens basically melted while 1, 6, 7 and 9 all had some sort of tarp on their surface).  As I've mentioned, blowing snow opens surfaces up to the potential of freezing so it is sort of a risk but the quantity of moisture in the snow pack (wet slush) for those greens forced me to make a decision. Luckily, those greens only remained exposed for a couple days and never froze.  We now have close to 4" of snow on the front greens and no sign of any ice on the greens we cleared.

The back greens (other than 10, 18 and 17) had more snow so I decided not to blow those greens.  To be honest, we really did not have enough time to clean them anyways.  I went out today and looked and saw 4" fresh snow over a plate glass layer of ice over an inch of corn snow over unfrozen ground.  That says to me leaving those greens may have been O.K. but it is early and my crystal ball doesn't look any farther ahead than to my next meal so, like I said, "All bets are off".

The Death Zone.....

I sometimes equate November with that point you here about on Everest called "the death zone" or "the point of no return" or some other euphemism that has foreboding overtones.  Now is that time just before winter when the weather can do funky stuff and you can be forced into making snap decisions that you're stuck with for the rest of the winter based on nothing more than your spidey-sense. 

Right now we are in good shape with all greens having a little snow cover and none of the surfaces frozen. 


4 Green With About 1.5" Snow Cover

15 Green With Thin Ice Layer Over Tarp

Why an unfrozen surface is good this time out is because of how little snow cover we have and the potential for rain in the forecast.  Do we take all the cover off to limit the formation of ice or do we leave it and hope for enough rain to melt all the snow or do we leave it and hope that because of our elevation we get snow and not rain? At this point the temperature is suppose increase so along as the over night lows stay above zero it won't take long for the snow to melt, especially if it rains.  If we lose our cover we are back into the possibility of the ground freezing and all the problems that inadequate snow cover can bring.  Then again none of this may happen but I like keeping a record of what I think in these situations and look back and criticize my choices.

Winter Preparations

Just a post summing up where I am with respect to being ready for winter.  This past week I applied the last treatment to the greens and finished the fairways as well as installed all the posts for the fencing around select greens.  Generally speaking the greens are entering the winter in good condition with #7 being the worst since it never really grew out the fall disease and seems to have developed more over the past few weeks.  Since the last spray was completed we will now put up fences (too late for some greens) and start in on tarping.
A refresher on tarps is here if you are so inclined otherwise read on.  The two impermeables are out and ready to be deployed but I'm waiting for more winter like weather.  The semi-permeables are on #1, #6, #7, #9 and #12.  I threw 9 and 12 into the mix because of how they overwintered this past year and the hope is the extra coverage may help limit damage if they become exposed or if ice develops (I've had some success removing ice from the semi-permeables quicker than from a greens surface in the past).
Tarps aren't my favorite because they introduce another variable in the overwintering of greens which can be negative.  You heard me talk of anoxia (low oxygen) in regards to both ice and tarps. Obviously, if there is thick ice tarps help remove the ice but don't do anything in the case of anoxia which can occur because of ice or because of impermeable tarps - go here for a history.  Anoxia is sort of hit and miss when it comes to tarps, and luckily we've been in a mostly miss situation.  However, this year I am experimenting with a product that could help.

Enkamat

Enkamat is really an erosion control mat but it is also being marketed as "a three-dimensional lofty matrix that provides a protective layer over vulnerable turf. Enkamat prevents the formation of an ice layer over greens that can seal turf, and prevent gas and oxygen exchange that is vital to turf health".  I plan to use the "lofty matrix" trait to provide an air layer under a section of the impermeable tarp on 7 green.  I'll be comparing it with our usual covering system on 7 green (green covered with semi-perm. covered with imperm.) along with just the impermeable directly on the surface.  That all sounds awkward so take a look:

Layout of Tarps Under Impermeable

I will cover this whole mish-mash with the impermeable and see if the Enkamat is benefit or no different than what we normally do.  I also plan to lay the mat on back of 9 green surface by itself where ice has been a problem to see what the product can do if ice again develops there.  Further, I will put a strip on top of the tarp on 15 green where we always get ice no matter what and see if, when the time comes, does the mat speed the ice removal or not.  One more thing I plan to do is cover the entire top end of the new putting green that was hammered this spring to see what will happen....which can't be much worse that what happened this spring!

Finally, A Solution For Our Greens....

The past 10 days have been sort of a waiting game since I've needed the snow to melt so I can finish spraying fairways.  We've managed to keep ourselves busy with reel grinding, fencing, clean-up and record keeping. 

I again came across an article that is worth reading (go here).  It seems I am always having to explain why our greens are what they are.  The solution for our greens is in this article.  The one page article makes a case for regrassing Poa annua greens (our greens) to a newer cultivar of bentgrass.  The first half relays the exact same information I always babble on about but never really seems to be absorbed by the "better golfers". 

Unfortunately, aside from our "no money" situation, a regrassing project at KGC would be a tough go.  At the very least none, not one, of our greens is built to the famed USGA specifications regarding root zone and drainage which were created to aid in the successful establishment and maintenance of bentgrass greens (that statement makes a fairly bold implication because more than a few greens in the world have been built without completely following USGA specs, but it would tough to argue against the benefits of growing grass on USGA root zone versus a bastardized version of the specs). 

I've kinda ignored the topic of poa versus bentgrass since I thought the information was mostly covered but it seems that this is a topic that needs constant attention (I have recently acquired a ton of respect for school teachers.  To maintain motivation teaching the same curriculum each year is an amazing skill.  At least with teachers they have new group of kids every year.  In my situation, it seems to be the same topic to same kids over and over and over again.)  I will keep up with this topic and hopefully the word will get out there and players can appreciate each golf course for what it can offer and worry less about comparisons.....what a dreamer.

Bummer.....

October 23, 10 cm

Well not really but still it could have waited until the end of the week.  It's early so I bet it will be gone before you know it since seasonal norms are with lows of -2 and highs of +10.  I guess the good news it all the greens have the spray they needed before the snow.  I got one more in my back pocket depending on weather.  The bad news is not all the fairways were sprayed (still have to do 1, 6 and 10) but I am going to bet this isn't staying.  Work wise I am still trying to get stuff cleaned up.  I now know I cannot operate with less than 3 people for shutdown there is too much that has to be done at the same time.  There will be things not getting done this year unless we have a protracted fall with no snow.  Not much else to dicuss but as always I'll keep things updated.

Fall Greens Aeration

This week had us bring in accessories from the course and start to get ready for the winter.  We did some fall treatments but the weather is not great (lots of rain in forecast and 1" of rain on Friday night!) so I am trying to hold off but as we get closer to November and the colder the temperature gets I may have no choice but to spray and hope the rain stops.

We completed aerating all greens on Friday with the Verti-Drain as is the tradition.  One thing I do in the fall as a pre-aeration survey is go to each green and pull a plug to see what kind of roots we finished off with.  As is always the case this is a huge disappoint but it can also be helpful.

2 Green

5 Green

I think I've said it before, but showing pictures of your roots is sort of like posting pictures of yourself in your underwear; i.e. no more secrets, its out there for all to see.  In my case I think it could be used for good instead of humiliation.  As you can see we have greens with roots barely over one inch and others with more than four inches.  A bulk of them fall into the 2 to 3 inch range.  I am going to reference the rooting situation in later posts, especially as it relates to making maintenance decision in the summer but for this time out the I want to explaining the importance of root depth and how it impacts the greens aeration in the fall.

Père Noël on the Verti-Drain

Short lesson:  aeration from a Verti-Drain (in the manner we did this fall) is more for compaction relief, especially at depths greater than a more traditional aeration.

Pre Aeration Depth

Post Aeration Depth

The tine in the preceding pictures is 10" long and in the first picture I can only push it in about 4" but after aeration the soil has been loosened enough that the tine easily penetrates to a depth of 8".  Notice that the tine is in between the holes.  This shows the real benefit of this type of aeration in loosening the entire soil profile and not just the area where the tine leaves a hole.  Anyways, the importance of knowing the condition of the root zone before aeration helps when we decide what depth to aerate and whether or not to add "kick" (this aerator can be set to give a little "oomph" at the bottom of its stroke to further loosen the soil).  We've found out the hard way the greens with shallow roots really don't like a deep Verti-Drain aeration and really don't like kick.  Greens like 2, 7, and 12 were the worst this fall so instead of a deep tine we went traditional and pulled a core with the hopes of increasing roots mass since, for these greens, relieving compaction past the rooting depth of one inch seems silly.  There is lots more to discuss here but maybe later.

October 20th Divot Party

I often kid with my mom about this being God's country (especially when compared to Edmonton!) but when you get days like this I sometimes think somebody upstairs is watching out for good ol' KGC.  The forecast for today was not very nice but for the all the people who came to fill divots the sun came out and it was a nice afternoon.  Once people were done it clouded over and little snow squalls blew through.  Timing couldn't have been better.  Just around 20 to 25 people generously took a few hours out of their day and filled divots on tees and fairways.  My staff never does fairway divots and since the middle of September I haven't had the usual divot master out doing his thing so it was great to get caught up on the tees plus the bonus of filling fairway divots in one afternoon.  I know we're not doing any earth shattering work but a nice turn out of volunteers like today always make me think people appreciate the golf course and are interested in keeping it in good condition at all times for all players.

Week of October 14th Update

We've been the usual "fall busy" since the last post with continued fairway aeration, irrigation winterization, and fungicide applications.  I've pretty much cover all these subjects in previous posts (irrigation winterization, fairway aeration, fungicide applications) in the past and, except for particular references to conditions at the time of the post, they contain relevant information so take a look if you're so inclined.

All the staff is finished for the year so it will be up to myself and the mechanic to get the course to bed on top of all our particular tasks we need to complete each fall.  Should be interesting.

The rain is pretty nice since some of the greens were starting to show moisture stress and I was thinking I would have to break out the water tank.  The prairie kid in me always wants to make sure the turf has plenty of water since exposed turf (especially with frozen ground) is prone to damage from desiccation (basically the drying or dehydration of tissue) but overtime I realize the the fall season in the Kootenays tend to be wet so I've tried to break the habit.  With this years late season irrigation troubles and the dry fall I was starting to panic but it seems to be working out.

Not much to discuss otherwise but I'll try to keep you update on things, especially if something unique pops up.

Outta Water: Update #7

Good news for a change.  We were finally able to reconstruct the infiltration gallery which allowed us to get down and dirty and try to bring water to the intake.  Previous to this we had to direct any flow away to make sure we did not deposit any silt down stream and affect the aquatic environment.

Excavator Placing Rocks

Completed Intake

Once the excavator was finished we went to town to increase the flow to the intake.  Day one was not overly successful since we were still unable to operate the pumps for any length of time despite moving rocks to direct the flow at the intake.

River Flow: Day1

Next day we went at it again with rakes to deepen the channel to increase the flow velocity. We also began constructing a weir out in the main river channel to try to direct more flow down our channel.  Those two tasks gave enough water for us to operate one pump (so far it has been running since 2:15 p.m. on Thursday).

Man Made Weir

Good Flow to Intake

Depending on the flow in the main channel we may have to go and extend the weir but it is nice to see at least on pump operate for over 12 hours.  Traditionally, any time we are able to get flow it only lasts for a couple days since, depending on weather, the flow in the river continues to drop.  When that happens we will extend the weir further into the main channel and, hopefully, fill the reservoir before I have to winterize the irrigation and transfer systems.

I never found my camera so I used bottle money to buy a new one - don't tell anyone on the finance committee!  I chose one that is somewhat shock resistant and water resistant.  At the end of yesterday I was saw the Kokanee doing their thing so I took a picture:

Under Water Fish Picture

October 1st and Time To Panic

What a farce.  The past month monkeying with the river has been a complete disaster.  I was concerned with government delays but instead it has been everything else that has dragged out the process.  Contractors, pumper trucks, and deliveries all seemed to conspire against us but really it was just a series of poorly timed events that includes the continuation of summer that have delayed the projects completion.

Everyday I go and see more areas succumbing to heat stress brought on by the lack of water and it is finally worrying me. As the season progresses to mid-fall and the days get shorter and colder the opportunity turf will have to green up and store carbs before the ground freezes are all but disappearing.  I am concerned with the wear on areas from traffic that are no longer growing.  There is no way they had sufficient time to prepare for a hard winter and I don't see how those areas will recover next year to the same condition they were in early on.

When we spray fungicide it has a systemic component that has to taken up by a living grass plant in order to work at its best.  That will not happen on any area that has already gone brown and dormant.  I guess if you had to put a positive spin on it you could say that disease also needs a live plant to wreak its havoc so why worry?  You worry because if we have a hard winter (cold, no cover) the turf will get hammered from low temperature kill because it did not have time in the fall to prepare for winter.  You worry because if we get big snow over unfrozen ground turf will get hammered during spring melt when disease is active and because the fungicide that was applied in the fall was not taken up. You worry because if we get any sort of thaw or rain event that forms ice the turf will not have the reserves to cope and it will get hammered that way.

Granted most the areas are fairways, rough, and some tees but so much can happen over winter that it really pisses me off to know we are already behind the 8 ball for next spring and winter hasn't even started!  Hopefully, this is one of those things I've overestimated.

Outta Water: Update #6

Needles, bark, dead mice, and the odd dead rat is what greeted us as we mucked through the goop at the bottom of the wet well.  For someone who is claustrophobic and can't swim I feel like I met my phobias head on over the last couple days.  We were never able to completely stop the flow but slowed it enough that our small trash pump could keep the water from getting too high.

Exterior Wet Well Plug

Plug Installed

Looking Down the Interior Wet Well

As suspected, there was over 2 feet of goo in the bottom.  We brought in a vacuum truck and few hours later we had pretty much cleaned out the well.

Vacuum Truck

Goo

It is not cheap but mucking it out by hand would easily of taken a full day.  After getting the barrels clean we were able to see the conduit from inside the interior wet well and observed it was indeed plugged with more slop.  High pressure water created a slurry that was vacuumed up and we were able to unclog the conduit,

Looking Through Conduit From Inside Wet Well

A little more time working the fire hose (water supplied by using portable pump sucking from the river) and we were able to completely clean out the conduit.  So now we are all cleaned up and should be ready to pump water, however:

Intake

there is no water at the intake.  The river is so low the pumps have nothing to pump.  I still have to figure that one out.

If This Keeps Up I Should Be Able To Pick The Winning LottoMax...

O.K. maybe I am not that prophetic but another article this week from the USGA definitely indicates what I've been whining about in slightly more concise terms.  Go here to read an one page article that not only reiterates some of my concerns but also indicates that the conditions KGC is experiencing are not very unique when it comes to making decision about maintenance practice in difficult financial times.

Outta' Water: Update #5 - amended

(Oops! A little bit of funky math and poor writing in the original post) Quick comment on progress, such as it is.  The city was able to hook us up to the fire hydrant below 12 tee.  Water will cost $1.18/1000L and we are going to need close to 4 000 000 litres (close to a million gallons).  River wise we did a dry run to test the plug and it worked.  Now we need to get a vacuum truck back in and clean out the interior wet well.  There is easily 2 feet of  sand and silt that is covering the bottom screens and bottom bowls on the pumps as well as the conduit that connects the two wet wells.  I felt around and the screens are clogged with debris.  We'll need to, obviously, clean screens and run the pumps to see if we have problems since pump #2 would not draw any water at one point during excavation of the infiltration gallery.  I guess worst case the shaft is broken somewhere along the column or best case the screen was just to plugged.  I am hoping for the latter.  At present, we are at the mercy of the vacuum truck availability which is suppose to be tomorrow (Thursday).  As always I'll keep you posted. 

Outta Water: Update #4

I've posted on this subject once already but somehow it has disappear so I'll try it again

It's been 10 days and still no water.  We had the excavator at river and install a different type of conduit to aid in the flow of water to the exterior wet well.

Exterior Wet Well
With HDPE Conduit

Exterior Wet Well
With  Culvert Conduit

During the process we ran one of the pumps to keep the silt and sand from running into the river since we are out of the work window with respect to clouding up the river.  As the water flowed into the interior wet well it brought material in with it.  Because there is so much sand and silt already in the wet well from delayed maintenance last year and from this years run off the screens at the bottom of the pumps became clogged and could no longer draw water.  The only solution is to vacuum out both wet wells.  But as the name implies: they are wet.  There is no way to stop water from entering the exterior wet well.  We'll have to do it by guessing.  It is small and the water is only around 4 feet high.  The interior wet well is lower and has close to 5 to 6 feet of water.  To clean it out we need to stop the flow and the only way to do that is to plug the pipe connecting the two wells.  I sourced out some options last year but did not follow through because of money.  This year we're so far behind the 8-ball saving money is almost secondary to making sure we have water.  To make a long story short we ordered a plug and it took 6 days to get from Winnipeg to Kimberley but the wrong size was shipped.  Our supplier re-ordered and was trying to have the shipping process expedited.  Since originally posting the river has dropped quite a bit and I've been able to get a better look at the connection between the exterior and interior wet well.  The pipe connecting the two has an interior diameter of about 22" and it is close to 4/5's plugged with only a very little gap for water to move.  As I mentioned in the September 5th post, this is has to be the "unknown" reason why the pump house was unable to operate even after we cleaned the intake.

We've contacted the City and made arrangements to buy water from the fire hydrant near the reservoir to get us through.  Hopefully, by Tuesday we'll be adding water to the reservoir.

Successful Clean Up Thanks to Member Volunteers

Yesterday over 20 people showed up with rakes, trucks, and a good attitude and made very short work of the downed trees on 6, 7, 10 and 16.  All my crew is left with is clean up of stumps and logs.

Downed Tree 6 Fwy

From 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. people raked and loaded branches that were then hauled to a staging area in preparation for a truck and chipper from the city to process the debris which is needed as bio mass for the city water treatment plant.

A conservative guesstimate on man hours spent to do this (assuming only 20 people) would be 60 man hours.  The volunteer help allowed us to continue with cleaning up fairways and roughs with the larger equipment as well as allowed us to keep up with regular fall work (i.e. aerating fairways).  This type of input from members is a real boost and definitely shows there is a strong interest in keeping this place running!

Storm Damage

Sunday afternoon a small storm blew through town and left a mess in it's wake.

Aside from the above pictures damage include a uprooted tree deep in the rough on left of hole #2, a top snapped off near 7 tee, an uprooted tree on the right side of 11 fairway, a snapped top on left rough on hole 16, another tree down left of 10, and copious branches, cones, etc. down through out the whole course.  An event like this is never very good news but this time out with all the other tasks and issues we are trying to cope with make this a real pain.  It will take a while to clean up.  Work Bee anyone?

See, I am not full of sh*t....

My mornings are usually spent eating a danish, sipping a cup of dark roast while perusing turf related articles.  Such is the case for most golf course superintendents....(nudge, nudge, wink, wink).   Go here and read a one page article I came across this morning and  you'll see (except for the first point) that my usual babblings may have some merit.  FYI: the 10 mm of rain on Wednesday helped lots but other than that no real good news water wise but we'll keep banging our heads against the wall and I'll keep you informed as things change.

Back Where We Started.....

No water again.   Obviously the material plugging the intake is more encompassing than I can see.  The excavator will have to be mobilized again and remove more material after which we can, hopefully, fire up the river pumps and start drawing water.  During the initial excavation the volume and depth of water made a more extensive excavation very difficult so the choice was made to wait for the river to drop before completing the maintenance of the intake.  Traditionally the volume of water passing by the intake has been similar to what it is now and we were still able to pump.

September 5, 2012

September 6, 2011

September 9, 2010

This time, even with the level of water in the river is relatively good, a single pump can shut down after only 15 minutes operation.  Again, something more is going on than I can see.  The plan is to address this by weeks end and hopefully resolve the issue and replace the boulders and be ready for next years run off.  I'll be limiting irrigation again to stretch out the available water in the reservoir.  I'll keep you updated.

As forewarned, we began aerating fairways today.  This process is far earlier than usual but the drive to control expenses moved the aeration up.  By next Wednesday a portion of staff will be finished for the year and without bodies the chances of completing the fairway aeration by starting at the more traditional time of late September would be very slim.  Not aerating to save money would be a poor choice since the benefits of aeration, although not immediately obvious, are still dramatic and help in creating a better playing surface and healthier turf.

Based on hours from last year, the wage cost of a fairway aeration was around $13.50/hr for 131.5 hrs for an amount of $1775 and close to $250 in fuel for a total just over $2000 (because I am tracking fuel usage more closely this year I should be able to calculate a more accurate number for the actual cost per hour).  The important thing to remember is no extra staff is brought in, no over time is needed, and there is no other extra expenses (i.e. material goods such as sand, etc.) except for fuel.  For the next few weeks staff is still needed to mow and maintain the course so a wage savings by not aerating would not be there for September.  The only difference this time out we are doing more of the fall work "in golf season", if you will.  Any savings will be realized in October by running a smaller staff then since some of the regular fall work will have been completed.

Yellow and Red; The Colors of Fall

You may think I am referencing leaf color but in this circumstance I am referring to the painted marks on the fairways.  If you've golfed since Friday you will have noticed dinner plate sized paint marks on the fairways.  We do this for 2 reasons.  One is to mark the heads so staff members can trim around them since after a seasons growth the irrigation heads start to get covered by turf (especially after a year like this one which turned out to be a good year to grow grass!).  The second reason relates more the seasonal reference.  Starting next week we begin preparing for the end of the season.  The first task this year will be aerating the fairways before the final fertilization in mid to early September.  Cool season turf has two growth stages throughout the year and we are in the second.  Cooler days are more suited for root development and soil temperatures anywhere between 50 and 65 degrees F (or 10 to 18 degrees C) aid in root growth versus the hot days associated with summer.  Other factors influencing root growth are soil moisture and oxygen.  After a season of traffic from play and maintenance the soil tends to "tighten up" and limit oxygen and water movement.  When we aerate we are increasing oxygen within the root zone and ensuring that water reaches the roots where both are needed to encourage root growth (mass and depth).  A healthy root system will better be able to make use of soil nutrients from fertilization and natural organic matter breakdown.  Ultimately, it is the nutrient uptake which, in combination with photosynthesis, helps create and store carbohydrates (CHO) that the turf needs to recover next spring.  The more tools and time we give the turf to create CHO's the better the chances of success in the spring... maybe... (Oops!  I forgot to explain the red and yellow marks as they relate to aeration.  It is to make it easier for the guy operating the aerator to see the heads)

Outta' Water : Update #3

We back to full.  One night of rain and the cool temps (both day and night) have been a huge help in getting us caught up.  With no irrigation on the course for the last 2 days and the 10mm of rain Tuesday night we are in pretty good standing.  Timing was good since I was having trouble controlling the leak on our  #1 pump stuffing box.  Optimistically, we should be able to make it even with one pump.

There is sufficient water at our intake and we plan to keep it open for a bit longer to ensure water reaches the outer man hole.  Once we complete work at the river I'll do a follow up post.  Otherwise, river info will be sparse unless things move in a different direction.

In anticipation of Pucksters, maintenance has been geared towards enhancing playing conditions.  After this tournament we will continue with aerating tee's with the hope of finishing before September long weekend.  Once September hits there will be some changes but I'll talk about those in a later posts.  What players need to know is we are in a situation that has pushed up the routine fall maintenance and result the next couple weeks will be a lot of "in your face" maintenance and your understanding will be greatly appreciated.

Otta' Water Update #2

It has officially been 72 hours of non-stop pumping from the river at a whopping rate of approx. 350 GPM.  The irrigation reservoir was down 1.9 million gallons before a constant river supply was re-established on Sunday (FYI : the reservoir total usable capacity it 4 million gallons - small but location more than anything dictated its volume).  It's really a game of catch-up now since a quick math calculation tells you that at 350 GPM for 24 hours the most water we can pump to the reservoir is just over 500 000 gallons.  At that rate it should be easy to re-fill, basically 4 days but don't forget I still need to use around 325 000  to 450 000 gallons of water every night.  So, obviously, the net water gain is somewhere from 175 000 to 50 000 gallons every 24 hours.  Using those numbers the actual time it will take to get back to normal levels it more like 11 to 38 days depending on usage.  My guess is if we are able to run both pumps at the 350 GPM rate the reservoir should be close to full soon after Labour Day weekend.  I am limiting irrigation when and where possible since there is a possibility the river will get so low that we will have to drop to one pump before the end of the watering season and I want to get the reservoir back up to healthy level as soon as possible. 

As referenced in the previous post, I am concerned with the excessive wear on the pump shafts but there really is nothing to that can be done at this time.  Every time I go down to check on the river I check the pumps.  Each time, pump #1 has needed the packing tightened since the wear in the shaft is so bad and water is spewing all over the place.  I keep hoping to reach a point when I've jammed so much packing in the stuffing box that I've filled the cavity surrounding the worn shaft enough to stop the geysers from occurring inside the pump house. 

The disappointment of deliberately letting turf dry out to the point of dormancy is only eclipsed by observing the damage left behind from cart traffic over the heat stressed areas.  I appreciate that most people are focused on their game and may not be aware of the stress the turf is under but there is no way you can stand on 16 tees and not see the impact of traffic on stressed areas of the rough.  For me the simple rule is stay off any turf that is not green.  Pass it around.

O.K. Hole Of the Week is a flop so lets forget it.  I was at a meeting yesterday and another idea one of the speakers mentioned that helped members be involved in their golf course was hosting divot parties.  He would close down a couple holes at night and volunteers would show up and walk the entire hole and fill all divots with sand and seed.  There was a brief post divot party to show appreciation.  Not this year but maybe next?

Outta Water- UPDATE

No pictures since I still haven't found my camera and my family is on vacation and took their camera's with them but if you've golfed this week you probably noticed the water level in the reservoir.  We are down a good six feet from normal and are having only moderate success at getting more.  Turns out "permission" was no big deal.  For the month of August you can do "maintenance of works" without any special request so we went in and dismantled the infiltration gallery and removed the silt and sand that plugs the intake.  I don't think I've ever explained how we are "connected" to the river so here is a quick explanation.  There is no physical connection, instead there is a large jumble of boulders that separate the river from an external wet well made of perforated concrete barrels that contains a large pipe which supplies water to the internal wet well.  From there the river pumps draw water up to the reservoir.  During initial construction we established a grade based on the historical low water level in the river.  In theory as long as there was some water in the river there would be water in the well.  That is true but the part that the individual who was consulting for KGC during construction did think about was the rate at which that water would flow into the external wet well at low water.  The elevation we are pumping to, the size of the pipe,  and the volume required to keep up with the irrigation demands all contribute to establishing a range of psi and flow that the river pumps need to operate in.  Unfortunately, that range is greater than the passive flow of water into the wet well at low water and, as a result, we are unable to pump sufficient water to the reservoir - which is the whole problem.
Even though we've removed the "plug" there is still problems.  Because we are stirring up the intake some small debris is making its way into the river pump house and plugging the screens which leads to decreasing discharge psi and ultimately a fault which shuts down the pump house.  Another kick in the *ss today was the conformation that the dirty run off has worn the shafts on both river pumps.  I need to check on tolerances but last time we had this it was $15 000 rebuild.  All part of pumping from a river but we need to look at ways to lessen the problems and that may mean developing a well at the cost of any where from $40 000 to $60 000.  It just keeps coming........

"HOLE OF THE WEEK"....hmmm maybe people need more time.  In an effort to lead the way I've ask my staff to pull some knapweed on the bank below the driving range fence next to 5 fairway to show how to do it.  We're pulling 50 plants a day during our morning jobs and it is only adding 3 to 5 minutes to the morning job.  What if everyone only pulled 10 plants.......... imagine...... This may also not be what people are looking for to "help" but lets give is more time and see.

Outta water

A bit of a disappointment based on the volume in the river :

August 12

but looking back to last year it is not a surprise.  I was able to contact the Ministry in December of 2011 and discussed some plans.  I began contacting them again by mid-July with no response.  This recent development is a very serious problem (especially based on the early date and the fact that the river volume is more than adequate, the intake is just silted in too much) and we need to perform major work.  At present, we can run one pump at 190 GPM.  Demands on the course are averaging 400 000 GPM per night.  The math is fairly obvious: most water the river pump house can supply in a 24 hour period is approximately 270 000.  That gives us a deficit of 130 000 per night.  The reservoir holds 4 000 000  gallons so in about 30 days (September 12) the reservoir is empty.  The best solution is to clean the intake but without Ministry approval no contractor will perform the work.  Further, we may be unable to do the required work if we are turned down because of fish values, river volume, or the date on the calendar.  We can approach the city and buy water to supplement the river pump house supply but the reality is we need to perform the required work, there really is no option and I am tired of down playing the situation at the river.

 Obviously, I will limit irrigation but everything will suffer and expect to see lots of this:

Cart and Walking Damage on
Heat Stressed Turf

More Damage

Inattentiveness, indifference, and general ignorance may cause a rash of this damage.  Look for turf that is heat stressed (it will appear blue or gray) and stay away.  Keep to areas that are green and healthy looking.  I'll keep you posted.

First Try at HOLE OF THE WEEK

This time out we'll make #5 the "Hole of the Week".   We'll start with some definitions:

Weed: A plant growing where it is not wanted.

Noxious weed (a.k.a invasive plant) : " typically non-native plants that have been introduced to British Columbia without the insect predators and plant pathogens that help keep them in check in their native habitats. For this reason and because of their aggressive growth, these alien plants can be highly destructive, competitive and difficult to control" (straight off BC gov web page go here for a good resource for identifying weeds and other good info)

Nuisance weed:  "Hundreds of nuisance weeds exist in all agriculture areas and, although they cause economic losses, they are generally so widespread that enforcement is impractical" (straight from website for Peace River Regional District). 

Part of the "Hole of the Week" task will be to address the some of weed we have out there that I can't always get to.  The prime suspects are the noxious weeds knapweed and toad flax:

Spotted Knapweed

Dalmatian Toad Flax

 And the nuisance weed Mullein:

Mullein

And the weed white sweet-clover

Clover in foreground

There is plenty of all these weeds throughout the course but on #5 they are concentrated on the left bank below the driving range fence and the left hill side at the 150 yard stake.  It would be nice to have each group pull one of each weed as they pass by and leave them all in a pile in the rough and we'll dispose of them accordingly.

One of the regular routines we haven't been able to get to everyday is filling in the divots on the tee's.  Another task for interested players would be to make use of the divot mix bucket each golf car has and fill divots on the tee's we are not getting.  Take a scoop of sand with you when to the tee and fill in yours or any freshies you might find (a late addition thanks to Chico and Spanky: all the broken tees!! Picking those up and putting them in the trash helps keep things clean).

Five tee is one of the few holes we have with flower beds but even then I don't always have a person to attended to the routine maintenance.  Pulling weeds (in this case the obvious grass and dandelions growing amongst the flowers) and removing spent blossoms will help in the upkeep of the beds.

There you have it.  Like I said not a very sexy work list but all still required tasks.  We'll see what comes of peoples response to my request for help. knapweed broucher 

Modified Work Bee

Earlier this month I was asked about having another work bee like we did at the start of the year and my first reaction was no.  Mostly because all we are doing now is routine and I have trained staff to operate all the equipment needed.  I ruminated on the idea for a bit mostly because of my initial reaction which was to shoot the idea down with no debate.  There actually are many things people can do daily that contribute greatly to course conditioning.  You may suspect that I am going to go off on repairing ball marks, replacing divots, and raking bunkers (the 3 R's)  but that would be a pretty pat "golf course superintendent response" to an offer of help.  I keep forgetting that this is your course and some of the more motivated KGC members want to contribute over and above just paying yearly dues. 
I'll bet most everybody has heard of an "Adopt a Hole" program other golf courses run so members can participate in the course maintenance.  Nice idea and probably works but I bet it also requires a bit of "administration" on behalf of the superintendent.  If you attended this springs work bee and heard me give directions you'll know I can be a little controlling and, perhaps particular as to how I like things to work.  As wonderful as it is for members to take ownership of the golf course I suspect that the level of "micro-ownership" that may develop with an adopt a hole program by with some people may lead to awkward situations between members and with me. 
I've never done such a program so I may be completely out to lunch.  However, it is tough to disregard the power of numbers when you think back to the success of this springs work bee.  So I want to try a modification on the adopt a hole program.  Lets call it "The Hole of Week".  Participation is optional and no one will be keeping attendance.  Its not a competition, and no one person or group will receive recognition.  You will be helping out as best you are able and as much as you want.  Since we will only be working on a single hole per week everyone should see immediate results versus a more diffuse impact if we spread the work across the whole property.  I'll warn you now none of the things I'm proposing are very sexy but I think the general maintenance will be augmented by your attention to detail which I don't have the staff to do.
We will start after the Club Championship once I've picked a hole and got some pictures....still haven't found my camera so I may have to come up with a plan B.

W.T.F?

We're running "lite" and have been sort of busy so something gotta give and it looks like it was the blog.  Compounded by the fact that I seem to have misplaced my camera, I haven't posted anything new for a month.  But I guess the good news there really isn't much going on; anything out of the ordinary, that is.  Since last post we've aerated and top dressed all greens (despite the weather!), fertilized fairways and roughs, aerated/over seeded/top dressed some troublesome fairway areas, re-applied fertilizer to the tee's to cover the measles, added sand to some bunkers, and began a small landscaping project on 17 tee (a fence to block the view of the messy area where we keep the sand).  Other than that it has pretty much been routine mowing.

You may have noticed the clover in flower in the rough and fairways this year.  Clover is an indicator of low fertility and moist soils.  I can talk to both those.  With respect to fertility we only apply .5 to .75 Lbs of actual N/1000/application two times a year on fairways and roughs (i.e. 1 to 1.5 Lbs N/1000/year. Recommend rate is 1 to 3 Lbs/1000/year based on level of maintenance).  We choose that rate because of budget not because that's all the turf needs.  The proliferation of clover proves that.  The moisture (120 mm for June alone according to the poo plant) is a no-brainer.  Combined, those factors will give us a fine catch of clover for 2012.  Go to here to learn something about clover you may find interesting.  Golf course wise it is far from ideal to play out of so I have spot treated areas on the fairways.  When it comes to the rough, however, budget, time (window of opportunity), and staffing means we won't get to treating clover growing in the rough this year.  Those choices may haunt me next year but I know the solution if it gets out of hand.

Driving Range Information

 A timely article hit my in box last week about driving ranges and how to manage the tee deck.  Go to here for complete article but I'll try a quick summary in this post.  Basically, the article references a method players can use to limit the divots and speed the recovery time for a driving range tee to keep it in good shape during the season.  The number crunching I love is the one that compares the two styles of hitting balls.  The willy nilly, all over the map style of hitting balls removes 4.1 sqft of turf after hitting 30 balls versus the linear style of divot removal which only removes 1.4 sqft of turf after hitting 30 balls....a 65% reduction!  FYI, the recommended size of a driving range tee is 1 to 2 acres minimum (that is 43 560 to 87 120 sqft) to allow for sufficient hitting areas and recovery of the hitting area.  The tee we just built is about .35 of an acre or around 16 000 sqft (versus 0.12 or just over 5000 sqft which was the size of the old tee deck).  Obviously, we were limited based on the area available but I think we should be O.K.  If I can get the message out about conserving turf by controlling divot removal the tee should always be in good shape, I hope.

What we've been up to: the Good and the Bad

For the usual reasons I've been a little behind on updates but this post will be a flurry of quick info and pictures with the hope letting people know what's going on.

We've already aerated and top dressed all the aprons and collars and I hope to do one more session near the end of this summer since this time out we went with smaller tines (there was some comments on how soft they were last year when I aerated them) to lessen the disruption.  

One of the absolute worst jobs in almost complete.  Edging bunkers is no fun no matter when or how you do it but it's been a while since they've been done so it was definitely time.  This time out I am cheating a bit and leaving a lip around the entire perimeter of the bunkers.  Normally, we pull the sand up flush with the back lip but this allows the grass to creep into the bunkers which blurs the bunker edge.  By creating a lip all around a bunker I hope to limit the maintenance involved in weeding when the grass creeps in.  

Best Bunker Edgers I got

Unfortunately for these poor fools, they are good at what they do so they have edged most the bunkers.  The good news is we really don't have very many bunkers so it is only a short term P.I.T.A. for them.  The next step will be going back to select bunkers that are low on sand and top them up.

Some other things we've done include fertilizing tee's.  Although the process went well the result were brutal:

Sh*tty Fertilizer Application

This is one of the choices I alluded to back in the March 14 post when referencing on how I was going to make things work based on the tight budget.  This turned out to be the wrong choice.  For a number of reason including the size of the particle, a general lack of fertility on the tees, the fertilizer source, and the blend of nutrients within the product we applied we got this speckled display.  It's more of an issue than just looks.  The poor fertility is encouraging certain disease development which will lead to thinning and ultimately bare ground.  Solution?  The cheapest one I guess.  Speaking of disease:

Fusarium

There is oodles of these spots on every green and they are getting worse.  To be honest this not a real surprise because of the weather we've been having (56 mm over six days with lows near 2 and highs in the low teens).  I was experimenting with an idea I'd read about that basically involved spraying a contact fungicide at very low rates every time you fertilized the greens.  The hope was the constant application of this fungicide would never really let the disease get a foot hold and I wouldn't have to apply an expensive systemic and contact to control the disease.  I think it was working but obviously weather conditions helped the disease get a real good foot hold.  So another idea that needs work.

Another ugly thing you may be seeing on the course relates to a type of winter damage I've yet to talk about.

Vole Damage

Voles, look like mice but bigger body and shorter tail, do well under big snow.  They really like the grass that is on unfrozen ground and, it seems, on south facing slopes as well.  The above picture is from the collar on the front right of 13 green.  The little darlings eat right down to and including the crown so there is nothing left to grow back once the spring comes.  We are top dressing the eating trails they left behind with a mix of sand and compost and a smattering of seed and we end up with this:

Top Dressing the Vole Damage

The picture doesn't really show how mucky the fix is but you'll see what I mean by ugly when you come across these spots.  We'll have to revisit these spots for most of June until we have germination.

Other ugly things we are doing include expanding the mowing on certain tee decks.  Picture says it all:

4T "Expansion"

And finally, Poa seed head.

Small, Little Seed Head Spots

There is bucket loads on the fairway and a fair amount on the greens too.  Remember this is next years grass if we have problems so be patient.  We did a groom, verti-cut, and lowered the H.O.C. to lessen their presence and mow out the stems associated with seed head production but there is still lots around and they will probably be around until the heat really comes in July.