You know the old saying. I guess we just have to wait until the end of the month to see if it's true. The impact of this type of snow and cold over last couple weeks on the course should be negligible. It's put a bit of brake on attempting to do any work on the course but the good news about March snow is it seems to melt faster with the longer and warmer (?) days. Things are still frozen and since we've been cold there hasn't really been any more ice develop. Possibly this snow may provide some insulation so any heat coming from the ground might warm the surfaces under the snow and help melt any ice that has already formed....probably just wishful thinking.
As we get closer to opening some of the planned projects are coming on line. The clubhouse will receive a thorough cleaning and painting throughout the upstairs dining room, washroom, and kitchen areas. Also, the wheels have started to turn on the golf clubs water connection to the Mathew Creek water line. I referenced connecting to Mathew Creek in the past (go HERE) and with money from the sale of assets last fall it was decided that now would be the time to establish an emergency/back up water source. It's not perfect but for our cash situation it's a reasonable alternative. It might be extremely fortuitous that we choose this year to finally address an alternative water source since the River Forecast Center shows the East Kootenay at 80% of normal snow amounts. If we continue to see dry and above normal temperatures for the summer our source at the river might dry up sooner than normal.
We've actually been busy at the shop for a February since the new mechanic we hired started earlier than usual. Unlike last year when the dude I hired in June sort of got baptized by fire, I wanted the new hire this time out to have the option to get familiar with the equipment and type of maintenance required before staff comes back and things start falling apart. He's been at it for a month and has cleaned up a lot of loose ends left dangling from last year and is making very short order of the repair list I created at the beginning of February.
We will start to move out onto the course this month and most likely we'll begin removing snow from the tarped greens (starting on #15) before or near the middle of the month, weather depended. We also plan on removing some trees (a couple missed green attack Ponderosa pine) on the left of 2 green and some on the left of 12 green and possibly the back of 15 green . Next time out I'll give some detail and pictures highlighting those events.
