It's the last week of October and we are pretty much on schedule with all the preparations needed before the snow flies. The awesome weather has allowed us on the course in good time each day with frost only being a problem over the past couple days. This time of year frost usually sticks around until "noon-ish" which drags out most of the fall prep activities, especially the fall spray treatments.
Last weekend was the fall work bee (go HERE) with a nice turn out and even nicer weather. With only a few trees to clean up (dead fir on 2 G, all the weedy poplars back of 14 G) a large number of people were able fill divots on 4,5,6,8,9,11,16,17, and 18 Fwys. If you missed this work bee don't panic since I'm pretty sure there will be one in the spring. They are such a huge help.
The crew completed a very minor irrigation expansion located between 6 and 8 greens. This area is somewhat out of the way but because of inadequate coverage it shows moisture and heat stress early which easily creeps into the neighbouring surrounds on both 6 and 8 greens. Ultimately, this expansion will continue onto 8 green where we will install irrigation for the surrounds as well as continue to the cart path on the right of 8 green. I get to hear players complaints about how rough the ends of certain cart paths are and the one on 8 is probably the worst. The concentrated traffic and no irrigation make more that difficult to keep turf established in that area. I know from past experience that sodding the end of a cart path with no way to irrigate is guaranteed to fail.
In future posts I hope to cover some of the geeky tech things we do. This will be the first installment. One of things I like to do is gather information about activities on the course. This information gathering in relation to fertilizing and tracking pest/disease outbreaks allows us to create a data base which we often use as a reference. There is numerous companies offering specialized software and devices for just what I describe but in our situation they are not a necessity and are too expensive. However, as is my style, I'm always trying to cheap out and bastardize a "made in Kimberley" solution. I started with aerial photographs with mylar overlays and felt pens but a pal gave me an old "I-thing" onto which I was able to download particular apps and now I can map fertilizer applications with GPS and upload to a site which stores the "track". Go HERE to see the most recent fairway fertilizer (clicking the "satellite" toggle in the upper left corner of the picture gives a real life picture). My hope is to use this more in the future to track all applications on the golf course that will easily viewed by all.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Home Strech
It's the last week of play and we are still experiencing very nice weather. I haven't had the question yet, but someone will ask why close when the weather is so good? Operating costs for all departments is one reason but from my end I need time without play and before seasonable weather to complete necessary tasks (as referenced in the previous post).
Beginning this Thursday the big jobs associated with preparing for winter begin. We will be winterizing the irrigation and as a result alternating 9's will be closed (go HERE for refresher). With respect to the irrigation you may have noticed a complete lack of post regarding the usual problems associated with river this time of year (go HERE for 2014 summary). Last years work and the quiet freshet this spring resulted in us reaping the benefits and not having to put a single minute into moving rocks to get flow by our intake. We will always need to do maintenance and I plan to have a backhoe down at the river to do a little cleaning as well as take a look at the wet well and see if we need to bring in a sucker truck. A few words of caution: apparently I took too much liberty with respect to diverting the river last fall so we won't able to do that again and all we need is a heavy snow pack and a wet spring to have all our river work disappear so I have no doubt we'll be back down there. On the good news/proactive side we're hoping to plan a site meeting with appropriate people and get the rules/regulations nailed down once and for all so we can plan and with the city connection completed (we just have to run a pipe to the reservoir) the panic associated with the river should be a little more manageable.
This past week we began/completed jobs I had slated for completion in May! The flower bed by the bathroom on 7G/8T is gone and will be replaced by a tree and brick work next spring (hopefully?!?). We transferred some aerating cores to the main driveway that will eventually grow into a lawn. That tiny job is part of my efforts to formalize/update the front entrance which, IMO, looks unwelcoming and shabby. With cash being tight its difficult to commit any money to create dramatic changes to an area that few people notice as they roar up the drive way. Just stand half way down on the corner one day and you'll see what I mean!
Beginning this Thursday the big jobs associated with preparing for winter begin. We will be winterizing the irrigation and as a result alternating 9's will be closed (go HERE for refresher). With respect to the irrigation you may have noticed a complete lack of post regarding the usual problems associated with river this time of year (go HERE for 2014 summary). Last years work and the quiet freshet this spring resulted in us reaping the benefits and not having to put a single minute into moving rocks to get flow by our intake. We will always need to do maintenance and I plan to have a backhoe down at the river to do a little cleaning as well as take a look at the wet well and see if we need to bring in a sucker truck. A few words of caution: apparently I took too much liberty with respect to diverting the river last fall so we won't able to do that again and all we need is a heavy snow pack and a wet spring to have all our river work disappear so I have no doubt we'll be back down there. On the good news/proactive side we're hoping to plan a site meeting with appropriate people and get the rules/regulations nailed down once and for all so we can plan and with the city connection completed (we just have to run a pipe to the reservoir) the panic associated with the river should be a little more manageable.
This past week we began/completed jobs I had slated for completion in May! The flower bed by the bathroom on 7G/8T is gone and will be replaced by a tree and brick work next spring (hopefully?!?). We transferred some aerating cores to the main driveway that will eventually grow into a lawn. That tiny job is part of my efforts to formalize/update the front entrance which, IMO, looks unwelcoming and shabby. With cash being tight its difficult to commit any money to create dramatic changes to an area that few people notice as they roar up the drive way. Just stand half way down on the corner one day and you'll see what I mean!
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