Finally Spring!

Celestial wise Spring is a real event but as it relates to the happenings at KGC it is more symbolic since we are still up to our ying-yang in snow and winter. Spring is also the time when we start to consider removing snow off of the greens.  As I mentioned in last post my plan was take if off early and we did start with removal last week. Any idea I had to knock it down to a reasonable level didn't work so we were stuck with trying to handle what was there.

15 Green

I started on 15 because I wanted to get the tarp off the green because it scares the hell out of me. It took me 2 days to get snow and ice off.

Half Way with Ice on Tarp

Good Thing About a Tarp is Ice Breaks Easy!

In the old days we'd be pushing ice with shovels but with just me out there it would have taken forever so I used the plow invention from last winter to push ice and it worked great.

Time and Back Saver

This tarp is old and leaks and that is a concern since its job is to keep moisture off the surface so I was fairly concerned to see this once I started to pull the tarp:

Nice...

I was surprised to see so much ice under the tarp because if you remember last November I had cleaned off the snow to lay the tarp out and the weather was snowy and cold for weeks after that. Ultimately I was able to expose the whole surface.

Lots of Moisture From Hillside

Good news is there seems to be little damage from disease and no real obvious damage from ice or from when I removed the snow last fall (GO HERE for a reminder). I pulled a plug and its is growing well inside the shop so it would not be unreasonable to think 15 should be fine but we'll have to wait until we get into real Spring weather to be totally sure.

Once 15 was cleared we started in on the other problems greens I identified as having disease issues late in the year after the wet fall (GO HERE for review) and it is slow going with all the snow. As a general rule I've been able to use the bobcat since most surfaces have a very thin ice layer but I'm limited since once exposed the surfaces thaw quickly and I risk damaging turf by driving on it as mention in the "Stupid Winter Choices..." post referenced already. There is another whole post covering some of the other greens we've exposed but you'll have to wait as I need to get back at it! 

There's a Bit of Snow out There!

It seems to be turning itself into a long snowy winter. which is my preference, versus rainy cold winter. However, since I've been struggling through the "100 Day Cold" since January I'm starting to long for some seasonable spring weather!

After the brief warm spell 10 days ago I went out to check snow pack and surfaces.  I get around the course on a ski track I try to maintain throughout the winter but there is so much snow I haven't been able to get out with my machine so I ended up "postholing" my way around to some greens to take a look.

The tape is crooked but you get the idea

To be honest, we've had snow like this before so although the amount is substantial it's not unreasonable.  The problem I have is it's too much to remove with the tools we have.  With the greens surface mostly frozen I could use the bobcat but because of the amount of snow we end up with huge snow banks that take longer to melt.  A manageable amount of snow is around 16".  We have some black sand which I've used before (go HERE) but not enough for all the greens.  I'm working on other ideas to cut the snow but in my experience the sand is the best.  I made mention last fall about getting snow off early to mitigate disease and that is still my plan but I have to be careful since the freeze/thaw cycles that are synonymous with spring are one of the ways to kill grass - especially poa. However, with no real thawing of the surfaces occurring under the snow and no obvious ice to date I believe it is safe-ish to leave the snow on a bit longer.

Brown tips from last fall but otherwise looking good

The only project planned this spring is, hopefully, the replacement of the netting at the driving range.  Environmental factors (U.V. light and wind) create constant wear and tear that ultimately leads to holes.

Big hole at a pole

We've been able to patch holes by knitting together tears but last year we began to see rips and tears develop from holes far outside of our reach. We can try to limp through in typical KGC fashion but there is a 4 week lag time from ordering to having the net arrive on site so if one of the tears eventually takes down the whole netting the range will be out of service until the netting is replaced. Plus we would have to figure out a way to get a bucket truck through to the range which is a somewhat less damaging and disrupting process in the late winter/early spring while the ground is still frozen versus any other time of the year.

Snow wise and project wise we are at a bit of a standstill.  I can't help but think that, based on the weather pattern we seem to be stuck in, that it has the potential to be slow start to the season....stay tuned.....