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.
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| 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.
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| Half Way with Ice on Tarp |
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| 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.
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| 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:
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| 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.
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| 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!
