"Where Have All the Flowers Gone..."

....A little hippy reference for all you long hairs but also apropos for the time of year. The summer has blown by and so has all the opportunities to comment on happenings at the golf course. The truth, as has been typical for the past couple years, is we are treading water so I don't have any real exciting topics. But the more I think about it there are some loose ends I should tie up so here is a couple disjointed points for you to digest:

River Watch

Remember this? Go HERE for a refresher.  I've spent every year since we began pumping from the river stressing over conditions while we were pumping water. This spring we finally (after a few ball-ups) completed a connection to the city water line located by 12 tee.  With the "insurance" of that secondary water source we will have the security of knowing the resevoir will be able to be refreshed if we are unable to pump from the river. Also,  the tie-in will allow me to shut down the pumps during freshet and lessen the wear caused by pumping sand/silt thereby stretching out the time between complete rebuilds of the pumps...the caveat, however, is up until this spring we were drawing during freshet and have caused some wear but at least it shouldn't get any worse.

MLSN

This is still new to me.  Go HERE for review.  I bring this up because as good as this style of nutrition is I believe it may be the source of our troubles the past couple springs.  Actually, to be fair it's not MLSN but something loosely tied to it call the Growth Potential(GP).  Very quickly, MLSN provides fertility recommendations based on soil samples while  the GP formula provides a method for estimating Nitrogen (N) requirements based on a number of variables.

I've been fully committed to the MLSN/GP as it relates to nutrition for the tees and, for the most part, I'm mostly happy with the outcome.  The biggest benefit has been the ability to lessen the number of times a week we need to mow while still having the tees look presentable.  There is room for improvement since select tees seem to require more nutrition than other tees but that is really a time issue as it relates to staffing and a cost issue as it relates to getting a soil test for each and every tee.

With respect to the greens, using the GP model for nitrogen application allows me to apply N amounts based on expected growing conditions in very small amounts via the sprayer which avoids the growth spurts that are common, IMO, with granular fertility.  Furthermore, since I'm using raw materials and applying nitrogen using the a "lite" and frequent approach it is also very economical.  This "Goldilocks" approach to turf nutrition provides good conditions during the summer months but one situation when I think it may be a bit funky is during the fall when turf needs nitrogen for the manufacturing of carbohydrates (CHO) which are stored and used for stress tolerance and protection from winter injury. Applying N based on GP in fall may not provide enough of an opportunity for the turf to recovery from daily S&A as well as prep for winter. The gist of what I'm saying is there will be more of a focus preparing for winter vs. playing conditions, i.e.green speed,  in the up coming weeks so get out your 1 iron for putting....

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!

In Like a Lion.....

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.

Writer's Block or Fatigue or....

.... not much new.  Stuff is going on but it's all the same sh*t just a different pile.  It's hard not feel like we're spinning our wheels but I guess the grass is still growing and the doors are still open so it could be way worse.  I'll try to be brief and cover some events from the past 2 months.

River/Irrigation

Our channel at the river pretty much dried up in September and we had to be very judicious with the irrigation.  Luckily, we had a nice rain at the beginning of the month that carried us for a bit but that was short lived with the sunny weather for the rest of the month.  I was running on empty so fortunately some investigating into our water license by another individual from the board of directors revealed we had the option to divert the river.  Great news that somewhat pissed me off because in all my dealing with the ministry that was never mentioned as an option.  I learned not only to ask for help but also never assume the government is telling you everything.  End result was from this:

to this:

The only problem was by the time we had the flow to pumps we ran out of time to pull from the river so we never completely re-charged the reservoir.  Hopefully the river stays the same for spring and we will still have the flow at our intake to fill the reservoir and meet our spring irrigation demands.  At present, it appears low water flow is less of an issue for us but we still have the problem of pumping dirty water during spring run off which wears out our pumps and costs us thousands of dollars.  I still believe we need to connect to the city water line to address this issue but the potential cost is forestalling the inevitable.  We'll look into other options over the winter and hopefully we'll have a plan in place before I start up the pumps next spring.

Equipment

We managed to make it through another year and only had to add one utility vehicle and one triplex mower to our junk/obsolete pile at the shop.  Again, by the end of the season I had pretty much had it and did a "dog and pony" show in an attempt, one more time, to demonstrate how dire our situation is.  I've always assumed people knew how beat up and old the equipment was since dilapidated pieces seemed to have been randomly plunked all over the course throughout the years in various states of disrepair but I think because they were always pieced back together and made operational people don't really appreciate our situation.  As always, quantifying a situation helps.  Saying a mower has 4000 hours means very little to most individuals but if you equate hours to miles people may begin to understand what "old" means golf course mower wise.  A reference I found (GO HERE) equates 500 hours on a mower to 125 000 miles (that's 240 000 km!) on a car so 4000 hours is similar to 1 000 000 car miles.  All of our equipment has more than 1500 hours and a majority has greater than 2500 hours with some pushing 6000 hours.  Even if you cut this estimate in half our machines are old.  Luckily, the club had a somewhat OK year so we've updated our old stuff with some used stuff.....

it's a start.

Finally, some pictures worth viewing.  The first one is of a pot located near the bag drop area.  Someone put a smoldering cigarette in the pot and when I showed up in the morning the pot had completely melted away and the wooden step next to the pot had burnt.  Take home message is to look for an ash tray instead of the closest receptacle to litter with your cigarette butt.

Click Picture

This next one is was from a couple weeks ago looking from #1 tee and could pass for a guy in a bear suit sitting on a branch.

I found this robin staring at his shadow just outside the golf shop one morning.  There was a large collection of birds gorging on the mountain ash berries on 4 tee and folk lore has birds getting drunk if they eat too much (go HERE) so perhaps this bird was a little funked up.  I put him on Sam's Bench to ride the buzz out and he either eventually flew away or ...?

Hammered?

Right now its winter prep time and this year we are doing a little tweaking of the irrigation  and a small bit of work in #7 bunker.  There has been some difficulties winterizing the irrigation but other than that its the usual routine which I'll try to touch on in later posts. 

The "A" word and River Update #2

The first three weeks in August were somewhat boring since two tournaments will occur two weeks apart so all we have really been trying to do is keep the grass mowed....not an easy task this year (which I guess is way better than the alternative, i.e. not having any grass to mow!).

And now for something completely different.  If I had my way I would love to aerate the greens just after the August long weekend since recovery would be quick and by the time the turf began to grow new roots we would be very close to raising the HOC which would mean even more opportunity to grow roots (generally, the more roots the better turf can handle stress).  The reason I bring this up relates to the condition of the fairways this year during the long heat spell we experienced.  I have spent most of the summer amazed and confused at how well the fairways have looked.  When you do the same thing from year to year you expect similar results so when you get those years where things are different from normal (good or bad) you sorta want to know why... at least I do!

I don't compare conditions between courses since there are so many different variables but I do ask in general what other golf courses are experiencing turf growth/health wise.  If it's similar to what is happening at KGC I credit/blame the weather.  If conditions are different than what KGC is experiencing I look at what I am doing different and try to come up with answers as to why things differ.  To be honest,  growing turf is as much an art as it is a science so many of my conclusion are complete guesses.  So this year my guess as to why we had good fairways is three fold. (Oops!  After re-reading that last paragraph I seem to be implying that KGC fwys are better than other golf course.....not what I mean.  What I meant was the fwys at KGC are better this year than they have been other years; no arguing that point!)

1. We are mowing fairways way less than in the past.  Perhaps less traffic and less mechanical stress associated with cutting the fairway is allowing the turf to direct its energies into increasing stand density versus expending energy to repair damaged tissues and recuperate from mowing stress. 
2.  The last couple years, due to staffing, we aerated our fairways very early compared to waiting until late fall.   I suspect by aerating early the turf has had time to recover and establish new roots which allow it to better handle stress.  
3. Our continued effort in late spring/early summer to aerate, over-seed and top dress areas I know are prone to showing heat/moisture stress during the growing season.

We will aerate early again this year so I'll be interested to see if the fairways grow the same in 2015.  I guess, being a grass farmer, I can't completely ignore the weather conditions over the past 2 years as well.  Both 2013 and 2014 springs and winters were good for grass (not overly hot and plenty of moisture in the spring and good snow cover with no real ice during the winter months) and I know that helps. 

River Watch

We've been able to keep one pump running by putting in about 10 to 12 man hours moving rocks.  In preparation for the vacuum truck next week I had a back hoe come down and clean out directly in front of our intake. Obviously, the rain at the end of the week brought up the river and allowed me to shut off the irrigation and catch up on filling the reservoir so we are sitting pretty good for the next little bit.  There is possibly some things in the works to help us with our water woes at the river but I'll keep it vague until I can give you more information.

Golden Trees at Kimberly and River Update #1

Unlike the Sitka spruce that grew on Haida Gwaii (go HERE), golden conifers on the golf course mean trouble.

Picea not-lookin-so-goodica

One of the group of pines planted between 6 tee and 9 green finally went funky.  Those trees were sort of seconds from a local nursery and the middle one has always been a funny tree that finally had enough.  I don't believe the trees demise was beetle related but most likely something specific to that particular tree (there is a thing called pine wilt caused by a nematode but you need to send sample to lab for conformation.  If it is pine wilt you basically remove the wood, chip it, and burn or bury it.  We're going to do that anyways so paying for a diagnosis is somewhat mute.)  I'll replace it but not until the weather is better (i.e. not as hot and dry)

We wrapped a pink ribbon around a Ponderosa pine on the left of #14 down by the fairway bunker on the right side.

Beetle Kill Ponderosa, Right #14 Fwy

That is pine beetle and we missed it last fall.  Truthfully, we never really had the time to scout let alone remove any pine beetle trees since all staff but myself and the mechanic were pretty much laid off once play was finished.  A short term gain budget wise but the long term cost will be more trees lost to pine beetle and, unfortunately for us, the trees are what makes KGC a golf course.

River Watch

I started doing this couple years ago and in a year with all the heat we've had and so little rain we are really depending on the river to supply us with water until the cooler weather comes.

Flow at River Intake, July 28

At the time of the July 28th picture the pumps were still supplying about 325 GPM to the reservoir (versus around 425 GPM previously throughout the season).  As it stands now this is what we got:

Flow at River Intake, August 5th

 What makes this an auspicious day is the drop in flow at the river now means we can only pump around 210 GPM which means over a 24 hour period the most we can pump is 302400 gallons.  Up to this point in time the golf course sees about 450 000 to 480 000 gallons of water a night.  Obviously, each time we irrigate we will unable to replace over 150 000 gallons in the reservoir so based on the reservoir capacity we will run out of water in 28 days, i.e. September 2.  Again, obviously, I will stop irrigating areas and we should start to use less water but even with those measures I don't see us getting much past the middle of the month.  A Couple years ago the City allowed us to use the fire hydrant to supply us with water but a letter from the Operations Department this spring said that was a "one time deal".  Our quickest option it to tie into the Mathew Creek line that runs through the golf course via a new connection installed by the city.  We would then have to connect to our system.  Both options cost $$$ and we would have to pay the city up front and pay for a contractor to connect to our system.

This whole situation is getting old and is giving me grey hair and wrinkles. (Go HERE to review 2012's river problems.).  We really need to be responsible and look at viable alternatives and commit to addressing the low river/dirty river situations before our luck runs out.

KGC's Version of a Pink Ribbon Campaign......

...... mostly named that because that is the colour of the flagging tape we have.  I've marked trees on the left of 6 fairway just past the mounds, left of the red tee on #7, and directly next to the right side of 9 green.

Pitch Tubes on Ponderosa Left 6 Fwy

These are all Ponderosa pines and all have been attacked by (probably) the Western Pine Beetle but who knows.  The only real way to distinguish which beetle is doing the attacking is to look at larvae or the beetle gallery below the bark.

Beetle Gallery of Mountain Pine Beetle

Beetle Gallery of Western Pine Beetle

The end result is the same as all infected trees need to be cut down and removed.  We've already had to deal with beetle kill this year as covered in the June 28th post.  There will be lots of problems with removal of these trees including the volume of material produced by their removal, deciding how and which way to fall the infected trees, and what sort of impact a possible Western Pine Beetle infestation will have on the front nine layout which pretty much depends on Ponderosa pines.

Other things coming out of the wood work now that we are over half way include knapweed which is in full bloom all over the course.

Knapweed Left 5 Fwy

I've covered this pesky weed before (go here ) and not much has changed regarding it.  If you see it pull and we'll pick it up (hot spots are mostly on the back with the left of 14 fairway and the left of 17 fairway the worst).  I know that if we can treat these areas early in the spring with broadleaf herbicide we get pretty good control but its a case of getting the time and since I am the only guy with a applicators license I either have to do the application and be directly at the treated location if someone else is doing the application.  Either situation is not always an option when we are starting up.  

The river .... lets talk about it later I am already pretty bummed out.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

What's new.

This past week has been very busy and my time has been spread pretty thin so some stuff got put back burner. As I threatened last post, we have begun to aerate this week. We will begin with the fairways (see The Down Hill Slide....from 2010 for information on why) and will move onto greens starting the week of the 25th.
The tournament schedule leading up to last week sort of played with our falling spray program dates and, as a result, we have quite a bit of Fusarium (again, see posting from 2010 title Week of May 23 for more info on Fusarium) on the greens but we did get the first of our treatment down at the beginning of the week and now all we have to do is grow out the damage from this bout of disease and keep up with treatments on our normal fall schedule.
If you've played this week you probably noticed the work going on at the range. I was waiting until I posted anything about the project but that is just stupid because if I wait until it is done everyone will have found out for themselves, or worse, through the rumour mill about what is going on. I'll treat the project like the "River Updates" and rehash the week and give notice of what is to come the following week so people know what's what.

Driving Range Update
Firstly why the range and why now? The "why the range" was touched on in last weeks post (see Update). Why now? The quick and dirty answer might be something along lines of "best bang for the buck". Few other projects discussed by the Strategic Planning committee and presented to the Board of Directors had the same cost to potential revenue ratio (if there really is such a ratio?!). A new green or new tee would update the layout but, unless you're planning to do nine new golf holes, I'm not sure how much more play building or updating a single tee would bring in (not saying we don't need to do that, but that is whole new topic!), A driving range can add to the bottom line of a golf course in many ways. People buy driving range passes on top off their regular seasons pass and if your range is suitable people will come and practice even if they aren't members. The more people that hang around the club the greater the exposure and the better off the club will be in many aspects including membership numbers and extra revenue. Furthermore, a suitable range opens up numerous opportunities for offering special lessons and even the development of multi day clinics which again means more people spending time at KGC.

Right now the bulk of the work is stripping the old sod and moving material. We don't have the equipment to do that so we brought in a bulldozer to rough shape the range.

Pushin' the old tee deck

Prior to stripping material we dug out all the irrigation heads (24 in total) and will re-use those when we add back new pipe to the range. We also took the time to remove the perennials on the back of the tee and will use those around the golf course.

Bucket O' Perennials

Next post will have some information on how much material we needed to move but until then the following picture shows how much material was moved after one day (and, FYI, at the point this picture was taken we weren't even half way!)

Wildlife
On Thursday we got to watch the cubs and their "mom" devour some of the chokecherries around the putting green. Next to 3 green they demolished the Schubert chokecherry tree. I think I may have to admit that a Schubert is a poor choice for a tree at KGC.

River Watch

September 24

The flow is so low now that we can't even pump 130 GPM any more. At present, we have had to use one of the control valves to limit the pump station output to 100 GPM. I guess the good news is the reservoir is mostly full and the water demands are somewhat limited. I am not having much luck getting hold of the necessary government departmental representatives to line up the required permits to perform the obviously needed work at our intake. I'll keep trying and, hopefully, things fall into place before next April or, worst cast, next August.

Upate

Starting next week (September 19th week) we will begin to do a small renovation project on the golf course. In an effort to update and make some of our facilities more usable the club decided to direct resources at bettering the driving range. The ultimate goal will be to increase the teeing area and grade the range so players are able to see the balls they hit land at any distance over the entire breadth of the range. The range will close for the season once we begin moving earth and it is planned for it to open early next spring. I'll post greater details and the progression of the project in the future.

Wildlife

No real news to anybody who has golfed over the past month but there is small bear who is making KGC his stomping grounds.

It has taken me this long to get a decent picture. We think it is the same bear from last year since the white marking on its chest are similar to one we had around the course last fall. The good news is he is healthy looking and making short order of this seasons saskatoons. We are notifying players when the bear is out and there is a posting on number one tee informing the uninitiated on how to handle encounters. (Click link for information regarding bear encounters www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/bearwld.htm)

River Watch

Still hanging in there. The single operating pump shutdown on Sunday and we were down beginning of this week to move rocks to get it up an running again at around 130 GPM. The combined fertilizing and nice weather require us to use more water than usual this time of year so the reservoir is low but as long as we can keep pumping until we blow the lines in October we should be able to fill the reservoir and have water for the beginning of next year......FYI: we like to have the reservoir full in the spring since there has been years where we've been using water on the course but were unable to pump up from the river because of a low run off. For me its comparable to having money tucked away in a sock for a rainy day.

September 15

Not so exciting times

My dad says there is a Chinese curse that says something along the lines of "may you live in exciting times". Keeping that phrase in mind I can honestly say over the past couple weeks we've been blessed and definitely not cursed. Events on the the golf course have been extremely typical almost leaning towards boring. With summer staff leaving we don't really have the staff for small projects such as the paving block work we've been doing around the ball washer areas at the tees. Most of our time has been spent doing routine maintenance.

I've done a very preliminary scout of "beetle trees"and have found more. The most disturbing find so far is next to 6 green where a very large Ponderosa pine was hit hard by the beetle. This is the first large tree on the front nine to be attacked. Its location next to the road, power lines, and 6 green may result in us having to remove some extra trees to get it to fall where it will do the least damage. We will start to visit the usual areas and by the end of September I should have a good idea of how many trees we need to fall.

Dying Ponderosa on the Right

The club is hosting a regional tournament this Saturday so we won't start anything too crazy but be forewarned it is time to aerate. We will start by picking away at the fairways and then start in on the greens by the third or fourth week in September. There is some projects bubbling away on the back burner and if those heat up I may need to move regular fall preparation up a week or two.

River Watch

August 28

September 8

We've been running on one pump (about 230 GPM) since the end of August and have been able to keep up with the golf course demand. This past Monday we had the first low wet well shutdown. I was able to adjust the flow down to 180 GPM but that only lasted a day and the pumps shutdown again. I had to decrease the flow further to 120 GPM to keep the one pump filling the reservoir . We brought down a crew of 4 and after a couple of hours of moving rocks and we able to increase the flow near the intake allowing me to operate the pumps at around 180 GPM. This is only the first of many visits to keep the water flowing so stay tuned for more updates.