To Snow Blow or Not To Snow Blow.....

That sounds a little melodramatic but that is one of the arguments I've been having with myself since last Thursday (Nov. 10th).  As referenced in the last post, the small layer of snow remaining on the greens could be a problem.  The forecast last week was calling for increasing temperatures and possible showers.  We ended up making the call last Thursday to remove the thin layer of snow on those greens where ice could develop.  The real troublesome greens were already tarped so the greens we removed the snow from were those greens that had a frozen surface, had some occurrence of winter damage in the past, and where the snow had slightly melted .  The other greens that hadn't really seen any late season heat still had a couple inches of snow on their surface so we left them.  We ended up taking the snow off of 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 18.  The moisture that ended up coming was a mixture of wet snow and rain and made for some interesting conditions.

Snow Layer 14G

By Sunday most of the greens were like the above picture: a fluffy snow layer over corn snow over frozen ground.  The corn layer is porous but tight and crumbled with little effort.  The greens that had the snow removed were a bit different.

9 Green

Obviously there was less snow in general and the surface on all (with the exception of one) were slightly thawed.  Again the snow layer was a tight corn snow but still came off the surface with minimal effort.  The funky one is 4 green.  The surface is bullet proof and the snow cover is very solid or, dare I say it, "ice like"?  The layer is small and does come off with a bit more effort but now we have to decide what it could turn into.  Again, the forecast is for more snow which puts a time constraint on removing the snow from 4 green since I would want anything left on the green surface after snow blowing to melt.  Also, forecasted overnight lows are below -10 degrees Celsius and exposing a partially melted surface to that temperature is pretty much a guaranty for ice.  There is always a way to rationalize your choices but it is only with the benefit of hindsight do you know if the right choice was made so, again, To Snow Blow or Not To Snow Blow......

Bring it on

I guess it can snow any time now.  The sprays have all been applied to the greens (I've still got one in my back pocket if conditions dictate it), tees, and fairways.  We did a few experiments with different rates and different products including one that is more a plant health promoter with fungicidal properties.  We also did a little demonstration that should have people talking in the spring....however, there was sort of glitch that may have balled up the demonstration but everyone is just going to have to wait until spring to find out more!

Tarp wise we went with the same general idea of laying tarps as we did last winter:  permeable over-wintering tarps of varying weight on #1, #6, and #15 greens and the sandwich approach (permeable on the green surface which was then covered with an impermeable tarp) on #7 green.  A few of the covered greens were sprayed with an extra preventative fungicide application since the humidity under the tarps can be artificially high and that can encourage disease development.  I had planned on purchasing some extra tarps for this winter but decided against it for budgetary reasons and the fact that the greens that have a history of being funky in the spring already have tarps.  I will budget for more in the spring since they are useful for encourage growth regardless of the spring conditions and who knows what next spring may bring?

We went out last week and put up the fences around those greens with a history of animal traffic patterns. To make things go quicker we installed a series of steel sleeves around those greens that we fence every year. For each green we have measurements of each sleeve from a central point and with that information and a metal detector we go out each fall and find the locations for the posts.  This is sort of a throw back to those days when the elk seemed to show up before the snow fell or the ground was able to freeze and we had to fence greens to control damage.  With elk traffic patterns and herd size changing it seems to be a far less of a problem in recent years.  They still show up but it seems later on and in smaller numbers.  This might be one of those things we can do differently to save time since it seems the elk are less of a problem.

Looking for Sleeves

This past week we had  a small accumulations of snow that will work nicely as a insulation layer to protect the short cut turf from the forecasted lows of -15.  We'll keep an eye out for weather changes since this thin layer of snow could, if lightly rained on, form an ice layer.  If we get more snow and it accumulates to around 8" to 10" we should be on our way.

Snow and Fencing on #10 Fairway

Some More Fall Activities Picts

So far the fall has been fairly typical work and weather wise.  We were able to deep tine all the greens again this fall with 3/4 inch solid tines.  Because we've been using this type of aeration for a few years now we were able to go as deep as 10 inches on certain greens with no detrimental effects.

Verti Drain Operating on #1 Green

Some of the greens (those with a little or no substance to their root zone) have a tendency to overly "puff up" when aerated at too deep a depth.  For those greens we lessened the depth and slowed the tractor which seemed to help keep the turf in place.  This time out we also rolled the greens with the tractor and aerator after we finished aerating and that really seemed to help lessen the "puffiness" factor.

Rolling to Smooth the
Green Surface

Depending on our spring and the health of the greens after this winter, we will have to aerate again early in the season to make up for missing this falls hollow core aeration.  I am still not sure how that will work itself out but the hope is that by pulling a core early on in the spring the greens will be able to recover from both styles of aeration in the time it would normally take for the surfaces to recover from just the fall's deep tine.

If there is any good news this fall it could be the fact that we found very few trees (just over 20) attacked by the pine beetle.  The flip side is the fact that some of those trees we found were very large Ponderosa's that dominate the scenery a KGC.

Cleaning up Ponderosa on
#6 Fairway

Hauling Logs From
#15 Green

As before, we will take the infected trees and process them in some fashion so as to kill the beetle.  

You may be finished but we're not

Sort of the same theme as last year at this time.  Now that the golfing season is done we are are in a race against Mother Nature to get everything wrapped up before the weather goes funky.  We still need to finish aerating fairways, scout and fall beetle trees, finish installing irrigation on the driving range and prep for seeding in the spring, begin our winter disease prevention sprays, collect all the accessories on the course, deep tine aerate the greens, install tree protectors on the planted trees, blow the city lines on the golf course, find the buried steel sleeves and install the fencing around the greens, tarp certain greens, finish installing new fuel tanks at the shop, and ????? all before the snow flies.

Frosty mornings play havoc with most of what we need to do but we work with the weather by starting those jobs that can be done without driving on the turf.  I am sorry to say, but it is nice not having any golfers around since we are free to move about without having to watch for balls or people, especially when it comes to tasks such as falling trees and applying control products for disease prevention on the turf.  I'm not the only one that feels that way.......somebody must have sent out a memo the day we closed.

Sow and Cub #1 Fwy

Some of the many deer all over the course

Driving Range Update

We finished the sodding of the tee deck in that pouring rain of a couple of Fridays ago.  We were covered in slimy goo so there was no pictures of the process but here is one of the end result.

Driving Range Tee

 As mentioned previously, we are trying to finish installing the irrigation and get things back filled and levelled in anticipation of seeding in the spring.  A rough accounting of the project up to this point includes: cat work ($7950), irrigation ($2960), sod ($3800), miscellaneous (mostly shipping: $1500), labor ($1700 approximately - defined by the fact that two extra people stayed on extra time to help with our regular fall work), and most  likely the remaining expenses for this phase of the project are those associated with seeding ($1500-$2000) which just over $18 000 (plus the labour costs).  Not quite the $100,000+ the rumour mill was churning out but hopefully it will look like we spent that much!  I guess the hope is we have a nice spring that will allow us to get on the range early so we can seed.  Once the sod is rooted and we have the irrigation working people will be able to hit balls.  The worst part will be picking the balls in the goo but maybe we'll get a quick catch and that will be a short lived inconvenience.

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.