Here are a couple of photos of some of the minor things that have been going on around the club so far this winter. We have been making a number of upgrades to the pool bathrooms. The two most major changes are new paint and the removal of a vintage urinal in the boy's bathroom. We replaced the oldest urinal in town with a new one.

Of course the change ment we needed to make a few changes to the plumbing so the new urinal could flush. We also added new toilets and dispensers. New and additional lights will be installed soon and each bathroom will be getting fans. I need to add a few hangers and hang a couple of new mirrors, but I will wait for temperatures to get above freezing again.

The other photo is of a small project to save some space in the breakroom and keep our time clock computer a little less dusty. I also needed a place to put our new training manuals which I expect employees to read with a fever. And I also want to track how many hours certain jobs are taking this season so I needed a place to hold some of that information. Specifically I am looking for an accurate measurment of just how many hours walk mowing greens requires.

Snow mold and equipment care........

So today I finished up the snow mold prevention application on the greens. I also tank mixed a plant protectant to help prevent winter dessication. I usually have this down by Thanksgiving but the weather before Thanksgiving was really nice and then the week after Thanksgiving I handwatered greens instead. Then we got some snow and I had to wait for that to melt to put the finishing touches on the golf course for the winter.

I also picked up the front nine flags and some other stray furniture which makes the course open for winter play only. That means no carts and no play on the front side.

When we bring these pieces in for cleaning it has become quite the process. This sprayer will take about 12 hours to clean. The tank gets cleaned with muriatic acid. If I cleaned something at my house I would use acid; it works pretty good to get rid of chemical stains.

During the cleaning, especially on the sprayer, I make notes of parts that need to be repaired or fixed. The sprayer this year will get all new spray tips and I repaired a function that I have been living without during the season, but kinda missed it. I also have a part to replace that I got caught on a tree limb back in August and a few inexpensive parts to fix on the booms. Otherwise this piece of equipment has been running very well for us and is heading into its 8th year with just short of 1000 hours.

winter work

During the winter the cutting units on the mowers are taken apart, cleaned, de-greased, and moving parts are replaced if needed. After the reels are reassembled we grind the reel and bedknife.

We have 35+ reels here and each reel is in a maintenance rotation because the work is time consuming and we have found that a tear down is required every 3 years except on certain pieces which get the treatment everyother year.

All the reels get sharpened during the offseason and our maintenance schedule seems to find problems before they are problems saving us from in season breakdowns.

winter?

Usually by Thanksgiving we have gotten enough weather in either snow or rain form to shut the course down for the winter. But this year the nice weather just keeps coming and unfortunatly your grass really needs some rain.

Today I am out handwatering the new sod and starting a few greens. Each green gets about 500 gallons of water or more and that should give us another two to three week window to wait for either rain or snow. Tank watering is a painfully slow way to water.

Irrigation blowout.............

Next week Monday we will be starting the annual irrigation blowout. The process takes about 3.5 days.

This week we mowed all the short grass one last time and then pulled all the reels off of the traction units. So I dont plan to mow anymore this season. The bathrooms should be winterized and shut down for the season by the weekend. Most of the rakes, t-signs, tee markers, ballwashers, etc. have been brought indoors too.

Following blowout we still need to make our snowmold application and topdress the greens. We also will be working on the leaf harvest, but that has been a waiting game as the trees are not dropping leaves real fast yet.

New tees????

Here are some new locations for ladies tees in 2012. Hole #6 could be 50+ yards shorter (125 yards) and #16 could be as much as 60 yards shorter (120 yards) than the current tee boxes if this project is approved.

I have often believed that the ladies tees were positioned too far back and also believe that the tee space on our par 3's is too small. The construction of new tee's on these two par 3's allow for more tee space for the men and a more comfortable hole for the ladies.

My plan is to cut these areas down to tee height (did that today as you can see in the pictures) and when construction begins save the sod so the tee can be put into play as soon as possible. We want to excavate a larger area then you see in the picture so we can elevate the tee slightly and of course be left with a flat tee.

No time table is set for this project because it has not been approved yet. I would like to get #16 done early in the summer and #6 (requires more fill) completed late summer or early fall.

#8 drainage project complete.................

The drainage project on #8 is complete. The fairway lines have been adjusted and we will be evaluating the playability of the new fairway lines through the spring of next year. My current plan is to maintain this area at 1 and 1/4 inch.

We are also working on building 1 and maybe 2 new tees next year on #6 and #16 for the women. While nothing is approved I will be working on exact placement, size, and distance heading into the winter months.

#8 drainage

Today we trenched our drain lines, put in the drain tile with pea gravel, and put in some transfer boxes. There is about 100 ft of tile left to be laid and we should get to that Monday and complete our finish grade. If it stays dry I hope to get the sod finished next week too.

Today we trimmed some trees around the property. This is a before and after picture of one limb we trimmed that was hanging over #1 fairway. A member requested it be removed and I couldnt see why it needed to stay.

It would be better for the future if I took before and after photos from the same spot and with the same camera. It would make the differences a little easier to see.

#8 drainage project update.....

This project stalled out because of the rain last night. The rain did gives us a chance to check our work before we start trenching in our drainage system. I am shooting for starting our trenching on Friday this week.

#8 drainage project......

Here is the start of the drainage project across #8 fairway. Today we stripped and hauled away the old sod and started moving some dirt around to improve the surface drainage. We also located the irrigation lines. We probably wont hit any of those when we start putting in our subsurface drainage.

If things dry up on the site we could get most of our grading finished tomorrow and start trenching on Wednesday.

tee adjustment............

Wednesday we repainted and adjusted some tees around the course. Some of them have become much to small and even though they are free form tees a couple of them were a little too "free form."

10 or more years ago when I was here it would take me 4 and 1/2 hours to mow tees and collars and now it is taking people 3 hours. Something must have changed and it isn't the mower. This picture is of #6 and I know that it excites everyone that this tee got moved back another 5 yards but if this adjustment allows us to use more of the existing tee then we have accomplished our goal. Our goal is to have flat tees, good grass to hit from, and be able to follow the basic rules for tee setup. One of those rules being the tees should be placed no closer to the back of the tee than two club lengths.

Wednesday we trenched a new drainage line from the wash pad to another "drain field" or ditch. The area around the wash pad was not draining and all the water was starting to limit access to the shop and ruin the surrounding turf. This project should be finished up soon. To further improve the drainage we might add some drainage units to catch the grass clippings before the go into our drainage system.

#1 cart path exit............

The cart path exit on #1 was more than a little rough so at a member's request we fixed it. First we saw cut the end and then we used some of these old pavers that were donated to the club some time ago. We still have enough of these pavers to fix the exit on #2 cart path.

some small fall projects...............

our bentgrass nursery - The stripped area in the picture will be put into bluegrass this fall which we will be used for some fairway leveling next spring and early summer.

#11 collar repair - This year we are using bentgrass from our L-93 nursery which might help our success rate as this particular spot gets very hot in the summer. This coming week we will be finishing some fairway aerification and overseeding, sodding a small area on #12 collar, making a fall broadleaf application around bunkers and the perimeters of the golf course, and detailing trees for the final time this season.

#14 fairway regrade and sod project

On Wednesday we were able to get sod and finish the fairway project on #14. I also ordered enough sod to sod the new cart path edge on #17. The project went well and in a few weeks we will start the work on #8 which will include sub-surface drainage, surface drainage, and more sod. Big rolls of sod cost $1.05 per yard plus about $100 for delivery if we can keep the amount small enough to avoid the semi.

The remainder of the season this area will be mowed to 1 and 1/4 inch and next year in the spring we will re-draw the fairway to include this new area.

Once the sod is healed in along the cart path traffic will be able to continue as normal, but for now the best option is for cart traffic to vary the entry points and avoid the wettest parts of the new sod.

On Monday we will be deep-tining the greens and the course will be closed. The remainder of the week will be spent monitoring green recovery and repairing a few bad spots on collars #12 and #11 with our nursery bentgrass. If time allows I will also be addressing the exit point on #1 and #2 cart paths. We have a pallet of old pavers left over from a project and we will use those to make a smooth transition from path to turf.

Green adjustments........

This week we started to adjust some of our green edges and fairway edges. Most green edges were adjusted to the outside by 2 to 6 inches depending on the green. The process is simple. I take a 5 foot piece of pvc and put it on the edge of the bluegrass or perimeter cut and put a paint dot on the green. In a perfect world the mowers would never miss their line and the adjustments would not be needed, but its hard to mow good on Saturday and Sunday morning when you slept in the parking lot.

The fairway adjustment are a little more abstract. I am trying to put each row of irrigation heads in the fairway. This is not possible on all the holes, but most fairways are being expanded in one spot or another.

We will also be going through all the tee complexes this fall to make any needed changes to the free flowing tees here at Hillcrest.

#14 fairway project...............

I could not take it anymore and decided I had to repair the uneven areas on #14 fairway that hold water way too long after even small rains. The areas hold water for so long ducks were starting to gather. Still on the late summer project list are repairs to a couple of collar areas, some more fairway interseeding, a number of stump holes to either seed or sod, and a couple of very small green surrounds to sod. I had to squeeze #14 in somewhere and this was the week.

October is reserved for adding sub surface drainage and re grading #8 fairway.

The lay of the land didnt leave a lot of options as far as subsurface drainage is concerned so basically we raised the area by about 3 inches and graded the section smooth with the surrounding fairway. On Friday we will be laying the sod.

This was a trial run for a couple of other areas that give us trouble coming out of spring and #14 has plenty of depressions and poorly drained areas that should be addressed, but this section is a nice start and fits our sod budget.

What a storm..........

OK, so we did not really need that. I dont know how much hail we got but I know it did plenty of damage to the greens, trees, and the flowers.

Today we did the leaf harvest around the pro shop and clubhouse, cleared all cart paths, backpacked all 20 greens, backpacked all tee complexes, and blow about 1/3 of the fairways.

Pat cleaned off the roof and we had a crew putting an effort into the pool but alas it was decided that it should be closed for the season as only a handful days remained on the schedule.

We double verticut the greens and then mowed them. They look good from the fairway, but not so much when you stand on them. The hail beat them up pretty bad but dont expect recovery to take too long either. We mowed about 1/3 of the fairways today and quite a little rough.

Tomorrow the game plan is to mow the greens and topdress the greens. Mow the collars and approaches and blow off some more fairways. Sunday we are going to roll the greens and backpack blow out the bunkers and on Monday we will start chopping leaves in the rough and putting back the bunkers. We will also send out a tree crew and at least look into draining the pool (that doesnt make the pool sound very high on the priority list does it, but it is up there, for real).

The olde girl will be back in shape before you know it. Have a good riverboat Days.

Extra water..............

What a nice picture.

With monthly rain totals not even reaching a .5 inch and multiple days with temps in the high 90's and 100's we started putting down some supplemental water where irrigation coverage is either light or impeded by trees. I like to turn these heads on for about 2 or 3 hours and then fertilize them. All the areas are in the rough and some water and food now will hasten their recovery when cooler temperatures and rain return.