Loft going up
Lights now work
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Cart barn work
We added a couple of lofts for storage and repaired the lighting in cart barn B. This cart barn is now used by the grounds and the Proshop for storage.
Bathroom progress
The weather this November and the start of December has allowed us to continue on with our bathroom project. Working this late in the season with these types of projects is an added bonus!
Block work complete at the back 9 location.
Septic tank at the front 9 location (between holes 4 and 7).
Septic tank and drain field at the back 9 location (between 13 and 15)
Drain field finished at the front 9 location.
Plumbing in and concrete prep work complete at the back 9 location.
Concrete being poured at the back 9 location.
Trenching for the water lines to the bathroom on the back 9
Water line pipe installation
Trenching and installing water lines to the front 9 location
Our friends at Catapillar brought in a D3 dozer for us to use at the front 9 location. Some site work was needed to remove a few knobs and to fill in a valley between the location and the septic tank.
Case tires
The tires on our Case 580 loader finally split to a point where they would no longer hold air. Even tubes would get punctured in the cracks. I use the loader to move snow piles in the winter so new tire had to be purchased now.
Cracks in the side walls
More cracks
New tires on the Case. The traction is already improved.
Winterization
The Winterization process on both golf courses was a big success. The weather cooperated wonderfully and everything was completed. It is now up to Mother Nature to be kind to us over the next 4 months.
All greens-tees-approaches-fairways were treated with a fungicide to eliminate severe snowmold damage. This is actually a picture of our new sprayer delivery in November; which will start to be used next season. Having this new 300 gallon sprayer will allow us to reduce our application window. We are going to start PGR and foliar fertilizer applications on the Greywalls fairways next year using our old 175 gallon sprayer along with this new rig.
Both irrigation systems were winterized Using large compressors to blow all of the water out of the irrigation lines.
The process takes 3 days on the Heritage, 2 days on Greywalls and a couple hundred gallons of Diesel fuel.
We rented a diesel heated power washer this fall to detail clean our equipment. This rental proved to be a huge time saver while providing better results. A process which we will continue to do every fall.
After the equipment is power washed it is important to grease every zerk to make sure water is not left in these areas over the winter months.
After spraying the greens/approaches/tees we then topdress them heavily with sand. This sand layer insulates and protects the plant crowns from low winter temperatures and winter wind.
Here is a close up picture of our surfaces after the sand and Milorganite has been applied. Just the tips of the grass is exposed.
We hosted UW again on our Heritage golf course for a snowmold research study. We are honored to have them on site researching different fungicides and fungicide combinations. The data collected helps golf courses everywhere survive the harsh winter months.
Drains
We continue to discover drains that were lost during construction. We usually find one or two a year then we mark them and add them to our maps. Many of these drains were cut down to early allowing soil and seed washed over them. They were lost because they were not mapped or marked. We now have the fun job of finding these covers and flushing the lines.
Hydraulic leaks again
We had two more late season hydraulic leaks this fall. One on Greywalls number 13 and one on Heritage number 15. These areas were treated like the earlier leak we had on 1 Greywalls. 
The addition of this new greensmower will reduce our risk of hydraulic leaks next season
These areas will recovery with time next season. Leaks are always a risk when operating equipment but I have never had 3 in one season.
Fresh leak on 13 Greywalls. Peat about to be applied to soak up the excess oil.
Area after peat was used and removed
Double aerification on the damaged area
Watering in a heavy sand/seed mix
Cores on 15 Heritage a couple of days after the leak.
Close up view of the cores before they were removed.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Natural/Native Area mowing
It is that time of year again when we mow down all of the Native/Natural areas on both golf courses. We start the bulk of this work after the regular rough growth slows down and we can change the height on other mowers to cut the long areas. We like to get this done before the leaves start to heavily fall so we can blow most of them into those areas and mulch them up.
There are many areas that our mowers can not get to because of rock or steep terrain; those areas get managed using hand equipment- labor intensive but effective.
We were able to purchase a used sidewinder this season to use strictly in the Native/Natural areas. As these areas mature and age not only do the grasses get thick but the volunteer weed population grows. After years of observation we developed a list of 'critical' areas that come into play often during a round of golf. Allowing these 'critical' areas to stay thick and tall creates frustration and slows down play. Our goal is to groom these locations so balls that enter can be found quickly and be hit back into play.
A few native flowering weeds is desirable in our Natural/Native areas but when there population begins to choke out the planted fine fescues and bluestem grasses chemical management must take place. In order to make these applications the area must be groomed first. You will see more and more of this in the future as we continue our effort of keeping the grasses as the predominant species within these areas.
Our new/used addition to the fleet pictured above. We feel this unit will benefit all of our members and guests.
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