Well Refurbished

The well renovation was completed on Friday afternoon with the installation of the refurbished pump assembly and motor.  The visible portion looks new, however it is the old motor with a fresh coat of paint and complete rebuild.  Figuring the well was installed in 1989 and lasted through 2011, hopefully we can get at least another 20+ years out of it.  Reviewing video footage of the before and after is pretty convincing that the blasting and jetting process works as advertised.  The 40' of stainless steel screen at the bottom of the well looks brand new and there are visible cavities behind the slots.  Now we just have to put a fresh coat of paint on the rest of the assembly and make it a bit more presentable.  If I can get the video footage I'll try and share some of the before and after stills from it.

Why The Low H2O?

When we drained the pond on #6 down last fall we noticed the muskrat control netting had slipped down a few feet in spots and there were some burrows in the pond bank.  With everything going on this spring so far we have not had a chance to rebuild the small portion that got dug out and also install some new netting up higher on the bank.  Another issue with the pond is the gate system has rocks in the bottom of the enclosure that is preventing the bottom gate sections to seat properly and seal water off from draining out.  This coming week we will climb down and pull the rocks out, and also start to rebuild the pond bank and install new muskrat control along the pond bank.

In other news, we have been very busy tidying up the multiple projects we had left over from last fall/winter.  The tracks from the work on the irrigation pond have been cleaned up and sodded over in front of the 13th green.  The drainage on #15 & 16 has been cleaned up and prepped for seed/sod.  Some of the smaller stumps have been ground up and the holes cleaned out.  The larger ones are too big to feasibly do in-house so we will hire out their removal.  Most of the landscape beds have been cleaned out and are awaiting a fresh layer of mulch.  And to go with all of that we have already started some normal rough mowing routines and are getting closer to a regular mowing schedule on fine turf areas (kinda crazy considering it is only April 7th).

Pump House Flush

We had some spring cleaning in the pump house yesterday.  Every spring over the last handful of years we have had Midwest Elevator out with their airlift system to remove debris from the bottom of the wet well inside the building.  As part of that process we have to remove the check valves and turn them around so we can back flush the pump screens and churn up the water in the wet well.  It went very smooth and we removed a fair amount of stuff such as leaves, small sticks, and even the remains of a squirrel.  Since we did the pond work last December we are hoping this could be one of that last times or at least we can space out the cleanings to every few years.  It is not that much of a hassle but wrestling around 6" check valves and steel couplers can get a bit tiresome.  Pond work?  Well, we extended the wet well intake about 4' and raised it about 24" off the bottom of the pond.  The old inlet was flush with the bottom and allowed all sorts of debris into the system.  So between the two jobs we should be clean and good to go for years to come...

Some First Cuts of the Season

Just a quick shot of the first fairway mowing of the season.  Yesterday we got out the mowers and put first cuts on the tees, approaches, and fairways.  The greens also were cut, for the fourth time this season already!  Couple of cool days here but things sure are greening up.  There is talk of hitting 80 degrees this weekend! Wow.

2012 GIS & Takehome Tidbits

NOTE: With the new blog format be sure to click on the post so you get the whole entry. Even the most current posting, though a larger format, does not show completely...

A few weeks ago I was looking at this landscape; It was the Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas, NV.  For one week a year the GIS brings people from all areas of golf course operations together to learn, network, and relax a bit.  While over the years the conference/trade show numbers have decreased a bit, there was a super turnout for the 2012 GIS.  With a attendance of almost 15,000 people and 540 exhibitors, the trade show floor was constantly buzzing.

I had two really good seminars, one on management strategies to decrease the amount of Poa annua on the golf course and the other on stress management strategies for cool-season turf.  I came home with some great information as well as some things we are going to implement in our maintenance practices this coming season.

With the last of the greens covers being disposed of (worn out and deteriorated beyond usefulness) we are going to be striving for a greater percentage of bentgrass on our greens and less annual bluegrass.  Not that we have not all ready been doing things to achieve this over the years, we constantly modify and improve our cultural practices to encourage the bentgrass over the bluegrass.  This season we are going to ease into some of the chemical strategies for modifying our populations of turf on greens.  It is something that will take a long time to appreciate because we wish to achieve this with little to no effect on playability.  This is just one of the many things we are working on this season, stay tuned for further details on everything we are looking at this season.

Panorama from the clubhouse roof 03-20-2012.

Not Too Much Cleanup Thankfully

One casualty from the storm last night. We got about .4" of rain and I'm not sure, but I think the wind gusts were in the 50 mph range.

Off And Running

We mowed greens on Friday, nice clean-up height. We opened the course at noon on Saturday. And now, on Monday afternoon March 19 mind you, we are firing up the irrigation system! Here we go. IVGC is looking forward to potentially a nice long season. Here's hoping the weather is good to us that whole time.

Posting from my phone in the pump house. Not sure how this is gonna look or the quality of the picture until I get back to the computer. Bare with me...