Old Fashioned Style Watering

Round Three. Another powerful storm ripped through Chicagoland yesterday and left over 800,000 customers without power including Skokie Country Club and the Grounds Operation Center and (of  potentially critical importance) our Pumping Station.

This storm actually was fairly mild in terms of tree debris left for clean-up but power supply was disrupted (and still is as of tonight) and with no power there is no ability to run irrigation pump motors, and therefore, no water available from the usual manner. During the last storm with extended power outage (4 days) soil was moist from plentiful rain, temperatures were cool, and skies were cloudy. Very low turf and personal stress.
Conditions during this outage are much different with no rain for three weeks (and very little rain from the storm), temperatures warm to very warm, and clear, sunny skies. Much greater turf and personal stress!
While I tossed and turned last night I had visions of my plan, for today's putting surface watering, dancing in my head. With a large component of our putting surfaces being poa annua there is little tolerance for weather stresses, whether from; high or low air temperatures, high or low soil moisture levels, and/or high or low humidity levels. As such we started early this morning using our jetter tank and our sprayer tank, along with small gasoline powered water pumps, and directly pumping from our ponds as well, to provide a modest amount of water to sustain the greens for the day.

It was slow going, as it took three of us (plus extra help during filling procedures) nearly six hours each to irrigate all the greens, a task which usually can be performed automatically with our 1800 gallon per minute pumping station, a mere 15-20 minutes total! What can I say...sometimes you have to do things the old fashioned way. Hopefully not very long though!

First things first...setting up generator cart to power coffee pot... then fuel pumps!

 Steve and Mike filling up jetter tank

Steve watering 1st of many greens.

 Here I'm watering 13 green directly from ponds/channel. Did same at 3,9,11, &12

Jacob with sprayer tank & small pump on #17. One of several he watered.

The pumps that we all used each produced approx. 12 Gallons Per Minute!

 

 The 3-60 HP motors capable of pumping 1800 Gallon Per Minute, that I hope are running tomorrow!!!

Weather Extremes Continue

It's been one of the oddest weather years I can remember in many years. Cold and wet for much of the spring, a few record hot days sprinkled in, then temperatures cooled off again, then, as summer began, two wind storms ripped though the course, and now as of Independence Day weekend, high temperatures and record heat indices are expected. Will conditions ever moderate? Less just hope that the month of July is somewhat normal without extreme heat, extreme humidity, extreme wind speed, or extreme rainfall or lack thereof!

Last Tuesday night high winds in excess of  70 mph caused tree loss, power loss, and tree debris to be strewn about the course. Six trees were destroyed, either blown over or split apart and many others lost significant limbs and numerous small branches. Our on-going tree management efforts which includes maintenance pruning and removals as necessary, surely limited the amount of tree damage we might otherwise would have received. We lost power to the Grounds Operation Center (and also the Helps Quarters, Paddle Facility, Irrigation Pumping Station, and Half Way House -all fed off the same power lines) and it remained off until Friday morning. Of all of these areas, what can potentially be devastating in an extended outage is lack of power to the Irrigation Pumping Station. Obviously, without power, pumps cannot run and irrigation cannot proceed. If weather conditions at the same time are hot and dry, turf can be severely stressed and turf loss could occur. In spite of bad luck having the storm occur and cause two full days of course clean-up for our grounds staff, the good luck was that it was cloudy, cool, and turf did not require any irrigation. A good thing indeed!

 The "Debris Field" June 22

The old apple tree near Half Way House, uprooted

 Willow on #11 lost approx. 1/3 of canopy. Perhaps time to remove in winter??

   Half of the canopy of this Hackberry on #7 was split, disfiguring to point that removal was necessary

 

Another example of large limbs that fell. This is an Ash on #15

Ryan and Gus in full "buck-up" mode

After a few long days of clean-up the course was back to normal, but then another wind storm came through this past week leaving behind another deposit of branches and leaves requiring yet another day of debris removal. Our Grounds Staff once again rose to the challenge and not only prepared the course for a busy holiday weekend but also spent a good portion of the day cleaning debris. Three clean-up day's in a week and a half is more than enough for a while! A little moderation on the weather front would be nice for a change!

Kiltie Days Recap

With a golf season thus far of up and down temperatures and frequent rainfall, we have to cross our fingers prior to any event and hope for full cooperation from Mother Nature. We certainly got our wish with Kiltie Days this past weekend! Aside from almost an inch of rain on Wednesday, the tournament weather conditions on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were mild and dry and about as good for golf as we could get. From all accounts I think it was one of the most successful Kiltie Days to date!

Prior to any major event such as Kiltie Days, or the Derby, there is a significant amount of course preparation involved. We schedule maintenance activities to peak at the same time as the event. Topdressing, plant protection (disease and insect management), growth regulation, and detailing programs (edging sprinkler heads, markers, and drains, edging cart paths, filling divots, removing runners/grass clumps in bunkers, removing sucker sprouts on trees, and more) are all addressed. And, of course, mowing of all primary play areas is performed each day and repeated often, as is the case for greens. Double mowing each morning, followed by greens rolling, and single mowing each evening (also often followed by rolling) is employed to provide the ball roll speed challenge that competitors enjoy, or at least think they enjoy!

 Quality mowing begins with sharp and well adjusted mowers. Here Mike (and his friend Gato) inspect a bedknife in the process of being sharpened

Rafa, and Miguel (in background on bunker rake machine), smooth and adjust depths of sand

Mowing and Rolling equipment head out for tournament evening tasks

In addition to these course maintenance activities, other items such as erecting the scoreboard, finishing up projects ( at this time #5 Mound & the Half Way House fence/landscape replacement) and other assorted tasks such building and setting the target "gong" for this year's Kiltie Days, add up to a very busy pre-tournament period. It's always a rather feverish and sometimes very challenging time for us, but when the tournament is underway and players are enjoying the competition, it's also a very rewarding feeling knowing that our efforts have made a significant contribution to the success of the event.

 

Mound project at #5 after hauling material and shaping

Mound seeded, drainage installed, & final prep for sod 

 Sod, seed, and mulch blanket in place

Resolving one of several drainage issues along haul road route

Mulch blanket installed post seeding along length of #5

After all work was complete we came in this morning to see this.

Do you suppose it was the rope, or the bright orange ribbons, or the different color sod that this cart driver was oblivious too???

This pix shows the damage a little better. Just thrills me to have to repair this!

 Apparently this rope is not visible enough either!

Fescue beginning to emerge above blanket. We intentionally seeded at a low rate to see if this tall rough area will be more playable than other such areas. Establishment will be slower but it may be a benefit long term.

A quick project at Half Way House. These overgrown shrubs and deteriorated fence needed to be changed.

New fence, enlarged stoop, new shrubs, more road space, much better! 

Beautiful day and nice crowd watch playoffs for this year's Kiltie Days Championship.

With a few weeks now before tournament preparations for our next "major", The Skokie Derby, begin, we'll keep plenty busy with routine mowing, trimming, raking, topdressing, plant protection,and more and we'll add a few projects or two such as drainage in a few places and re-grassing a portion of the bank at No. 9 pond.

I'll keep you posted of these activities.

Weather, Project Challenges

Over the last several weeks we've certainly had our share of weather woes. It's been unusually cold and cloudy, for what seems like an eternity, and then there was a few clear days of warm, near record high, temperatures. The welcomed warmth was followed by a few days of near record low temperatures, and now we're back to cool, cloudy and, most recently, extremely wet conditions. It seems like we've had spring, summer (though not much) early winter, and fall like conditions in the span of only a month! The good news is that through all this it's mostly been just mildly uncomfortable and may have only slightly affect playability and cart use, but it's not devastating weather conditions like in other parts of the country where floods and violent tornadoes have destroyed property and tragically, many lives. We should all keep those, whom have been afflicted by these life changing catastrophes, in our thoughts and prayers. In comparison our minor inconveniences are really quite insignificant.

We've had plenty of activity and challenge lately, with normal course maintenance, project work, and now this week, with excessive rainfall, but overall we are making good progress in all of these areas.

Course Maintenance:
Extended cool, cloudy, and wet conditions (at times) have significantly delayed seed germination in various rough areas where turf was very thin coming our of dormancy. Many of these areas were aerated, seeded, and covered with peat moss (to retain moisture and enhance germination) several weeks ago but are just now finally starting to germinate and establish. Rust disease as well as drought conditions last October likely contributed to the thinning we experienced and hopefully this recent overseeding as well as nutrient applications will soon provide good recovery.

 Seed finally germinates. Notice the tufts of seedling. These are growing in the aerification holes.

The cooler temperatures, and windy and wet conditions through much of our so call "spring" have also caused delay in many typical tasks such as applying broadleaved weed control products, topdressing fairways (performed on about a third of our fairways), planting annual flowers, and some of our routine mowing programs. We're making steady progress in all these areas but we certainly have had more delays than in typical spring periods.

Project Work:
The Paddle Tennis Project began on May 13th with demolition of the old building and wooden decking and site preparation including removal of all the concrete piers which formerly held the old courts. The court contractor disassembled the courts but we assisted in moving  30 - 6'x30' court sections to a staging area where they will remain until a later time when portions will be returned to use.

 Court section being transported to staging area

Pulling old concrete piers - a semi-truck load of them

Prior to excavation beginning, a couple poor quality trees were removed in the vicinity. This one was ready to fall without our help!

 The hollowed out portion was filled with these huge wood borer larva. A delicacy in some countries!

After the court decks were removed excavation for the building basement took place (on Thursday and Friday, May 19-20) and on Friday my staff, using two of our dump trucks and two larger capacity rental trucks, hauled the excavated material to the site behind No. 5 Green. While the soil material was delivered (over 180 loads!) I began shaping it and blending into the existing berm. At 9 o'clock that evening we had completed hauling of approx. 750 yards of material and had it all shaped fairly close to finish grade. It was a long two days that day but we wanted to take advantage of relatively dry ground conditions and dry weather at the time, and without stopping at all except to fill fuel tanks, we tackled the task at hand. I am indeed grateful to my staff for this accomplishment. Had we been delayed just a couple days we would still be waiting to move this material as this week's rainfall would have prevented any movement of heavy equipment and any shaping.

 We were all too focused on the task at hand to photograph the excavation, hauling, and shaping but this photo shows material in place and shaped. Hard to believe that this is the equivalent of about 75 semi-loads of soil.

Paddle House Basement - Where No. 5 berm soil originated.

At the present time we await dry conditions so that we can finish grade, seed, and seed mulch the berm and the haul roads. We're at a bit of a stand still right now but there is no question that with the material in place and shaping complete we have progressed quite well on this project. Yesterday I tried to work the haul road with an implement which scarifies and smooths but hit a bit of an unexpected soft spot and, well, the picture tells the story. I think I'll give it a couple days to dry out a bit!

 Operator (that would be me) thought that he couldn't get this machine stuck. He was wrong!

Some gravel placed under the tracks and a helping pull from our 4X4 dump truck solved this little dilemma!

Excessive Rainfall:

We had several days of rain this week (hence the problem I had above - really, it was only a little water on the surface when I crawled over it - but I hit a pocket of soft mush and dropped about 2 feet!) and this resulted in nearly two days of lost course work and a delay in continuing progress on the No. 5  berm project and haul road repair. 

 A total of 3.5 inches of rain fell Weds. and Thurs. this week.

 An all too familiar site last year... hopefully this doesn't have to be repeated again this year!

We will eventually get caught up, the course will dry out, we'll be able to finish the berm work, and then we'll move on to other tasks and projects. Lets hope we have some nice weather very soon!

Have a great Memorial Day! 

Paddle Project Begins

At the 114th Annual Meeting of Skokie Country Club last evening, the Phase 3 Improvement / Paddle Project  was overwhelmingly passed and as such brought about a whirlwind of activities for us today.  Fresh off the Cedar Shake Roof Project on the Half Way House today began another project, where the SCC Grounds & Greens Dept. got the low bid! We began bright and early this morning removing windows, doors, carpeting, electrical panels, plumbing equipment, wood decking, the water meter, and gas lines, and what then followed was the crushing of the building and loading into refuse boxes for removal. While this work was in progress the water main contractor began installation of a new 8" main, the gas company continued work on providing a new gas supply line, the paddle court contractors began disassembling the courts, and surveyors laid out work for the building foundation excavation. Soil was dug and hauled, gravel delivered, and refuse boxes switched were switched out. It was indeed quite the hub of activity near the Grounds Operation Center today and I'm not sure we could have had anything more going on in one place!

 Hopefully the following photos give you at least a glimpse of what transpired today:

 

The calm before the storm! Equipment ready for action

Jacob saw cutting to re-route power service

 

 Decking dis-assembly and Building Layout

 Deck removed

 North Shore Gas directional boring new supply line

And then the real fun stuff begins...and ends... about 15 minutes later!

 Building gone and neatly packed into 6, 30 yard roll off boxes. Approx. 70% of material will be recycled. Water main installed and ready for pressure test and chlorination. Cone is where new building water tap will occur.

It was a very productive day at SCC and I can't thank my staff enough for their hard work and determination. Kudos to newly established SCC Demolition Experts...Jacob, Gus, Alicus, Robbie, and Devin. And to Ryan, Steve, and the rest of our Grounds Staff for "keeping the fort" and making final preparations to the course for the first golf event, the Elmer Muffwinkle, set for tomorrow. Great work guys!

After a bit more clean-up and the court contractors finish their removal work, the excavation for the basement and foundation for the new paddle facility will begin. When this begins next week, we will be transporting approx. 600 yards of soil to the area behind number 5 green where we will be adding on to the existing berm in this area (behind 5 green, left side of hole 6) and eventually grassing with fescue, and native grasses such as Little blue-stem, and a few clumps of Indian grass. I'll be entering a new post shortly detailing this work. 

Miserable Wet Weather

Ok the weather can start to improve any time now!
Cloudy, cold, wet, and general gloomy conditions has been the norm of late and we've actually had rain on nearly half of the days of this month. This excessive moisture and resulting soft soil conditions has really put a damper (pun intended) on many course activities. Topdressing (both greens & fairways), overseeding of thinned rough areas, rolling, nutrition and plant protectant applications, general mowing of many areas, and more, have all been delayed due to the saturated soil conditions this month.

Aside from these frustrating delays, one area of concern during excessive spring moisture periods is that root systems (that are most actively growing at this time) may fail to develop to the same density and depth as when soil moisture is dryer. This can then result in a root system that cannot utilize deeper soil moisture later in the year when water is needed to a greater extent and a plant that is more prone to the stresses of summer such as heat, drought, and traffic from equipment and players. We cannot change the weather but we can continue to perform the tasks we already perform such as:

• Aeration - To create pore spaces and encourage root growth.
• Topdressing - To eventually create a soil profile that drains more rapidly and better supports traffic when wet.
• Tree Management - Trim and thin trees to improve sunlight and air movement to aid drying after rainfall events.
• Drainage System Maintenance - Keep our current drainage system in good repair through pressure jetting to maintain functioning lines, and repair breaks and collapses as needed.
• Drainage System Additions - Adding new lines and drop inlets where appropriate. 

Now all we need is the weather to dry up so we can keep doing these things!

In spite of the wet conditions we're still managing to make progress in a few areas:

"Neither Snow, Rain, Cold, Nor Gloom of Day" will...Make us very happy!

More drainage and topdressing needed here.

Gus works on second drainage repair of this year.

Mainline pipe separation and bell-end deterioration (running under bunker - white pipe is bunker drain) in approach bunker #14. Separation is sealed to eliminate the sink hole that had developed.

Steve and Alicus (the latest member of our G&G Staff) begin installation of Cedar Shakes on the Half Way House Roof.

A Clear Sunny Day...Something we are anxiously awaiting!

Spring Course Prep & More

Course activities at this time of the year are always very busy. Spring start up tasks such as: mowing of all turf areas with increasing frequency; bunker grooming (cleaning, leveling, smoothing); fall and winter debris remnant removal; winter tree management completion (pruning and approved removals); prairie burning; placing course furnishings; early season nutrient and plant protectant treatments; overseeding rough areas; sod patching of winter damaged areas throughout course; filling and pressurizing the irrigation system; and more, are all keeping us hopping! Additionally, we always manage to have a project or two going.

The following photo's show a few of the above tasks and projects in progress:

Fairway mowers clipping off the winter coat

 Bunker Prep - Clean-up, leveling, raking

Irrigation System Pressurization - A full day process to gradually refill, purge air, and pressurize to standard operating pressure. Out of nearly 2000 sprinkler heads less than a half dozen needed repair. It's "all systems go"!

Repair of a blemish (likely from an inconsiderate deer) using hex plugs from our homegrown turf nursery. Can you tell where the plugs have been placed? I think you would agree that they match quite well.

Plug on left showing one of the benefits of deep tine aeration...enhanced root growth. Plug on right is from the damaged area with no visible roots.

 

The aforementioned turf nursery. Planted last fall. Most of this nursery was used last year to patch winter damaged areas in spring and flood damaged areas in late summer. Hope I don't need to use much of it at all this year!

 General debris clean-up proceeding well.

One of a couple current projects: Our sod squad installing sod in various areas including tree removal and winter damaged locations

 Project 2: Replacing Half Way House Roof. Here Javier and Miguel are stripping old shingles. Felt paper has been installed and we will follow with cedar shakes in lieu of asphalt shingles. 

So that's a quick glimpse of our current course work. I'll keep you posted on our projects and other course activities as they progress. Let's hope for some consistently mild weather anytime now!