Happenings lately

The past couple weeks we have been able to get a lot of work done out on the golf course.  We started taking down trees that were scheduled to be removed this winter.  We've been able to get to a few of the trees that were damaged in the storm this summer, taken down a few of the dying Ash trees and the 2 Spruce that were damaged by lightening on #17 have been removed.

The 2 Spruce on both sides of #17 approach.  Both were dying due to a lightening strike a few years ago.

We have also been trimming and limbing up all the trees on the property.  We have trimmed almost half of the trees already and will continued to go around the property looking at every tree.

#16 looks like a war zone right now.  There are a few limbs waiting to be picked up.

Today we topdressed all the greens.  This will give the green a protective blanket over the winter.  The sand will help cover the crown of the plant and aid in preventing winter injury.  In the spring the sand will be dragged into the canopy and will help smooth the green out before we open.

Course closing

Friday, December 14th will be the last that the greens will be open.  With rain scheduled for this coming weekend and the temperature dropping after that - winter is finally approaching.  We will be putting flags out in some of the approaches for the winter.  If the weather does turn and give us some decent playing temperatures over the winter, feel free to grab your clubs and take a walk.  We do ask that you stay off the greens until we open them back up in the Spring.

Firewood

As I have mentioned in the past - a lot of the trees we trim up or remove throughout the year are cut up and split into firewood.  This wood is then sold and delivered to the members that would like to burn wood in their fireplaces over the winter.  I'm sure you have not forgotten the storm on June 29, I haven't.  This storm gave us an ample supply of wood that needed to be split.  I am happy to say, not kidding - I mean Really Happy, that all of the wood we had stacked along #6 is cut and split.  It only took 5 months!

I'll bet this pile will last into next winter.

This is where it came from:

12 Ladies tee

This week we were able to spend some time on 12 ladies tee.  The tee dropped down on the right side which made half of the tee unusable.  We tore off the sod, added soil and layed the sod back down.  Next spring we will topdress it with sand to fill in any cracks and level out any of the imperfections.

Taking the sod off the right side of the tee.

You can see that the turf on the right side of the tee was about 6" lower than it should have been.

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After the sod was laid back down.  It is hard to see on a picture, the right side was raised about 6".

Goose repellent

During the summer we used mono-filament line around to the river to deter geese from coming up the river banks and feeding on the golf course.  This worked very well during the summer months.  Over the course of the fall the geese starting flying over the line.  We took the line down to prevent a big mess in the event we had a flood this winter, so we needed something else to deter the geese.  Enter our 24/7 guard dogs:

I have seen these before and have heard they work if you keep moving them.  This particular brand was brought to my attention by one of our members.  This silhouette will spin and wobble in the wind, tricking the geese into thinking it is a live dog.  If we keep moving them around the area (every 2 days), the geese won't realize that they are not real dogs.  We have put up 3 of them around holes 8 and 9.