Landscaping installed

Despite the frigid temperatures yesterday, we spent the day installing new landscaping at the clubhouse.  The new landscape bed will serve as a visual barrier between the parking lot and the golf course, after a few years of growth, this bed will fill in and be more appealing to the eye.  The old saying concerning perennials is: The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap. 

We have a few more plants to install next week and a fair number of perennials that won't be available until June. 

 

Evan put his welding skills to work and fabricated new forks for our loader.  Our current forks are a little banged up from years of tree work.  These new forks will only be used for unloading pallets off trucks and other needs that require a level set of strong forks.  With Evan's skills in the shop and the proper tools, we are now able to do more fabrication and heavy maintenance. 

Thank you BVC

The flowers have all found their home for the year, it's starting to look like summer out here.  We owe a big thanks to Blanchard Valley Center for their help in growing and planting most of our flowers.

 

Thank you: Tom, Bill, Dustin, Alex, Nichole, Molly, Mark, Jeff and Cary.  You all did a great job!

Pool / Tennis landscaping

This week we are installing the new landscaping around the updated pool and tennis areas.

 

By the end of next week, we should have all the plants in, beds mulched and grass areas seeded. 

 

Flowers

With the threat of frost now behind us, we have begun to plant the annuals around the club.  Blanchard Valley Center and their clients grew half our flowers again this year and have planted everything you see out there - including 16 hanging baskets and 20 pots around the building.

Karen, Nichole, Molly and Michael helped us for a few days, planting around the pool, river rooms and locker rooms.

Sonja and Molly are always here with a smile no matter what the weather.

 

Bill was one of the few that helped with the pots, along with Alex and Dustin.

The Grounds Staff has been using our extra time after our typical course duties are done to lay down mulch around the club.  This upcoming week we will continue to lay mulch around the course.

 

Spring is not far off....

Blanchard Valley Center will again be growing and planting a majority of our annual flowers this season.  The flowers are already starting to bloom in the greenhouse.

Pots recently planted with seeds in a growth chamber.

These flowers were all taken from cuttings of last years crop.  At a certain size, BVC Clients will again take cuttings, dip them in growth hormones and place in a growth chamber.  The flowers they grow and cultivate will soon be planted here at FCC.  This process gives them great experience and valuable lessons in growing plants, from beginning to end.

Landscaping

We are again updating some of the landscape beds around the property. 

 

The outdated plants in the landscape beds around 8 tee were removed.

We then added Oakleaf Hydrangea, 'Cityline Rio' Hydrangea, Blackeyed Susan and Creeping Myrtle.

The landscape bed near the cart staging area was planted with 'Alice' Oakleaf Hydrangea.

 

Around the clubhouse we removed damaged plants from this past winter, replanting with 'Autumn Brilliance' Serviceberry, 'Ann' Magnolia, and 'Green Gem' Boxwood.  We also replaced the Heritage River Birch near the second bridge on 8/9.

 

Landscape plants are not inexpensive, when time allows and funds can be used, we will continue to replace and update the landscaping, keeping the clubhouse area an oasis that is pleasing to the eye.

 

Behind the scenes

I hope everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the fireworks show on July 4th.  I thought the show was great and definitely worth seeing every year.  Part of my new job duties this year was organizing the fireworks show and securing the permits, contractor and proper authorities to oversee the show.  With my involvement, it gave me a chance to view the inner workings of a good fireworks program.

The forms getting unloaded from the truck and being set up in our grass nursery area beside 8 fairway.

Roscoe showing us one of the 4" shells.

Set up started at 2:00pm with a show at 10:00.  Here the shells are staged and ready to be fitted into the tubes.

The guys working on the finale shells.

Roscoe's wife gave my three boys a behind the scenes tour of a large fireworks production.  The crew wouldn't let us take one home though!

Getting the finale all wired together.  They did a great job and everything went smoothly.  With a soft north wind, the clean-up this year was minimal.

 

Donated Bench

A bench was donated in honor of Cheryl Garrett Wenner a few weeks back.  A group of FCC members got together to donate the bench.  It was placed in the landscape bed near the tennis courts where Cheryl spent her time.  The generous members also donated the plants that we added around the bench.

Spectators can now enjoy a tennis match while enjoying the flowers around them.

 

Thank You to all the members that donated and made this place a more picturesque area in honor of a loved one.



Herb garden

Not many members know this: the Grounds staff grows and maintains a herb garden here on FCC property.  It is located along the West side of the clubhouse and supplies Chef with a few herbs that he uses on a regular basis.  According to him, it saves FCC quite a bit of money.

8 different plots are laid out, the kitchen staff can pick the herb they need at any time.

We grow: Sage, Chives, Thyme, Basil, Parsley, Oregano and Mint.

 

We also grow Tomatoes and flowers for cutting that the kitchen will also use.

Flowers arriving

This past week we started to see our flowers arriving and being planted by the crews from Blanchard Valley Center.  This past winter, Tim Stumpp and clients from BVC planted and grew from seed the majority of the flowers that we need here at the Club.  We have also contracted BVC to come plant these flowers this spring.  The flowers and the crews started arriving this week and they look great.

Tim showing the clients on proper spacing and planting depth.

 

Molly was really excited to plant.  Not afraid to work in a little rain.

Molly and Nicole getting their hands dirty.

Bill has been here most days - doing a great job with the planting.

Tim was able to get the help of a few clients that couldn't make it out on the course to plant the planter boxes.  I met Alex this winter, he was in the greenhouse helping Tim grow the flowers, now getting a chance to plant them.

Bill did a great job on these planters, he wanted to make sure his picture made the "scoreboard" at BVC.

 

 

Protecting the flowers

It is annual planting season again.  We always wait until after Mother's Day to plant annuals, hoping to escape the threat of frost.  This year, just like last, we had a late frost.  Last year it was May 13 - we got down to 31 degrees.  This morning we had a heavy frost again, causing us to take precautions to protect the annuals that were already planted.

Trash bags are helping hold the heat it, fighting off the frost.

In areas where we had irrigation, we just rain the water.  The warm water also keeps the frost off.

A little bit of everything

First of all, what's up with that snow?

 

Spring is trying to come!

We leave ourselves a list of things to do that can be done on frost/snow days.  When the weather is good we spend most of our time out on the course.  When we can't be on the course, we fall back to our "frost project list".

We came through this harsh winter very well.  The two minor blemishes we had on the putting green are starting to heal in.  One of the spots was bad enough that we wanted to sod a portion of it, speeding up the recover process.

This picture shows the difference in the old shingles vs. the new color (black) shingles.  I think the roof looks great, very classy.  The project is still ongoing.  With the shingle portion done, the contractor is now working on the flat roof portion.  Along with the flat roof, the chimneys need to be finished, a layer of stucco will be added to the bottom, then the chimneys will be painted.  The project has been going well thus far with no major surprises.

 

April is always a crazy month for us - course opens, grass is growing, lots of mowing to do, winter projects need to be finished and spring project need to be started.  As always, we make it through.

 

Roof project

We have a lot going on at the club right now - aerification was completed last week, we are mowing things for the first time the last few days, bunker clean-up was just completed, the 1/2 way house on 15 is getting painted and we are in the middle of roofing the Clubhouse.

The roof project is going well thus far, most of the shingles have been tore off and as of now - about half of the building has the new shingles in place. 

Removing the first shingles early Wednesday morning.

As we expected, we have found certain areas under the old shingles where the plywood was rotten and needed to be replaced.  There have been multiple leaks over the last few years, causing us to place buckets in the attic.

Wednesday morning

Thursday afternoon.  As you can see we went with a different color shingle, the new color is all black.  This will be a classic look.

 

Despite the 30 mph winds were are getting today, the job site has remained relatively clean.  The contractor is doing a great job of keeping debris from blowing onto the course.  The shingle portion of the job will be finished within the next two days.  The flat roofs will start being replaced tomorrow with the entire project completed next week.

 

 

Flowers and tee markers

First I want to update you on our new tee marker colors.  Black will be the new "back tee" color, followed by Blue, White and Gold for the "forward tee".

We will no longer have a Red tee marker.  Also, the new tees that were built this past fall will be the home of the white markers.  The course yardages will be as follows: Black - 6842, Blue - 6399, White - 5661, Gold - 5383.  The Proshop has updated the scorecard accordingly.

 

 

 

 

As you may be aware, our Horticulturist - Tim Stumpp, left us for a teaching position last Spring.  We elected to cut that full-time position from the staff to save on labor costs.  The work that is done around the Clubhouse is now done with seasonal labor with direction from myself and my assistants.  Tim always did a great job around the Clubhouse with the flowers and landscaping, we will be continuing that level of product with Tim's help.

 

Tim is currently teaching at the Blanchard Valley Center on Sandusky, his specialty is Horticulture.  Last fall, he and I sat down and came up with a win-win plan for both of us.  Tim along with the help of his clients at BVC are growing most of our annuals for the upcoming season.  They have been growing them from seed in their greenhouse.  Come Spring, Tim and his clients will be planting them at FCC, giving them an opportunity to learn valuable job skills.

The flowers they are growing look great.  I toured the greenhouse today to check on the progress.

In the end, we get wonderful looking flowers and BVC gets a great learning opportunity.

 

 

Clubhouse boiler project

The clubhouse hot water tanks along with all the pipes surrounding them have recently been starting to leak (Chad's office has been wet a few times) .  Yesterday, Todd Achten, our clubhouse maintenance supervisor; along with Adam Bateson and Eric Lowery from the Grounds staff started replacing our hot water tanks and the copper plumbing around the boilers.  The guys started at 2:00pm after the Club shut down on Sunday and worked until midnight.  The have also been hard at work all day today completing this project.

Eric cutting copper pipe to size.

Todd and Adam installing the tanks and pipe.

Project almost complete - it looks great.

This project had to be done while the Club was closed because in doing this, we had to shut off the hot water.  This is why the guys worked late into the night on Sunday and all day Monday.  We were able to save the club $6,000 in capital funds vs. using a contractor to perform the work.

David Brim was caught giving the bag room a makeover.