Polar Vortex II

Well, never did I think I'd be privileged enough to go through a Polar Vortex let alone 2.  Sunday night temperatures are set to drop and expected highs will be subzero for roughly 48 hours.  Equipment maintenance and refinishing course accessories are keeping us busy but tree work has come to a halt.  

        

Great progress was being made with the tree work but due to the latest 6" of snow followed by wind and cold, crews can't work.  Weather early next week will keep them grounded again.  Our hope is that we'll pick back up next Thursday and if so we'll be wrapping up the rest of our removals.  Removals should take us through Thursday and Friday and pruning will pick back up the following week.  I estimate we need about two good days of pruning and the course will be finished.

        

Course accessory work has moved along nicely.  Before Refugio left for vacation he was able to get all bronze tee plaques ready for paint.  Jorge has worked the last few days cleaning and repainting fairway yardage plates and has now started painting CDGA markers.  This work is well ahead of schedule and that makes me very happy!  

                                      

Matt, Moe, and Antonio continue working through the equipment.  Matt has spent a good deal of time on walking machines, greens mowers and tee mowers.  It was mentioned in an earlier post that reels were being replaced on our greens mowers, and that has been completed.  Matt has gone through and made all necessary lubrucation changes along with any other needed maintenance.  We did acquire 5 greens mowers through a trade, these mowers are the same mowers as our greens mowers.  The acquired machines are older but will be used for mowing after we topdress greens and early in season when we first begin mowing.  This will help save a great deal of wear on our "good" greens mowers but help keep a consistency with greens by using similar machine setups.  Next up for Matt is diving into our rough machines.  I'm very happy with the progress our new Equipment Manager is achieving, but even more impressed with his attention to detail and record keeping.

                                     

Next week I take off to Florida for the National Golf Course Superintendents Conference.  This trip couldn't come at a better time, I'm escaping the cold!  On a serious note though, Nathan and I have a list of items we'll be looking into for the club.  Our list is comprised of equipment, soft goods, chemicals, etc...  Along with the trade show there is a great deal of seminars and education classes to attend getting us versed in the latest research and technology.  

Stay warm and I surely hope winter ends soon!