The Calm Before the Thaw

Another productive week comes to a close here at BCC.  It was a week of playing catch up for myself as I had been in Florida for the National Superintendents Conference.  I'm feeling good about the way things are but still have a great deal to accomplish prior to the start of the 2014 golfing season.  For that to happen though we're gonna need some snow to melt.

I've referenced before that the snow has kept us busy and it continues to do so.  The club is becoming more active with weekend lunch service but also private parties.  Part of our duties are to be sure areas are clean for patrons.  A challenge that we have been facing is room for snow and parking, winter storms keep the snow piling up making us call in reinforcements to move some snow around to make more room.  I'm glad early on we made the decision to not pile any snow around the circle, if we had there would be no circle.  Whenever snow removal was needed we pushed everything to the parking lot and started to lose parking space.  This week we did some snow moving to open up the west end of the parking lot and put most snow to the east end to melt, if it ever does.  By the amount that is there we may have piles of snow through May.

Needing some assistance in creating more room for snow in the parking lots west end.

We've been working at continuing our tree pruning although that has come to be unsuccessful.  Deep snow throughout the course makes it very difficult to get equipment where it is needed.  Paths have been cleared for the most part to move around the course but not enough for our pruning needs.  This week we worked at getting branches picked up from where pruning had taken place.  Took some time to get material pulled from under the snow but we were able to accomplish a majority of what was down.  Fine cleaning will come in spring after snow melts.  With the ground frozen solid we also found the opportunity to get the woodchip debris cleaned up from our nursery project.  To save time while clearing the area for our nursery we dumped all chips on site knowing it had to be hauled out later, well it's now done.  Last but not least we had hoped to get the Willow trees around the pond on 10 removed before spring and we have.  Today Nels Johnson  was on site to complete the work while the window of opportunity was here.  Next week things look to be warming up so the snow melt will most likely make things a little messy.

Photo of the work done along the pond on 10.  Remaining Willows were removed per direction of the course architect and that the trees were in poor health.

Work continues inside with equipment maintenance but also getting things like stakes, signage, etc... cleaned and refinished.  Matt has done a tremendous job with all equipment maintenance and is right on target to be done by seasons start.  Some guys will start reporting back to work here in a few weeks so they will be utilized to help finish up anything that needs done but if able to get outside we will.  We're getting excited to see some grass, it's been awhile.

On the note of getting excited to see grass, there has been a great deal of conversation among Superintendents regarding the cold weather and large amounts of snow.  What's this mean for spring turf conditions?  Any ice out on the course and if there is are we going to experience damage?  There really isn't much one can do to prevent the snow and ice as Mother Nature is going to do what she does.  We do monitor so that if we need to be proactive in any necessary means we can.  This week I ventured out on the course to see what was under the 18" of snow.  I know from a thaw we had on Jan 11,12, and 13 there was a little ice in spots, mostly low lying areas where melted snow would flow.  To check turf conditions I removed plugs from a few fairway spots and a few greens, all seem to be fine.  I've brought them inside where the temperature is greater and have placed in window for sunlight and have seen nothing but positive results.  Does this mean we are free and clear?  No, we still have the remainder of February to go through and March, some crazy things can happen in the time left.  So for now I'm comfortable but that can change depending on weather.

Measuring snow depth before taking the plug, here just under 12" of snow.

Here the plug has been removed to be placed inside shop to see turfs response.

Plugs after being inside for 2 days, good green up so happy to see.

Plug from a fairway showing a positive response as well after being inside.