Aerification 2013

Just wanted to give our members a quick  recap on spring 2013 aerification. It can be summed up in one word SNOW.   One upside this springs aerification is the moisture we are receiving from these snow storms. So far this month we have received a foot of the white stuff. Unfortunately  is has come in smaller storms about a week apart. The cold weather in early April made us push back aerification a week to 8th. That Monday we finished all the tees and then we received 6 inches if snow, the rest of the week was lost. The next week we were going to start fairways guess what snow on that Monday after noon. Over the next 3 days we received 6 inches, that week was lost. Now here we are the 22nd of April trying fairways again? Well the day started good and we got two fairways punched, but the snow started falling around noon, with 3-7 inches in the forecast. Rest of the week lost, we will see?  The future forecast looks promising for fairways and maybe greens on the 29th?  That's spring in Colorado for you. Lets hope we can catch a break over the next few weeks.

Never Mess with Mother Nature, she will win every time.

Arctic Oscillation

Numerous members and friends have asked why is it so cold this spring?  The reason is a weather phenomena called  Arctic Oscillation. Below is a short video from NOAA that explains this weather pattern. 

Locally for the months of  March and April this year we are ten degrees below the average high from a year ago. We all know it will warm up soon but when?  I think all of us are ready for some warmer weather especially the turf.

Spring?

What a difference a year can make. Last year at this time we were going strong, practically summer. No problem with aerification last year but its not the best weather for fairway aerification currently. But guess what we have to play the cards that were dealt,  lets hope we get some good moisture out of this latest spring snow storm.  One of my hardest jobs is knowing when to drive forward or when to punt, when it comes to the weather.

Remember When

Remember when we used to punch fairways with this? Going to bring it out of retirement and try to punch some rough with it.

Roll with the Punches

 Aerification is difficult enough but when you add our wild Colorado spring weather is almost impossible.  No matter what plans you have in place they are no match against Mother Nature. We started aerification of the tees on Monday April 8th, the weather was good almost 70 degrees. What a difference 12 hours can make, late Monday the winds were howling and the snow was falling with a fifty degree negative swing. This morning  the low was three degrees wow, not the type of weather we would expect in April. Thanks to my hard working crew we successively finished all the tees on Monday, .  We will see what the next days bring and hopefully we can finish the fairways before the next snow storm?

"It's not how you handle things when they go right. It's how you handle them when they go wrong"
SJW

Stage 2 Drought

Denver water just issued a stage 2 drought for the spring/summer of 2013 starting April 1st.

With a dry spring and summer in 2012 and a below average snow pack in 2013 mandatory restrictions for watering have to be practiced!  We need to  protect our quality water for our health and safety.

Everyone should practice water conservation even if we are in not in a drought.
Below are some tips to help conserve our most valuable resource.  FYI we only water the golf course two times a week in the heat of the summer. If we can do that on the course homeowners and easily do that on their home lawns.

- Only water in the early morning or late evening.
- Install rain sensors so your irrigation system turns off when raining.
- Hand water dry spots of turf  instead of irrigating the entire lawn.
- Always use a spray nozzle on the end of your garden hose.
- Plant low water use plant material and grass species
- Use Organic based fertilizers
- Drip irrigation to landscape plants.
- Keep your lawn at a higher height of cut 3 inches.
- Check to see if your irrigation system is working properly.  ie leaks, sprinkler adjustment.
- Use low flow shower heads, toilets and faucets.
- Install low water energy efficient appliances.
- Turn off water when shaving, brushing teeth, washing hands.

All these little tips will help us conserve our water!



Denver Water Link Below

http://www.denverwater.org/SupplyPlanning/DroughtInformation/DroughtConditions/

Software Gremlin's

Everyone has software gremlins in their computer occasionally but when that software runs a large irrigation system even stranger things happen. On Sunday night around 7pm I received a strange call that the irrigation was running on #13 green? Even stranger this happened 12 hours after a large spring snow storm.  People were thinking what is going on?  

Well we had just started charging up our summer laterals earlier that week, so most holes were charged and operational.  Our irrigation clocks in the field have three different modes  OFF, CENTRAL and  STAND ALONE. In the off mode the power is on in the clock, but the software is in a sleep mode. In Central mode  the clock is  controlled by the computer and in Stand Alone mode the internal software runs  the clock. All 32 clocks were in off mode except three holes #13, #5, #7  they were in stand alone?  So in this mode the clocks  will run the last program that was downloaded, all the way back from our last irrigation cycle in November 2012. 

So at 7pm on Sunday evening the irrigation started on those holes that were in stand alone mode, thinking the central computer was down!  The Toro irrigation clocks in the field have a fail safe,  they will store the last program downloaded indefinitely in case your central computer goes down. With this fail safe you will still be able to water the golf course.  

After gathering all the data and information on Monday morning we figured that the all the clocks were in the OFF mode on Thursday evening, but some irrigation maintenance was done on  those three holes Friday morning,  and the clocks were not turned back to the off mode.  Lesson Learned! 

Thanks to everyone who noticed the water was on and recognized that is shouldn't of been!

Now that's how you winter water!

Perfect Timing

Today was the perfect time to apply our custom wildflower seed mix  with an approaching spring snow storm. Starting tonight we are expected 6-10 inches of heavy wet snow. The spring snow is not only good for the course and the farmers in the plains, its also a great time to apply wildflower seed.  There are still  cracks and fishers in the native soil from the freeze and thaw over the winter, creating a optimal seed bed for the wildflower seed. We are applying 125 pounds of seed on approximately 25 acres in select native locations.  Lets hope for a few more spring snow storms and warmer weather for germination of the seed. 

Jason on #11 valley 

Applying the seed 

GHIN

Tee markers are going out today, ready for handicap postings starting tomorrow!
Snow is melting extremely fast now and the course is drying out. With temperatures in the upper 60s and 70s the next few days we might be playing golf soon!

Big Time

With this most recent spring snowstorm we received some Monster drifts, Some over 3 feet tall! The moisture is great but it is going to be a while before the course will open!

Recycling

About six years ago we started our recycle program. The program started at our Golf Maintenance Facility in attempt better our environmental footprint. Our recycle program started as a small  pile of scrap metal that we brought to the recycle center yearly. Then grew to  recycle bins all over our building including recycling the waste from the courses trash cans. We now have multiple ways to recycle most of our waste in  small  and large containers. The amount of products that we can recycle are endless from magazines,  scrap metal, alkaline/rechargeable batteries, CFL bulbs/tubes and much more. 

Below are some links to better educate you on recycling and locations to drop off your waste.

Lets all do our part to help protect Mother Earth. 

Earth 911 is a search site to locate recycling centers in your area

www.earth911.com 

The Big Green Box is a company that specializes in recycling household  alkaline batteries, and electronics

www.biggreenbox.com

The Home Depot will recycle CFL bulbs and rechargeable batteries free of charge

http://ext.homedepot.com/community/blog/recycle-your-old-rechargeable-batteries-and-cellphones-at-the-home-depot/

Lowes will  recycle CFL bulbs, rechargeable batteries, and more free of charge

http://www.lowes.com/cd_Recycling_368967519_

Best Buy will recycle most electronics, rechargeable batteries, print cartridges and more for free

www.bestbuy.com/site/Global-Promotions/Recycling-Electronics/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025

Batteries plus will recycle rechargeable batteries, CFL bulbs, CFL tubes and more

www.batteriesplus.com/t-batteries-plus-recycles.aspx

Waste Management  
http://www.recycleamerica.com/

Douglas County Household Hazardous waste recycle Program

http://search.earth911.com/program/Q1RQNVJZWldFXA/?what=Fluorescent+Tubes&where=Colorado&max_distance=100&country=US&province=CO&city=Denver&region=Adams&postal_code=80260&latitude=39.8672055261&longitude=-105.007121029&family_id=95&list_filter=programs

Drone Mapper

Last fall the Pinery had the opportunity  to lend our property for aerial imagery from a few local companies called Drone Mapper,  Compass Data INC and Falcon UAV. These companies work together and specialize in the generation of geo-reference points and digital elevations from aerial images taken from UAV's. They also operate a innovative software system that allows the UAV to upload their imagery through a web based interface. The data gathered is very detailed and  the software that runs the imagery is equally detailed.  The  images taken of the Pinery will help us map our irrigation system, measure distances and square footage's of specific areas. This data that was gathered is going to be very helpful information for future  Pinery projects. Thanks to Drone Mapper for letting us use the images and data for making our mapping project possible. 

The Pinery Country Club  

aerial images

Link to site www.dronemapper.com/node/119

Amiad Filter

Last week we did our annual inspection of our Amiad filter in our pump station.  This filter cleans the irrigation water with a 300 micron screen that is self cleaning with internal brushes. The filter runs several times during a irrigation cycle keeping  contaminates form entering the system.  Thankfully we only have to to inspect  this filter every 5 years because of the weight and size of the filter.  When we designed  the pump station we purposely  built 12 foot tall ceilings so we can remove the top of the filter and the internal screen, as you can see from the picture below the  filter is seven feet tall. To remove the top of the filter we added a small pulley to the ceiling and attached the top of the filter with steel cables and a come-along  so  we could lift off the top of the filter more easily. Our inspection of the filter and brushes was encouraging,   only a slight cleaning of both. After re-assembling  the filter  we charged the station back up to check for leaks, so far so good, no leeks and the filter is running properly.

Removing top and brushes with pulley system 

Internal Brushes

Internal stainless screen

Winter Maintenance

With the cold weather and snow  on the course  its back inside for our winter maintenance programs. These programs range from equipment preventative maintenance,  refurbishing amenities, building maintenance, Chemical,  fertilizer and parts inventory as well as many other small projects that have been but on the back-burner over the summer. This time is also use to plan out our 2013  fertilizer / IPM (integrated pest Management) programs as well as cultural program scheduling all while doing  research on new products and techniques. At any time you are welcome to come down to the shop and see our winter maintenance program. See ya in the spring!!

Grinding reels 

Chemical Inventory

Preventive Maintenance on IR mower 

Twitter Updates

Well I just added another tool to keep our members up to speed, Twitter. It is amazing how fast social media is growing. Some day letters in the mail will be a thing of history, not sure if that is a good or bad thing.
With this social media I will be able to give real time updates on course conditions, weather,  special projects.

Follow my Tweets on the right side of my blog or just follow my Tweets.
See ya on the course.

Pinery Twitter