First Snow !

Today we received our first snow in Parker Colorado!  The forecast calls for snow all day and clearing tonight with a hard freeze and lows in the mid 20's

Sunrise Temperature Drop

Why, just before sunrise, does the temperature seem to drop?

Just before sunset  and continuing throughout the evening the atmosphere near the Earth's surface starts to cool this  is called radiational cooling. Not until sunrise is when the sun starts heating up the atmosphere, but this is when you actually see the coldest temperatures of the night.  Now  since cold air is heavier than warm air this cold air settles to lower elevations. Then when you add in colder temperatures we can actual have our worst frost slightly after sunrise.

This occurred this morning at  The Pinery since we sit low in the Cherry Creek Valley. We had a hard frost on the lower elevations of the course where the upper elevations had no frost. 

As you can see in this mornings weather report the lowest temperature occurred just after sunrise at 7am 34.4 degrees. 


So just because you didn't  have frost at your home doesn't  mean we wont have frost at the course.  Always check in with the pro shop in the spring and fall for any frost delays.

Duckweed Bloom

A few weeks ago we had a duckweed bloom in two of our lakes literally overnight?

Of course this was just before labor day.  Fortunately we had some aquatic herbicide Cutter in the chemical storage room. Cutter went down at 1 lb/ per surface acre tank mixed with a surfacent at 100 oz/ acre. The products were sprayed with a spray gun (large droplet size to prevent drifting) covering the entire lake surface.  The next day there was no change and I was a bit upset, but on the third day the duckweed was 1/2 gone and the fourth day so long duckweed!

Below are some before and after pictures. 

August 29th

 September 2nd  Labor day

1000 Year Storm?

The latest weather that passed through Colorado over the last seven days gave way to a 1 in 1000 weather event. Which actually means that there is a .1% chance of a storm event like that happening yearly, so its very rare.  This type of storm event is actually  called Return Period  Event.  This does not mean that a 1000 year storm happens regularly every 1000 years. It means the probability of a 1000 year storm has a .1% chance of happening yearly.  These storm events are calculated by  NOAA with historical records and statistical models. Most weather records only go back to the 1870's. So a statistical model or unobserved event is used to predict the severity of that event so NOAA can  label such large historic storms.


Below is a link from NOAA on the 7 day rain totals.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/?n=preciptotals_multiday

GET-R-DONE

  

- Tees, collars, approaches done

- Target greens done

- Driving range landing area done

- Driving range divots done

- Driving range swept and mowed

- Bunkers raked 

- Greens rolled

- Fairways done

- Cups cut

- Course set up done

- Club grounds mowed

- 11:30 am 18 hole shotgun 

 

GET-R-DONE with 10 Team Members! 

PRICELESS! 

Early Days

We have come a long way since sheep and horses. This video has some old clips of golf maintenance,  way old school.

Success

It might be a late spring but our new Mountain Chickadee nest boxes have been a great success, Eggs are everywhere! Our Mountain bluebird nest boxes are filled with eggs as well. We can't wait to see the baby birds hatch. It's been very cool to re-populate both of these species to the area.

No Go

Day 21 of aerification is a no go. Thankfully we completed all of our greens this Monday and Tuesday before this latest spring storm. This is the fourth week in a row where we have had an accumulation of  snow on the ground in the middle of the week.  The weather this April has been most challenging but we are pushing through, the moisture has been great! 

As of today most of aerification is finished we still have eleven fairways to go and some rough. It will be nice to finish everything up next week so we can move on to other projects.  Thanks to my hard working crew this week on getting the greens done!!

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!