First Snow of the Year

 

 

I had to do some plowing this morning.  We had about an inch of snow.  The last snow we had was back in early March.  The lake is starting to freeze.  Before anyone thinks about ice fishing, please check in with Dave.  He keeps track of ice depth.

 

I would like to wish a everyone a Happy New Year.  Jose, Butch and I are busy getting everything ready for another season.  In about 3 months, we'll be out cutting greens, tees, fairways and rough, raking bunkers and changing cups.

Golf in mid December

 

December 14?  Many LCC members snuck out of work and got 18 holes in today.  This is the latest I've ever let cart go out.  This may be the end of the season if we get the predicted rain on Saturday.

 

Jose and I have been cutting problem trees this week.  Several are in the ditch and a few more are on #16.  The ditch trees are cottonwoods while the others are green ash trees infected wit emerald ash borer.

 

Butch has been working on carts until this week when he switched to our equipment.  The walkers are first of his list.

Irrigation Blowout

 

Jose and Juan pulled in the irrigation intake pipe last week.  It was easy this year.  Usually the guys are standing in water to disconnect the pipe.

 

Last Thursday, we blew out the irrigation system.  We rented a 375 CFM air compressor.  It takes Jose and myself about 8 hours.  It's always nice to get this job done.  Again, we got lucky and had a fairly warm day without rain.

 

Jose started painting course accessories this week.

 

We had a swan make a visit today.

 

This November, we have a trapper help us with our muskrat problem.  He is licensed in both Illinois and Indiana.  In one week he caught 14. 

Winter Prep

 

On Thursday, we are blowing out the irigation system.  I watered tees and greens this morning and maybe 1 more time on Monday.

 

After the last watering, Jose, Juan and I will bring in the intake pipe.  As you can see, the lake level is way down because of the drought this summer.  I checked the meter in the pump house.  It showed that we used 15 million gallons this summer.  Average for the last 3 years was about 7 million.

 

It takes several days, but I've been mowing down the wild areas.  It's much easier to do with the dry conditions.

 

 

We have been using demo rough mowers the last couple of weeks.  This one show's stripping which is the result of a mower with a roller system.

 

Over the next week, we will continue bringing in ball washers, water coolers, and hazzard stakes.  We are down to 1 seasonal worker until Thanksgiving.  We then go into winter mode.  This involves working on all machines, tree work, plowing and painting.

Demo's, Wentworth update

 

This is our John Deere rough mower.  It's 13 years old and starting to be a maintenance problem.  It's been down several times this summer and fall.  It's main job is mulching leaves this time of year.

 

Below is a demo unit.  We are getting to try several different machines from various vendors and hopefully we will be able to upgrade by next spring

 

This pictures work being done on Wentworth.  Along with paving, the county is installing curbs and sewer.  There will be two inlets and a new outlet.  The outlet will have a valve that will be used to control lake levels.  The inlet side has three pits the collect sediment before it reaches our lake.

 

On Thursday November 8th, we will be blowing out our irrigation system.  Jose and I can usually finish in one day.  Also, we are pulling the port a johns on the first Thursday in November.  As the season wraps up, Jose and I have only 2 seasonal workers left.  Please be patient as the 4 of us try and get everything done.

Greens Aerification, Drought, Leaf Season

Aerification of greens was completed on Wednesday.  Our 1991 model year aerifier broke down, but Butch got it fixed.  This put us a week behind schedule.  All greens, tees and fairways were fertilized in the last couple of weeks.  Tee aerification will start next week and should take about 3 days.  We will also do small fairways if we have time.

 

 

 

This pictures shows that our pond is at its lowest level in many years.  Our irrigation system has now pumped 14.8 million gallons in 2012.  2011 was  6 million, 2010 was 7.8 million while 2009 was 7.5 million.  We have had only 1 month this season above normal.  That was August.  September we only received 1.15 inches at Lansing CC.  We will need many steady rains to start filling up the lake.  The dry condition have let us skip a fungicide application this fall which saved some money.

 

It's now leaf season.  Be patient, as we try and keep up with this.  It's a team effort as we blow leaves to the rough and mulch with another machine.  We've had a couple of breakdowns with mulching machine, but Butch always seems to keep it running.  The next couple of weeks are probably going to be the worst.  As one variety of tree finishes dropping leaves, another one is just starting.

 

If you haven't noticed, our crew is getting smaller.  Jose and I now have only 3 seasonal workers.  With the cooler temps and shorter days we start our Fall schedule.  Everything will be cut back.  We will now cut tees and fairways twice a week instead of 3.  Greens mowing will go to 4 times a week instead of 7.  The course is actually in really good shape.  A couple of good soaking rains will set us up nicely for Winter.  My biggest concern is if it stays dry, we'll have to keep the irrigation system on longer.

Back 9 Greens Aerification Finished

Greens 10-18 where aerified on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We plan on finishing 1-9 next Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

 

We had a visitor this morning on #2.

 

LCC Grounds Staff 2012

 

Ricardo, Jose, Juan, Dan, Butch, Alex, Luis