Course Condition
The Rim Country has received some snow. With the cold weather the snow has been reluctant to melt. The ground has been frozen most of the day and the grass has undergone dormancy. We are seeing the benefits of our late fall fertilizer application with keeping some color through the winter months.
Projects Completed
This last month has been slow. Snow restricted crew access to the course for a few days. We have kept the projects more manageable with our small crew. We have finished fire-wise on #5 and the hill on #8.
I am sure you have also notice we have given a majority of the native its annual trimming. We have completed the hand work around trees, tees, and steep slopes to make way for a tractor mounted Brush Hog that will make quick work of the flat open areas.
Projects in Process
The projects that we have on our plate at this moment are fire-wise and pro-shop landscape. We have started the ornamental grass plant trimming behind 18 green and will continue this through the parking lot. This will take first priority now that we have completed #8 fire-wise. We will have a couple staff members continue fire-wise along #11, but it will be slow moving until we finish the trimming at the pro-shop area. We usually do fire-wise in the morning hours while we wait for frost. The late morning is mainly course set up. Now, we will start at the pro-shop then move to course clean up. We will concentrate on fire-wise in the afternoon if we feel there will be members present around the pro-shop area as to not bother everyone with the noise and flying debris.
We are also working on goose clean-up. It has been a frustrating winter so far with the geese. We use Chloe to chase them off, but they know when we are done for the day and return before dark. Lane has come back in the late afternoons to scare them off, but we still have had little success. If you would like to see more about the geese clickhere.
ElK
We have experienced tremendous damage in the past month due to elk. With the recent storm when we lost a few trees we had numerous breaks in the fence. This allowed many elk to gain access to the property. We recently hired the cowboys to round up the elk that were on the property and they successfully removed two. I know that number does not match the amount of elk damage we are getting. The elk travel onto the property at night and leave in the morning when there is an opening. Since the cowboys showed up in the late morning, the majority of the elk had already exited.
We have also been having trouble with a couple of our gates. Boards have mysteriously been removed or popped off and elk have gained access that way. We walk the fence once a month and if we see the remnants of elk we will walk it that day. Our most recent issue was the gate near the main entrance. The portion of the fence on the left as you drive in has been slowly sliding down the hill. This caused a gap near the gate that we have been blocking with boards. Recently that gate had boards popped off of it and left a large opening for the elk. With that being said we have straightened the fence and fixed the gate and we will see if most of the elk left the property in the morning or if we have some residents. Since the fence has been mended we will be ready for another visit from the cowboys, if indeed there are still elk on property.
Projects Planned
Future winter projects that we are looking at are as follows:
- Pro-shop trimming.
- Fire-wise.
- Walk path repair.
Ballmark and Divot Repair Party
If you missed our first party we are having another 3:00pm on January 15, 2010. We had a great time for the first party. We completed the entire repair in a little over an hour. “Many hands make light work.” – John Heywood. We will all meet at Mr. and Mrs. Paczkowski’s house on #5 after the repair is completed. If you need the flyer that was sent out or have any questions please contact me.
Side Notes
I was asked to write a case study explaining our water conservation efforts at The Rim. The case study has been posted on the Environmental Institute for Golf web site. You can view the entire case study here.
I have recently been asked to be on the cover of Golf Course Industry Magazine. The Editor had many questions about our divot and ball mark repair party and wanted to feature it along with other superintendents doing things a little different than normal maintenance. This will be coming out this month. Read more.
I have also begun the search for this season’s intern positions. You can view the blog post about our internship program here.
With the use of Twitter, I have been able to keep up with other superintendents across America to gain some insight on how they are dealing with issues on their courses. One of the superintendents is starting a series of posts on his blog called “What we do in the Winter”. I am going to take a similar approach and do a series of posts on what we do on the course. I will try to capture the nuts and bolts that define our work. If you would like to follow along, click here.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Dan or me.
Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS
Projects in Process
The projects that we have on our plate at this moment are fire-wise and pro-shop landscape. We have started the ornamental grass plant trimming behind 18 green and will continue this through the parking lot. This will take first priority now that we have completed #8 fire-wise. We will have a couple staff members continue fire-wise along #11, but it will be slow moving until we finish the trimming at the pro-shop area. We usually do fire-wise in the morning hours while we wait for frost. The late morning is mainly course set up. Now, we will start at the pro-shop then move to course clean up. We will concentrate on fire-wise in the afternoon if we feel there will be members present around the pro-shop area as to not bother everyone with the noise and flying debris.
We are also working on goose clean-up. It has been a frustrating winter so far with the geese. We use Chloe to chase them off, but they know when we are done for the day and return before dark. Lane has come back in the late afternoons to scare them off, but we still have had little success. If you would like to see more about the geese clickhere.
ElK
We have experienced tremendous damage in the past month due to elk. With the recent storm when we lost a few trees we had numerous breaks in the fence. This allowed many elk to gain access to the property. We recently hired the cowboys to round up the elk that were on the property and they successfully removed two. I know that number does not match the amount of elk damage we are getting. The elk travel onto the property at night and leave in the morning when there is an opening. Since the cowboys showed up in the late morning, the majority of the elk had already exited.
We have also been having trouble with a couple of our gates. Boards have mysteriously been removed or popped off and elk have gained access that way. We walk the fence once a month and if we see the remnants of elk we will walk it that day. Our most recent issue was the gate near the main entrance. The portion of the fence on the left as you drive in has been slowly sliding down the hill. This caused a gap near the gate that we have been blocking with boards. Recently that gate had boards popped off of it and left a large opening for the elk. With that being said we have straightened the fence and fixed the gate and we will see if most of the elk left the property in the morning or if we have some residents. Since the fence has been mended we will be ready for another visit from the cowboys, if indeed there are still elk on property.
Projects Planned
Future winter projects that we are looking at are as follows:
- Pro-shop trimming.
- Fire-wise.
- Walk path repair.
Ballmark and Divot Repair Party
If you missed our first party we are having another 3:00pm on January 15, 2010. We had a great time for the first party. We completed the entire repair in a little over an hour. “Many hands make light work.” – John Heywood. We will all meet at Mr. and Mrs. Paczkowski’s house on #5 after the repair is completed. If you need the flyer that was sent out or have any questions please contact me.
Side Notes
I was asked to write a case study explaining our water conservation efforts at The Rim. The case study has been posted on the Environmental Institute for Golf web site. You can view the entire case study here.
I have recently been asked to be on the cover of Golf Course Industry Magazine. The Editor had many questions about our divot and ball mark repair party and wanted to feature it along with other superintendents doing things a little different than normal maintenance. This will be coming out this month. Read more.
I have also begun the search for this season’s intern positions. You can view the blog post about our internship program here.
With the use of Twitter, I have been able to keep up with other superintendents across America to gain some insight on how they are dealing with issues on their courses. One of the superintendents is starting a series of posts on his blog called “What we do in the Winter”. I am going to take a similar approach and do a series of posts on what we do on the course. I will try to capture the nuts and bolts that define our work. If you would like to follow along, click here.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Dan or me.
Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS 928.951.3421
Dan Devere, CGCS ddever@chaparralpines.org 928-951-3272
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