One of the reasons we chose #8 bridge for our proof of concept decking and matting project last year was that it had no turns to contend with. This year it was onward to a more challenging installation, as the team dealt with the curves of #2/12 bridge.
With a few thousand screws to be installed, this is one time when sitting down on the job wasn't frowned upon.
We are hoping to install the anti-slip spaghetti matting between the decking boards as soon as we get some warmer temperatures.
This past week's inclement weather provided a great opportunity to do some crew training. For much of the year round staff, this is something of a refresher course on how to properly complete various tasks. However, these guys will all be helping to train and guide our part time employees this upcoming season, so it's important that they are well-versed in this material.
Additionally, as our most experienced frontline workers, these team members are empowered to help in the creation and updating of our policies and procedures by providing valuable feedback, which we can use to improve the department's operations.
Even if you are a longtime member of the Club, you're likely not familiar with the names of each hole on the course. Yes, you may have a few fond four-letter monikers for those holes which consistently ruin a solid round, but did you know that #18 is actually "Swan's Song"?
Included in the many things we are tackling this winter, is the assembly and installation of new tee consoles, which are adorned with each hole's name.
As you can see, this is a "some assembly required" project, with the posts arriving with no holes pre-drilled. We found some great supports for them, which work well for mounting in concrete.
With snow on the ground this past week, we have shifted gears to some winter project work. Included in this is replacing the lighting in the golf course maintenance facility. The old florescent fixtures are being converted to use LED bulbs. Between four foot and eight foot bulbs, there are close to 200 in the building, so this is not a one day job.
The estimated life for these bulbs is 45,000+ hours--we won't need to be replacing them for quite some time!
During the final week of 2021, conditions on the golf course became quite soft. On the one hand this makes sense, as the ground certainly wasn't frozen, and the overall weather conditions have been somewhat damp and dreary lately. However, given the current puddles we see on cart paths, it may come as a surprise to find out that for the two month period of November and December, we were 70% below average in precipitation.
That is a very significant deficit of close to 5", and even a pond like #7 was showing it. So how do we make sense of this simultaneous wet and dry situation?
Well, first of all, with seven days of measurable rainfall in November, it might not have felt as if it was all that dry, but the grand total of all of those rain events was less than one inch for the entire month, leading to an an unusual zero No Cart days for November.
Similarly, December had nine days of rainfall, however the largest one day total was only 0.30" on December 30, again leaving us well behind for the monthly total.
In other words, we have been getting the "Seattle" version of moisture, which is light and frequent. The overall water table of the course may be lowering, but with extremely little evaporation this time of year, the surface remains quite wet after these showers. Had the rain events of November and December been less frequent, but had more volume--say, 1" or more each--then a good amount of that water would have helped to recharge the course's ponds. Of course during this time of year, both overall evaporation and the turf's water needs are minimal, therefore a little moisture can go a long way.
