September 1, 2012

It’s that time of the year again! Over the next few weeks, we will begin performing our necessary cultural practices to help maintain healthy turf. We started this week by verti-cutting the new Bermuda grass tees on #7, and the driving range tee.

Adan operating the Graden

Cleaning up the clippings

Justin breaking up the clippings

Max mowing the tee

Isidro topdressing the tee

Justin dragging in the sand

Ryan applying fertilizer

Watering in the sand and fertilizer

Next week, on September 4th and 5th, we will aerate the greens and fairways.

August 17, 2012

Now you see it....

...now you don't!

Its amazing what three little goats can do in a few days!

August 10, 2012

In this weeks paper the weather made the front page – 2012 is so far the warmest/ hottest year on record. I don’t know if the weather service reports humidity records, but if I had my guess, it also has to be the most humid. At least it seems that way.

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We made the 2012 Best of the Press – GOLD for the BEST golf course! This is the third year in a row that we have been given the BEST golf course award!

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Soon we will be installing laser reflectors on the top of the pins. These will work with any laser rangefinder. If you are not currently using a rangefinder, Mark Parson can help find the right one for you!

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The goats are doing what we thought they would do – eating up the lower brush and the poison ivy on the left wood side of the 7^th hole. They made the news in Philadelphia this week – WIP94 sports radio personalities Angelo Cataldi and Al Morganti talked about our goats on Wednesday morning and then again, with Steve Coates, on the  Friday morning show.

Maybe next year we will use chickens for insect control !!!!! Just kidding.....

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Ryan, our intern, has been bringing in his dog, Claude, for goose control. Claude has chased away the flock that hung out in and around the pond on 18, and is keeping tabs on the rest of the course for any “newbies” that might land.

July 19, 2012

Today I took my camera to do a diary of what was going on all at one morning moment - all pics were taken between 6:30 and 7:30 am - as fast as I could get around! There is always a lot going on at once!

topdressing the greens

spraying a wetting agent, fertilizer, and fungicides for soil pathogens

watering in the topdressing and spray

mowing the driving range tee

stringing the weed eater

trimming the driving range walk

setting up the course

watering some of the few thousand new shrubs

still cleaning up from the storm

"dabbing" weeds

venting the greens

mowing tees

the tree service removing hangers left from the storm

Francis contemplating her next weed to eat

That's a glimpse of one hour! and to be honest, I didn't get pics of mowing the fairways, the mechanic repairing a mower, or of the person mowing rough...

July 7, 2012

Last Saturday morning, June 30, I learned what a “Derecho” is. I had never heard of it before, but now I will never forget what it is and what it can do.

Downed tees, snapped limbs, etc – the tree damage was just as bad and in some ways worse than what we suffered with Hurricane Irene. It will take weeks to clean up whats on the ground, and months to clear hangers and twisted limbs high up in the trees. We will also need to remove some of the damaged trees as there is nothing much left of them worth saving.

We were without power to the shop and clubhouse Friday night through Saturday – for the shop it meant we couldn’t charge out work carts, had to siphon fuel for the equipment, made equipment repairs by flashlight, and were unable to charge our phones for communication, and so on. It made things hard, but not impossible – we began the clean up and have kept going ever since.

Worse was the loss of power to the pump house. For three days – Saturday (91 degrees f), Sunday ( 98 degrees f), and Monday (90 degrees f) we were without water for the turf.  We attached city water to the irrigation system with garden hoses which gave us enough water to lightly hit hot spots on the greens, but nothing else. We were able to procure a generator that would have given us power to at least one of our three pumps, but as the electricians were hooking it up, Atlantic Electric asked us to stop so that they could get the line repaired. At 4pm Monday power was re-established to the pump house and we immediately began irrigation cycles.

We brought in extra help for the cleanup, bought another chainsaw– and haven't stopped

And as you know, weather wise its been a tough week, with temperatures in the mid to high 90's– This is today’s headline from Weather.com:

Torrid Heat: 4000 Record Highs and Counting

Records will continue to be smashed in the Midwest and East as triple-digit heat continues.

Todays forecast is for 101 degrees f  with a very real possibility of severe storms tonight.

 

 

Within the next two weeks, we will enlarge our staff with four..........

.........goats!

Last spring (2011) I suggested using goats to manage poison ivy and brush in the wooded and natural areas throughout the course. I thought that goats would be a better alternative than drenching these areas with herbicides that in turn could hurt the trees and other desirable plants, and maybe the birds and other wildlife that have come to live in these areas. At first the suggestion was taken lightly by the club, but in time, it began to make sense, and late last fall I was given the ok to give it a try!

Goats are not new to me. I have a small “farm”, and years ago I adopted a dwarf Nubian goat. One goat doesn’t make a herd, nor does it make me an expert, but from “Snoops” I learned a lot about goats – their personalities, management, diet, uses, etc. Over the years, goats have become one of my favorite animals, even surpassing dogs.  Fact is, some goats are smarter than dogs, and at some things, are more useful. Goats don’t chase geese so much, but they have other positives, such as the ability to browse, and an independent attitude. They are also affectionate and form very tight and life lasting bonds with people and other animals such as horses.

The term “got your goat!” comes from the race track. Years ago, a goat would be stalled with a nervous race horse as a companion to keep it calm and to give it a bit of playful company and in time the bond between the horse and goat would become very strong. Sometimes a competing horse owner would have the goat stolen right before race day, upsetting the horse enough so that it wouldn’t race well....hence, “got your goat!”

There are many types and breeds of goats for all kinds of uses. There are breeds for milking, showing, hair (for “wool”), meat, cart pulling, and security! Some goats are used as pack animals since they are sturdy and sure footed.

I chose to use Boer goats for this project – Boers are a meat goat breed that originated in South Africa, and the breed is known to be very hardy in all types of climates and environments. Last fall I put a reserve on three kid does (female babies) from “Just Kiddin Around” farm, located near Allentown PA. Kidding season was late this spring, and I wasn’t able to pick up the goats till the first week of June. Although I had reserved three, I ended up taking four, all 3 months old. That’s four lucky little goats – Irene, Francis, Mary, and Lucy - that otherwise would have been fattened up shipped off to be  dinner.

Since they have been on my farm, I have spent time getting them used to people and to being handled. I have also been slowly taking them off grain and onto hay and browse. At the farm they are fed sugary grain to fatten them up and to get them to market quicker - so in a funny twist, they needed to be introduced to their natural diets.

Hard for some to believe, but goats don’t eat everything.... Goats don’t eat tin cans or tires or cars. They are not the best grass eaters either, but prefer to browse on leaves of most deciduous plants. This includes brush, ivy, and trees. Many plants though, such as yews, laurel, and azaleas are poisonous to goats. Goats are not indestructible as some people might think. Still, their ability to consume poison ivy, wild rose, green briar, etc makes them seem so.

My plan is to put the goats in the naturalized area between holes 8-9-10 and let them get used to things around here. I will start with two, then in a week or so, bring in all four. We will eventually move them to the wooded and overgrown brush areas along holes 7 and 8. We will use temporary, moveable fencing to keep them in the area we want cleared. They won’t be staying overnight – too many problems with pranks and predators could occur - I will be taking them back and forth each day.

The best thing to do with the goats is to just watch them, enjoy them, and let them be – please do not feed them any treats. If your ball lands in their fenced in area, please take a drop. Please do not go into the fenced area. Although the goats won’t harm you, its best not to pester them.

I am really excited about doing this! Goats are a great alternative to herbicides, fit nicely with our Audubon program, and will be a lot of fun while we reclaim areas of the course!

June 5, 2012

Probably the hardest decision I make is after a rain storm, and whether or not to make playing the course “cart paths only”. I know that it slows play. I know too that it hurts revenue and increases the cost of course set up and labor since rangers need to come in, ropes moved, and signs put out. I know all too well that some members are unable to play when they can’t take their carts onto the fairways or through the rough. All carts are capable of causing damage, so those persons with physical disabilities must stay on cart paths too.

Yet, I also know the damages – both short and long term – which traffic can cause on wet soils. Without getting boringly technical, a saturated soil can be compacted without very much pressure, and when this happens, drainage, root space, air space, etc are reduced or lost. The turf grows weak, and weak turf is prone to moisture stress and disease. The risk of future turf loss is substantially increased. The problem is that loss of turf shows up later, which may be days, weeks, or months away from the initial event. By then, everyone has long forgotten the rainy day I let carts out.

Another damage is disease. Fungi flourish in wet environments, and can be “tracked” or carried down a fairway or through the rough on tires (our equipment as well as carts)! One infection, uncontained, can be spread. Some diseases, such as pythium, can kill turf within minutes of infection, and then spread by water and traffic, can easily become uncontrollable and devastate the course.

When I make the cart path decision, I try to balance the short and long term effects on both the membership and the course, and I always do my best to look after both. It’s not easy, and though some members will always disagree, I am always trying to do the right thing.

There is no reason to take it out on me, as some do.