Tennis court work started

We have finally gotten some cooperation with the weather of the last week or so which has allowed us enough time to get caught up on some course work and now has allowed us a day to begin the tennis court clean up work.  The staff spent the biggest part of the day after their first round of course jobs doing the following with the courts:

• Pulling weeds that had germinated around the court.
• Blowing tree debris away from the fence lines and mulching them with a rough mower.
• Pushing dead clay to the side of the courts.
• Using backpack blowers to remove the remaining clay off of the courts and picking it up with shovels and hauling it away. 

I began to lay some clay this afternoon with our topdressor but the mushroom cloud caused by the clay dust might have chased some of you away from Tapas night and we did not want that to happen.  The last two years I used a 5' wide walking drop spreader and dispensed 200 bags of clay which was painstakingly long process.  We thought we would use our topdressor this season and it appears to working well but does create a great deal of dust so we have to do this early in the morning.  Once the clay is laid, we have to water it in and begin rolling it.  We will apply some calcium chloride to help make the surface firm and will then begin to lay out the lines on the courts.  This might be the worst job because you have to nail in a few thousand aluminum nails into the tapes to hold them down. 

I probably need at least 3-4 dry days over the next 7 days or so to get the work completed.  If I can get all the clay laid by the weekend, I believe we can get the courts open by mid to late next week. 

Jeff, Demarcus, Tom M. and Ryan blowing the dead clay from the court.

Jason picking up the dead clay that was pushed and blown to the side of the court for removal.