Happy New Year

Hope you and your family had a great Christmas or Hanukkah.  

A toast to our membership for a great new year of health and prosperity and many visits to our great club.

Metrolink Project

After a few more days of digging, the box culvert running between the driving range and metro tracks is near completion.  There is still a great deal of earth work left to cover the box and provide a gentle swale that will eventually be grassed.  They are working near the 22" natural gas main line that runs across the property so the work is somewhat tedious at this time.  

Track hoe stuck in the mud waiting to be pulled out.  The 22" gas main line is in the foreground.

Looking down the line toward the driving range tees.   515' total feet of box culvert is being laid.  

Box is about 15' below grade at this point.

Weather stats for November

The following are the weather statistics for November.  A fairly decent month for temperatures with a little extra rain.

                OBSERVED          NORMAL   DEPART  LAST YEAR`S
                 VALUE            VALUE     FROM    VALUE
                                           NORMAL

AVG. MAXIMUM   59.2            55.5     3.7     60.1

AVG. MINIMUM     42.6              38.1       4.5      37.5

MEAN           50.9           46.8     4.1       48.8 

RAINFALL         

TOTALS           4.68          3.91    0.77     5.34

Follow up on #6 Oak tree

Once the oak was brought to the ground yesterday, it is surprising that the tree lived as long as it did.  It was completely hollow at the base.  The contractor said there were concrete repairs made to the tree up off the ground.  Concrete was used years ago to fill hollows in an effort to stop decay.  The concrete also prevented animals from climbing up in the tree and creating more damage inside the trunk.  Speaking with Tim Gamma a few days ago at one of our functions, he stated that this type of repair seems somewhat strange to many but in a number of cases over the years, he has seen that trees have actually healed themselves and had grown completely around the concrete filling.  Old conventional methods should not always be thrown out because they are not modern or new.  

One could easily crawl inside the cavity of this tree.  

Final leaf clean up

The staff have spent a couple of days between rain cleaning up the fence lines along #4-#6 from leaves which had raced across the course and colonized.  They used backpacks to move the leaves away from the fence and the sweeper picked them up for disposal.

Jason, Tom and Russ blowing leaves away the wall.

Skip using the sweeper to pick up the leaves.  He has to make a couple of passes over the piles and remove a small amount of leaves at a time so that  the unit does not get clogged.  

Tree Management Program

We removed a few trees in the last week or two due to the tub grinder that was working in the back of the range for the metrolink project.  The large bases of the trees were hauled back to the range and were ground into chips.  The trees have been on our list the last couple years due to significant damage and their hollow trunks that could pose a hazard to members and staff.

A beautiful white oak died in late summer near the fence on #6 and Gamma tree is removing this giant today.  Trees do out compete turf but I always feel bad when an old tree that does not create turf quality issues has to be removed.  

Hollow silver maple logs from #17 being hauled back to the grinder.

Staff cutting on upper limbs from #17 silver maple that was completely hollow and damaged.

Sweetgum that was damaged and removed.

Large white oak along #6 fence line.

More than 1/2 the limbs removed.

Down to the central leader.  

Sanitary Sewer work

Insituform Corp. is being contracted by MSD to place liner inside the sanitary sewer that crosses through the lake complexes from holes 6, 9, 10, 15, 13 and 3.  There is also a small section that we will completed near the maintenance facility and along #1.  This process will take about 3 days to complete.  This process is used to provide a less intrusive repair system for the aged pipe.  I expect little if no impact to the golf course unless there is some slight truck damage along the cart path areas which will be repaired by the contractor.

Pipe liner being pulled out of the truck to be installed in the sanitary sewer.

The liner pulled through the system and now being filled with steam.

The steam pipe attached to the end of the liner.  The steam hardens the liner material and sets it in place.