It's been a while.

It has been over a month since my last blog update, and for that I apologize. Maintenance, projects, and Mother Nature have kept us hopping since mid August. The following is a brief update of what has been happening since then.

Aerification - Our fall aerification went better than it has in 10 years. We were able to core aerify all greens, tees and fairways, something that hasn't been accomplished since 2002. All have healed and will provide healthier turf for 2013. The one bit of aerification not accomplished this fall was a deep tine on the greens, but we will be able to get that in around the first part of April. I would also like to start deep tining fairways and tees when we find time, but this will likely be intermittent with our 36 holes.

Leaf Cleanup - The end of aerification coincides with early October and the beginning of leaf drop. As we finished up the last of our fairways, we swapped our aerifiers for debris blowers and the battle was on. Early cleanup went well and we were able to keep the course clean. Then the rains started and we have been a swamp since mid October. We have been able to take care of them, but not in the same efficient manner we usually do. The course will be its same clean self come snow melt in April.

Projects - I ambitiously thought we would be able to level three tees this fall, and if Mother Nature had provided a normal weather pattern, we would have been in business and ready for play in the spring. Unfortunately, it is difficult to level native soil tees in constant rain and we will have to complete them next spring before we move on to the next tees on our list.

We have finished grading and cleaning the areas left from the tree removal project and were able to get them seeded before the rains started. They have come in nicely and I'm excited about how the area will look next season.

Next up - Late November starts our yearly maintenance of our fleet of carts and maintenance equipment, something that will take us until the end of March. Did you know that we have roughly 165 carts combined in our rental, learning center, and maintenance fleets? That's a lot of oil, filters, brakes and time to get them ready for your round in April.

Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Trevor


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