weekly update

We finally received some much needed rain. Two massive thunderstorms rolled through this week and thankfully did no damage that we know of and gave a some nice rain. Usually not the case in thunderstorms where you get inches per hour which useless unless trying to fill a pond. We received .18 and .27 in the two storms. The place was getting a little crispy so this should even things out again. We were also starting to build up the salinity level in the soils with all that watering we were doing. The heat wave predicted was minor here with a good cloud cover most of the day and cooler sea breezes. All in all I would say we are still on the right track. We did get a couple irrigation expansions done this week as predicted. We added a part circle sprinkler to both the back left of 2 and 3 greens. Three turned out to be more work than expected when an intermittent problem turned constant and the power wire to the back left head failed completely. We simply tied it in with another head in the green loop. Not the perfect solution but it will work in a pinch and get us through the season. Probably why the rough in that section is always suffering if the head worked less than 50 percent of the time. We have always had communication problems in that corner so half the time the head would not come up we blamed the communication. I think now the wire has been on the verge of complete failure.
We also discovered irrigation issues on three fairway. Several zones are not coming up and the communication is erratic at best. I changed out a few electronic boards in the clock but did not have any success. The beat goes on.

improper wire connections

We discovered a broken head on the 9th green this week and when repairing I came across another of this technique where instead of cutting the wire and using a traditional connection and water proofing they skinned back a section of the casing and attached the sprinkler solenoid and then used electrical tape to cover. How these things works for more than a season is still a mystery but the water penetrates the casing of the wire and degrades the copper from the inside and will eventually lead to complete failure.

2nd green plumbing in a part circle sprinkler for the rough

I took a few videos of the lightning storm as it was intense wed night. I thought I would post them here but they are not as thrilling as when watching it live. My title was going to be: Bruins win: Tim Thomas posts another shutout and higher powers celebrate with light show" I really need to get more sleep. Usually I would not even stir with a t-storm at mid night but these NHL playoffs are keeping me up way past my bed time. Hopefully we win the next two and put an end to it. Go Bruins!!