Mink Meadows Turf Maintenance Department: Catching up

What happens when you get into a routine and it gets disrupted? You end up playing catch-up sooner or later. As I write my 210th published post (have a few drafts hanging around), I realized it has become a Friday ritual. Infrequently I would be busy on Friday and have to accomplish the task over the weekend but can only remember a couple of occasions when I skipped an entire week. Not a bad percentage for an amateur closing out three years of weekly posts. I was off-island Thursday playing Rhode Island CC for the Cape Assoc. Championship. No I am not in any contention to win as we have several good players in our midsts, but I did enjoy an update of a research trial on Dollar Spot conducted by Umass at the site. The speaker was also one of the researchers doing work here at Mink. RICC sits right on Narragansett Bay, is a Donald Ross design and always a fun course to play. Friday morning I mowed greens and then spent the day with my sister and brother-in-law who were visiting for her birthday. My wife thought up a massage as a gift which she enjoyed Thursday. I thought to take her to one of the keyed beaches on the south side of the island. Living in Vermont she misses the ocean terribly. If you know me at all you know that I do not travel around the island much and certainly never go to the beach in-season. A trip up-island is a rare treat and always enjoyed. We stopped at Humphries, the Granary Gallery and then spent hours walking the beach. Dinner and the Grateful Dread at the Port Hunter wrapped up a full and wonderful day. Saturday I again mowed greens plus changed cups and then raced off-island to continue the birthday celebration with the rest of the family in Sandwich.

horses enjoying a run on the beach

where we were on the island. a first for me

hurricane Sandy destroyed this cave, birthday girl

James Popko, Umass giving DollarSpot talk

The course continues to improve from the summer stress we faced although it is still very dry. Great weather for golf and beach walks but a little rain never hurts. We did receive .24" last night so I expect to see a slight boost from that although the temps are cooling way down with highs only in the 50's. The leaves are starting to fall in earnest and Fred is wrapping up the fescue/little bluestem mowing. I have been involved with the MVC fertilizer group writing the new regulations coming to a town near you. Suffice to say we are all in for some changes when it comes to lawn maintenance. I will get into this more in another post. Our last tourney of the year is one of my favorites, The Bassackwards. I will miss it again this year unfortunately since I will be in Oregon playing Bandon Dunes with the TurfNet crew. Hopefully there will not be another hurricane in my absence like last year. We have many projects to accomplish before full on winter sets in and this drop in temperature will light a fire under us to get on the stick to complete our aerifying duties, prep the bathrooms for next season as well as close them, rebuild a bunker and a tee just to mention a few.