Where do I begin? It was actually a fairly productive week. We had some rain but very moderate temps. The wind never really let you feel the warm 50's but hey it's a start. At the beginning of the week we started filling the irrigation system with town water. You may recall from the last post we had an issue in the pump house that we assumed was the well based on the symptoms. We installed the buried hose reel on 6/15 and then tackled digging up a valve on 5 fwy that had a minor leak last year to investigate further. It is Friday and that hole is still partially open (more on that later). The irrigation system appeared to be in decent shape. There was one head on 4 stuck on and when we tried to shut the valve we discovered the handle is broken. That has now turned into an entire valve replacement, still an open hole. From the clubhouse as I was heading into work I witnessed a head break on nine at the bottom of the hill and the water shoot 20-30 feet in the air, yet another open hole. That rarely happens on either account. The video in my brain is pretty cool, I wish I could share it. You will have to take my word.
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| Fairway Fred back in action |
We mowed Tees, Aprons and Fairways for the first time this week. Greens received their third mowing and a spray application to suppress seed heads. Next week I will begin Preventative fungicide applications. I was able to stain more of the clubhouse decking and of course it was 30 degrees the next morning but it has dried OK. After a few phone calls with the pump station company and well company we installed a pressure gauge on the well head and ran the pump as another test to check a theory. It panned out that the isolation valve broke shut during the start up and that is the cause of our lack of water last week. Great news as this should be under $1,000 to repair. The bad news is that we still have worn pump bowls that need replacing, a well with salt water intrusion, and an original irrigation system from 1936.
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| Will cutting the rusty bolts off clamps holding bad valve |
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| notice the rust accumulation at bottom |
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| there is active pipe under all that rust |
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| spaghetti plumbing old and new combined |
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| inside of pipe - Rust Never Sleeps |
The job on five fairway is a perfect example of our patchwork plumbing. It is mostly a plastic system put in in the 90's but they attached it to the original AC main line and then some galvanized piping as well. We are way over due for a new irrigation system. Completely new this time.
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| 5 Fairway |
We decided to replace as much of the galvi pipe on the 5th fwy job as we could. Each time we turned the water on another section of pipe would spring a leak. That is why a single hole has been open all week on 5. I made what I thought was the last repair and while Chris and I were back filling and tamping I tapped the pipe with the tamp and the above picture was the result. They don't refer to irrigation as "irritation" for nothing. But we finished the day thinking we will have our well back and the stress trying to figure out how we were going to water this year has been temporarily abated. Fingers crossed the valve replacement solves this problem. Have a great weekend.
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