Mink Meadows Turf Maintenance Department: Will this be a year of Firsts?

I have cleared a bit of snow and slush off greens before. Mainly on a melting day to speed things along so there is not much free moisture to re-freeze that night. I have never run a snow thrower on them. I sure as hell have never driven a bobcat on them. Actually I still have not but I had Will out there and the pictures and videos to prove it. If you are reading this blog you know I discussed last week the ice we have on the surface of many greens. I made the decision to remove the snow to facilitate the removal of the ice. I walked onto the boat and took delivery of a snow thrower on tracks and began clearing off #9. The others we did (2,3,6, Practice) required clearing a path just to access them. Before the 1/2" of rain and warm weather Wednesday the snow was hard enough to drive the bunker rake right on top. The idea is to clear the snow and then apply dark sand to the ice and promote melting. The 10" of fresh snow yesterday and 16 degrees this morning did not help our efforts. We started yesterday removing ice on 9 by prying it up with shovels. It was wet under the ice from all the rain. Once we did most of it the boys moved on to plowing snow on roads and driveways and I took the snow thrower to #6. Today as they continued clean up I took the bunker rake and removed the new snow on the ones already cleared and shoveled sand onto the practice green.