Power of Social Media and a quick weather change

I was scanning through my Twitter feed last night and having a private conversation with a sports writer at the Boston Globe when I received a notification of a mention. A mention is when someone uses your Twitter name in a post or "Tweet" mine is @22Crowther. It was a simple note saying "Hey @22Crowther looking good" from a follower of mine and fellow superintendent Zach Bauer @ZBTurf411 . Zach is at The Broadmoor in Colorado and he was replying to a tweet by Simon Haines @Hainsey76, Golf Course Architect in England. Simon's tweet was two pictures of Mink Meadows from 1939 I had never seen before. I was blown away. My conversation with the writer was also very informative about the Buffalo area. Apparently not as snowy as one would think, "same or less than Boston burbs and better summer weather...." Who knew the lake effect snows are concentrated to a defined area? Social Media can be a great thing when used for the right reasons and that is all I will say about that. You can all insert your own jokes about our soon to be Tweeter In Chief.

screen grab of a Tweet

Back to the pictures Tweet seen above. A few tweets went back and forth and I now have this cool website with archived photos, two great new aerials of the course and a new follower Simon Haines. The link is HERE and just a quick scroll down that page shows a picture of the old Island Country Club, the predecessor of Farm Neck. Very cool. Two main features of the new pictures of Mink that stuck out to me are the lines across the fairways indicating a double row irrigation system and No bunkers.

July 4 1939

July 4th 1939

We also had a change in the weather with a couple of storms and a dip in temperature. Approximately 6" in the first one and 12" in the second. Surprised no branches or trees came down since it was sticking to everything and also had a bit of rain mixed in. Pictures from around the property while plowing:

Yacht Basin sunrise looking into channel

Yacht Basin East sunrise glow

Juxtaposition 

Connie's Way

Golf Club Road along 9 fwy

The skiers and sledders had their fun and tonight it warms up with some rain in the forecast so we shall see if we lose it all over the next couple of days. I am off to Portland Maine for a conference that I have been asked to speak about low input turf maintenance. More about that later.