A New Year

Another year has passed. Many might say good riddance since the weather was certainly not the best. I will try to look at the positive side that it could have been worse. The first picture tells a bit of the story. It was very wet and higher than the average in several months and overall. It was not the highest in total rainfall for my 23 yrs worth of record keeping. 2003 beat it by .41" That year had 9.63" in August but one t-storm was 4.6". The 9.57" in November of 2018 was just non-stop rain. It never seems to come in the perfect amount or at the right time. We fared much better than most of New England.

By the numbers

The new year started with almost an inch of rain overnight with some heavy winds. One of those out like a lion parables. The day turned into an absolute gem though with temps of almost 60 degrees and little wind. The course had a few players enjoying the holiday and start of a new year. I toured the course at dusk and saw three deer cross the third hole. They were happy to have survived another hunting season I am sure.

Not a bad start

spectacular day

Deer Crossing

New look and repurposed fence

There have been a few new looks on the property. After some discussion about the proper way to take relief from the fence on 4 we decided to remove it. The original plan was to have the bunker be a waste area and the right side be a playable naturalized area. Well the bunker was constructed  more as a traditional bunker and never had the "waste" feel in spite of all our attempts to firm up the sand. "Playable" naturalized area is a misnomer, a unicorn, the holy grail of tall grass. Instead they become ball magnets that slow down play. If we allow carts to the right of the bunker it will become worn to dirt in no time so that will be an issue as to how we keep them from doing that. A fence may go back up over to the right. For now the plan is to allow that area to continue to be tall grass but it may get irrigated and maintained as rough in the future. It looks interesting without the fence. After much deliberation I thought of an area to use some of the removed fence and installed it on the edge of the road and the pollinator habitat area to the right of #2. I will remove the logs used to keep cars off the course.

re-purposed fence from 4 on the outside corner of 2

New look 4th hole

new look 4th hole

Another new look is on the final mowing of the fairways. I decided to try some contour mowing just for kicks. This is simply starting on one edge of the fairway and following that same contour throughout the rest of the fairway. It makes for some interesting patterns on a few holes.

Contour mowing 

Sunsets and Swans

Just another week of roller coaster weather

After a nice warm weekend with golfers afoot on Saturday it rained Sunday but it was warmish at least. A predicted dusting for Tuesday turned into snow all day and about 3 inches. Hard to tell since it was blowing 30+ mph all day. Overnight temps in the teens and snow cover reminds us it is still winter.

Bill O'Brien Jr diagnosing a leak. 

Potential subnivean tunnel?

I often get asked "is the snow good for the course?" As with most things in life there is rarely a straight forward answer, but in short, yes. It acts as an insulating layer protecting from the extreme cold and wind. I discussed in an earlier post about how Twitter is filled with talk of people having to water their courses this winter because it is so dry. This tweet from Jared Kalina at Ballyneal in Colorado cracked me up:

from Twitter

 We are fortunate that we generally do not have to worry about drying out in the winter. We get a lot of rain and some snow but stay moist enough. I discussed the perils of rain on frozen ground and the damage ice can cause earlier this winter. How does snow act as an insulator? This winter I learned a bit about the interface between snow and earth. I follow this blog from Naturalist Mary Holland from Vermont. The title is Naturally Curious.

blog post

From the interweb: The subnivean zone is the area between the subsurface of the ground and the bottom of the snow pack. [under the snow pack] the snow that lands on the ground sublimates; that is, changes from a solid into a gas without going through the melting stage. Sublimation is prompted by heat radiating from the earth. Warm, moist water vapor rising into the bottom layer of snow cools, condenses, and refreezes into tightly packed, rounded ice crystals. [at 8 inches of snow the subnivean zone remains within a degree or two of 32 F regardless of the temperature and weather conditions in the outside world. For the full site click HERE

This zone is mostly described for the critters that live within it and the predators that feed on them. But it explains why snow is a great thing for turf. 32 degrees at all times. Perfect climate control. It would keep us from building feet of frost, and/or drying out. I remember one year getting almost 3 feet of snow on unfrozen ground. It lasted for almost two months and we had barely turned off color so when it melted we rolled right into spring. On a walk yesterday I stumbled upon some marks in the snow and it prompted this post.

intersecting paths?

Beach art

We lost another early house from the founding of the association. Possibly an original from 1964? It stayed in the family at least. Should be interesting to see what is put up in its place.

out with the old.....

Next week I will be off to a conference in San Antonio. I was asked to be involved in a couple of talks again this year. One is a new light-hearted  game show style talk titled The Great Debate. there are a handful of us that will debate some turf topics with another Superintendent acting as the MC/moderator. The other is a technology session happening on the trade show floor. I am sure there will be lots of activity on Twitter about it and I will more then likely be tweeting about other stuff happening at the show so follow along if you do not want to wait for a recap when I get back.

Technology!! 

Talk at the Golf Industry Show

Adventures of Belle - update. That bird gets around

If you follow this blog you may remember me showing you Belle the osprey. I found this phone app and then a website that lets you follow birds that have been outfitted with GPS tracking devices. It was great fun to watch Belle and others make their journey from South America back up to the North East. Well a couple of weeks ago, on my way to the homestead on the Cape, Belle was hanging out in Mashpee right where I drive, so I dragged my wife Cheryl to see if we could get a glimpse.

GPS is accurate

Was an osprey way out over this pond

The phone app showed Belle at this little water body right off the main road. We pulled in and drove right by it and headed to the big pond thinking it had to be wrong. We could hear an osprey flying over the pond so I took a picture and was disappointed in the accuracy of the GPS unit. As we drove out looking at the little mud puddle where it said she was we both saw an osprey fly right over. I pulled out onto Rt 130 and then pulled over hoping to see her again but did not. I have checked in on her over the last two weeks and the silly bird has been all over. She took a day trip out here and another to Chatham.

Trip to MV

Trip to Chatham

"Silly bird has been all over"

Gypsy Girl

It appears by the last update I grabbed above Belle has made a few trips out to Martha's Vineyard. After traveling all the way from South America a few miles everyday to explore around is no big deal. Our osprey who comes in and stays on one nest for the entire season seems dull by comparison. 

Quick Osprey Update

I checked in on Belle this morning and she had made landfall on the main land USA. She is a real trooper and this would be her 6th migration back to this area. After my last post someone shared this website with me: Osprey Trax which also has information on Belle and Stadler another in my favorites list on the phone app mentioned in the last post. According to the website there is some confusion as to the sex of Belle but I am sticking with female. Another clear sign spring is on the way.

Belle is in Florida near a course called Westminster Golf Club. 

Maybe this year she will finally find a mate and settle down here at Mink Meadows?











Here is a video of a very nice sunset from the roof of the clubhouse last Sunday. Have a great weekend.

Spring? tracking the osprey's return

We have changed the clocks. We have cleaned the course (some areas several times). We have seeded the tee divots. We have had a few days in the 60's. OK that last one isn't very normal for our Spring weather but the rest of them sure point towards the end of Winter. Yet the roller coaster weather continues. We had a snow storm Friday and temperatures in the teens all weekend. Today we are getting a major storm but the snow turned to rain and washed it all away and is chipping away at the snow on the ground. The ground is frozen and putting up a good fight though. The wind is the main concern right now with forecasts for 60+ mph gusts. Eventually we will be through with this nonsense and actually playing golf again.

West Chop dock

Heart rock

The pinkletinks started up and then froze so went back to sleep. The red wing black birds returned but one of the best signs of Spring is the return of our mascot the osprey. The screen grab below shows a bit of a spreadsheet I keep to track important parts of the job such as first mowing etc. The earliest the osprey has returned is 3/7 and is generally at the end of the month. We were the first pole erected by Gus Ben David in an effort to help the osprey after being threatened by DDT. We have had a mating pair on our pole since the 70's and were a vital part to the resurgence of this great bird. See more HERE or do a search of Osprey Mink Meadows and all sorts of interesting stuff will appear.

I found this really cool app called Animal Tracker. You can zoom in on birds that are tagged with a GPS unit. They have bios and a bit of history on them. You can click on two animations for activity last year or last two weeks. The pictures below show a screen grab of an osprey tagged on MV. The green bird is where she was in March of 2016 and then the red dot at the end of the red line is where she is now. Belle has made a move north in the last two weeks. It will be fun to see her make the journey from South America all the way back up to our little island in the North East.

great phone app to follow GPS tagged birds

Follow Belle as she makes her way home to MV

Catching up

Where to begin? With a couple of frosts and an overall dip in temperatures it is clear that Fall is upon us. The leaves have mostly turned and it has been a stunning year for color. They are also dropping in earnest so the fun of cleaning the course and searching for golf balls while playing is in full swing. The course continues to heal from some of the scars of Summer and by all accounts is playing well. We aerated greens again this week to prepare them for Winter. We have also begun preparing the course bathrooms and fountains by draining the water and winterizing them. Next will be the cart barn and irrigation system. We will continue to have nice golfing weather for at least another month or two with an odd day off to snuggle up indoors with a good book (hint hint to the crazies who play in any weather). A few pictures from around the place:

Ollie the Otter in MM pond

2 baby swans reaching full size

Tree and weak rough near putting green

weak collar & aerifier damage

I started aerifying the nursery at 9" I figured we had good roots and should handle the deep tining. The next spot I went to was the weak corner of the putting green and it was a disaster. I raised it up to 5" and was able to get it done without further incident. Looking over the area at large it is obvious the culprit is an oak tree right off the green. The picture above clearly shows weak rough grass leading up to the collar. Even after all the rain we have had and some great Fall weather that section of turf has not recovered enough to handle routine maintenance.

Color Collage

Mushroom collage

Walking to the boat last week WH

Woods Hole terminal

I hope everyone is enjoying their Fall. More updates from the property as we progress into Winter.

Drought: by the numbers

3rd hole

2nd hole Mother and babies

The course is starting to show the signs of the weather we have been having. I put together a couple of pictures to illustrate the data. The first shows the last four years of local rain totals from the weather station on the gazebo with a 21 year average. I arrived in the Fall of 1995 and starting tracking with a manual gauge before we purchased the station. The monthly totals are always interesting but do not show the entire picture sometimes so the second sheet is directly from the weather station.

The second graphic shows the daily data. I highlighted with red arrows any rain event over two tenths of an inch. I labeled it .1" but a tenth is a drop in the bucket once you are dry. Since May 13th there have been 5 events. They were fairly well spaced out and each was a life saver when they came. The rule of thumb for irrigation or rainfall for cool season turf is 1-1.5 inches per week. Our rainfall came about every two weeks and none of them were even 1 inch so that spells deficit right there. We make up the difference with irrigation but as the pictures of the course at the beginning of this post show the system does not have perfect coverage. If we use the conservative number of 1" per week and the picture highlights 10 weeks and we have only received 3.6" the deficit is 6.4". Simple math right? Unfortunately grass doesn't do math. Once the ground is extremely dry the water just runs off and does not penetrate. We could get all 6.4" tonight in a Thunderstorm but most of it would run off and flood the low areas. The one thing data and experience has taught me is that the average for the year is pretty consistent, so eventually it will rain again. Meanwhile we just have to enjoy the different colors, textures, bounces and lies this weather pattern has created on the links.

6th hole

Fire in the sky

End of August update - reminder Greens Aerifying 9/8

It was wonderful to have the humidity break finally. Seemed like a month rather than a week or so of hot sticky weather. The forecast is for a couple more days then the humidity returns and I am hearing September will be warmer than normal. Should make for some great golfing. The course has held up OK this season. We have a few lumps to repair and a bit of dry weather stress that needs more rain to recover but all in all it is still playing very nicely. I will apply a gypsum application to help flush the salinity build up from the summer's irrigating. This will help firm up the surface and help us drain a little better. When the salt builds up at the surface it really messes with the physical properties of the soil. Think of your salt shaker in summer time where the grains are all stuck together and will not flow out through the little holes in the top. Soil particles do the same thing and the surface gets squishy and soft. This will hamper water flow and seal off the surface. With the intrusion into our well it is a constant issue we have to deal with much like sugar levels as a diabetic. And sometimes we simply have to apply gypsum as a corrective measure. We finally get a few rain events and they turn the place into quicksand. It makes the divots and ball marks worse and easier for carts and mowers to do damage while driving around. Of course you can still always replace your divot and repair your ball mark unlike the pictures below:

Crazy amount of abuse going on lately. Big divots and none being replaced. We do not have the time to follow every golfer and clean up after them.

With the recent rains the greens are soft and the number of ball marks increase. Sadly they also do not seem to be getting repaired either. Remember the proper way is to pull the good grass into the middle. Do NOT pry up from the bottom as you see most PGA tour pros do. What the heck do they know about turf maintenance anyway?

water just sitting on the surface 1 fwy

Bert is enjoying the poor drainage at least

We have been seeing a lot of deer on the property lately. It has become a daily occurrence and not just the same group either. Not sure what that means but if the Farmer's Almanac prediction of a "snowy and bitter cold" winter is to be believed maybe they are fattening up in preparation?

Mother and daughter on 1 fwy Cousin on 3 fwy below on the same morning

She was here early when we hosed the dew and stayed for at least an hour munching

We are just a little over a week away from our greens aerifying on Tuesday September 8th. Greens will be closed all day for this procedure. Thank-you for your patience while we perform this necessary task.