Divine intervention

If you looked at the radar or watched the news than you can understand just how lucky we were over the last week on weather. We played golf every day over the long weekend with only a few showers compared to inches of rain and micro bursts. We managed to get everything we planned for the course closing on Tuesday with a perfectly timed .2" after we were done and watering it in anyway. Next day it is sunny and perfect so greens dry nicely and we can brush them in again and let the healing begin. It is most assuredly better to be lucky than good. Maybe hiring a Murphy was good luck!

common site as the storm just brushes MV second pin is Home and 4" recorded

scary looking. tweeted "glad not a turf pest"

Labor Day Scramble. Nice grouping,  yes we made birdie

 The cultural practices we planned for Tuesday went off without too many hiccups. The weather was sketchy to start with heavy fog. It kept everything wet and made a mess of the slice seeding for a couple of holes. It would have been impossible to topdress. But eventually  the fog lifted and we began the long arduous task of applying sand to all the greens and approaches. Once we had most covered and it was just about dry enough to brush the skies turned black and we had a few rumbles of thunder. Panic would not describe the feeling you have knowing you could turn all that sand into mud and possibly not be able to do anything with it for another day, potentially. We began moving the sand in with a calm diligence and the storm missed us yet again. Must have been the third or fourth time in as many days. Payback for those 4 days in a row in the 90's in July? Maybe. So aside from a foggy start, a threat of rain at the worst time, and a tire blow out on the top dresser, the day went perfect. We aerified all the collars and approaches with our machines. The contractor deep tine aerified the greens and new tees and for giggles I test my luck and had him do the nursery. I did over the pipe we know is there with our machine and he did the rest. It was the first time so poking holes down 10-12 inches is always a gamble of what you might find. Sometimes an old cup gets speared and then jammed back into the grass until you notice the damage and extricate it from the tines. Sometimes an abandoned pipe is hit (5 green a couple of years ago) and then it makes a mess of your green and the list goes on and on. Again luck prevailed and no issues. In fact he only brought up one rock on the new tees when aerifying those and it only broke one tine and did not do much damage to the tee. The slice seeder managed to get everything done and catch his boat. He even did a few rough areas on the side of a couple holes. The tree contractor, Island Timber, was able to get all the stumps ground up as well. Perfect day.

Six green and slice seeder on one fairway

Shane aerifying greens

Tom grinding away

 The recovery has been spectacular from the aerifying. We only brushed them one time after the first day. Yesterday we rolled them in the morning and today we are cutting them for the first time. Most greens you can barely see the holes.

two days after aerifying

3 days after. They are soft so please repair ball marks

Will starting the mowing for first time. Chris completed the task

A couple of videos from the aerifying day can be seen here:
solid tine and slice seeding
trucks and deep tine 

Time flies when....

Many members have been gone for months, some are just leaving and still others are here year-round and playing the course. We should be in the dead of winter dealing with snow and freezing temperatures etc. This week we had our first real brush with winter. The temps were in the teens and things really locked up. It allowed us to start machinery preventative maintenance and catch up on year-end paperwork. but thankfully was short lived; yesterday was in the 40's and breezy so many greens thawed out on their own. Night time temps above 35 and predictions today of 50 so the beat goes on with this wacky mild winter.
We have had a tree company on property over the last couple weeks doing work for landowner views. Sometimes we get lucky and a tree that they are topping or want to remove will benefit us as well.

pines near yellow and white machine

pines were just to the left side blocking water

new location for material storage bins notice bright stumps

The pictures above do not do the view justice but you can see the light colored stumps in the photo showing the new site for material storage bins which we will move from the end of the first hole. This is being done over the coming weeks and will be a great improvement to the storing of materials. The current bins do not have a hard surface (concrete) under them so we constantly fight contamination of stones migrating up into our bunker sand, topdressing and divot mix. Some of the bins now are too small for large deliveries and we end up contaminating them just moving them into the bin. This new area will be close to our shop area and farther away from neighbors and the course itself. We were right on top of the second tee in it's present location. So now I am hoping this weather holds out long enough to allow us to prep this area and pour a concrete pad.
While the tree guys were here we contracted them for one day to clean up a couple trees on the edge of the roads that had become hazardous after a storm. We also took down some limbs on the right side of the first green. Odd to type "limbs" without a visual to appreciate this little project. Looking up into the air they are limbs hanging over the bunker and blocking the right half of the green on approach. Picking up the firewood left behind and needing the bobcat to lift them and filling the dump truck a couple of times gives a better indication as to the size of these "limbs or "branches".

look right behind worker in bucket. this is "before"

cleaning up the right side approach to the 1st green "During"

Again the pictures do not do the change justice. For anyone who has been on the right side of the fairway trying to get close to a pin on the right side of the green you will thank me the next time you play. Of course you may have forgotten this shot because you have spent the last few years avoiding the right side at all costs due to the degradation of that bunker and the awful lies you would get under "the lip". I believe the two changes (see here) will make a big difference as to how the first hole plays.
A couple of other exciting events over recent weeks was the delivery of two new mowers to test drive. Our business is unique in that we can take delivery of a piece of equipment worth anywhere from $10-$50,000 and keep it for a few days to run on the course and see how it performs. Try to get a BMW and Mercedes for a week to run them through their paces. We ran a straight up "Bobby Flay" style throw down where Kevin took one piece going backwards and I took the other going forwards. We met in the middle and then switched reversing directions so I cut the same things again with the other mower. I was impressed with both machines and found things I liked and disliked on each. Never an easy decision and one we do not take lightly when spending around $30,000 for a mower we will have for at least 7-10 years.

Deere vs Toro for green/tee surrounds

Another change to our equipment fleet came when Kevin's beloved Yamaha work cart gave up the ghost. I say Kevin's because we have switched to Clubcar Carryall maintenance carts but Kev asked that we keep one of the old Yamaha's as he finds them more comfortable. Luckily for Kev We had the last of the personal golf carts kicking around that it's owner, Gray Bryant, donated to turf maint. when he was required to get rid of it a few years back. We had been letting Chet use this cart as a beverage cart on the fourth hole the last couple summers. Will mounted the bed and decided to keep the sun roof on so now Kevin can limit his sun exposure as well as stay in his comfy Yamaha.

Will adding the bed to "Gray's cart"

On a personal note the word from Burlington VT, where "the boy" is continuing his employment with Nectar's this time in the original nightclub and not our famous MV locale (former Hot Tin Roof), is that he must be doing something right as he was named employee of the month. Many of you have watched Josh grow up so I thought I would take this opportunity to embarrass him while I still can. And since the picture they used on the poster is in front of the clubhouse deck during the first Obama visit.

Josh liven the dream

New Sprayer arrived

Earlier in the year I posted about the research I had done for a new sprayer. It can be viewed here. The utility vehicle that the sprayer mounts to arrived a few weeks ago and we have driven about a few times to run it through it's paces. This particular vehicle is a John Deere Pro Gator. Our other utility vehicles are Toro Workman's. One of the main components for the operator to adjust to is the sheer weight of the new sprayer when full. Our old sprayer was a 160 gallon tank while the new one is a 300 gallon. The weight difference on water alone is 1,120 pounds. Plastic vs stainless steel is a few hundred more, I am sure. I like the feel of this sprayer vs a tow behind model which I have used in the past. The tow behind in my previous experience was unwieldy and possibly too big for the rig we were towing it with.

lifting off of trailer and mounting onto Gator

Still on the trailer is a tow behind model slated for deliver to Nantucket

Howard Meredith, Jr calibrating nozzles

Water sensitive paper to test spray pattern and coverage. Blue is the applied water

We chose a couple of nozzles based on the rates i am looking to apply and for their wind resistance properties. We then proceeded to test them on the nursery in open conditions. One was clearly better with less drift and the pattern proved to be sufficient. They have this special paper with a dye on it. You lay them on the turf then spray over them at your desired settings. The water activates the dye and you can see what your coverage and pattern will look like at those settings. The top three papers are greens and the bottom one is fairways. Our current sprayer is set up to cover 2 acres. This allowed us to spray all the greens with one tank. In the beginning we could also spray tees and approaches providing we did not get too aggressive with the size of our approaches. As we enlarged the tees I had a tough time getting them all done. Fairways was 7 tanks. The new sprayer will cover 2.5 acres for greens, tees and approaches using 250 gallons at 4 mph. Using the same nozzles and boom with a full tank at 4.8 mph which is second gear full out it will cover 3.9 acres or roughly 4 tanks. With a special flood jet nozzle mounted directly behind the rig it will cover 6.8 acres or 2 tanks. These nozzles do not give you the coverage pattern of the others but can be used for certain products such as wetting agents and fertilizers. The time savings on fill ups and travel alone make them very appealing.

flood jet nozzles in action

flood jet nozzles are attached to the frame and stick out beyond the regular boom

Also with this new sprayer we purchased and installed a pre-load system called cleanload. It it a mechanism that you add the products you wish to spray directly into and they flow into the tank with the water while it is added. It has several rinse ports for powders and also a jug washing port to efficiently rinse any containers from liquid products. Usually these are mounted right on the sprayer but they stick out and can become cumbersome when traveling around the property. We decided to mount ours right at the mix/load pad attached to the chemical storage building. This will save the person spraying from pre-mixing in a five gallon bucket to ensure the product goes into solution and also having to add product through the top of the rig, which is often cumbersome and dangerous. 





Sprayer research

I was fortunate to be told I could purchase a new sprayer this late Spring. Unfortunately it was unexpected and I had not done a ton of research into exactly what I wanted. One of the few times I have been handcuffed by being on an island. I probably should have just taken an entire day and toured all around but I managed to combine the research with planned trips off-island, practical pig that's me!!! Anyway I called my vendors and received prices very early in the process. They also let me know where I could go to see one. From there I had a trip planned to New Bedford with my son Josh to see David Crosby and Graham Nash. We decided to "tour" the facilities at a course on the cape that just happened to take delivery of a brand new sprayer.

older model and issues they had with boom at first course I visited

One down three to go. On another rainy weekend I decided to spend some time with the bride in our house in Sandwich so I snuck out one early morning and drove almost to the end of the cape to check out another brand of sprayer (sorry no pictures). I had never been to this fairly new course and was treated to a drive around. On yet another trip to America for my niece's graduation and a tape delayed watching of the Bruins win the Cup I awoke at normal time with only 3.5 hrs of sleep and ventured to a course that had taken delivery of a third type of machine. No time for tours as we all had a boat to catch and work to be done so the race to Palmer ave ensued.

Chem Farm sprayer mounted on a John Deere Gator

We used to have an earlier version of this sprayer

Lastly, I swung over to Farm Neck down the street and looked at their brand new sprayer. Unfortunately I was unable to drive that one as it was half filled with chemical and hooked to a battery charger. Apparently they are having charging issues. Over $60k asking price and it is down in the shop. Yikes.

completely re-designed sprayer from Toro

covered rear boom

One round of golf, one course tour, three riding demos and four sprayers researched. All participants had good things to say about their respective sprayer. All have good and bad features. Similar in price depending on options and all quite good sprayers I am sure. I ordered the one I thought fit our needs the best and hope to have it in a month or so.

Greens speed, Gypsum and pit fall traps...

Most often a picture is worth a thousand words. I took several yesterday of the pin location on number one as many golfers complained to me sat. afternoon: "un-playable", 'worst I have ever seen' and so on. As previously stated here we mowed Thursday so this evened them out as well as removing some leaf tissue. All this will increase speed. We also rolled them Saturday and the wind was blowing about 20 or more. The point of all this is to explain the hazards of fast greens. It drastically reduces the available cupping areas of a green. Safe to marginal placements that will never even generate a comment now become the worst they have ever seen! think back to the US Open at Shinnecock Hills where the balls were rolling off the green in the afternoon. Some of the pins were in tough spaces but not worthy of the outcry in my opinion. I moved them keeping them in rotation and some ended being in tougher spots, in my opinion but with the wind laying down and no roll I never heard a peep! go figure

1 green. tough pin? I went to where the bucket is... much steeper



pit fall cover with gypsum pellets from last weeks app.



pit fall trap on fourth hole

a pitfall trap is simply a PVC pipe with a slit in the top that is placed in the ground that catches crawling insects that fall in the pit. The pipe is set at an angle and a removable catch basin of sorts is at the bottom. The catch is placed in an irrigation box for easy access. Mostly we are looking for annual bluegrass weevils which become active this time of year and lay their eggs in short turf. These off-spring are the ones that do the damage, much like beetle off-spring aka grubs. This monitoring allows us to pin point when to apply our control products exact to our location and get the best control. I was surprised to see the snow/rain which fell on the gypsum app did not melt it away. It has since broken down and it doing its job on our soil to reduce the soil salinity.

Will Warner doing some cart maint.

rain cover after removal

Will spent a few minutes going over the new golf carts that came in last week. Adding the new number decals and removing the rain covers that came on this years batch.

Preventative Maintenance

As I mentioned in earlier posts the Mechanic's busy season is when the equipment is not being used. this down time allows for a preventive program to be done and also allows for any major overhaul to take place without affecting course operation. Will Warner came to us from an island landscaper where his passion lies in being outdoors and working with nature. He was a trained auto mechanic in CT working at a Cadillac dealership before moving to the island. I was able to convince him to be our mechanic knowing that he would be on the course a fair amount as well. This has worked out for many seasons as Will has become the third longest tenured employee.

Front end work on a maint cart

Will has to work on everything from a chainsaw up to the dump truck or bobcat. He also gets involved with many things in the clubhouse from a broken door knob to an ill tempered ice maker. His talents seem endless at times and he is an enormous asset.

PM on fleet carts

Winter Work cont...

In the golf business, in the northern areas anyway, we often get asked  "what do you do all winter?" It is a source of amusement for most in the business as we assume people ask because since they leave for warmer climates or stop playing golf they assume we do too? Or since the courses may be closed or the grass does not need mowing we have nothing to do! I am sure it is the simple fact that what we do is not well understood. As a rule in our industry we tend to keep to ourselves and not interact with the players a whole bunch. Some do not even play the game. I always felt education was a blessing and as I learned more I could not wait to impart this knowledge to anyone I could. Ask anyone who has asked me a question and they will confirm they walked away with a much larger understanding to their dilemma. Personal flaw, but one I am working on. I assumed this blog would highlight a few of the things we do and since I started it in the off-season it should give a few answers to those questions.
The off-season is actually the busiest season for one of the crew on a golf course and that is the mechanic or person in charge of keeping the equipment running. They carry many titles now: equipment technician, etc. ours happens to be Will Warner and he also carries the title Asst. Superintendent. Will maintains a pesticide license and helps me with the applications as well as all the large area fertilizer applications. He is our resident tree expert, landscaper, handyman and all around go to person for everything at Mink. I would be remiss not to highlight some of his work this winter. Of course like the "duh" moment earlier this week at Gillette when I thought of taking pictures AFTER I left the stadium I have missed many photo ops with Will. Like when he replaced the front tires on our new/used fairway mower. A fairly large tire so an interesting photo. Interesting side note when Will returned from a mechanics seminar held at Pine Hills in Plymouth he mentioned they had one of our mowers and the tires looked like ours did when we purchased it. Apparently these tires do not hold up well if you have a lot of paved paths and drive on them often. We have had fairway mowers around ten years old with no visible tread wear so to buy a used one only two or three seasons old and have them be almost bald was shocking. Another photo missed was when we switched the tires on the bobcat. We have turf tires and regular tires and we switch back and forth as necessary. Not a huge project but an interesting photo op.


Sprayer. side booms already removed



Entire boom removed

Used boom as it was shipped to us on a pallet

I was a little late on this project but at least caught some of it. We had an issue with one small piece of our boom assembly last fall. The pivot on one of the side booms as it connects to the back boom rusted and broke. We ordered the replacement and then proceeded to call after it three or four times. After three months or so we were very frustrated to say the least. we seriously thought of replacing the entire boom with a traditional non-covered one to eliminate these pivots. The mix-up was blamed on the outsourced piece not manufactured by Toro. To make up for the hassle they offered us and entire used boom from Maine free. Of course we had to pay Cape Cod Express's blood money to get it over to the island from Wareham. Anyway, Will began the project before his vacation and will continue this extensive project upon his return this week. He will get a reprieve mid-week as he heads to providence to attend the New England Regional Turfgrass Conference and Show. More on that later....

Show of Force



Snow Plow Fleet



We have been in charge of snow removal at Mink Meadows ever since we took over road maintenance in 1999. For the first couple of years we subbed out the snow removal portion. Then we purchased a used dump truck and brought it in-house. We have approximately two miles of roads approximately 12 out of  a potential 50 driveways that we plow. In 2008 we replaced the 1993 pickup truck and added a plow to the new truck to have a back-up to our then older dump. This year we replaced the dump and also added a plow attachment for the bobcat, which will make driveways much easier.

A little story from my interview process in November,1995: I came from a private country club with indoor tennis facilities. We had to plow roughly 80 inches a year so I was quite familiar with the process and time needed. When I asked about snow removal I was told "don't worry it never snows on MV". I continued to press the issue explaining "the job comes with the use of a four wheel drive truck so I do not care how much it snows, I just want to know who is in charge of dealing with it".  "Oh don't worry, that is part of road maintenance and not your concern". That winter we had several snow events and one storm that dumped 12-15 inches. We have only had one season in our tenure with that kind of volume, thank goodness, but that is the reason we have such a force of removal equipment for a place where "it never snows".



Snow Plow Fleet