Main Irrigation Pond Excavation in 1 Minute!

As promised, our time-lapse video of the main irrigation pond excavation. The video shows the excavation from start to finish in one minute!

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

March Melts

Spring temperatures bring more spring melting. The snow we accumulated in February is quickly disappearing. We have started clearing the snow from the greens we cleared ice off of in January. We will pull the tarps off of them in the warm temperatures and evaluate the quality of the turf as they start to come out of dormancy. Ideally, the turf under the tarps will have suffered little to no damage from the ice or the removal techniques. More likely, the turf under the tarps will exhibit damage and in some cases, could be lost all together. The Poa annua greens that we were concerned about in January could have been damaged by ice cover before we cleared the ice at all. Poa annua is so sensitive to ice cover and most long-term solutions include the re-grassing of Poa annua greens to bentgrass. We will evaluate the results of the ice removal techniques we experimented with and a report on those result will follow in one of our subsequent blog posts.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

March Already!

This week brought back the warm temperatures and sunshine! Along with those comes the runoff from the snow melt and the muddy mess left in the wake of the rock trucks that drive through the parking lot every ten minutes. The parking lot currently resembles an extremely oversized mud puddle that only exists in the dreams of kids everywhere. The main gate entrance remains closed as the contractor finishes the last of the three ponds and continues to haul north across the parking lot and along the east edge of the driving range. Visitors are reminded to use the maintenance gate and follow the road through the parking lot, outlined by the barricades and caution tape, and to observe the posted traffic signs. Please keep in mind the haul trucks are very large and when loaded can weigh in excess of 30 tons. The operators use extremem caution travelling through the parking lot but the weight of these trucks make them difficult to stop quickly.

The end of February always signals a change in staffing levels. Ed and Paul have both started and are working on some shop organization projects. Ed is also completing some tree removal. Julie is on holidays and has charged me with watering and tending the greenhouse in her absence. Hopefully all will be well with the remainder of her plants when she returns. The end of this month also marks the end of Mike’s position as Assistant Superintendent. He has made the decision to stay at home with his son and will definitely be missed in the maintenance department.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Social Media at the EPGCC: Part Two

The second part of this two part post addresses the use of our Facebook page and our Twitter account in the EPGCC Maintenance Department.

Our Facebook page is primarily still in the development stage and changes regularly as we see more traffic on it. This page is simply another way for us to pass on information. We primarily use the page to link our blog and our Twitter account together and as a simple way to provide smaller amounts of information without creating a new blog entry. Our Twitter account is the fastest form of communication we use. We can write a tweet that is published on our account and can be read almost instantly. Our goal is to be able to tweet changes to the course conditions and pictures of the course instantly to the membership. These changes may include things like irrigation breaks, cart traffic changes, drainage renovations or even frost delays. We also use Twitter to quickly communicate information to other industry professionals. Many other Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents and other turfgrass professionals use Twitter. We follow a number of industry people and receive their tweets directly. As well, a number of industry people follow us and receive our tweets directly.

Overall, we hope to continue to add content to our blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts on a regular basis. We also aim to provide content based on feedback we receive regarding current content, or on topics you would like to see information about. For more information on using Facebook or Twitter please contact us and we can provide some basic instructions.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.