New trees

On Tuesday morning Eagle Creek Tree Farm and Vollmin Tree Movers showed up in the parking lot with a truck full of new trees for the course.  Here are a few pictures from the day.  A huge thanks to Cliff and Dale for the exceptional service, the trees look great.






#15 first holes being dug





20 new trees to the left side of #15





A look back at the new tee on #6

Greens Aeration

Here are a few pictures from our greens aeration.

John aerating 17 green

After the holes are punched we double cut the green to smooth the putting surface as well as remove any tufts of turf above the aeration holes to allow the holes to be filled with sand during topdressing.


10th green after aeration 

Aeration opens up the putting surface enabling more efficient air and water movement throughout the rootzone. This reduces the chance in the winter months of standing water developing on the putting surface which could potentially lead to turf loss.
  

Bruce topdressing 16 green

After topdressing, we then dragmat the green to move the sand into the aertaion holes. To finish off the process the greens are mowed once more to smooth the putting surface and any aeration holes disturbed by the dragmat.

Staff Party

 

Mike and Brent manipulating an orange.

 

Colin rips one over the 5th green.

 

Staff Party

Staff Party

 

Ulla and Paul doin their thang.

 

The big dawg has arrived.

2012 Staff Party

 

Tommy giving Maxfli a tummy rub.

 

Brent and Amit getting ready to light er up.

 

Ulla Laventure taking it easy.

 

The girls getting "stuff" ready.

Great Horned Owl

 

Another bird that will take over an old crows nest is the Great horned owl.  This owl can be found from Alaska all the way down to South America.  It tends to be a solitary animal and can live up to 28 years.  These pictures were taken on the 12th hole.

Pied-billed grebe

 

I think that I have seen this little guy for the past 5 seasons at the golf course.  He seems to arrive at pretty much the same time of year and will stay for a while before the migration south.  The migration can be as far as 3,200 km.

Not here!

 

It's never a good thing when there is water, likely from the irrigation system, coming up from the base of a 40 foot poplar tree.

Often times the water will travel a fair distance and emerge at where there is least resistance.  I had visions of a pretty big dig when I got nominated to do this repair.

 

Fortunately the broken pipe was directly below the water and with a shovel and an axe it turned out to be a pretty easy repair.  But the question is: what came first, the pipe or the tree?

12th hole

Tyson is one of the new turf employees this season and he managed to snap this great picture of the 12th hole one evening.

2012 Staff

 

Once again I had an awesome maintenance crew that worked very hard to keep the course conditions at a consistently high level.  In the front row there are the Lees brothers, Mike and Brent (Assistant Superintendent) and in the second row (L to R) there is myself, Dale, John (Turf Technician), Terry, Jayme and Tyson.  In the back row we have Dustyn, Colin, Clayton and Don.  Thanks to all you guys for your hard work and dedication and congratulations to Dale Deyo who was 2012 Turf Employee of the Year.

Falcons

 

One of the benefits of having crows on the golf course is that they build very good nests and only use them for one season.  The following year, birds such as these Merlins, take over these nests and this family nested in a spruce tree on the 18th hole.

Republic of Alberta

 

I'm not sure who this Rolls Royce belongs to but I just had to throw this onto the blog.

10th hole

 

A nice morning picture of the 10th fairway on July 5, 2012.

Great Blue Heron

 

One of the most regular visitors to the golf course each day is the Great Blue Heron, one of the three largest herons in the world.  We think that more than one heron visits the course in search of food, primarily fish, and the large one stands 1.3m (4.5 ft) high.  Although they feed at the golf course, they nest elsewhere, usually in colonies in trees over water.

Waxwings

A look down the first fairway on Saturday morning.

Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time, or you miss a lot and I just happened to be close by with my camera when a flock of Cedar Waxwings came by. 

It was three years, almost to the day, that I got pictures of this photogenic Waxwing just outside the maintenance compound.

A cool May morning

Last Saturday morning (May 26) was absolutely gorgeous with a wonderful sunrise and temperatures down around 0C.  Although there was a short frost delay I'm sure that all the golfers had a wonderful morning at the course.

The north edge of the practice green with the rising sun just hitting the trees in the background.

Lesser or Greater?

These Scaups have been around the golf course for quite a few years now.  The males are easily recognizable with their white bellies and flanks and by their blue bills.  According to some literature, the Greater Scaups don't actually breed in Alberta so could these be Lesser Scaups?  I think that they are Greater Scaups that are just in the area for a month or two in the spring, on their way to the northern nesting grounds.

Another look at one of the Greater Scaups in the 9th pond.

one word

Whoops!

Buffleheads

Another early spring visitor to the golf course ponds is the Bufflehead duck, easily spotted due to the large white head patch on the male.  They stop by the golf course for a couple of weeks each spring during their migration.

Mergansers

Some of the earliest visitors back to the golf course each spring are the Common mergansers.  The male, on the left, is quite easy to see from a distance with a large portion of his body being white.  The female has a reddish head with some feathers that fan outwards.  They are fish-eaters and possess a serated bill giving them the nickname "Sawbills".  During the winter months they are like some of the golf course members in that they migrate south to where the rivers and lakes don't freeze.

January also went by very quickly as John, Chris, Kenny, James, Tina and myself did some renovations in the clubhouse.  We removed the old carpeting and painted all the walls in the main area and hallway going to a nice brick red color, adding some warmth to the area.  The ceiling was given 2 coats of paint and a new sub-floor was installed followed by some new carpet and vinyl floor that looks awesome.  New lights were installed throughout the building and the bathrooms also got some new paint and fixtures.  The older style wallpaper in the main entrance was covered over with two good coats of paint and the new furniture really tied it all together.  Unfortunately there are no pictures as I was too tired to take any.  Kudos to everyone for putting in a strenuous three weeks, especially Chris and John for masterminding the renovations.

It' hard to believe that it's almost March and another winter has flown by very quickly.  Things tend to move quickly when you are busy and it was a busy and enjoyable off-season.  The winter months are always a great time to participate in a multitude of educational activities and the first event is the Alberta Golf Superintendent's Association Property Manager's Conference that was held in Red Deer at the end of November.  Each year the Association presents the Distinguished Service Award to a superintendent in Alberta and I was certainly touched when I was chosen to be the 2011 recipient of the award.  Jason Clouston, my good friend from Olds GC made the presentation:

For the entire issue of the magazine http://www.albertagsa.com/external/documents/December%202011%20Final%20Copy.pdf