Crest not yet here

The river is not forecasted to crest until 12:30 AM Janurary 2. As of 11:00 am Dec 31 the river is at 24 feet, Crest is forecasted to be 26.1 feet.

That is about close to 4 foot high than this Spring.

videos of flood

Dec. 30, 2015

https://www.instagram.com/p/_7N9MonQvGCCxgyBwhvTmxOPLhrlWDsxx2yPg0/?taken-by=squatchy74


https://www.instagram.com/p/_7NgDDnQt9rG45BRerJfMG7wLbpmfhljyEnw00/?taken-by=squatchy74

Dec. 30 lunch

It is high! 

Here is a pic from 13 green.

One of 14 green

12 green. Not much left to see.

Pump house. 

Winter flood 2015 dec. 30 morning

First photo of flood. Already equal to the peak of the june flood. Forecasted to rise three more feet. More photos later. 

Pending Flood

The river is currently forecasted to Crest higher than it did in June of this year. This means another major flood on our course.
In preparation we have gathered all of the rakes, trashcans, broken tee boxes and flagsticks off of the back nine. We also brought in the covers from the backside as I fear the higher water could have floated some of them away. I have also prepared the back nine irrigation boxes and pump house.

My prediction is the waters will Crest about a foot higher this time than in June. I hope this means that we will have no greater amount of damage than we did this Spring. I do foresee the drying time, once the water goes down, to be much longer than in June.

The wet lands have already backed up onto 12 fairways and is riseing pretty quick.
The River is forecasted to Crest in our pool early Thursday morning.

I will keep everyone updated.

Crew pizza party!

To thank my Crew for another great year I took them for Pizza and beer at Boudreaux's Pizza on the Boulevard. Great tume with a great Staff! Thanks guys and gal for a terrific year! Merry Christmas! 

Painting Greens!

Painting Greens today! We hope to be finished tomorrow but this process takes time, so we may have to finish Wednesday. Tomorrow we will have to close two holes at a time while painting, so please look for "hole closed" signs on the tees. 

We paint greens for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it looks great! Our paint job really has a natural look that gives the golfer a brilliant target to shoot at from the fairway. 
Secondly, the dark color helps attract sunlight and in turn helps to warm the surface and the soil. 

Thank you!

Thanks to our membership we have acquired all the furniture needed! Thank you! 

Office almost ready!

Office is almost ready! We are just waiting on the electrician to hook up heating and air and the building project will be finished! 

There are a few items that the iffice needs to be functional and complete. I am hoping that our generous membership maybe able to help out. These items do not have to be new or even in great conditions, decent condition will be just fine! 

We need two floor roller pads for office chairs, the stamped concrete floors prevent chairs from rolling. 

Two chairs without rollers for guests to use. 

A small bookshelf or two. About 3-4 feet wide would be great. 

We have two desks that will work just fine, but they are quite large for the small space, so a smaller office desk or two might help also. 

Eventually i would like blinds on the windows. 

If you have any of these items that you would like donate please let me know. Thank you very much! 

OPEN!

The bathrooms on 6 are open! 

Lights and fans come on and turn off automatically when someone enters and leaves! So, please do not use the wall switches. Thanks and enjoy. 

Almost Complete

The building is almost complete! Plumbers are here this morning, and if all goes right the Bathrooms will be open for use by Friday if not Sooner! 

I'll post interior pictures once toilets and sinks are installed. 

Bricks are laid!

Pictures from the Members' side of 6

Here are a few pictures of the bathrooms ! Looking good!

#6

Coming along nicely! Looks great!

#6 building update!

Going good ! 

Foundation built, plumbing laid, floor poured and stamped. Floor scheduled to be sealed today and building framed tomorrow, weather depending. 

Construction has begun

Building Demolition

Building in 6 is demolished!

Demolition postponed.

Due to the glorious rain we are receiving, the demolition of our building on 6 has been delayed. We will try again on Monday!

Bathrooms coming down!

Tomorrow, Thursday October 22, the bathrooms on number 6 fairway will be closed. We have portable toilets set up left of 7 tee for your convenience!

Friday the building is scheduled to be demolished! 

Construction of the new building will begin as early as next week! 

Thanks for all who have help this to happen! I will keep everyone posted on the progress!

On the Course

Earlier this week we completed our by-weekly verticutting of the greens. Yesterday, Thursday Sept. 10, we performed our weekly topdressing of the greens then we applied our first of two granular fertilizer treatments. Fall fertility not only helps the turf thru the winter but helps the turf come out strong in the spring. 

Weekly Topdressing

Every week we lightly topdress our greens. This week we accomplished it on Thursday morning.

We spread the sand then drag it in. This helps maintain a smooth putting surface and helps maintain airflow through the thatch layer. 

number 10 Pond

As many may have noticed we have had several fish die in our pond on 10 over the weekend. We will be cleaning these up first thing Tuesday. All personnel were busy today with other work best done on Mondays when we are closed.

 The reason behind the fish dying is most likely a natural occurrence common this time of year.

Pond Turn Over triggered by the low water levels and cold rain this weekend. Here is a pretty good description of pond turnover by the Virginia Game Fish Department.

Turnover

During summer, the heat and relatively calm weather causes pond water to stratify into layers (Figure 5). There is a less dense, warm, upper layer that is exposed to the sun and atmospheric oxygen (epilimnion), a very thin layer where temperature and density changes rapidly (metalimnion), and a cold, denser, lower layer that receives little sunlight and does not mix with the upper layers (hypolimnion). Because it does not mix, the hypolimnion has no incoming oxygen to replace what is used by bacteria that are decomposing dead animals and plants on the bottom of the pond. As the summer progresses, the hypolimnion usually loses its oxygen. If a storm carrying cold rains causes the pond to turn over (mix suddenly), the de-oxygenated water in the hypolimnion can reduce the oxygen level of the pond enough to cause a fish kill. Ponds with the proper maximum depth (6-12 feet) are less likely to have this kind of kill because they have a smaller hypolimnion.

Another less likely factor is disease brought on by over crowding due to low water levels. Either way the fish kill is a natural occurrence and happens to many ponds each year. We will do our best to have it cleaned up quickly.

Maintenance on The Course

Late last week we were addressing the rhin weak areas on our greens wiht a mixture of topdressing sand peat moss and organic fertilizer. This will help the areas maintain moisture, slowly feed nutrients and allow the areas to fill in. We aerify the area first by pokeing holes about 3 -4 inches deep with a pitch fork than lightly spreading the mixture. We will repeat process through out the growing season.

Today we are performing our biweekly verticut. 

We do this every two weeks to control thatch and grain. 

This is what the turf looks like after the verticutter goes over it twice. We then mow the green. Normally There is very little if any disruption to playing surface.

Recent Activities

Over the last 10 days or so we have accomplished quite a bit !  On Monday and Tuesday, August 3rd and 4th, we Aggressively verticutt , top-dressed and aerified our greens. This time during aerification we simply poked holes rather than the more invasive pulling of cores. I decided with the extreme heat and lack of rain that it would be better not to disrupt the putting surface as severely to ensure rapid recovery.

The following Monday, August 10th, we completed our follow up verticut. This time it was not quite as aggressive, but still very important in the overall playability of the greens. We perform this second verticut because of the fertility we add to the greens during aerification combined with the aerification it self, create a flush of growth. If we do not perform the follow up verticutt the grain and the thatch build up could re plentish rapidly.

Verticutting is a type of mowing. The blades are vertical and slice downward into the thatch layer of the turf. this helps to thin the thatch preventing a build up of decomposing matter that creates a spongy feel to the greens and prevents air and water from moving as freely into the soil.Verticutting is also one of our tools to help manage the grain on the putting surface. 

Here is Jose Verticutting a green

Here is what it looks like while cutting, the left side of green is cut, the right has not been.

We we verticutt the greens at varying degrees of aggressiveness every two weeks during the growing season.  

We topdress the greens every week. Topdressing is another tool to improve the putting surface.

The sand is drug in creating a smoother surface and standing up the leaf blade. This helps control grain and reduces friction, which allows the ball to roll further or "faster".

Here is an example of a weekly topdressing and the sand being drug into the turf.

Back Nine To Re-Open !

Thanks to some Volunteers and the hard work of my staff we will be opening the Back Nine Tomorrow for Play!

We still have green side bunkers on three holes to clean and rake, and all of the fairway bunkers, but the rest of the Course is in good shape!

#12 will even be played as normal! There are stil a few wet spots out there but we were able to mow nearly the entire fairway, twice!

 Irrigation is working at all the greens and I hope to have everything else back to normal by end of next week.

I hope everyone enjoys the course and let's hope we never have a flood like that again!

Back Nine Update.

MCC members,

 

The water is receding quickly, which is nice. 

 

Tomorrow and Tuesday all of my resources will be used for aerification. Once completed we will get after the back. By then it will be much drier and we should be able to get equipment and mowers back there. 

 

Here is a preliminary assessment of  the conditions on the back nine. 

I ask that any member touring the back to please stay on cartpaths or the gravel road, it is very muddy anmd wet.

 

Debris is minimal so far. Once the course dries out and we can get equipment out there more easily it should clean up quickly.

There does not appear to be any damage to the damn on 17 or the cartpath. We may have lost a little rip rap but no big deal.

I will not be sure about bunkers until we get them cleaned and raked again. But I hope we will only need a few loads of sand at most. the front bunker on ten is my biggest concern. 

I have opened up all the irrigation boxes this morning and have sprayed the components with wd40 to displace the water and prevent corrosion, per suggestion of my vendor and other Superintendents I know who have gone through similar flooding. I can see that a few pieces have already begun to corrode but the majority look good. I have high hopes that these repairs will be minimal too. But, I will not know for another few days as a couple of boxes are still in standing water. I hope to turn on the power on Tuesday. I have not yet gotten into the pump house back there.

The silt is the biggest mess right now but it is mostly just staining the grass, A good rain will really help us, Hopefully we will get a good shower Tuesday after aerification! 

Greens look good. We are mowing them right now, we cannot get to 12. but should be able to tomorrow.

The place is wet. And muddy. And it will take a while for it to get back to normal,  but I think we got out of this pretty light!!!! 

A few pics from 5.30.15

 Waters continued to rise Friday Night.

I took these Saturday morning

Irrigation box left of 12 fairway.

Bathrooms

13 Blue and Black tees.

Grill on 13

14 green, water was upto and in bunker front left.