#5 Creek Project Update

Well after a long and stressful couple of weeks and a few setbacks from "Mother Nature" Jack and his crew have just about got all the work done on #5 creek. I have attached a picture below from early this morning showing the finished product. It was a huge monumental task that Jack and his employees pulled off. I would like to personally thank Jack and his guys, Troy McFarren, Trey McFarren, Larry Kettler, Robert McRae for their tremendous hard work no matter the situation or setbacks and it was a pleasure working with them and getting to know them throughout the process. We had several times when things weren't going the way they should but the guys never wavered and were committed to getting the job done and doing it right. Jack should be very proud to have such hard working and dedicated employees representing his company. We still have some cleanup work to do today and some more final grading to do before we can put the sod down. Also we are going to have to wait on the weather to warm up and the ground to thaw out before we can get sod to lay. I am very excited with how it turned out and I think all of you will really enjoy the change going forward. This project corrected a huge problem for us with the rail road tie wall that was failing and I think it turned out even better then I thought it would. Have a great weekend and stay warm!!

#5 Project Update

Well the weather over the last few days has caused us to have some delays on getting the project completed on #5. It started over last weekend when we received the 1" of rain that filled up the creek and broke our temporary damns. We have been pumping the creek back down over the past three days and have had good luck as most of the water is gone. Now with the recent cold freezing temperatures things have gotten delayed further due to the ice and wet conditions after things start to thaw out this weekend with the warmer weather. We are going to let things melt and dry out over the next three days and hope to continue our work on Monday. We are hopeful that the 2" of ice that is currently in the creek will melt and that the area around the green will dry out so that we don't create an even bigger mess with the muddy conditions. As always I will keep everyone up to date when the work starts up again. Have a great weekend and enjoy the warm weather! After the last two days it will be a very pleasant site!

A Visit From "Mother Nature"

As we always say in this buisness you are not only battling pest,diseases, and traffic but a lot of the battle on a daily basis is dealing with the punches that "Mother Nature" delivers. Well this weekend she dealt us a pretty good blow! We received a little over 1" of rain fall and our temporary damns weren't able to hold back all the water. The rain was great for the rest of the golf course but not so much for our project on #5. Our creek area in front of #5 green filled up with water and we had to break another one of our temporary damns to allow for the water to get out and not cause anymore damage to our green. Today we are hooking up two 6" pumps to help pump down the creek. This process is going to take a few days and our hope is that we don't get anymore precipitation this week, however we are forecast to get snow on Wednesday. The silver lining in all of this is that Jack's crew was able to get a lot of the work completed prior to the rain event and we don't think it will take very long to get done once we get back to work. The majority of the dirt work on the green is completed so our hope is once we get the water out that it will go smoothly and we can get everything completed quickly. I have attached a couple of pictures below. One is from Friday showing the slope in place and the other is from Sunday after the water had filled up the area in front of the green. I will keep everyone up to date as things progress into the week.

#5 Project Update

Well with the outstanding weather we have had the last couple of days there has been some significant progress made on the #5 creek project. The water has continued to be an issue but we have been able to put some measures in place to try and keep most of the water out of the work area which has allowed us to make the progress. I have attached a few pictures below showing the dirt that has been moved to the green bank and the actual slope we are shooting for starting to take shape. The plan is too rough grade the slope in and then come back and finish grade it at the end. We are keeping our fingers crossed for the weather to cooperate the next couple of days to allow us to get some more done before the storm hits over the weekend. I hope everyone has a great day!!

Finally Some Progress on #5

After fighting water in the creek for the past six days we finally made some good progress on the wall on #5. We are installing concrete stones at the foot of the slope, which is allowing us to keep all the silt and sludge away from our work site giving us a solid footing to build the new dirt green bank on. There will still be some water each day that we will have to pump out, but hopefully it won't be to the extent that it has been. We have found several springs in the creek in the area that we are trying to work which has caused some difficulty in getting it drained down. I hope I will have even more progress to show you after today as our hope is to have a full day of building the wall and not fighting water. I have attached a couple of pictures below showing the work being done. I can't express enough how much of a joy it has been to work with Jack Stockdale and his crew on this project. His crew has been relentless and dedicated to trying to find solutions to get the job done even when at times things were looking rather daunting. Also this week we are planning to roll the greens and smooth out the footprints hopefully later today and then possibly try and mow the greens on Wednesday as out temperatures are going to be in the upper 60's to 70 degrees. We are also considering possibly pressuring up the irrigation system today and tomorrow as things have gotten extremely dry. Looking at the weather it appears temperatures are going to stay relatively warm despite a small chance of some snow over the weekend. As long as we don't have a long stretch of extremely cold weather things should be ok if they are pressured. Have a good day and I am hopeful I can give you another update later today or tomorrow.

#5 Creek Project Update 1-22-2015

Well like they always say battling "Mother Nature" is not a lot of fun. We have been battling her a lot over the past four days on getting the creek area in front of #5 green free and clear of the water. Hopefully by the end of today we should have a pretty good area exposed with no water. We are getting some more pumps put into place and are building some more temporary damns to keep the water from sitting in the area we need to work. The lowest part of the creek just so happens to be right where we need to do our work. I have been asked about why we didn't dig a trench around the low water damn on #7 and let the creek drain out this area completely. One we didn't want to cause a fish kill with any fish in the creek from #7 all the way to #1 and we are afraid that once we dig up the ground around the low water damn on #7 that it will be extremely hard for the ground to stay solid after we are done and not erode back out causing the damn not to work. Also we happen to have a 6" main irrigation line running through our creek very close to the damn and we didn't want to cause a lot more issues. Once we get the water out things will hopefully move rather quickly. I appreciate everyone's patience with the closing of the holes on the golf course. We weren't expecting to have to do that, but with all the equipment, pumps, hoses, etc. we needed to complete the job this was the best option for safety and liability reasons for the workers and equipment. I have attached a few photos below of where we sit today. You will see all the ice and water we are battling. Also this week we have a tree crew in here doing some much needed pruning in some of our trees between #17, 18, and by #4 tees. I put a picture of them as well and all the limbs that they are removing giving our trees some much needed relief and giving our turf underneath some much needed sunlight.

#5 Creek Project Update

Well it has been some time since I have put a blog post up. It has been pretty cold over the past couple of weeks and things had slowed down a bit due to the weather pattern we were in. The weather is starting to change a little now and things are ramping back up. Since my last blog post we did get the permit to start the work on the #5 creek project. Jack Stockdale and his crew have started moving some equipment into the golf course. We hauled some rock in that we are going to use on the base of the slop to prevent the water from undercutting the new bank. Also we are starting to drain down the creek to allow Jack's guys to get in and build a temporary damn so that we can keep the water of out the work area in front of #5 green to allow them to work in the creek. The frozen creek has presented a bit of a challenge, but with the warmer weather coming this weekend our hope is that it will thaw out and allow us access. Once work really gets going we will be closing down hole #5 to allow the crew to get their work completed without interruption. I appreciate everyone's help and patience. Also we have started a big drainage project on #16 fairway. This is going to be a huge improvement over how this area has drained in the past. We hope to have one of the drain complexes completed today and will continue to work on the next one next week. I have attached a few pictures below of the progress on #5. In the first picture it is showing a snow fence that is going to be the new creek bank once all the dirt is excavated. So all the areas from the creek to the snow fence will be water once we are done. The second is showing the ramps that have been built to get the heavy equipment into the work area to try and not damage our irrigation pipes and cartpaths. The third is showing the pump pumping the creek down. I hope to update everyone using this blog on the throughout the construction process. Have a great week and hope you can get out and enjoy the warmer weather!