Monday

It's a blustery cold day in Highlands but we are still able to work outside for shorter time periods.  Now that fairway aerification is finally completed, we are sand topdressing these surfaces.  The sand helps smooth and firm the fairways over time.  Applying sand to the fairways has been something we've been committed to since 2002.   

Our Norway Spruce trees were delivered today and 15 total trees were added between Dillard Road and the 10th hole to help screen the traffic from the golf course.  While the trees are on the smaller size (7'-8' tall trees) and don't make an immediate impact, Norway Spruce are fast growers, able to put on a couple feet each year.  The challenge is getting trees that are large enough to make an impact but sill having a root ball that is small enough for us to handle with our equipment, often times on slopes.

Below, you can see the irrigation contractor working their way down the 8th fairway, almost ready to start on the green.  That means just one hole is left!

And finally, on #1, we are attempting to improve the bank along the pond at the green. There are a few old stumps on this bank that are rotting and causing the ground to collapse or even one that's become a perennial spot for yellow jackets.  The goal is to remove these old stumps and then repair the pond banks using soil and sod.  After exposing the stump in the photo below, we quickly realized it was going to require a much larger excavator to lift it out of there.