To our surprise, we came in today to a dusting of snow and a temperature of 25*F. The golf course looked like a winter wonderland.
We have a tree crew working on #3 today, raising a few limbs on the left side of the hole and removing 3 trees on the right side of the hole. On the trees, they have the same zip line setup going (as they did on #10) to get the tree branches down to the cart path to avoid having to drag brush down that hill. It's a difficult setup to catch on photo (see below) or video but nonetheless, it is entertaining to watch.
I mentioned a few days ago that we are installing new hitting mats on the practice tee. The new mats require a cement slab that's straight, not curved like the previous cement slab. We are also going to have 10 stations as opposed to the 9 stations we've had in the past. While it isn't the ideal day to be pouring concrete due to the temperature, I had the concrete plant mix the cement with hot water and also add an accelerant, which allows the cement to cure faster during the day, while the temperature is above freezing. Tonight, we'll cover the 2 slabs with 6mm black plastic in order to hold some heat inside, keeping the cement above freezing. The process of cement curing gives off heat, so covering it is very effective. Our own team members worked the concrete to a broom finish. Michael Green headed up this project and I'm grateful to have the in-house talent to be able to do this work ourselves, rather than pay a contractor to do it. We deal direct with Toxaway Concrete on jobs like this, which saves the Club a lot of money.
Above, we had to call in larger equipment to remove some old stumps along #1 pond bank. This winter we are looking to improve the look of that area along the cart path. The stumps have been home to yellow jackets late in the last few seasons and are starting to rot, causing the ground to collapse around the stump.