Employee Housing is moving right along. The asphalt shingle roof is completed and you can see workers installing the exterior siding, which will be painted when finished.
Friday, January 17, 2025
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Thursday
You can see above that we are still dealing with snow cover. We plowed cart paths to be able to access some of our ongoing projects, like the curbing on #11.
On #14 (above), you can get a feel for the aggressive pruning that has been done down the right side of the hole. Also, further down #14, we are removing the stumps of rhododendron that were pruned back to open the area up between #14 and #15,
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Pond Cleanup on #1 and #2
Even thought the golf course is covered in a blanket of snow and it will likely remain for for several more days, we plowed several cart paths to allow us to continue plugging along on some jobs. Today we are dredging the inlet on the ponds on #1 and #2. This is something that needs to be done every other year. The big dredging project on #10 is all set to go but were are waiting on the finalization of our permit. This should be finalized any day now. We have already built dams on the upstream and downstream sides of the pond to allow us to pump water out of the section we are dredging. Once we get the green light, we are going to start digging, with the project likely lasting 1 month. Once complete, there will be a lot of cleanup to be done on the 10th hole.
While it isn't pictured, we also plowed the cart paths out to #12 tees so we can continue working on the curbing project that was started back before Christmas.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Tuesday
Last Friday’s storm dropped 4” of snow on Highlands and due to the frigid temperatures, it’s in no hurry to melt. We shifted our focus to a firewood splitting effort. Every winter we split a couple cords of firewood that is then burned through the season in the Clubhouse and Hudson House fireplaces.
This afternoon, we are plowing some cart paths so we’re able to get back out on the golf course this week and work on a couple projects, even where snow is on the ground. Over the past 2 years we’ve been so fortunate to receive very little snow. Snow definitely cuts back on our productivity. As cold as this winter has been so far, I have a feeling this will be one of several snow events.
Finally, the good news is that the projects on #12 and #14 greens, in addition to #17 fairway, are basically finished except for sodding. The plan is to have our contractor return in late February-early March to finish the soil prep and sodding on those holes and also make repairs to the 10th hole that was damaged during the dredging project.
Friday, January 10, 2025
Snowfall
The snow started falling in Highlands around 9:00AM and will continue through the early morning hours of Saturday. Depending on the weather source, we are supposed to receive anywhere from 3-13 inches, a pretty wide margin. It seems like 5-8" seems to be the most realistic. Golf maintenance staff are salting club roads and will be plowing later on this afternoon once we get an accumulation. While on Hudson Road, I grabbed this photo looking down towards the lake. The circles in the lake are caused by the oxygen diffusers that bubble to the surface. Moving water takes longer to freeze.
Wednesday, January 08, 2025
Wednesday
Here is more action from today on practice tee. With only 10 guys making up our team right now, we are stretched pretty thin with lofty goals for the winter! The first slab is formed up and ready for concrete. The second slab will be formed up tomorrow. We are scheduled to receive 12 cubic yards of concrete on Monday May, 20th. Once the concrete is poured and has a few days to set up, we be able to remove the forms and get the edges tied in. Below, you can see the former putting green site has been leveled to match the elevation of the rest of tee.
Tuesday, January 07, 2025
Tuesday
A good amount of work was completed today at the practice facility. The former green location was leveled by hauling in old greens mix from #14 green. As you can see below, we are preparing to install concrete forms tomorrow for the first of two slabs that will support the artificial hitting mats. All this work is being done with our in-house talent.
Above and below, the grading on #17 approach is complete and ready for our architect, Ron Forse, to critique it tomorrow. He will be on site to look at the final grades of #12 and #14 greens. The pictures don't do this project justice and I realize it is difficult to see exactly what was done until grass is installed.
Above, on #16, all of the sod below the green has been removed.
Above, on #14, we are working on finishing the shaping of the green surrounds. Below, with internal drainage installed in the new bunkers on #12, a two inch gravel blanket is installed along the floor of the bunker. When weather permits, we'll be applying the Better Billy Bunker polymer onto the gravel. This is a porous adhesive that binds the pea gravel together and allows water to move through it. Once done, we'll top off the bunkers with six inches of sand, compacted to 4".
Above and below, you can see we are making some minor tweaks to the approach on the 11th hole to reduce the "hourglass" shape of the approach.
The final three photos show some of the progress being made and the setup being done to start dredging.
Above, we are in the process of installing sand bags that will direct water flow into the newly installed 24" culvert to the left, Once this is done, we'll be able to pump the water out of #10 pond, allowing us to remove the sediment.
Above, the 1st phase in the construction of a "forebay" in #10 pond. This will allow us to collect sediment in this pond before if ends up the larger portions of the lake. Below, we'll need to build a couple 'peninsulas' that will allow the excavator to reach out further into the pond. The excavator has a 60 foot long boom on it but it still only gets less than half way across the pond.
Monday, January 06, 2025
Monday
Despite 1" of rain last night, this morning turned sunny, allowing us to continue on our projects. The forecast isn't looking great, with high winds and brutally low temperatures expected for the next few nights. We are starting on a tweak to #17 approach. As you know last year, we restored Donald Ross' swale in front of the 17th green. After a year of play, we decided to make a slight change to it. Rather than me try to explain it in words, look at my simple drawing below. We are reducing the slope into to swale, which will make the feature feel less dramatic than it does now.
Our main objective today is work on the practice tee. The artificial hitting mats were set aside and we ripped out the concrete slabs they sat on. We are shifting all of the mats to the far right of the tee and back (if you're standing in the parking lot looking at the tee). We are increasing the number of mats from 10 to 16. 8 of the mats will be sitting on what was the putting green. Also, the area that was the putting green is being leveled in order to make the area more suitable for practice. To level this area, we're able to use the old sand left over from the greens renovation projects on #12 and #14. I've always taken pride in the fact that we're always able to dovetail all of our projects together and save money and resources by repurposing materials from other projects. I will also say, we saved a tremendous amount of money by having the soil available to us that was removed from the employee housing location during site prep. By the end of the winter, the employee housing project will have saved us tens of thousands of dollars in not having to haul and purchase fill soil.
Sunday, January 05, 2025
Friday, January 03, 2025
Employee Housing Update
Until now, the progress shown on the employee housing has been focused on the exterior. However, a lot of work has been done inside as well. You can see above, the windows are installed and the building is ready for siding. Inside, a good amount of the plumbing and electrical is already installed. The project is impressive and there isn't a minute during the day when you can't hear hammers and drills off in the distance!
The photo above is the looking up the breezeway, between the two buildings, from the bottom floor.
Practice Facility Update
Next week, we'll be starting on some improvements to the practice tee. Specifically, we'll be adding 6 more artificial turf hitting stations; going from 10 to 16, total. Ken and I studied this in-depth since the fall, and determined a way to add hitting stations while also increasing the square footage of natural grass teeing space. Right now there is a lot of paint on the ground but stay tuned next week for some posts on the work down there.
More from Friday…
On #17, we are removing the sod from the fairway before the approach. We will be reshaping that area of the fairway to create a more gradual slope into the swale before the green.
In this photo, #14 green doesn't appear to be as smooth at #12 green (below). The reason is a rototiller was run across the green in several directions. If we were using all brand new sand, this step wouldn't be necessary. However, since we saved the sand that was under the green and reused it, it is best to mix the old and new sands together, even if they are the same type of sand. If there is even a slight difference because of age, we don't want a layer to form because the two sands weren't adequately mixed together. Additional new sand was required because the greens are larger than they were, plus we lost some sand when removing the sod and organic layer. We are able to reuse about 70% of the sand that was under the original greens.
Since the shape and elevations of these two putting greens were altered, the irrigation loop around each green was removed prior to construction and then replaced once the final grade was reached. This shows how much work goes into correctly rebuilding a putting green.
The 12th green looks like it is close to being ready for grass!
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