Back from Margaritaville

First of all I must apologize for such a gap between posts.  With winter weather looming, my family and I took a much needed break and headed to south Florida for a week during Thanksgiving.  After a few days of sun, sand and a couple of (small) fish, I am back in full swing with late fall work.

It sure seems like winter snuck up and smacked us all in the mouth!  With so many projects happening at once, the unseasonably cool and snowy weather still has us scrambling.  This week, we will be applying our last blast of chemicals for snow mold protection, dormant feeding our greens, and trying to pick up the mess from the high winds of last week.  All this while trying to start our winter preventative equipment maintenance regimen and moving further forward on the water project.

The water project passed a major hurdle last week - the last of the new main lines were installed.  There was quite a bit of worry regarding the potential for hard bedrock which we would be digging through to install our lines.  While the digging wasn't easy, the contractors managed (with only a day or two of jack-hammer use) to get through it all.  Basically, the biggest source of anxiety I had leading into this project is done and over.  Now that the lines are in and through the building, we are awaiting the installation of doors, drywall, and electrical to complete the interior work.  Afterwards, the "brains" of the new irrigation supply will be installed along with the pumps and we will be 90% of the way home.  Look for cranes and pumps on the golf course next week along with the finish work on our range house.  Feel free to contact me any time if you want a tour or would like more information.

The main line trench filled in from behind the range house down to the existing main line.  This line takes all the water passing through the system to the entire golf course.

The main line passes through the pump station area.  Here there will be sensors, injection ports, and all sorts of gadgets that will help manage and monitor our irrigation activities.

Hopefully the holes in the range house make sense now with the new main line manifold passing through.

This portion of the main line is stainless steel.  This is done in order to prevent corrosion from the acid injection system.

While originally I was hoping to have this project buttoned up by November, I am not displeased with the progress.  Managing so many different contractors and inspections and permits in so many specialized areas offers a lot of potential changes and obstacles which seems to stretch things out.  There are some definite advantages to completing work in December however.  First of all, we haven't really disrupted play or range use with the bulk of the hard construction happening in November-December.  Also, with the final few bills coming in late this year/early next year, we are going to pay for this project without touching the club's line of credit.  This is possible because of all the prepaid dues payments member's make in January to fill up the cash coffers at the club.  In essence, we will fund a $400,000 project with only a minimal $500 assessment to golf members and no interest payments.   That's pretty good if you ask me.  It is exciting to think what we can accomplish on the golf course with that kind of creative financial management.

As of today, the greens are frozen and technically closed for at least the next few days.  I am missing Florida already!

 We had a great time in Florida.  My daughter got to dip her toes in the ocean for the first time!