Monday, December 27th, 2010

Course Conditions
Last week I saw a special with Alaska Airlines to the Hawaiian Islands for $139! Anyone interested? Boy how tempting that is. What I would give for a little tropical weather right now.
The good news is the days have begun to get longer and spring will be here before we know it. In the mean time snow is once again in the forecast toward the end of the week. Like the rest of the forecasts, I'm sure it will never materialize and the "Tip Bowl" will go off without a hitch on Friday.
We will be a little short handed this week with Brian and Mike taking some much deserved time off. We will mainly be focusing on small projects and will probably mow the greens on Thursday to prepare for Friday's tournament. The weather may become a factor later and we will time the mowing accordingly.

Last week the crew got into the bunker on four and repaired the drainage. It is interesting as we dig up the drain lines on all of the backed up systems. We always seem to find issues that may have been prevented in the construction process. The bunker on number one was simply a grade issue along with a smashed pipe. This latest bunker on four revealed a trench that was dug much to deep and was back filled with loose soil resulting in a lot of sediment which plugged the line. The trench seemed to be fine until a certain point where it simply dove down way to deep. (You can see just beyond where the rake is crossing the trench.) What the guys ended up doing was filling the bottom of the trench with 3/4 minus to where the the natural grade should have been and from there they reassembled the piping. All seems to be working well now.

Our next project will be the bunker at the eleventh green. We are pretty sure it is just plugged and will need to have the sand removed and the drain line cleaned.
Another small project this week will be to clear some of the alders that are in the line sight off the 15th tee. We hope to be able to clear the tee shot for the fourteenth during the Tip Bowl.

This week Steve will continue to work on the cart path bollards. Last week Mark and Doug delivered the posts and Steve heated up the branding iron and put his touch on them. All they need now is some re bar set in the base and they will be ready to go.

Finally, as I make my last post of 2010, I hope all that have been following have found this to be an interesting and informative blog. What began as a weekly report to Total Golf Management Services in a Word document, evolved into a blog that has provided me with the means of not only communicating with the stake holders of Stone Creek Golf Club but also a wide range of peers and customers. Blogging for me has become a part of my routine as it has with many other superintendents across the country. If you have only been following Stone Creek I would recommend checking out some of the other superintendent blogs. It is interesting seeing what other courses are doing out there and it provides an interesting perspective and opportunity to see what is happening behind the scenes at their courses.

Best wishes to all and may golf prosper in 2011!

Monday, December 20th, 2010

Conditions

Lake A

Still raining but we were blessed to get a nice day here and there. We managed to reach flood stage in Lake A and around the 6th hole. Lake A was primarily designed as a water detainment structure and it has worked beautifully. Without it we would have a river across the fifteenth and the 13th fairways. This lake primarily receives its water off of the highway as well as the drainage from our driving range and parking lot. The lake stores the water and portions it out down stream in a steady but restricted flow. This week we reach the overflow pipes which doesn't happen often.

6th Green

We had to detour the carts on the walking path around the over flow on the 6th hole. This also only happens during high rain events. The drainage system simply becomes overwhelmed and the water has to flow over the turf. There was no damage from any of the flooding only a small inconvenience. 

I think we managed to have a little of everything last week including rain, hail, snow, sun and more rain. We had some pretty stiff winds which brought down quite a few large branches. The crew made quick work of it though and had the place spotless by the end of the week. The bunkers have also been a mess but the crew managed to get through most of them and have them ready for the weekend play.

4th Green

Mike fertilized the greens at the first sign of clear weather. We applied a tenth pound of nitrogen along with our Redox formula. This is our second full season on the Redox program and I could not be more pleased with the performance. We have also been adding simple iron sulfate to the mix this winter. We feel the amino acids in the Redox formula actually aids in chelating the iron. A chelated iron is much more available to the plant. This is why we are seeing such a nice dark lasting green color. It is much less expensive than purchasing already chelated products.  

This winter we have also decided to continue using Revolution, an Aquatrols product, on the greens. We used Revolution throughout the season to increase the efficacy or our irrigation. Research shows the Revolution allows the soil to become uniformly moist by helping it flow through the profile. That is exactly what we want it to do in the winter as well. By keeping the moisture flowing through the profile we will be able to maintain a firmer putting surface all winter. We only have to apply at a half rate to get the response we need.

Steve has been at it again. Last week Steve brought in all the handrails from the Event Center and sanded, primed and painted each one. He did a high quality job. While he was working on the rail for the air station he came up with the idea to pressurize the entire rail and install two ports for the air nozzles. Now we not only have two air nozzles that can be used simultaneously, we can safely remove one without shutting down the entire system. This is so much nicer than what we had before.

This will be my last post before Christmas so I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has chosen to play at Stone Creek this year and would like to wish you all a very wonderful Holiday.

The 12 Days of Christmas

This came out in the weekly USGA Green Section Record this week. I thought I would ad a few visual effects from my own photo library.



Golf Course Superintendent Version By Larry Gilhuly, director, Northwest Region

December 13, 2010

(Sung to the tune of “12 Days of Christmas”)

On the first day of Christmas my players gave to me
Unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the second day of Christmas my players gave to me
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the third day of Christmas my players gave to me
Three broken rakes,
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the fourth day of Christmas my players gave to me
Four carts for four,
Three broken rakes,
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the fifth day of Christmas my players gave to me
Five wet tire marks!
Four carts for four.
Three broken rakes.
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the sixth day of Christmas my players gave to me
Six moved markers,
Five wet tire marks!
Four carts for four,
Three broken rakes,
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the seventh day of Christmas my players gave to me
Seven unfixed divots,
Six moved markers,
Five wet tire marks!
Four carts for four.
Three broken rakes.
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the eighth day of Christmas my players gave to me
Eight missed cart signs,
Seven unfixed divots,
Six moved markers,
Five wet tire marks!
Four carts for four,
Three broken rakes,
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the ninth day of Christmas my players gave to me
Nine broken tees,
Eight missed cart signs,
Seven unfixed divots,
Six moved markers,
Five wet tire marks!
Four carts for four,
Three broken rakes,
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the tenth day of Christmas my players gave to me
Ten unraked bunkers,
Nine broken tees,
Eight missed cart signs,
Seven unfixed divots,
Six moved markers,
Five wet tire marks!
Four carts for four,
Three broken rakes,
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my players gave to me
Eleven ropes stepped on,
Ten unraked bunkers,
Nine broken tees,
Eight missed cart signs,
Seven unfixed divots,
Six moved markers,
Five wet tire marks!
Four carts for four,
Three broken rakes,
Too many ball marks
with unrealistic expectations green to tee.

On the twelfth day of Christmas listen to my plea,
Please avoid ropes,
Rake the bunkers,
Clean broken tees,
Follow the cart signs,
Replace your divots,
Don’t move the markers,
Avoid all wet spots!
Ride carts together,
Report broken rakes,
Fix your ball marks
And your golf course will improve.

Pat Jones on Pesticides

I found this video on the turfhugger.com in an interview with Pat Jones. I always like hearing what Pat has to say and I think you will too.

Monday, December 13th, 2010

Have you ever wondered what a true Oregonian looks like? Look to the right, they are the ones  unloading their clubs and getting ready for a round of golf. These guys are true die hards.  I am certainly grateful for their patronage. This photo was taken last Friday in the midst of one of our many downpours. 

We have seen an abundance of rain this week but that hasn't slowed the crew down. There is always something to do to keep us busy. This week we tackled the big bunker in front of the first green. After digging up the drain line Zef found the pipe to be plugged and not at grade. The guys removed the pipe, cleaned it out, reset the grade and then refiled with fresh sand. I checked the site Saturday and bingo! Lake no more! 

Our goal is to continue repairing the bunkers that are holding water as fast as we can. Right now we are to wet to mow so this is what we are going to focus our time on. There are many drain lines with issues which should give us plenty to do. We are going to prioritize the green-sides and work from there. Four may be our next stop as well as twelve. Twelve is a little special in that a spring has sprung right in the middle and it continues to flow even after the rain stops.  (right) Our first step will be to intercept the spring so we can clean the drain below.

 

December is a good time to start going through all the equipment. Steve is grinding reels and servicing everything and Brian and Travis are pressure washing and detailing.

This week I am looking forward to my staffs annual breakfast and our first company Christmas party in our new event center. It will be great to see everyone and their families and be in the comfort of a nice warm building. (As I reflect on the past events in our equipment bay!) Fond memories but also a sign of a well run and prosperous facility.

Monday, December 6th, 2010

Another week and another mixed bag of weather. I think it rained so much last week that I had to scrub the moss out from behind my ear early this year! The sunny day on Friday seemed to make up for what ever weather related blues I was feeling even though I had to spend much of the day indoors at the Annual OGCSA Pesticide Seminar.

We had to make a change out on the course this week. The old snag that was between the 3rd and 11th cart path had to come down. Stone Creek prides itself on providing lots of natural habitat but this tree, which was pretty much dead when we finished the construction, finally rotted to a point that we couldn't risk the chance of it falling over and hurting someone. This old snag provided nesting habitat for many creatures including pollinator bees, wasps, wood peckers and many bird species over its time. I use this picture in presentations to show the benefit of preserving dead trees, showing up close how many holes were actually in the thing. I was literally the "Holiday Inn" for the birds.

I am so excited about Steve's latest project. All of our old cart path bollards had been rotting and were looking rather disheveled, Mark and Doug from the Parks Department cut up some round fence posts for us to use and Steve thought he could dress them up by putting our logo on the the top of them. Steve put his blacksmith hat on and went right to work and he built a "Stone Creek" brand just like one the cattle ranchers would use. He proceeded to build a coal fire in the bucket of the loader and went around to each bollard and laid a brand into the top of each one. What a huge difference it made. It really added a custom look to the course. Steve is not just a great equipment technician but an artist as well.  I love his creativity and his desire to make Stone Creek a better place. Great job Steve!

GCM

The second of my quarterly contributions to Golf Course Management magazine will be out in the December issue. This month I wrote about a special person I met this last summer while making a homeowner "well lawn" visit. She, an environmentalist and I, a golf course superintendent. You can imagine how our conversation began. Follow this link to get the rest of the story:

http://digitalgcm.gcsaa.org/DigitalAnywhere/viewer.aspx?id=18&pageId=38&refid=518482&s=undefined




Civil War 2010

Last year at this time I was attending the Syngenta Business Institute at Wake Forrest University and I had to watch the Civil War game from a hotel bar in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...at midnight! I certainly missed the great educational opportunity but it was great to be back in town for the game this year. There is something different about cheering for your team when you are not all the way across the country.

 

I woke up Saturday morning expecting to watch the game from my living room when Tracy told me that a friend on Facebook had a couple tickets to the game. I made a call and bingo, two tickets, club level and  FREE! I grabbed Henry and out the door we went. What a privilege to be there and witness such a great event.  I remember my days at OSU when the country never paid attention to the game. Today it's a nationally televised, prime time event complete with ESPN's Gameday! (I must say the Gameday bus was certainly painted the correct color) The State of Oregon should be proud of both programs. The results weren't exactly in favor of the Beavs but the Ducks now have a great opportunity to show the nation who number one is.  Don't blow it Ducks, an opportunity like this doesn't happen often. Take it to Auburn and the over rated SEC!

Sycamore Lane Therapeutic Riding Center

This has absolutely nothing to do with Stone Creek Golf Club but I just wanted to share it because my wife Tracy is part of this. The Sycamore Lane Therapeutic Riding Center is located in Oregon City and they use horses as means of therapy for handicapped children. Tracy volunteers at the farm and helps with the horses and the riding lessons. She is the one in the video walking along side of the horse during the lesson and wearing the black jacket.
If you ask me, this has been the best therapy for her hip since her surgery! I am so proud of her.
This link has multiple stories, click on the link with the horse

Monday, November 29th, 2010

Conditions

Just like that, there goes another month. This season seems to be flying by. Last week brought our first snow of the season and hopefully isn’t a precursor of the winter to come. As expected the greens froze but unfortunately the snow stayed, keeping the course closed for a couple days. The gradual thawing went nicely without a lot of rain to puddle and close the greens again. All is good now and we were able to mow the greens giving them a fresh surface for the weekend.

This week is our pesticide re certification seminar week. Mike Turley, Steve Pearce and I will be attending the annual OGCSA Pesticide Seminar at the Portland Convention Center all day Thursday and Friday. We are required by law to obtain 40 hours of training classes every five years to maintain our pesticide applicators permit. The hours obtained by attending this seminar fulfills enough credits each year to maintain the license in the five year period.

The Oregon Landscape Contractors Association Conference runs concurrently at the convention center and this year they have invited me to speak on “Understanding Today’s Environmental Issues and Their Impact on Our Future”. I will be discussing the Stone Creek environmental story as well as highlighting the OGCSA Environmental Stewardship Guidelines. It was an honor to be invited to speak. The landscape industry is where I got my start after college working for 5 years at Northwest Landscape Industries.

'Tis the Season

This is not just the holiday season but if you are a true football fan in Oregon you have to be excited about what is going on in our state. As you know, I am a Beaver Alumni but I cannot help but be excited about what the Ducks have been doing, Kelly has done a masterful job and the Ducks have been absolutely non stoppable.  I have been pulling for the Ducks all season and hoping they would go 11-0 up until they meet the Beavers in the Civil War and that is exactly where we are at today. But, this is where I am going to draw the line. Sure it would be nice to have a team from Oregon compete in the national title game but someone should have told the Ducks that when we had our sights on the Rose Bowl last year. It is our turn to return the favor. I absolutely love the hype this week brings and look forward to all the  camaraderie. My only disappointment is my favorite Duck (Harold Plough) has flown south for the winter. Please visit Harold's Fan Page on Facebook and give him your best regards. Tell him that we need him home soon, the rivalry won't be the same without him. In honor of the game this Saturday let's all wear our favorite teams colors and look forward to a fun and exciting game.

Gordon, as for your Trojans....well lets just say their rule has come to an end. Time to jump on the State of Oregon football band wagon :)

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope this holiday season brings you close to your families and friends. May the coming year bring new opportunities and favorable golfing conditions.
Course Conditions

Speaking of golfing conditions. I have certainly seen the course drier but it is mid November after all. Aesthetically, the course is beautiful and the greens are rolling great. The only issue now is in some of the fairways and roughs. If and when we get some drier weather we will try to get out and spread some more sand on those areas to help firm them up.

The cold weather hasn’t seemed to slow down the crew. We have been discussing small projects in the mornings that we would like to accomplish this winter. As we have time, the guys will take ownership of their projects and see that it is accomplished. They have also been as careful as possible in mowing and getting around the course. Even though it is November the grass is still growing and it is getting long in some areas. Where it is too wet to mow I have instructed the guys to skip it all together. It is better to come back and hand mow an area than create a bunch of tire damage

Wouldn’t you know that as soon as I talked about disease pressure on Poa annua (last weeks post) that it would show up the following week. Last week Fusarium patch showed up on the big putting green. Classic disease appearance but unusual by our standards, it was actually 15 days since we last sprayed but it still showed up. Now that Poa is becoming a more dominant population we will begin to have much more pressure like this. Since we have such a great nursery I suggested that we simply plug out the bad spots. Mike did just that and today you would never know it was there. We also sprayed on Friday to prevent further infection.

We also utilized the nursery last week repairing the old hydraulic leak on the fourth green. I had probably let it go a little long but was hoping to see the bentgrass encroach back in. One streak was pretty much healed so we chose to leave it be. Mike sodded the other areas which I must say turned out beautifully. Today you could putt across the repair and never see your ball bounce. He and Brian did a fantastic job!

New greens mower technology has arrived that can now eliminate the hydraulic leak. Friday Rich Schwabauer of RMT Equipment brought out the new Jacobsen Eclipse 322 to demo. This machine is a hybrid which operates with a 14 hp Kohler motor and uses electricity to drive the cutting units and the mower itself. Everything is electronic so there is not one drop of hydraulic oil on the machine. As a matter of fact the only oil is in the motor and the transaxle. Steve and I took it out to the nursery and were very impressed with its performance. In the photo it looks like Steve forgot to mow the middle strip but what he is doing is using only the outside cutting units and then splitting the pattern to make it appear that it was cut with a walking greens mower. Jacobsen has the option to operate each cutting unit independently which offers you more options for your clean up pass and avoiding the clean up ring.  I know we don’t need a new mower any time soon but it is good to see that we now have some great options that will prevent spills and save fuel too.

Just For Fun

I would like to wrap up this post with a couple great shots I took this week. This first picture of Breanne in the beverage cart pretty much sums up the weather. I would like to hand it to her for staying out there and serving the customers with a great smile on her face!

I took the next photo Friday when we could actually see the sunshine. It would have been a great day to see the “Hood” but as you can tell there was a vale of clouds covering it. I have seen a cloud cap before but never the entire mountain.

Have a great week and enjoy your dinner.

Saturday November 20th, 2010, Weather Update

Cold Weather is on the Way, Lets be Prepared!

Just a quick update on the coming weather conditions. The way it is shaping up it is looking like we have a chance of snow Sunday night and perhaps Monday night. It all depends where the low pressure system sets up along the coast. We have made the rounds and winterized everything around the shop. Dave just replaced the old heating cables in the cart barn on all of the water pipes. This will take care of the pipes during the day when we need water but it is still important to turn the system off and drain it each night and to disconnect the pressure washer supply hose and the pressure hose each night to prevent it from backing into the machine. The important thing to remember when we get into these cold snaps is water will expand when it gets cold and needs a place to go as it freezes. Turning the water off inside the building will simply not prevent damage, you need to open the faucet on the outside to allow the water to drain out.

Last year we had a bad break in the club house. I don’t think that this freeze will be quite as bad as last years but we might think about cracking open one of the ceiling tiles near the area where it froze to allow the warm air in the clubhouse to circulate above. Now that we have the new event center we should probably take a good look around to see if there are any vulnerabilities. Don’t assume that being new will prevent things from freezing.

We don’t expect the temps to get that cold during the day but we will be getting in the twenties at night. Monday we will be closing the restrooms on the course and locking the door. Be sure to let the customers know at the first tee.

If it does in fact snow on Sunday night and we have an accumulation on the ground the course will obviously be closed. If the snow misses us we will be allowing play based on the frost. Remember we will allow play on frozen greens but the key is the frost must be off the leaf tissue and away from the crown of the plant. At that point we will open the course. The best bet will be to plan on 11am shotguns for the entire week pending frost. We have set temporaries on the shaded holes and will use those until the greens are ready to play. Monday before the ground gets to frozen we will add a second cup to all the greens to allow us to spread the wear on the grass.

If you have a tee time this week be sure to give the pro shop a call in the morning before you come out and get the latest on delays. Employees should contact their supervisors prior to their shift to avoid an unnecessary trip to the course.

Stay Warm!

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Course Conditions
It is November and the course is getting softer. The course looks great but if we drive where we aren’t supposed to be, you may leave a mess behind. The right of five is a good example of this. We pushed the rough mowing a little to far and it tracked up pretty bad. All superficial of course and will disappear soon.
We fertilized the greens on Friday. We will be increasing the iron rates as we get into the winter months. Many of the courses that escaped the winter wrath last year all had higher iron rates in common. I feel the iron will help harden off the grass and will enable it to tolerate the colder temperatures better. Last year we were using higher iron rates and we did in fact come through the December cold snap without any problems. We are also targeting some residual silver thread moss as well. We treated a few weeks ago with Quick Silver so now we are just treating it with the iron to avoid another herbicide application.
Poa  Transition
As I was changing cups the other day I couldn’t help but notice the Poa annua invading the greens. It seems to be the fate of most all putting greens that I have ever been around. If it were possible, and didn’t require all kinds of chemical interactions, I would most definitely prefer to manage creeping bentgrass greens. Many golfers are fans of Poa greens by the fact that it is all they have ever played. This summer I happened to play some of the finest bentgrass greens I have ever set foot on at Proghorn Golf Club. Personally I would take those greens over Poa any day. The benefits of bent over Poa are many. First off, bentgrass has a far better disease resistance. In the time of reduced pesticide programs this is important not only for reduced inputs but the costs of a fungicide program to prevent common Poa annua diseases can cost up to $20,000 a year. Another benefit of bentgrass is its deep rooting ability. The deeper the roots the less dependent you have to be on water during the heat stress times of the year. This saves water and labor costs.

Enough about bentgrass. Poa annua is eventually going to be our new grass on our putting surfaces so lets learn a bit about it. Poa annua is one of the most widely distributed weeds  that turf managers face today. It contaminates home lawns, sports fields and golf turf freely around the world and in all climates. In my travels I have not seen anything immune to its wrath. I even saw it growing in the artificial sports turf at the Oregon City High School football stadium! Why is it so hard to control? The answer is its distribution. Poa seeds and reseeds prolifically. The seeds are easily spread by golfers shoes, wind and even pets. Poa produces a massive seed bank and the seeds can survive for years in the soil and will germinate once the soil is disturbed.

There has been much research on Poa annua over the years. It has been found that Poa’s greatest advantage is its genetic diversity. We refer to it as a single variety but it is really a compilation of thousands of biotypes. This is why you will see two patches of Poa annual growing adjacent to each other yet one looks tight, has a dark color and the other may be light green and has more seed heads. This photo to the right was taken last week on our fifth green which demonstrates this perfectly.

Here at Stone Creek the green are going through a transition which may not be pretty. Rest assured that as time goes the greens will become more populated with Poa annua and the stronger biotypes will eventually dominate the stand. It is common to observe variable biotypes under various management regimes (Cline, 2001; Wu, 1991). This is why when you visit older courses such as Columbia Edgewater, Royal Oaks, or Orchard Hills, you will notice that their Poa greens aren’t seeding quite as much and their stands will seem more uniform. These greens have evolved over time and are now beautiful putting surfaces. Pictured to the left is Orchard Hills. These greens were amazing to putt on. By far the best Poa I played all year.

Growers have tried to develop a seed variety that can be harvested and planted like bentgrass but it has come at limited success. The first challenge is harvest. How do you harvest a seed from a closely mown biotype that has quality turf characteristics, as apposed to a biotype that grows taller and allows seed to be harvested and the growth characteristic, under closely mown conditions, is acceptable? It just doesn’t happen. The only way to have a true Poa putting surface is to let it evolve.

The tenth year of a putting green is usually the turning point where the Poa starts taking over exponentially. This is what the Oregon Golf Club experienced so I expecting similar conditions. We are preparing for the transition by increasing our fungicide applications in the coming years. Up until now we have allowed the anthracnose to be a natural Poa control. This year we experienced wide spread anthracnose on much of our Poa populations to a point where it affected the ball roll. Anthracnose will be our main summer issue where Michodochium Patch or Pink Snow Mold will be our main winter issue. Both of which were none existent in our stand until now. 

My point is, we are heading into an awkward phase of transition and we will work to make it as smooth as possible. Our philosophy is to provide the finest putting surfaces possible and we will intend on doing just that with what ever grass we have to work with. The Poa may look awkward at times but we will continue to provide quality putting conditions.

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Course Conditions

This picture should say it all. What a fantastic week for golf. We started the week off with a strong east wind which dried the course out nicely allowing us to get a good clip on the grass. The fairways seemed to jump out in 3-D. The weather man sent us all a curve ball mid week when he said that the rain would return on Friday. The rain never really did materialize but unfortunately the tee sheet seemed to reflect the weather report.

With all the wind early on the crew was busy picking up leaves. By mid week the greens, tees, fairways and bunkers were spotless. The crew put forth a great effort this week. Aside from maintaining fantastic golfing conditions while short handed, we still managed to fertilize the tee boxes, mow down the new grass at the entry and finalize the new cart path on 15. A good week over all.

Staff Update

Congratulations to Mike and Aubrey Turley on the birth of their new baby daughter. Her name is Leighton and she was born on Tuesday at 11:05am. Mike is taking some well deserved time off to spend with his family and should return on Thursday . Leighton and Mom are doing just great.

Bob is still off after his surgery. He is hopeful the doctor will release him to work by the 15th. If you know Bob you will know how hard it has been for him to be away from work. Staying home and doing nothing is not Bobs M.O. It will be good to have him back.

Since Bob has been away I have asked Jim to work in to November. He was scheduled to be off for the winter after the 31st. He will be working just a few hours in the mornings until Bob is able to return. This week we trained Travis Snow. Travis worked for George at the ball fields this summer and also worked for N. Clackamas Parks as a seasonal. Travis is interested in furthering his education at Clackamas Community College in landscape management. We have asked him to work select Fridays and weekends this winter while he attends class. I have been impressed with his work, he has learned quickly and should be a great asset to our team.

Projects

As I mentioned earlier we wrapped up the cart path project on fifteen this week.  We could not have asked for better weather to wrap it all up. Jason and Rick with Specialized Construction have done another terrific job. Portland Road was in on Thursday with the asphalt to put the finishing touch on the project. With the extra mix we paved the cross over between the cart paths on three and eleven as well.

Steve Pearce thinned out some Doug Firs from thirteen and relocated them where the old path used to be. We seeded the area with fescue and covered the bare ground with straw to put everything away for the winter.