Monday, September 12th, 2011

This weather has forded us the pleasure of watching the sunrise each morning over Mt Hood. You tend to take the mountain for granted when you have lived in the NW all your life, but when you are given regular opportunities like this to watch the sun track each morning, it really makes you appreciate where we live. Here are three photos taken just three days apart from different views on the course. It is amazing how fast the sun moves over the mountain each day as we approach the fall season.

September 3rd

September 6th (Taken by Steve Mathre)

September 9th

We said good by to Mike last week. I have nothing but admiration for the work he has done for us at Stone Creek over the last six years. He will be a tough act to follow but from the stack of applicants I have received thus far, we are sure to find one that will fit the spot just right. My goal will be to have the new assistant on board by the first week of October.

Mike, Aubrey and Leighton

It may have been Mike's last week but you would have to look hard to find a short timers attitude. He worked so hard to make sure that all the scheduled spray applications were completed which really helped me out a lot. He also worked hard on getting the restroom enclosure completed at the cart barn. Class act to the very end.

Thursday we all enjoyed a hamburger BBQ in Mike's honor. Thanks to all of you that were able to come by and say so long.

The schedule is looking pretty busy the rest of the month with golf tournaments so we will have to squeeze in a topdress this Wednesday since we didn't get it done last week. We did however manage to verticut the greens. To remind everyone, we will be aerifying the greens on the 3rd and 4th of October. It's a little later than I normally feel comfortable doing but given the amount of play we are expecting, it's kind of nice to keep the greens rolling so well all month. As long as this weather holds up we are going to be in for a great September.

We are starting to accumulate lots of small drainage projects which we hope to get to this fall. These are just small projects but they should really make a difference once we get them done. Many of the areas will be catch basin repairs where they are set too low and need to be regraded. We will be using the sand sod from the nursery to fix these areas. We hope we can get to some of these before we get into the leaf season. Our first priority will be to finish the restroom enclosure on eleven then we'll start in.

A word of caution. The yellow jackets are out in force. This spring we failed to get the traps out which trap the queens before they can establish nests. As I was mowing the tall grass I was amazed at how many I stirred up. We have been spraying them as we come across them so please be sure to let us know where they are so we can schedule to get them first thing in the morning. This trap was placed outside the starter shack and literally filled up in a few hours.

Last week we finally got the trim and the doors painted on our shop.Chris Anderson's guys did a great job. We are still hoping to to get the yard paved one of these days. As you can see by the photo to the right, the amount of dust and dirt that is tracked into the shop is crazy. The dust finds it's way on and into everything including our computer equipment. We spend a lot of our time dusting and sweeping the shop to manage the dirt. Once we pave the yard the problem will be alleviated. We understand it won't happen overnight but it is our goal to improve our facility to make it better and more efficient.