Monday, December 21, 2009

Winter Activities at Minikahda







There is no doubt that the members here at The Minikahda Club take their winter activities seriously. Any outdoor enthusiast would consider belonging to Minikahda worth the investment. and we give them their money's worth by offering paddle tennis, ice skating, cross-country ski trails, snow shoe trails and skeet shooting.

The number one question golf course Superintendents' get asked by far over any other question (at least the guys in the northern climate) is this, "what do you do all winter?" Here at Minikahda the answer is a long but simple one. We maintain paddle tennis courts, an ice skating rink, cross-country ski trails, manage the skeet shooting as well as plow and shovel snow. All of the equipment is throughouly gone through and preventative maintainence practices are implemented. Over 23 peices of mowing equipment are maintained, 3 spray rigs, 3 sand pro's, 3 tractors, 2 pick-up trucks, 16 utility carts and numerous pieces of hand-held power equipment.
We also take great pride in maintaining the entire maintenance facility. In February the floors are striped and waxed and walls are repainted. There are also over 300 bunker rakes that are sanded and restained and all of the ballwashers and trash recepticals are sandblasted and repainted.

There is no shortage of work, that's for sure. We can be as busy as we want to be and I would say we are pretty busy. Winter is also the time when the majority of our continuing education takes place via trade shows at the state and national level. There are also many smaller get-togethers by local Superintendents which are more like round table discussions. And of course this is the time of year when we are able to take some much needed time off. For me that means projects around the house when the kids are away and my wife is at work.

Monday, December 14, 2009


Downtown Minneapolis

Skating Rink


The skating rink is now open for use. The rink was erected last week and it has taken until today to get the ice where we feel it is good enough to skate on. The location of the rink makes it very accessible from the club house and from the bathhouse parking lot. And the best thing of all, might be the view of downtown Minneapolis and of Lake Calhoun. We still have a little work to do. We plan on installing 9 foot netting around the ends of the rink so the puck stay on the ice. We hope to have this process completed by the end of the week. So tell your friends and come on over and enjoy the private ice.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Not a 10 pointer, but an 11 pointer


It looks like the deer we thought was a 10 pointer is really an 11 pointer. Our Assistant Nick took this photo the other night as the buck was raiding the bird feeder located outside his house, which in on the property. There was also an 8 point buck at the feeder. And if that is not enough, we have a herd of 3 doe and 3 fawns that love staying on the course. This is really quite something considering we are only about 2 miles from Downtown Minneapolis.

Latest Course Condition Report

The month of June has proved to be an extremely wet month for us.  Until today we have held our own quite well.  We are blessed with a cou...