Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all. We have so much to be thankful for.

Wiley Coyote

After several neighbors and the neighboring country club (Interlachen CC) saying they had seen a Coyote in the area, he/she finally decided to show up here at Minikahda. While filling our bird feeders i got this picture of "Wiley" by the #8 green. With the large volume of rabbits and squirrels around the neighborhood, it is really no surprise that a Coyote is around, as small animals is their main food source. In some cases there have been reports of small packs of coyotes taking down a whitetail deer, but that's pretty unlikely around here. Another great specimen of wildlife roaming the grounds of Minikahda.

Whitetail buck video

The other day i posted about a Whitetail buck and that we had seen several on the golf course. Last Friday John Jarosz and I got to see one of the other big bucks, but got no pictures. Today i was ready with my camera in hand as i walked to work. I was treated with the picture and video linked below. I was literally 6 feet from this monster Whitetail buck, i still can't believe it happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5EhdRNAz6E

Minikahda Buck

Last year we posted about a large whitetail buck on the grounds of Minikahda, well this year is no different. Only a few days after putting up our bird feeders we have visitors. Today at about 11am this whitetail buck decided to literally knock over two of the bird feeders so that he could fill his belly with our wild bird seed. Not the intent of our bird feeders, but exciting to see none the less. One of the reasons you see deer this time of year is that it is rutting season, when mating takes place. The rut typically lasts for about three weeks, ending sometime around Thanksgiving in most of Minnesota. Recently we have seen as many as six does running around the golf course, the exact reason why we have now seen the bucks. Below is a couple pictures of the buck seen today.

Pesticide Container Recycling

Recently i found a company that will recycle your pesticide containers for free. The company is Container Services Network and they have many locations around the country mostly for the agriculture industry. Only a few requirements were necessary: triple rinse all containers and place the small containers in the large bags that they provide, contact them a few days prior to drop off and sign a few documents. Today we loaded up the 1 ton dump truck (see the picture below) with all of the pesticide containers that we have stockpiled from this year. It was quite the load. It is always nice to do things like this, as these plastics that would last for many, many years in a landfill will now be turned into other products. It also saved us money by not paying for a dumpster.

Six Tee Step Installation

This week the much requested steps were installed on the 6th hole. These steps lead golfers down the slope from the white tee to the green tee. West Lake Landscape, from Hopkins, did a great job with the installation. I know when the golf season rolls around next spring this will be a nice surprise for the men and women who use the green tee.


One interesting surprise during the installation. While the contractors were digging in the soil, they uncovered a very old animal bone. The bone is quiet large an appears it could be from a cow or an animal of that size. Interestingly the tee area on six was built in the fall of 1996 with soil from the pond on 6 when the old liner in the pond was removed and the pond was dug to it's current depth. So we are assuming when this animal died, it died around the pond. The bone is in very good condition and of course we have no idea how old it is. But since the golf course was built over 111 years ago, this is what we believe to be an old bone.

Tree Management-Often Goes Unnoticed

Tree management is a critical aspect of properly managing any parkland style golf course. Here at Minikahda we have close to 2000 trees on the property that require maintenance. We are fortunate to have a budget that allows us to properly maintain our vast stand of trees. Tree trimming is the bases for the majority of the budget expense, but along with properly trimming we also incur expenses for treating our crab apple trees in the spring for apple scab, treating close to 75 American elm trees for Dutch elm disease and now we are looking at treating our Green ash trees for Emerald Ash bore and miscellaneous tree and brush removal (all hardwood material is removed from the course, we do not chip any of the wood on site).

One of my goals 9 years ago was to methodically work our way through the entire golf course making sure that every tree was able to get properly trimmed. We reached that goal two years ago. We are now in our process of making our way through the golf course for the second time. During the first stage, there were many trees trimmed where it was obvious they had never been trimmed before. Now that those trees have received a trim I expect that the second go round might not take us a full 7 years to complete as the second time through should take our trimmers less time.

Trimming the Oak behind #17 tee

During the summer months when storms roll through or during periods of sustained winds is when the greatest benefits of our tree management program can been seen. In the past the golf course would be a complete mess from debris that had fallen from the trees. Now with a more complete tree trimming program in place the amount of clean-up is minimal. An organized well planned out trimming program pays dividends.

For the past 30 years, Tim's Tree Service, has been the main tree service utilized for all the tree removals and trimming projects. Its great to have a contractor that we can count on, knows the course, knows what we want and is willing to drop everything to make sure our needs are met. One thing we have learned over that past few years is, the earlier we can have Tim's here in the fall the greater the production. In years past we were scheduled for work in December or January. With colder temperatures and usually snow on the ground, there is no doubt that the same amount of work was not being accomplished for the same dollars.

The left rough of #17

This year our main focus of our tree trimming will be on holes 15, 16 and 17. I am hopeful we will be able to complete the trimming of all the trees on these holes before we use up the allotted budgeted amount for our fall trimming.

Since the majority of our tree maintenance work is completed in the fall, after the golf course is closed, most members never see the work that is completed or realize the benefits gained or the work that goes into maintaining a healthy stand of trees.

Course Closing

This Sunday, November 7th will be the last day for golf this season. Daylight is getting shorter, temperatures are getting colder and frost delays are more prevalent. This time of year we are asked almost daily when the last day for golf will be? Usually this becomes a day to day decision, but this year we have picked a day. By selecting a specific day, this allows the golfers to plan accordingly and it also allows us to plan more precisely when we will make our final fungicide applications, begin covering the greens as well as inform seasonal staff as to when their final days will be. Not only is this important for our staff but it also helps the golf shop with their jobs and staffing arrangements as well as the club house and any decisions they have to make.

The month of October was a wonderful month for golf and I hope many of you were able to enjoy the weather and the golf course.

The End of the Season Preparations

In a few days we will have reached the end of October. After the 31st of October any days of golf in November are "extra" days. Once the 1st of November arrives we are typically able to keep the golf course open through the 1st weekend, after that, I like to say anything goes and once we see a change in weather conditions for the worse we have the ability to close the course as soon as required to place covers on the greens. Once that process is in place, that's it, we are officially closed for the year.

Next Monday, the 1st of November, we will be blowing out the irrigation system. We have around 1200 irrigation heads that need to be blown out and the entire process can take anywhere from 6-8 hours. Following the blowout of the system we will then be focusing on applying our final fungicide applications to the golf course. This application to greens, tees and fairways is to protect the plants from pink and gray snow mold. We typically want to make these applications as late in the season as possible and definitely after our final mowing of the season.

We also try to time the covering of our greens as late as we possibly can. We don't to cover the greens when the soil temperatures are too warm and the plants are still growing, we wouldn't want to encourage growth or fungi from growing under the cover. We also need a calm day to cover. As little as a 5 mph wind can create quite a stir and make the process of applying the covers quite difficult. Because of this, it can take us up to 3 days to cover 19 greens, if we have to stop and wait for another day when the weather cooperates.

Juvenile Balded Eagle Injured

I just came across this information when a volunteer from the Raptor Center posted a comment on my blog about the rescue of the juvenile bald eagle from a neighbors chimney. Apparently it was caught in the chimney and had broken it's leg in two locations and had some torn tendons. I have placed a call to the Raptor Center in St. Paul and am hoping to soon have an update on the condition of the bird. Once I have that update I will let you all know the status of the bird.

Collecting Moisture Readings on Greens

This summer we purchased a moisture sensor from Spectrum Technologies. The TDR 300. This mobile tool allows us to take moisture readings anywhere on the golf course. With the purchase of additional probes we are able to take readings at 1.5", 3.5" and 8". Currently we are taking readings on greens at 3.5".

As of this past week we implemented another job for the individual who changes the hole locations. It's during this time in the morning when we will take 9 readings on every green, every day. When turned on the tool resets itself and for each of the 9 reading it will also tell the accumulative average. So each morning we are able to have the average moisture reading of each individual green. We will use these numbers to base our irrigation practices after and it will provide us with the information to know what greens will require water first and how far we can push the greens before they reach a wilt point.

After working on the course for the past 14 years I did not need this tool to tell us what greens are our wettest and which ones are typically our driest. But now with the information we have we can do a better job of fine tuning each green and do a better job of matching moisture from green to green. We are also going to have a better idea of how far we can stretch irrigation cycles before we need to re-wet the profile.