Thursday, October 31, 2013

Great Grey Owl nesting boxes


I mentioned in my last post about spending time with the Girl Scouts building Great Grey Owl nesting boxes.  They had a great article in the Weekly about it and a good picture on front of the Tuesday Daily.
Even though it wasn't specifically geared towards the golf course, I learned some really interesting facts about their nesting habits, egg laying, fledging of young, etc. that will come in handy out here.  Side note as well..my oldest Ruby (10yrs) is one of the girl scouts and Annabelle (5yrs) is a 'daisy'.  They were a big reason I was able to get in on the activity.  The Girls Scouts do a lot of great things in the valley and I am so proud of them all.  Here a few pictures I got from the activity.
Annabelle using a drill!!!


Brian from Beringia South talking about different traits of raptors native to our area.


Just outside the shop area..


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Let it snow....


Woke up to 4-6" of snow this morning on the course.  We were able to get greens, tees and fairways sprayed with chemical over the weekend.  In addition we got tarps on the practice green, #11 and #16 before the snow came.  We plan on tarping the rest of the back nine at the end of the week when the snow melts and will see if we have time to tarp the front nine.  We also were able to deep tine the greens prior to the snow so we are in pretty good shape for winter regardless of the weather from here on out.  If time allows we will also spray the roughs before the first week of November.  That being said, everyone should stay off the course until the cross country track is in place for your safety and the integrity of our chemical applications.  You don't want to track the chemical into your house or have your pet come in contact with it.

I spent yesterday with the local girl scout troop and Beringia South environmental research group building Great Grey Owl nesting platforms to be put up down south around Fall Creek.  They are making 60 of them to be put up with cameras to observe nesting habits of the Great Greys in the area.  We have had one here at the golf course and I plan on building a couple of the platforms myself to put out here and see if we can get one to stick around.  They are great predators for our vole and pocket gopher problem on the course and we have fantastic habitat to support their livelyhood.  I will keep eveyone posted on the this effort throughout the winter and into the spring. 

Have a great day!

Andy 

Friday, October 18, 2013

Blow out update


To all the homeowners out there that are tied to the golf course irrigation system, we are going to begin blowout next week.  We originally planned on starting today and working through the weekend.  Based on the fact that there is no moisture in the foreseeable future and none of the grass has gone completely dormant we are going to push it back until early next week.  We will drain the system on Monday and begin blowing out Tuesday through Thursday.  We will be saturating the course with water over the weekend to hedge our bets on future moisture and get us through until everything stops growing.  If you have any questions feel free to contact the maintenance department at the golf course.

In addition, the animals are really starting to finally move around the course.  I watched a group of 7 nice bull elk spar on #1 fairway earlier in the week and there is evidence of mass movement around the course.  We have officially shutdown the everything on the south side of spring gulch road to observe the county's designation of natural resource overlay, critical moose habitat.  Thanks for your observance of the closures and we appreciate everyone's efforts to "give wildlife the right of way" as we head into winter.  Have a great weekend.

NEW OSPARY NEST INSTALLED THIS FALL ADJACENT TO #12 GREEN ON THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF THE PROPERTY

Saturday, October 12, 2013

LAST WEEKEND FOR GOLF


 Looks like we will end the season with at least one decent day for golf.  It's 25 here at the course this morning so the first tee time will start around 10:30 or so, but it looks like we will have low 50's and some sunshine (maybe) today.  Tomorrow looks a bit unsettled so get out today!  We have been working really hard to get the course ready to winterize..the real work begins next week after we close on Sunday.  We will be tearing the course down and putting up signage to keep traffic off the course as we begin working with large equipment, doning some tree work and getting chemicals out for winter preparation. 

There has been a couple of great gray owls hanging out around the course and with the National Park closure we are seeing an increase in traffic on Spring Gulch Rd. as photographers get some pictures.  We are trying to keep them from paking in front of the "no parking" signs and stay off the course but it is a challenge..be patient and watch for them on the road as you travel through the property.

Please remember that the closure of the golf course for golf doesn't open it up for pedestrian traffic.  This time of the year is probably more critical than any with respect to wildlife, safety and our maintenance. So please refrain from walking on the course and remember Teton County has a leash law in effect and dogs are not allowed on JHGTC property unless they are assisting you in your travels.  We are not anti-dog here at JHGTC..we are just pro-responsible pet owner, pro-safety, pro-wildlife and pro-respect for other peoples property.

I look forward to seeing everyone around this winter..let's hope for a good 500-600" snow year and some great skiing..I'm ready!!

Andy Erskine, GCS


Friday, October 4, 2013

Friday..snow day


We woke up to 2-3" on the course this morning..doesn't look like there will be any golf today!?!  We were able to finish aerifying the greens..just barely.  Rain on Monday, dry weather Tuesday for the front nine and nice weather Wednesday until around 4PM or so allowed us to get all the greens punched, sanded and dragged on the back nine as well.  We definitely had to hurry on the back nine Wednesday as we ended up with almost .25" of rain that evening.  Now we have snow cover and really cold temperatures predicted for tonight..18-20 degrees.  Waiting until this late in the year to aerify is always a little dicey, but I feel pretty good considering we are supposed to get back near 60 by Monday.  We have a little "touch up" work to do on the greens to get them where I want them, hopefully tomorrow will bring some sunshine and warmer temperatures so we can finish up. 

As we move forward the next big project will be getting the leaves up off the course prior to putting out our winter fungicide applications towards the end of the month.  Beyond that we are shooting for sometime around the 18th to start blowing out the irrigation system.  For those of you that are tied to the golf course we will check your system regardless of whether or not you have someone else blow it out just to make sure everyone is good going into winter. 

Just another reminder with the cold temperatures forecasted that we need everyone to stay off the course unless we are open for golf as damaging frosty turf this time of year will carry into winter.  The snow will also start bringing the elk down low and all the animals will be loading up for winter.  We had an incident this last week with an unleashed dog giving chase to a deer before the owner could corral the pet..this is one of the main reasons we ask that you do not walk your pet on the course and why Teton County has a leash law.  We appreciate everyone being responsible pet owners and adhereing to our no dog policy on the golf course until the cross country track is set this winter.

Have a great weekend..hope to be golfing again by tomorrow afternoon!

Andy Erskine, GCS