Let's end our 8th month in a row of non-existent bermudagrass weather
We do not need any more rain, that is for sure. Temperatures in the low 50's (it was 49 Sunday morning) have absolutely halted any kind of bermuda growth. Clouds and rain are preventing any progress as well. We may go as far as to say we were greener a month ago than we are today! June temps do not look like they are bringing anything in the 90's at all. The long range forecast says July 7th is the first 90 degree day between now and then!
Any energy the bermuda is actually churning through is being put towards seed heads right now anyway. This is truly a year where this turf isn't going to get moving until July 4th. Hopefully the summer will stretch long and we can fit a few good growing months in.
At least the greens are happy but even they could use some more sunlight. On Tuesday we applied some soil nutrients along with wetting agent to help keep moving the rain down.
We also dusted the greens with sand for the first time since aeration. Most of this was washed in by the rain and will be worked in by the weekend.
With a short week and rain scheduled for Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, we were a little pressed to get some more sod on site. One more truck of bermuda showed up at 2 pm on Tuesday. The entire crew was ready to go and we had all 20 pallets on the ground by 3:30 pm. The rain came immediately after so it was perfect timing. 13 Manakin is patched up for now. We will continue doing smaller areas after Men's Invitational.
In more delightful news we had a few more new pieces of equipment get swapped out on our lease program this week. The two mowers are used around the Sabot greens and tees and replace two 5 year old machines that are very well used. We continue to swap out our older (10+ years) Progators that have a dump bed and do all our heavy lifting with sod and bunker work. The last few electric people mover carts are rolling in for the managers slowly.
A new dump truck also landed this week to replace our 22 year old truck with 75000 miles on it. You don't get to buy too many dump trucks in this business so this was exciting. The bigger bed should allow us to haul a little more each trip whether its sod, stone or mulch. Things have come a little ways as far as creature comforts and safety over the past 20 years as well so this unit has been very well received. The capital renewals and replacements plan continues to pay dividends in keeping this facility moving in the right direction!