Shop Maintenance

   It is crazy to think that last year at this time we had already opened and the GCM department had been mowing greens for a couple weeks, the irrigation system was pressurized, and we were hand watering greens because temps had already reached 90 a few times!!  Well, this year is the complete opposite.  We are currently experiencing temperatures that are close to 20-30 degrees below normal for this time of year.  Yesterday morning we woke up to a balmy 8 degrees, with 2-8 inches of snow foretasted for this weekend!!  So with the few extra hours this March,  we decided to finish some more projects around the shop.  Mike, Ryan, Cody, Lyndsay, Jose, and Roberto went to work this week and last, cleaning, prepping, painting, and waxing all the floor in the shop, breakroom, and bathrooms. Great job guys!!

One mans trash.......

One mans trash is another mans (or in this case - womans) potting bench!!  Thanks to Lyndsay and her interest in Pintrest, we turned a couple of ordinary pallets into a functional potting bench for her to use come spring time.  She told us about her idea and within a couple hours, Ryan and Cody had a majority of it already prepped and assembled.  100% of the wood was recycled from pallets.  We ended up recycling and reusing the boards from 6 pallets in order to make this bench.  Material costs were kept to a minimum by using only recycled wood but if labor costs are a concern, then a few 2x4's laying around the shop or purchased from the store would eliminate that concern.  The roof was a scrap piece of metal roofing material that was saved from a roof at the maintenance facility that was replaced this summer.  Even the wood stain was leftover from a previous years project.  Only a few screws were the only thing "new" needed for this project. Nice work guys!!!

Taking shape.

Assembly complete. Prestain.

Finished. Wow!

Winter is Over???

This week on the Rock River, which is adjacent to the 2nd hole, we witnessed a river overflowing its banks!!  Seems hard to believe since the Rock River was at record low levels this summer from record heat and record low precipitation.  We finished the year with a 12 inch deficit.   How can this be?  What happened was some ice had broken free upstream and started to flow down the river when it hit a section of the river where the ice was still thick enough to stay together and not break apart.  This resulted in a stockpile of large ice chunks that slowed the flow of water and pushed the water outward, causing the river to rise with a threat of flooding.  This localized flooding only lasted for a couple of hours until it pushed its way further downstream.  Along with the temporary rise in the depth of the Rock River, and the threat of flooding, came Gary the goose!