Water Well Improvements

The final stages of the additional well and electrical component upgrades are happening today. The next two weeks will consist of tuning the new system to operate efficiently for irrigation water production.
It's a much more sophisticated system than the old. The new well will be using a variable frequency drive (VFD) motor and a water level transducer to regulate water flow during low groundwater events. The original well will still use a motor saver that cuts power for a specified period of time under the same circumstance.
Both wells were fit with flow meters for monitoring well production.












This is a major improvement and will aid ERGC in reducing City water use during our peak irrigation season.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bunker Renovation Progress

The ERGC maintenance crew is hard at work. 5,000 sqft of bunker renovation this week.









11 fairway left and 12 green-side.

When you see the maintenance staff on course, please tell them how much you appreciate their hard work.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Empire Ranch Golf Club

Much More Than "Adding A Little Sand"

We have started work on one of six more bunkers to be renovated. Here is a good photo of how much a bunker edge can change through regular maintenance and play.

This is number 10 green-side bunker. The original bunker lip was located by cutting back the sand/turf layer until the soil lip was found.



I marked on the photo to illustrate the the first step of our renovation- establish the original footprint of each bunker.

Again, each bunker will have Klingstone liquid spray-on liner, new drainage, sand and minor sod work.

Thank you

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Haddington Dr,Folsom,United States

Water Well Improvement

Over the past three weeks we have been working on a project to restore an old water well. The well will help supplement the existing well that fills our irrigation lake at the entrance of the golf course.
This week, the lake-fill line was located and tapped. A four inch line was installed from the tap over to the well head.





The disturbed areas will be back filled and graded for sod and seed.
I'll post more as the project nears completion.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Verti-cut clippings

Vertical mowing on greens helps remove much more material than regular mowing. It is more aggressive and is usually done bi-weekly during peak growing season.
How much more material is removed? This picture is material from 9 green, small putting green, 1 green and 2 green.  Generally, normal mowing produces 1-2 pounds of clippings per green.

Clippings from 4 greens

Verti-cut blade unit

The benefits?  Vertical mowing removes excessive leaf-tissue, thatch and reduces grain.  It promotes healthy turf and healthy turf needs fewer inputs like fertilizer and water.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Empire Ranch Golf Club

Home Landscape and Lawn Care Symposium is TODAY!

Follow this link to sign up.  Or just come on by.  Event starts at 6:00 pm and will continue until 7:30 pm.

http://professionalmaintenance.eventbrite.com/

Hamburgers, chips, drinks and beer will be provided.

Thank you,
Rodney Muller

Home Landscape and Lawn care Symposium

Empire Ranch Men's and Women's Golf Club Members:

Please join us for an evening of food, education and camaraderie. Ewing Irrigation and Acme Saw will be here with representatives demonstrating professional products and services.

Ewing Irrigation specializes in landscape products, landscape irrigation, golf and industrial products. Ewing will present their line of professional landscape lighting and outdoor audio products, fertilizer formulations for lawncare and irrigation management products and techniques.

Acme Saw sells and services commercial grade lawncare equipment. Acme will cover everything from spring tune-ups, blade sharpening and Winterization for your small engines. Everything from handheld blowers, power trimmers and self-propelled lawn mowers will be on display.

What? You hire a professional service to take care of your lawn. Well then all you have to do is educate yourself on the products your turf technician should be using so you get the most for your money.

Don’t miss this event. Empire Ranch Golf Club wants to let you in on our little secret and give you an alternative to shopping at a “big box” store.

Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and drink will be provided. Brent Cohen and Victoria Bruss have also donated a KEG of beer for this event... and it's totally FREE!

The Event will be held in the Empire Ranch Maintenance Facility June 12th from 6pm - 7:30pm.

Please sign up for this event through Eventbrite so I can have a head count for food. Just follow the link below.

http://professionalmaintenance.eventbrite.com/
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Empire Ranch Golf Club

Bunker Project Update

We are down to the final bunker on hole #1.  The bottom of the bunker needs to be raised to drain properly.   During the process of excavating soil for the bunker our tractor lost reverse gear and needed to be taken to Sacramento Tractor for a major repair.

As soon as we get the tractor back to Empire Ranch we will complete our final bunker in the first phase of our bunker renovation.   Thank you.

More Course Improvements Coming

We will begin repairing and sealing the asphalt cart paths April 1st and 2nd.  We will have cart traffic regulated in areas throughout the course, so please use caution during this process.

Please use golf etiquette when approaching crews working on the course.  Before hitting a ball, get the attention of the worker by waiving and letting them know you are approaching them with your shot.  And as always, yell FORE!

Where did the term 'fore' originate?

FORE!

Aerification time

I can not think of a time when so many complements have been made about how great the greens are right now.  Trust me when I say, our staff does not get tired of hearing compliments on course conditions.  But....

Mark your calendars for our spring greens aerification.  April 2nd and 3rd.  April 2nd we will start at 12:00 PM on the front 9.  Wednesday April 3rd we will finish the back 9 starting at 5:00 AM.  Please, no back 9 play on Wednesday.

We will aerify and verticut greens to remove as much thatch as possible.  Fertility has been increased at this time and we should see greens returning to normal in 14-18 days if not sooner with excellent weather conditions.

Tee's have already been aerified, seeded, topdressed and fertilized and recovered nicely.

Here is a great communication article for golfers that is put out by the GCSAA.  Please read.

Aerification: Sometimes it's good to vent

Thank you.

Wood Duck Nest Box

I received a call last week from a father and son who wanted to install some Wood Duck boxes on the course.  They told me they had been golfing at Empire Ranch and saw Wood Ducks on the pond near 16 green.  After some discussion, I thought this was a good idea to install the boxes as it fits well with our Audubon Certification and creates outreach and education to youth- so I agreed to help them. This is also a class project for the son and he will be monitoring the boxes on a regular basis.

He brought us three Wood Duck boxes that he purchased online and assembled himself.  With the help of Seth Siebel, who mounted and located them on the course, we hit the prime nesting season for these water fowl.

The nesting boxes are located at the pond on hole 3, 9/10 and 16.  Please observe and report any Wood Duck sightings as they happen.  

Interested in learning more about the Audubon International ACSP for Golf Courses?  Try this link.

http://www.auduboninternational.org/acspgolf

Wood Duck pair

Wood Duck box at pond on 9/10 tee.

Bunker Update...

• Green-side bunkers on number 9 were finished the week of March 22nd.  
• Green-side bunker on number 7 will be completed by March 29th.
• Green-side bunkers on number 1 and 2 will be sprayed with Klingstone (bunker liner) on March 28th and will be completed by April 5th.

Santiago coring out the bunker sand.  Santiago works at Granite Bay CC and we were fortunate to have him excavating the bunkers.

Viliulfo is spraying the Klingstone bunker liner while Ildefonso, Rick and Eric apply a light coat of sand.

The sod goes down by Rick, Eric and Seth.  Jose and Saul add our new bunker sand and rake smooth.

The finished product.

New Range Targets and Yardage Poles

The new wedge targets proved to be very popular so we added a second set and built stands to mount the 4'X4' targets. I want to share with you the work that went into making the range upgrade, and acknowledge the maintenance staff for their hard work that made it possible.

Once we had the targets cut and painted, we built a stand to elevate and angle them so they could easily be seen. The stand also makes them portable for weekly mowing and maintenance.

After the raw steel was ordered and delivered, we used our chop saw to uniformly cut each portion of the stand by clamping a block to the desired length of cut. By using a block, it allows for each piece to be consistent in length with the next piece. We then pre-drilled the mounting holes for each piece of flat steel used for the top mount.


Next, we made a template to reproduce each base (14) and top mount (14). We tac welded each joint to avoid distorting the angles from the heat of the finish weld.


Base being made



Top mount being made



Welding



To join the base and top mount, we used 5/8 .065 wall tubing. Magnetic angles held and aligned each piece. Three inch legs in the front and twelve inch legs at the back gave us a good visual angle from the tee.


We painted each metal base using an industrial grade finish to protect the raw steel from rust and to provide a better finished product. Each base was centered on a target, marked, drilled and securely fastened with galvanized hardware. Notice the bent piece of steel in front of the target. This is the attachment point to move the targets for mowing and maintenance. A long T-handle with a hook at the end is all that is needed to move them.


Fabricators were: Jose and Ildefonso-cutting and preparing the metal and final assembly. Seth-painted the target stands. Saul, Viliulfo and Liborio-cut and painted the targets. Rodney-welded target stands.

Range Pole Construction


Prep and cap welding


Painting


3 of 6 painted

Thanks for looking
Rodney Muller

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone