Rain is Rain, Right?

Yes and no.  They're are many different types of rain events that lead to different playing conditions on the course.  

If I had my choice, I'd take an all day soaker like we had this past Sunday.  Over the course of the day we received 2.25" and if it hadn't rained Wednesday, golfers would have been off the path.  With that amount of rain, the soil profile fills to a point of saturation and eventually flushes out the soil profile.  It's similar in affect to the way we irrigate the greens. 

Then we have Wednesday's rain which was light in amount and intensity. It's crudely referred to as a pisser.  We received just .30", but we were arguably more wet from that storm than the storm on Sunday with 2.25".   What happens here is that the upper 2-3" absorbs this and holds on to it creating a wet surface. 

Then there's the gully washer which is described as a short heavy rain.  This rain comes in so fast that it flows off the surface to the drains.  Not good when the soils are needing water, but conducive to better playing conditions faster. 

No matter what type, you're not allowed to complain about it in California!   

200+

The number of days it's been since you've seen a blog post from Cinnabar Hills or the number of days since it has rained?  I wouldn't blame you if you answered with the blog post, but it is the later; rain!  Over the last week we've seen our first drops of rain since April 17th.  Things have greened up in a short matter of time and all in the California turf business can breathe a big sigh or relief.  Let me enjoy the rain for at least another week until you ask me "how soon can we get off the path".   

How Wet Is It?

2 Canyon muddy brown from all the
run off

Wet to quite wet?  That's a really hard question to answer.  Almost equivalent to asking me what the green speed is.  If I tell you the green speed is 13', how far are you going to pull the putter back on a 20' putt on number 9 of the mountain.  It depends right?

Over a 10 day period we got 11.8" or rain.  That's the most I've ever recorded in such a span.  So is it wet out there? Absolutely.  Could it be worse?  Absolutely.  Of the few golfers we had this week, the shots I saw didn't plug in the fairways, but they didn't roll out either.  I'm sure some plugged, but that's what winter rules are for.  With the greens being sand based, they never missed a beat.  They still roll great and now accept both good and bad shots.  

We are lucky to  have a lot of surface drainage on the property so the heavy rain just runs off to drains, ponds or creeks.  We are also lucky to have aerified and cored the golf course as many times as we did which increases our infiltration rate and gets the water off of the surface.  We will 'vent' the greens this upcoming Tuesday prior to the next storm to help take as much rain as Mother Earth gives us.  If we have a dry spell following next weeks rain, we may 'vent' the greens again to allow them to dry out quicker.  Who said holes in a green are a bad thing?

So how wet is it?  I still don't know the best way to answer it.  Come on out and determine your point of relativity.   

The Tarantulas Never Lie

It was about two weeks ago that I saw my first tarantula of the season crossing the entry road and right on cue, the rain predictions started showing up in the forecasts.  This past weekend it turned into the first measurable rain of the season with nearly .75".  The story I've always been told is that the arachnids are seeking high ground, but a quick google search says that the males are seeking female companionship.  Randy in the rain if you will.

Not The Start We Were Looking For

I found this graphic this morning while I was looking at the long term forecast of rain that just doesn't exist.  I don't know where the .01" in San Jose came from.  Maybe mother nature spit a little when she was looking down at us while chuckling.  Lacking the rainfall to lift the 20% reduction in water usage, the only thing I can predict with some certainty is another trying year for a lot of golf courses.  

Hold The Salt Please

While sampling fairways this week, I pulled some cores that really show me just how bad our salts are this year.  I'd venture to guess that retirement communities use less salt annually than I currently have in the fairways.  

This picture came from 1 mountain fairway and is in a thin dry area surrounded by green grass.  The salts haven't been flushed from winter rains and because the salt concentration in our irrigation water is higher this year due to low reservoirs, the accumalation is very dramatic.

We have just applied calcium in the form of lime and next week we will be spraying a product in combination with wetting agent that should help break down both the salt and high bicarbonates.  

The winter rains can't come soon enough.  

Drones, Drought, and Cloud Seeding

In just 9 days, we will have ended the year with just 2.83 inches of rain.  Two of those whopping 2.83 inches came in January through April.  All of the 2.83 inches came over a total of 20 days.  For those of you who manage golf courses as well, let that sink in for a bit.  2.83 inches.  I remember my time served back in Michigan and fretting when we went a week without rain.  It is now three days before Christmas and I am still watering wall to wall every few days.

For now, the state of California has not declared a drought emergency, but with 75% of fresh water to the Western States being provided by snow melt and snow pack at 17% of normal, it seems eminent.  To push the issue, local lawmakers are calling on President Obama and Governor Jerry Brown to declare a drought emergency which would allow the transfer of water from wetter regions to California.

All the talk of drought at the club led me to a conversation with our Director of Golf, Adam Schiro, about cloud seeding.  It is something I had never heard of until now and has led me to the conclusion that rain dancing still has a chance.

There are two types of cloud seeding; cold cloud seeding and warm cloud seeding.  Cold cloud seeding is more prevalent and it involves dispersing silver iodide throughout the clouds. It has been very successful dating back to the first successful cloud seeding in 1915.  It was actually too successful as Charles Hatfield's chemical brew led to a 17 day downpour over San Diego leaving behind 28 inches of rain and left thousands of people homeless due to mudslides.


Cloud seeding evolved into other uses such as being used as a tool/ weapon for our military in what became known as Operation Pop Eye.  The Chinese also used 1,104 cloud seeding missiles in 2008 to remove the threat of rain ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing.  There theory, which by the way kept the ceremony dry, was to head off any rain clouds heading toward Beijing by making them precipitate prior.

Currently, 11 Western states participate in cloud seeding or weather modification.  It's latest technological leap will involve the possible use of drones to disperse the silver iodide into the clouds.  That testing is to be conducted in the fall of 2014.

The topic of cloud seeding to me as you have read is fascinating, but what does this all mean for Cinnabar Hills Golf Club?  It means that when 1/1/14 rolls around, we will still have ended the year of 2013 with 2.83 inches of rain and while cutbacks haven't been decided, we will need to be prepared.  Preparing for a drought year means prioritizing what needs water and where we can lose the water.  Our order is greens, tees, landing zones, clubhouse and driving range.  It will involve the heavy use of wetting agents to maximize our watering efficiency and a whole lot of hose work to just maintain.  Constant evaluation of our system will also be vital.

Until then, I will still be dancing and hoping for just one drop.  Maybe Thomas Bastis of California Golf Club could put a little silver iodide in his quad copter to assist with our troubles.  You never know?

Winter Update

It may be sunny California, but it sure has been cold and both golfers and the Maintenance staff here are tired of it.  Everything was cozy through Thanksgiving with average lows in the low 40's and on December 4th, the temperature dropped to a low of 26 degrees.  It hasn't warmed up since then... Excuse me, it did warm up to 29 degrees on the 7th, but it then went down to 19 degrees two days later.

We have had one fire pipe break, numerous outdoor fire sprinklers go off, and multiple valves have started leaking due to the rubber seal cracking.  Aside from fixing the breaks, we are also out checking for ice on the cart paths and applying sand where needed.  One of the other jobs we are doing is moving full sprinklers that are near the edge of cart paths to the edge and replacing them with part circle sprinklers.  The ground is so hard that the guys are using the jackhammer to get the soil removed.

With this latest string of weather, we are changing cups every 2 or 3 days and we have only mowed the greens once since the 4th.  We attempted to yesterday in the afternoon, but there were multiple greens still frozen at 1130 a.m and we gave up on the idea.

Fortunately it looks as if we will catch a break for an extended period of time with tomorrow's forecast in the upper 30's.  There is no rain in the forecast which is extremely unfortunate.  All I need is 0.17 inches and I'll have 3 inches for the calendar year!