Signs of a New Year

When you wake up on the second of January and you notice about 20 new runners running around your block, you know it is a new year full of new resolutions.  While subtle, the signs of a new year are evident at Cinnabar.  

The biggest of them all is the removal of the Christmas trees and accompanying decorations.  What took two days to setup, came down in a matter of hours.  Well worth it though and we hope you were able to enjoy our decorations as much as we do putting them up. 

If you poke around the offices, all the new wall calendars are up and I really take a lot of pride in my wall calendar.  It is what I use to plan out the entire year of fertilizer and pesticide applications and subsequently what I use to budget the entire maintenance budget.  The planning begins with the two weeks of the year we are scheduled to aerate and everything is worked around those events.  It becomes a chess match moving pieces or applications around and finally you have to know when to stop tinkering.  One of these years, I will begin a pool with my assistants and do an over/ under as to when we will deviate from the plan.  

Did you think I'd give you a clear plan as to what I'm doing?

While I haven't set any hardcore resolutions like I normally do, I have/ will be asking myself daily what I have done today to make myself and the course better.  With that, it is time for me to go grab a green smoothie and adjust some irrigation heads!

Pinball Alley

 That is my unofficial name for #7 Mountain now that it has been planted with 24 Coast live oak trees.  The trees were finalized this past Friday and it really makes you think a little differently on this hole.  What was once an easy par 5 to cut the corner on now involves a little risk/ reward.  More thought is also involved for the shorter hitters like myself because you don't want to end up behind the trees as well.

Next week we will scarify the 'highway' and begin to place the fence around the area.  By next weekend we hope to have everything wrapped up on 7/8 Mountain.

Spider Mites

You may not believe it, but I am actually glad to have spider mites.  That is what the official diagnosis was on our Pacific Coast Live Oaks.  The alternative for the browned out oak seen to the left was sudden oak death.

With diagnosis in hand, we had ArborWell out to spray the trees (3 dozen) in the parking lot and on the entrance road.  After a month, some trees still look browned out, but if you look close you'll notice green leaves reappearing at the ends of the branches.  Something you also notice is the lack of brown lesions on the top side of the leave which is indicative of the spider mite damage.

When reading the disease report, the report mentions that while spider mites are a problem, damage like we have is not typical.  I kindly responded, "Only at Cinnabar".

7 Mountain Course Improvement

The picture to the left shows the style of fence we will be installing around the hillside between 7 & 8 Mountain.  We will be doing 6 or 7 sections of fence with an 18" gap between each section.  We will also be planting more trees along the hillside. This area has become a popular highway of sorts and the cart traffic has really made it an eyesore.  The fence will keep the carts out and we will hopefully be able to regain the beauty it once had. It should also help make it into a legitimate par 5 by not being able to cut the corner anymore.  We hope to have this work complete within the next three weeks.

What the hillside should look like

The 'highway'

One Casualty Due to Wind

While the title may be a little dramatic, we take our trees here at Cinnabar Hills very serious. When we lose one, or in this case, half of one; it stings a bit.The tree pictured is on 5 mountain tee between the cinnabar tee and quicksilver tee. The tree has luckily maintained some its character so all is not lost.