Thursday, July 1, 2021

One day closer to winter

 We have passed the mid-point of the year 2021!  We have cycled from cold to warm to very cold, dry to wet to very wet to very dry and now back to wet.  If you live around here, and don't like the weather, just wait a little while and it will probably change.  

This year seems to be flying by.  It is already July 1st, and thanks to Mother Nature, the course is still green and lush.  While I am sure that we will have more hot and dry weather that will test the maintenance staff and our ability to keep the grass healthy, I am hopeful that we will continue to get periodic rainfall.  Even though the course is irrigated it is never as good as actual rainfall from the sky.  Although we have struggled at times to maintain the course with large amounts of rain over several days, the rain does make the job easier and allow for other work to get done that might not happen otherwise. 

There is nothing that any of us can do to change the weather.  The meteorologists can't even predict it with any accuracy.  Superintendents always have an eye on the sky and multiple weather applications on their phones.  Even so, we still don't know what is going to happen until it does.  The work day for the maintenance staff can change in a moment because of the weather, and it is frequently causing stress.  The summer is undoubtedly the most difficult time of the year to grow grass, particularly cool season grass like we have at Sycamore Ridge.  When I hit the stressful days of the summer
season, I like to remind myself that we are one day closer to winter.