TURF News - September 2023

It’s important to show the kids that our job offers a unique blend of art, sports, and science. 8

Cabot / IECA Cape Breton First Green Field Trip

Atlantic Golf Superintendents Association

Planning Fall preparations on the golf course should be on top of everyone’s mind. 10

Fall Freeze Up – The Basic Checklist

Homecoming

After almost 12 years of being away from the region, it is so great to call Halifax home again

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Corporate $210

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The Craft

Our lives are often times so busy and distracted that the idea of pausing and reflecting. 20

President’s Message pg. 5

Service Advice pg. 15

Irrigation Corner pg. 25

Ad & Article Deadlines

February (Supplier) January 1

May (Spring) April 1

July (Summer) June 15

October (Fall) September 15

Advertising Inquiries

AGSA Inc

571 Willow Avenue, Unit 1 New Glasgow, NS

B2H 2A1

www.agsa.ca

Executive Director

Jim Nix

1967agsa@gmail.com

Turf News Editor

Jim Nix

Contributors

Barry K Stone CGIA, Jamie Matheson, Robert McGregor, Callum Haughn, Paul MacCormack, Rob Munro, Mathew Hamilton

Cover Photo

AGSA-Scramble - Courtesy Nick Boyd

*Membership prices are +HST

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WE LEAD OUR INDUSTRY WITH INTEGRITY

Our passions are research-based innovation, precision farming, educating ourselves and our communities, and being responsible environmental stewards of our agricultural and urban land. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our Premium Quality Products and Services. We are constantly improving our farm practices to be sustainable, and as environmentally friendly as possible.

president’s report

September is here and it has been quite a season to this point. The past months have brought a varying amount of extreme weather to our region while our courses continue to host members, groups and daily green fee players in large numbers. We as a group continue to put our head down and persevere through these times to produce the best conditioned golf course we can, with what we are given and tend to forget about ourselves, families and crew. Please take some time for these people and especially yourself to show some appreciation.

The AGSA board of directors have put together an initiative for our members to bring attention to how important it is to have protection from the sun in our everyday lives. As we all know, the sun continues to have high UV ratings day in day out which seems to be extending outside the summer months. We as a group decided to add a layer of protection to our members by providing wide brimmed hats with the AGSA logo to help cut down on the sun exposure to our ears, neck and face. It may not stop everything but will definitely help going into the future. Please reach out to Jim at the office if you have not received your hat or are considering acquiring some additional hats for crew members.

I would like to thank Fox Meadow and Superintendent Paul MacCormack for hosting the 2023 AGSA scramble August 23rd. The day provided everyone with a chance to get away from the daily tasks and enjoy a day of golf, food and catching up with those people we don’t see on a regular basis. Hats off to Paul and crew for providing us all with awesome course conditioning and the folks from Lone Oak for looking after all the food and beverage needs of our group. A thank you as well goes out to Kris Currie and superintendent Alex Taylor for hosting the Tuesday night kitchen party at Countryview.

Overall, the traditional August event has come to be something we all look forward to take part in each and every year. With 30 teams registered, hole sponsorship sold out and a record number of players for Tuesday evening, a huge thank you goes out to everyone involved for the planning, organizing and the success of the event. Already looking forward to 2024!!!

The 2024 AGSA Conference and Trade Show will be returning to the Westin in Halifax February 13-15. The conference committee is currently in the planning and confirmation stage to bring another outstanding event of continuing education, product and equipment knowledge along with great networking opportunities with peers throughout the turf industry. Please watch your inbox and the website for further details in the very near future.

Robert McGregor Green Gables Golf Club

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Cabot / IECA Cape Breton First Green Field Trip

By Rob Munro

When working in the field of cultivating and maintaining living landscapes for any number of reasons, such as growing crops, or in this case providing golf conditions tailored to the expectations of a particular golf club’s paying customer, a seemingly endless array of obstacles stand in between a golf course superintendent, and the perfection that they strive for day in and day out. From winterkill, to drought, from floods to hurricanes, from Microdochium to ABW etc etc, I think that you get the picture; we have a lot on our plates in Atlantic Canada! Fortunately, we have a wide variety of tools at our disposal to help us get through some of these challenges.

However, one key resource that we can’t buy in a jug is dependable staff. Putting growth ratios, and soil science to the side for a moment, we have a key question to answer as an industry: How can we show potential turf managers that ‘A’, our profession, exists, and ‘B’ that it is the best job in the world? At Cabot Cape Breton, our Turf department hosted a “First Green ‘’ Field trip, in hopes of not only bringing attention to the art of greenkeeping, but to help us resolve some problems that we face in Cape Breton Nova Scotia. To anyone that isn’t familiar with the program; the First Green

is essentially a blueprint created by the GCSAA that describes how to schedule, plan and host a local school field trip at your golf course. The program emphasizes science, technology, engineering, and math, aka, STEM learning. (some parents may be familiar.) These are all tools that we use consistently on the golf course, and I think the opportunity to show a large group of kids that we don’t “just cut lawns for work” is not only valuable, but rewarding in itself.

Our team’s goal for the event was to show the students that the golf course isn’t bad for the environment, but that we are working hard to ensure that we are protecting the land that facilitates our success as a business. I also believe that it is important to show the kids that our job offers a unique blend of art, sports, and science that few other professions can claim. Further, with perseverance and strong mentorship, it can also become a career. From a business perspective, building ties with our local community of around 2000 people is vitally important to the company’s success and with many of the students having never set foot on either Cabot Links or Cliffs, it is important for us to show them what it means to have two world class golf courses *quite literally* in their backyard.

The First Green is something that I have always felt is a great idea, but is likely a huge effort complete with a pile of paperwork and a series of hoops to jump through. Last season, we casually hosted the local K-12 school for a course walk and turf talk. While it was a great experience for myself and the students, the trip lacked purpose. This season, our Director of Agronomy, Lee Strutt mentioned that he was interested in hosting a First Green, and I was pretty eager to create the plan. After emailing my contact at the local school and agreeing on a rough timeline, I registered the field trip on the First green website. Within a day or two, the First Green team had not only replied, but mailed me a first green flag, a feather banner, and a gift bag for each student on the trip. I was really amazed by how easy it was to set this up.

While the website has various sample lesson plans based on anything from entomology to water quality, we elected to get creative, and create our own plan for the day. The target is to show the students a maintenance practice, and scientifically show how and why it works. An example of this might be stimping a green, rolling it, and stimping again to demonstrate how a roller influences ball roll. For our trip, we set up three 15 minute stations in which the three groups of 6 grade 10 students would rotate through before wrapping up with a putting contest put on by our resort head golf pro. Our three stations consisted of hole changing and examining soil profile, irrigation and moisture metre use, and green speed ( with some mower set up on the side.) Each station was run by a member of our management team, but any experienced staff member that has enough knowledge to teach their subject is all that is required.

On May 6th, the day of the event, it was 4 degrees celsius with a windchill of -3. This certainly kept the students “awake” for the trip, but I was happy with how receptive the class was; they were genuinely interested in what we were learning.

The highlight was probably the hole changing, as most kids (and many golfers) don’t realize what the hole changing process looks like. Despite the cold, we had a great afternoon, and the time that was invested was well worth it. After a hand-numbing hour and a half on the 18th green at Cabot Links, we presented the gift bags to the students along with custom wooden bag tags for each student with their names engraved from our golf shop team. We also had a reporter from the local newspaper come to take pictures and write an

article describing the event, along with its intent, and value to both the resort, and the community. I found that the first green program is very flexible, and can be as big, or as small as is suited to a particular course.

While we constantly face countless obstacles in our line of work, staffing and awareness of the profession are both major issues in today’s turf industry. By hosting a first green event, we might not be solving the problem, but I believe that we are moving in the right direction. As golf course maintenance professionals, we have one of the coolest jobs in the world, and it deserves to be recognized. In small town Cape Breton where community ties hold so much value, this event was special for us, and I would encourage anyone that is considering it to “give’er a go.”

Feel free to contact via email at rmunro@ cabotcapebreton.com, or via Twitter: @Rob_Munro99, and I would be happy to share more about my experience hosting a GCSAA First Green Event north of the border.

Fall Freeze Up – The Basic Checklist

Callum Haughn, Haughn Turf

With another season winding down, planning Fall preparations on the golf course, with the best possible outcome in the Spring, should be on top of everyone’s mind. Before we outline some theories that can help, it’s be best to consider the goal that we are looking to achieve.

I am of the belief that turf in excellent condition going into winter has a better chance of coming out of winter in the same way. Healthy turf means that it is somewhat green, dense, has a deep root system and is free of disease or open scars. This doesn’t mean that I want to have turf actively growing, acting like its summertime, but instead, healthy turf that is slowly moving its way towards signs of dormancy.

1. No Traffic Scars:

What are traffic scars? Ball marks, aeration damage, foot traffic or any activity that opens the plant to the outside world. This can hurt the plants chances of making it through the winter. To avoid this from happening, your club needs to come up with a closing and aerification date. Does anyone like a closing date, especially with the Fall weather we’ve been experiencing? No. Do people like damaged greens in the Spring? No. Unfortunately Mother Nature pays no attention to cash registers or bank accounts, and no matter how much money is at stake, she will always make you respect her. This is a fact of life, and the one I love most about Mother Nature.

2. No Disease Activity:

If you go into winter with disease activity on your greens, you most certainly are coming out of winter in the same way. A strong fungicide program that uses a combination of contact and systemic fungicides that attack both visible and not yet visible pathogens waiting to express themselves ensures you get the full spectrum of protection required of your winter fungicide application. Healthy turf also does a great job of fighting off disease on its own.

3. Proper Drainage:

Fall is a great ?me to make some huge gains on your root system, especially root systems that have been as saturated as ours this past season. Deeper root systems have access to more nutrients, and as the plant goes through its different processes preparing for winter, having a buffet of all it may require is a solid plan.

4.

Proper Sunlight:

Photosynthesis is a scientific fact. I can’t begin to tell you how many tuimes I’ve been visiting courses in the Spring where we can outline the shade pattern of the trees on a half dead green. Don’t get me wrong, I love trees way more than most people think, but the trees I love are in deep dark forests, where they are left alone to show off their awesomeness. I haven’t run into many trees next to a green surface that are so special we can’t do without.

So now that we have 4 main pillars that we are focusing on, what can we do and how can we do it?

1. Closing Dates and Traffic Scars:

Interestingly, these two extremely important parts of turf management are all about being the ultimate communicator. Negotiating a closing date or ?me to complete cultural practices can be extremely difficult. Golfers look at it as an inconvenience and they are not

able to correlate enjoyable golfing conditions with work that was carried out months previous. In today’s world of “now”, the pace in which Mother Nature moves is not respected by the general population, and certainly not the same way that we do as golf course superintendents.

Giving life to Mother Nature, discussing her like a person, her values, the way she works, the limited respect she has for what people want, or the way she thinks, allows your audience a different perspective. They are only concerned with their desires as a human, so make them understand her from a human perspective.

One last tip on becoming the ultimate communicator, don’t get angry. Do I struggle with this? For sure! But if you are getting angry, it means that you are tied too tightly to the argument and it is affecting you on a personal level. Its your job, not your identity Long story short, you need to close the course or perform aeration with enough ?me for the plants to heal over wounds that are created from these activities. That doesn’t mean the holes made from aeration need to be healed up, I have seen those act as beneficial for winter survival. But it does mean that the scars made to the plant tissue itself should be healed over. Open wounds are entry points for infection, true in all living things. The same goes for golfer traffic.

2. Disease Activity and Healthy Turf:

I am a proponent of spoon-feeding turf throughout the Fall with all 16 nutrients required to make turf happy. Providing a 1/10th of a pound of nitrogen gives the plant the energy it needs to recover after a long season. Phosphorus helps encourage root growth, while Potassium helps to regulate water within the plant, a hugely important part of winter survival. Most importantly are the mighty micronutrients, which are quickly becoming the most popular fertilizer addition throughout all points of the growing season.

have in years, at clubs that have not seen it before. The disease also broke all the rules of being a disease we see in new sand-based greens. We know that the Take All pathogen resides in the soil, so fungicides (DMI’s or QoI’s) must be applied in high water volumes to target the pathogen. We know that many of these chemistries, once they enter the plant, move acropetally, meaning they move upwards in the plant via the Xylem, until they reach the leaf ?p. This gives us a good level of protection above the surface, but not in the same concentration as surface applied. If targeting soil borne pathogens this Fall, consider a multi step approach of applying systemic products below surface and contact fungicides above surface in different applications. This will also help with your strategy of applying different types of nutrition on a more frequent basis, mixing up both soluble and foliar applied sources.

Of course, if you have not seen any below surface pathogens like Fairy Ring or Take All Patch this season, then combining your contact and systemics to attack your above ground issues like late season Dollar Spot or Fusarium Patch is best.

Chemical programs are just as important, and having the right one planned out is key for success. This past season I saw more incidences of Take All Patch than we

3. Proper Drainage:

After the summer we just had, I think we can assume that proper drainage is on everyone’s mind. If you want to have control of the drainage system on your golf course, the first thing you need is a book to record your drainage network in. Next, you need a person dedicated to figuring out your drainage network. Once catch basins or outlets are found and cleaned around, use rain events or your own irrigation to ensure that they are flowing correctly. Record all intakes and outlets in your record keeping book, mark outlets on course to ensure they remain open during the season and reap the rewards of having a property that is shedding moisture effectively.

The other key strategy to helping your plants get healthy through the Fall is to leave your irrigation system turned off as much as possible. With cooler nights, and less stressful days, the only ?me that irrigation should be flying on putting surfaces is to water in applications or because you are seeing visible signs of drought. Of course, you could do yourself an even bigger favour, and invest in a moisture meter. Yes, I talk about this a lot. And yes, I won’t stop talking about it, because I lived firsthand through the process of discovery that a moisture meter provides. In fact, I was talking to a superintendent recently who just purchased one this season and committed to that same process of discovery that he has had to listen to me speak about for years. Long story short, he spent his career thinking that greens needed to be managed a certain way, and now, deep into his career, he is blown away at just how little he understood the plants actual requirement for water. He also use to have a hard ?me believing the limited chemical required, how good the greens could be, or what the true definition of roots coming out the bottom of a cup changer meant.

4. Proper Sunlight:

Did anybody hear that Northumberland Links got absolutely hammered by Hurricane Fiona, lost all its trees, and is now ranked inside the Top 50 Public (# 42) Courses in Canada, after not being on the list? Coincidence? I wonder how that will affect the cash register.

Photosynthesis is free and is the most powerful tool that grass can receive. Mother Nature wants to help us if we are willing to accept the help. Check out the Sunseeker App to help build your case for her.

In closing, at the end of the day, focusing on nailing the basics of turf management are the biggest keys to a successful Fall. The process is the most important part of the outcome. Simple principles that are easily overlooked or disregarded in the day to day can and will have the biggest impact as we head into another Atlantic Canadian winter, one that is predicted to be very snowy.

I hope this finds you flying high into the Fall. Be well.

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At this time of year after a long summer of heat, record amounts of rain, early mornings, and working weekends we can fool ourselves into believing the season is over. We all know too well this is not the case.

The worst thing you can ever do in any job is coast. The truth is when we coast we are actually just letting things pile up for another day. The other day might be a day when you have 10 other things to do .

Some of the things I like to do this time of year is make sure the aerator is ready to go along with that. I like to make sure I have a good selection of tines in stock to get us through the fall. I like to go through the sprayer to make sure it is in good working order and ready to go. I think now more than ever it is important to be ready to go in the fall. Our climate is changing and the weather is getting very unpredictable. It is important to have the equipment ready to get the work done while you have the weather. This time of year I start to make a list of things I need to put on my spring booking program. These programs are a great way to save money on more expensive parts along with some fast moving items such as bed knives.

A lot of these programs let you push payment to the spring so if you can talk your management into keeping you on it takes a lot of stress off the spring.

The price of equipment and availability of equipment has changed a lot over the last few years so we have to keep it maintained . There is nothing worse than getting a shed full of equipment that is patched together.

Before we shut down for the winter I always try to make sure the battery terminals are clean . Not just on the electric carts, all of our equipment. Dirty connections will get worse over the winter.

When preparing our electric cart fleet for winter we try to water the carts a couple of weeks before shut down . This gives lots of time to get the water mixed into the batteries. After the carts are done we give them a good double charge. We then unhook all our main positive and negative cables. As we are doing that we make sure all our cables are clean and then we spray them with a battery terminal protector for the winter. There are a lot of great battery terminal protectors out there. Check with your local automotive or sales person to choose which one you would like. There are some that act as cleaner protectors combined. I like to use that in season and the straight up protector in the winter.

I hope everyone has a great fall and gets some time to chill out after a busy season!

All the best

Jamie Matheson Head Mechanic Brudenell River / Dundarave golf course

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Homecoming

By Mathew Hamilton

After almost 12 years of being away from the region, it is so great to call Halifax home again. After starting my career at Glen Arbour, I decided to stay in Ontario after graduating from the University of Guelph Turfgrass Management program. Although an extremely tough decision, I thought it was the best one for myself when it came to developing my professional skills and getting out of my comfort zone personally. From that decision came some of the best experiences I could have asked for during my stops at Muskoka Lakes G&CC and Shaughnessy G&CC. I am now ready to start a new chapter and challenge as the Course Superintendent at Ashburn Golf Club’s “New Course”.

To say the least, the challenges started off the start. As I flew back to Halifax from Vancouver, I had to make a connection in Calgary. During this connection, members of the Nova Scotia Forest Fire group were being recalled to the province from Northwest Territories. This was the beginning of a crazy summer in NS. We went from that extreme to, what has seemed like, never ending rains. Prayers were answered and between the rain and the incredible efforts of fire fighters, the NS wildfires were taken care of.

What followed the wildfires is what we have all been surprised about, yet again, when it comes to the weather. It has not stopped raining. This has proven to

be very difficult for everyone who manages turf in the region. For us at Ashburn, it meant being patient when it came to preparing for the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship. There was no sense in becoming upset with what was transpiring weather wise. Our planning and execution was going to need to be a day by day and week by week based on the weather. We quickly began formulating a list of tasks we wanted to complete when the weather was wet and then another set of tasks to complete when the weather was cooperating.

During the rain events, we focused heavily on applying fertilizer and wetting agents to the rough. We determined early that this was an area in need of some work. With a centre row irrigation set up, watering in these products isn’t really an option. Mother nature helped with that. We also began an extensive bunker edging program. Once we did one test hole to show the crew what we wanted, they bought in. The difference in aesthetics and playability was night and day.

During the days the days it wasn’t raining, we focused on firming up the greens. Extensive verticutting, topdressing and nitrogen limitation were done to aid this process. Along with that, we were diligent with wetting agents on greens to push as much water through as possible. It seems like the entire golf course has been at field capacity all season. We also started double cutting and double rolling almost daily. Between rain events, we slowly started to get where we wanted to be.

On July 21st, 9 days before the practice round of the Women’s Amateur, we received close to 250mm of rain. Due to this incredible dumping of rain, it caused the creek that runs through 1, 9, 10 and 18 to come up over

8 feet. This resulted in creek sediment on the 10th green and 10th fairway. It also meant that our pumphouse was completely flooded as well. This meant that anything inside that pumphouse that was electrical was done. This is not what anyone wants to see 9 days out from a national championship. On top of that, some surfaces were not able to be cut for 4-7 days and every single bunker was washed out.

The week leading into the tournament was very tough. Between not being able to cut and the humidity, it made for a long week. Once we were able to get mowing again, it didn’t take long to get things back where we had them based on the work we had done prior. Were things a touch softer than where we wanted them? For sure, but that didn’t mean our playability wasn’t fun and challenging. Once the tournament started, the humidity left, and the wind picked up. We ended up becoming very firm for the event and even started to wilt out in the fairways. With the greens running exactly where we wanted them, the fairways playing firm and fast and the rough dense and penal, we were over the moon with the product we were able to produce given the challenges presented to us.

I wanted to take this last paragraph to acknowledge the incredible work done by our staff not just for the event, but throughout the season. Among that staff is our Assistant Superintendent, Curtis Brooks. I wanted to give a special shoutout to him. There is nothing that is above or below him. His kindness, hard work and dedication was seen within days of me arriving. None of this could have been possible without him and I just wanted to say thank you.

the Craft by Paul MacCormack

So much of what happens in our daily lives is taken for granted. When you walk into a grocery store and you want a certain item, do you ever pause to think about how it got there? How often do you reflect on all the steps along the way that brought that certain piece of fruit or vegetable or loaf of bread to the shelf in front of you? Our lives are often times so busy and distracted that the idea of pausing and reflecting on how something comes into being seems like a foreign concept.

Most of the experiences anyone has on a daily basis don’t occur in isolation. There is a tremendous amount of behind the scenes work that goes on for anyone to enjoy fresh food for instance. Same too for the last meal you ate at a restaurant, your last outing to a music event, and yes, even your last round of golf. None of these experiences happen out of the blue. They are all part of a vast network people and variables that play a role in bringing the experience to fruition.

Having flowed through an interconnected web of circumstances before arriving in front of us, the quality of the goods or experience depends partly on how we choose to receive it, but it also depends a great deal on the journey it took before we came to engage with it.

If the process was forced, unsustainable or infused with suffering, in the end it will be apparent. Maybe not right away, but we all know when something isn’t genuine. If the process was open, and filled with passion and commitment to craft then it’s also readily apparent. As human beings we know the difference.

Let’s pause a moment and think about an experience that lingers in our consciousness. It could be anything really, an interaction with a piece of art, a truly memorable meal, or the last movie or book that affected you. Think of all of the variables involved for this experience to resonate with you. Think of the emotions and the physical sensations you felt and how they imprinted this experience into your memory. If appropriate, reflect on the gratitude or joy this memory brings to you.

When you find yourself in the toughest part of the season it can be difficult to remember why you do

what you do. It can be hard to find space, come up for a breath and find perspective again. But if you pause, it can be really helpful to reflect on your process and how it affects those who enjoy our properties each day. Is your process constricted and laden with expectation? Is it causing unintentional suffering to those involved along the way? Or is it born of crafts-person-ship, passion and sustainability? Is it one that leaves everyone involved grateful to be a part of something bigger than themselves?

When we choose a process that starts and ends with kindness, then we inevitably create a larger experience. When we are dedicated to the craft of greenskeeping, then it shows in the end result. It shows in the sense of place and community that is created on our properties. And it shows in the lasting memories which are created.

In the end you can’t control how someone experiences your golf course. You have no influence over their situation or state of mind they may find themselves in while they play. What you can do is dedicate yourself to practicing the craft. You can create the conditions for positive outcomes, while releasing yourself from any burden associated with them.

One of the best lessons I have learned as a mindfulness meditation teacher is that it’s not my job to make someone a good student of the practice. All I can do is plant the seed. What happens after that is up to them. But along the way I can commit myself to the practice and the craft of teaching. I can study and learn and pass on the gift the best way I know how. And in the end, that’s all I can do. I must let go of the outcome and let the chips fall where they may.

So take care. Take care of your crews and those in your charge. Commit yourself to the craft and use kindness as your compass. In the end, it will show and those folks who love your course will continue to create memories that will last a lifetime.

Thanks for reading.

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IRRIGATION CORNER

I would like to extend to Tom Jubis all the best in his retirement which started September 1st. I have known Tom for over 35 years, first as a client then co-worker and a friend. We have had many adventures and laughs together over those years and created lasting memories which I know will be shared again in the future. To you Tom and Debbie all the best and may we know each other for years to come.

With each passing year we are amazed by Mother Nature, the power she processes and the beauty she can create in all seasons. In a one-year period we have seen the one in a Hundred Year Hurricane, Wildfire and Flood. For any doubters of Climate Change, now is the time to become a believer!

It appears we need to windproof, fireproof and floodproof, a lot of things so here goes the list;

• Remove any trees that could affect your pumphouse and think about trees that could blow down or have been damaged and could fall. Look for trees that are growing close to the building and consider a fire break. Check your power lines and have hydro remove problem trees in this area (don’t do it yourself, those lines are deadly).

• Repair any leaks in the building and make sure the vents, windows and doors are water- tight

• Clean up any debris around the inside or outside of the pumphouse which could be a fire hazard, never store anything in this building that is not part of the irrigation system although heated and dry, it is not a chemical storage area. Water chemicals and 575 volts are not a good combination. Nor is it legal to store chemicals in a building that can’t contain a

liquid spill, irrigation wet wells are not on the list!

• For those with engine pumps, make sure diesel fuel and gas are properly stored so it will never be a fire hazard or an environmental issue with a leak into your pond.

• When there is the possibility of a major weather event, shut off the fuel at the tank so nothing can leak out if a line were to rupture

• All fuel storage tanks should be in another larger open tank which has the capacity to hold the max volume of the first tank. Those tanks have expiry dates, just like the ones in a home, be sure and follow those guidelines.

• Many pumphouses are almost even with the highwater level of your pond, think about how you can prevent the level from rising and flooding your pumphouse. The answer might be easy or it may mean some serious construction, planning now will save 10’s of thousands in the future, not to mention the possibility of complete loss of your system in mid-season. This happened at 2 courses in Atlantic Canada this year.

• Lastly, with all the moisture, the soil is saturated in many parts of Atlantic Canada, leaking systems, once shut down, will become a place of entry for this ground water filling up pipes that you have blown out. Fix the leaks before blowout and make sure you do a complete and thorough blowout of the system. With saturated soil and the possible heavy frost, your system will need every ounce of prevention you can offer.

May you be comforted by the gentle breeze rustling the colored leaves of fall, the sound of a gentle rain on your camp roof and the warmth of a glowing fire in the stove. Just the way wind, rain and fire should be.

Cheers , Barry K Stone CGIA