Yesterday we traveled back in time!

For those members who were on the golf course yesterday afternoon at 2pm, I offer an apology. For those of you that were not here, at precisely 2pm yesterday the irrigation system stared running a watering program, and at exactly 30 seconds past 2pm yesterday, I became one of the most popular people around as my phone started “ringing off the hook” as we used to say. I hope it was nothing more than an amusing inconvenience for everyone, but I realize if someone had been in the wrong place at the wrong time not only could you have been blasted by the sprinklers leaving you soaking wet, but there is a real safety concern as you could have also been hit in the eyes. It took about 20 or 25 minutes before the system was shut down completely. I have to admit, I have never actually had to stop a program as it was running before so it did take a bit of time for me to look through the software to find a cancel command.

So why did it start running in the first place? Well, the storm that rolled through Monday night into Tuesday morning caused a power outage at some point. We knew we had lost power through the night but by the time we came in Tuesday morning the computer had rebooted and as I did a run through of the software and set up a program to run for Wednesday night I didn’t notice both the date and time were off. The computer actually thought it was January 1st 2001 at 10pm….Hence the travel back in time. Now you may find it very strange that we would be running any irrigation on January 1st, but the computer date has no connection to the programming, only to the time of day. So when it hit 2 O’clock yesterday, the computer was at 10 O’clock, and went to work just the way it is programmed to do. So, mental note to self…………when we lose power, double check the time on the computer…………

On another topic you may have noticed we have been mowing down some of the naturalized areas around the course. The reason for this is to try and reduce, and hopefully eliminate an invasive weed species called “Dog Strangling Vine”. We have tried some weed sprays in the past with very limited success. One of our best options of control is to mow it down before it goes to seed, which is exactly what we are trying to accomplish. This will not be a quick eradication process as there are many seeds already dropped in the soil waiting for perfect conditions in subsequent years to germinate. The large wide open areas are relatively easy to get at and mow down. But, unfortunately we also have this weed in amongst tight areas around trees, which we will have to cut manually if we are going to prevent it from spreading. We appreciate your patience and understanding with the ugly look of these mowed areas.