What Snow?

Even though the Snowpacolypse might have shut down metro Atlanta, it did not stop TDI from really getting a good start on the Driving Range!  The 3 employees that are on site have worked on the Tee section of the range for the last 4 days and look at the progress!  This first picture is what the range looked like on Tuesday morning as the snow started falling..........

Here is what it looked like around 5:00pm on Friday.......

I call that a lot of progress in a week where Atlanta was chaos!  Mr. Bob Cupp will be out in the morning to check on the Tee and give it his blessing, as well as a little bit of insight into what he envisioned when he designed the plans.  The Dredgers are still plugging along, with 400 more cubic yards hauled today.  I am having a blast watching things come to life and hope everyone is excited as I am for the finished project!  I leave you for the night with a picture of a member of our staff that absolutely took full advantage of the snowfall!!!!

TDI is on property, the project is now in full swing!

The company that will be doing the renovation of the driving range, TDI, is on site and ready to start playing in the dirt!  We can officially call this project as being in "full swing"!  There is approximately 7000 yards of silt on the driving range to date, and the first order of business will be to work on building the new and improved tee section.  This will be a double tiered tee, and will increase in size from 33,000 sqft, to 65,000 sqft.  The larger size will ensure much less wear and tear on the tee top, and also give us plenty of flexibility for any events the club may hold in the future.  Attached is a look at what the proposed driving range plans which serve as an outline for what TDI will build.  Once all the heavy machinery is gone and the dust has settled,  we will have one of the finest practice facilities in the state!

Ice Dredgers

Over the past few weeks it has been extremely cold, but that has not stopped out dredging project.  The cold weather actually helps to keep the pond mud more consistent and increases the amount of material hauled in each trip to the driving range.  We have surpassed the 6,000 cubic yard mark, and today we are projected to move 600 more yards!  The pictures below show what the bottom of the pond looks like as the excavator digs.  Try and see the different layers of deposits that have settled to the bottom over time.  Each time the machine takes a scoop the pond depth is increasing by 3-4 feet!  Very neat to watch, the pictures do not do it justice!

Back in Business!

We are glad to announce that the large excavator has been repaired and we are back in business hauling dirt!  No doubt the the hydraulic hose break was a setback for the project, but we are glad it was just a bump in the road!  Having this machine fixed will help us greatly to have another productive week.  This cold, blustery weather will not be very good for golf, but will keep the dirt frozen and help us keep striving for our goal of 20,000 yards!  On Sunday we surpassed the 5,000 yard mark!  This is only a quarter of the estimated silt removed, but we have already finished approximately 40% of the lake!  If all goes well we should be in the 6500 yard range by weeks end!

Here is a picture of a large boulder in the middle of the lake on #3/#13.  If you look closely at the water you will see it sticking up.  Many members who were part of the club when the new course was built in 1989 commented on how the pond was full of big rocks........I guess this is what they were talking about!!!!!

What a Beautiful Monday for a Break Down!

What a great week we had for Dredging!  No rain and bright sunshine has allowed us to haul over 1600 yds over the past week.  This brings out total approximate yards removed to 5,000 yds!  Unfortunately, the Dredging suffered a road bump today when the large excavator suffered a hydraulic hose leak.  This leak was located inside the tracks, near the motor that drives the machine.  Leaks in this area are very hard to fix because of limited access inside the machine.  Let's hope that they can get it fixed by the morning and we can keep achieving our goal of hauling 500yds a day!  I have attached a picture on what it looks like repairing such a leak!

Lightning Strike Saturday

A large bolt of lightning hit the "Cart Path Only" sign located at #1 tee around  9:00 am on Saturday, January 11th! We are very fortunate that no one was injured in this lightning strike, and it is a great reminder of how dangerous Lightning and Inclement weather can be.  We will have to do some work to repair our irrigation system, but gladly will fix these problems instead of having a member of the club get hurt.  Please remember that when you hear the lightning alarm go off  to Seek Shelter!!!!

Record Day Tuesday!!!

Yesterday was a record day for the dredging project, as the crew was able to haul 56 loads!  The approximate total amount hauled was around 500yds, which is what our goal has been all along.  If we can stay on this pace we can hopefully be done by the first of March!  Now that we have moved up the lake to our second entry point it makes it much easier to dig and load the drier material.  Once the pond bank in the picture is finished we will have a grass edge all the way around the pond, just like on the #13 side.  This will help to give the pond a much cleaner look, as well as to prevent erosion of the pond edge in the future.  Everyone in the grounds department is very eager to get the golf course back to pristine condition and have all 27 holes open.  Lets all hope for some dry weather the next 6 weeks so the dredging can keep going strong!

Making Progress!!!!!

The dredging is still chugging along and we are starting to see more progress every day.  As always, the rain over the weekend has slowed the work down a little bit, but the water level is back down and mud is still being shoveled out!  We have moved up the body of the lake and have started to use our second point of access.  This new access point is located near the middle of the lake, on the north bank, or behind #2 green.  The new entrance to the pond will allow easier loading in the upper end of the lake and give the workers flexibility to dig in the driest areas possible.  As we start to get into the mouth of the lake near #13, we will see the material change from the muddy soup being hauled now to a more sandy/gravel mix that will be much easier to dig and haul.  More pictures to come!

Burrrrrrr!

Freezing temperatures are making it hard to work outside, but the Dredging is still going strong!  Daily loads of dirt hauled have been steadily increasing and we are getting closer to our daily goal of 500 cubic yards per day.  The extreme cold is actually a blessing for the removal of material, because the more frozen solid the dirt becomes, the more actual cubic yards of dirt that can be hauled each load.  This in turn means greater production with less trips to the driving range.  Please come out take a look at the project, it is fun to finally start to see progress!  I want to take a moment to say Thank You to Stephen Keppler and his golf staff for getting muddy and saving the remaining fish on Sunday afternoon.  It is estimated that they pulled close to 200 fish from the muddy waters of #3 pond and transferred them to both ponds #9 and #15.  The largest fish was around a 7 pound Largemouth Bass, pictured below!

 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from all of us in the Marietta Country Club Grounds Department!  We are glad to announce the Dredging Project is in full swing and we are starting to see some production!  The 2 larger Marooka trucks that we were expecting have arrived and now the real hauling can begin.  To date our largest total of cubic yards hauled has been 300, but with the larger trucks the new goal is to haul 500 yards a day.  The area in front of #3 green is almost completely dredged out, and the crew will now work to build a ramp out into the middle of the pond.  It was a hassle at first getting the pump situated so that it could de-water the lake consistently without getting stopped up with trash.  They have relocated the intake hose of the pump to a deeper part of the pond and it is working just fine.  The current total of cubic yards hauled is just under 1,000yds, which is around 5% completed.  Does  not sound like much, but with the larger equipment we should be able to multiply that a lot faster!