Conditions:
Thursday Feb 2	At 7:05am, with the early-rising crowd of H-F residents gathered around the Coyote Run maintenance building, the true prognosticator of prognosticators, Coyote Run Phil, stuck his head out of the door into the fog and gloom of this Groundhog's Day morning and did not see his shadow. Appearing more rodent-like than ever, Phil delighted the crowd with his prediction that an early spring is sure to come. Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil, who has an historical prediction accuracy of just 39%, did see his shadow which means 6 more weeks of winter. (You would think that after all these years that the Pennsylvania ground hog would have an accuracy closer to 50%. It seems the folks of Punxsutawney should reverse the legend, giving the small beast a 61% accuracy rate.) So, who are you going to believe? Personally, I'm breaking out the plaid Bermuda shorts and sleeveless tee-shirts.
Wednesday Feb 1	Wow...only 46 days, (32 working days), until the fabulous opening of Coyote Run's 2012 golf season! Other than a couple of snow events and some short lived colder temperatures, the winter of 2011/2012 never happened...so far. We have been taking advantage of the mild weather by practicing our lumberjacking skills on the helpless Coyote Run trees. Mostly it has been pruning to increase light penetration on critical turf areas like tees and removal of emerald ash borer infected dead or near-dead ash trees. The warmth has actually slowed progress because it is difficult to get equipment on the course without making ruts. Meanwhile in the shop, ace equipment technician, (read mechanic), Mike Lavin is thoroughly repairing and sharpening the equipment so it is ready to go when we start back out in March. The big change for the 2012 season is a new restaurant. Wiley's Grill is replacing Northwoods. Stay tuned for further details.
Thursday Jan 12	BREAKING NEWS...Batten down the hatches...Phil Knight, (Coyote Runs' Phil Knight, not Nike Shoe's Phil Knight or Punxsutawney Phil, the famous groundhog...although with his new beard Coyote Run's Phil does kind of resemble the rodent), has declared that Philiological Winter will begin today, 1/12/2012, at exactly 12:00 noon. You have to love the symmetry of the numbers. This is the latest start of Philiological winter on record. Could it have something to do with this being a leap year? Speaking of leap year, who was the genius who decided to schedule the extra day in the middle of the winter instead of the middle of the summer? That's not a mistake that Phil would make. In preparation for the predicted snow, this morning the Coyote Run grounds staff held a one-hour training session on the use of a snow shovel, complete with a safety video, the use of appropriate ergonomics, (the big plastic thingy on the end of the stick-like thingy moves the snow and bend at the knees not at the waste), and proper attire. (The Bermuda shorts we have been wearing the last two months just will not do! The training was followed by extensive warm-up exercises...led by Phil Knight, of course.
Monday Jan 9	Welcome to 2012 and the winter that hasn't been...so far. We are all still waiting for the official start of Philiological winter. Could it occur later this week? Day length is now increasing by 1 minute and 15 seconds per day but only on the sunset side. Sunrise has actually regressed by two minutes since December 21st, the shortest day of the year. What's up with that? It has been 43 days since the course closed on November 27th and there are only 67 until we open on March 17th with the much-anticipated, world-renown, life-altering, harbinger-of-spring, gender-neutral, death-defying, mind-altering, two-person, St. Patrick's Day opening scramble.
Wednesday Dec 21	Today is the last day of astronomical autumn and the first day of astronomical winter, with the winter solstice occurring in Chicago at 11:30pm. In Washington D.C. the winter solstice occurs tomorrow at 1:15am, which explains why some calendars show the first day of winter on the 21st and some show it on the 22nd. Tomorrow will have 2011's shortest daylight period, (9 hours and 9 seconds) and the longest nighttime period, (14 hours and 51 seconds). It has been 24 days since Coyote Run Golf Course closed for the year with 86 short days until the course reopens. The world is still waiting for the start of Philiological winter...which regular readers know, is whenever Phil says it begins. Today is also the first day of my annual winter vacation that will last until January 4th. In January, weather permitting, we will be starting a tree removal and pruning project. If the weather does not permit, we will be refurbishing and sharpening mowing equipment as well as repairing and refinishing benches, ball washers, tee signs, tee markers, etc. So, happy holidays to all my loyal readers. You know who you are Anna and Tom.
Thursday Dec 15	The total precipitation for the past two days, as measured by the official Coyote Run Golf Course rain gauge, was 1.3". Across the street, Homewood-Flossmoor High School reported 1.29". Of course, with aid of divine intervention, Infant Jesus of Prague, (about .5 miles away from Coyote Run Golf Course), measured 2.29". You gotta love miracles. Last Tuesday, the Coyote Run grounds staff finished the bio-solid application project, marking the official end of the 2011 golf course maintenance season...so, I guess it is appropriate to start the countdown until we open again next season...just 92 days from today, on St Patrick's Day, Saturday March 17, 2012. Former Governor, Rod Blagojevich, has already cancelled his tee time for the opening-day, two-person Scramble. He is holding out hope that he can still play though...under the guise of asking for more time to sell his house and put his finances in order, he has asked Judge James Zagel to delay the start of his prison term until after 3/17/2011. His scramble partner, Roland Burris, cancelled because he is spending all of his spare time chiseling extra political titles on the wall of his tomb.
Wednesday Dec 14	I just watched Tom Skilling's noon weather, (actually he gives it at 12:30), and he reported that Infant Jesus of Prague has received a total of 1.28" of rain. That is right in line for the normal IJP report...they always record at least one-third more than Coyote Run where our official digital rain gauge has recorded .95" of precipitation. Sister Mary is up to her shenanigans again. Yesterday, we finished the bio-solids project...a wonderful thing given today's rain. This morning we figured out exactly what we did. Here is the 'Poop on the Poop': We received 10 semi-loads of bio-solids from the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago. Each semi-load was about 20 tons, equaling a total of 400,000 pounds. The bio-solids were applied over about 40 acres of fairway turf, equaling about 10,000 pounds per acre. One acre equals about 43,500 square feet so we applied about 230 pounds of bio-solids per 1,000 square feet. Bio-solids are about 6% nitrogen by weight so we applied about 13.8 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. Bio-solids require about five years for all of the nitrogen to become available to the plants so theoretically, if it releases evenly, the plants will receive about 2.76 pounds per 1000 square feet of nitrogen per year. A traditional fairway fertility program would supply 2 to 3 pounds of nitrogen per year...so all is good with world...and that's the straight poop!