Water transfers and lightning.

Although it isn't even June yet, the irrigation pond between 10 and 18 has been steadily receding. So, we decided to fire up the pump down at the Treat road reservoir pond we have and start moving some of that water into the irrigation pond which you may have noticed gushing in by 18 tee. This pond is about 10% of the irrigation pond's size and we are able to pump it nearly dry. This week our timing was lucky because, after we let the pump run for a day (it takes two days of pumping to empty the Treat road pond) it rained and filled up the pond again, giving us more water to pump into the irrigation pond. Last year we didn't pump out of Treat road at all, so hopefully this year's trend doesn't continue. However, if it does we'll be able to conserve enough water to keep the course irrigated.

Pond slowly filling up. After 1.5" of rain the last two nights the water level is coming up. 

With the heavy rains came heavy lightning, which can wreak havoc on our irrigation system. After the storm on Tuesday night we had 17 of 31 boxes without communication to the main computer in our office. The problem is that the lightning causes fuses to blow inside the satellites around the course. They blow to keep the surge of power from hitting all the boards inside the boxes, which also means that the communication from the main computer can't reach the modem inside the box. So, when the fuses blow they are doing their job. Since I've been at Barrington I've never seen more than 9 or 10 boxes have their fuses blown in one night, so I'm sure it was a good show. Restoring communication is as simple as putting in new fuses, which is quick and inexpensive. If you see me or anyone else poking around in these boxes after a thunderstorm, chances are pretty good this is what we're up to. 

This is what the inside of each box looks like. The surge board is in the lower left hand corner. 

This is what the fuses look like when they're blown. The far left one is black and burnt (normal for a blown fuse), the second from the left is blown apart (not normal). The right two are not blown. This is the first time I've ever seen a fuse physically blown apart. I was pretty excited. 

Ian