Huron Hills Flagpole.

The flagpole at Huron Hills had fallen into disuse in recent years because the crab apple trees flanking the pole had grown over into the space were a flag would fly.

The old flagpole.

Looking up from near the base of the pole.

Originally, we had thought about many options to remedy this situation. We would need to prune to much of the trees to make the flagpole usable again. We also thought about completely removing one of the trees. Neither of these options were suitable.

The next option was to pull the old flagpole out and move it to another location. This would have been feasible, but upon closer inspection, the old pole was in need of some scrapping and new paint. We then began researching how much a new pole would cost. During this investigation, I found a company in Rochester Hills that makes flagpoles. Because they are local (more or less) the cost of them delivering and installing the pole was not much more than just getting a new flagpole from another company. We opted to have them install a 30 foot tall, anodized aluminum flagpole in between the clubhouse and practice green.

The American flag with the Huron Hills flag beneath it.

Here you can see the old flagpole embedded in the trees on the left, near the parking lot.

Snow!

Well, the weather has made sure that we remember it is still winter. We got around 8 inches of snow and it doesn't look like it will be going anywhere for the next couple of weeks. Maybe it just wanted make the Olympics feel welcome. At this point, I am still not worried too much about ice on the greens, but it would make me feel better to have a little February thaw.

Having the snow makes me appreciate the modifications I did to my golf cart this fall. I lifted the suspension 3 inches and added some snow tires. This makes it easier to get around in the white stuff, but if we had anymore, I would not be able to get out on the course except by walking. Maybe I should invest in some snowshoes or cross country skis?

The snow cover will give me an opportunity to get some things done inside the shop. I have a wood duck house or two to build as well as some bluebird houses.


I did receive a nice package in the mail the other day, new flags!. I will get a picture up soon. (Edit: I got them uploaded. The one to the left is the blue. All the flags are at the bottom of the page, as well as the new clubhouse flag that will go under the American flag)They have the new logo and we will go from the pin location sheet to a front, middle, back system. For front locations, we will use a red/white flag, while a white flag will be used for middle and back locations will get the blue/white flags. The system will give more flexibility on where we put the cups. With the old system, the cup would never get put to close to the borders between locations. With this set up, hopefully we will have more variability as well as a visual marker of where the cup is.