Random Photo #1

Winter Drainage Tubes

“Hey Siri: how many days ago was January 1, 2013?”

“3,655 days ago.”

“Hey Siri: give me a random number between 0 and 3,655.”

“It’s 339 days.”

Which was December 6, 2013, on which I took this photo:

One of my goals for 2023 was getting back to writing, the way I did early in my career; hence this Substack. One of the ways in which I wanted to stimulate such writing was to randomly pick a photo from my Hazeltine career and write something about it. 

I’ve written about these “drainage tubes” in the past, a tip I picked up from my good friend and Minikahda Club superintendent, Jeff Johnson. Look across the Hazeltine landscape, once the golf course has closed and you’ll see large numbers of these tubes. It’s no more than a piece of drain tile, or HDPE pipe attached to a fence post, but they are key to winterizing the golf course. 

At each of Hazeltine’s drainage inlets, one of these tubes is driven into the ground such that the tube hangs over the drain. The tube over the drain does three things:

1. They identify the location of the drain. During winter thaws, or spring melt, it is often necessary to do a bit of clearing around drains. The tubes make them easy to find when snow is covering the ground. 

2. As the wind blows, it creates a vortex that whips the snow away from the tube. You can see a bit of this in the photo. This reduces the depth of the snow over the drains, so when they are found and need to be cleared, it’s less work. Ever noticed how squirrels will stash their winter food supply at the base of a tree? This is the reason.

3. As the sun gains strength, the dark color of the tube attracts heats and begins melting the snow over and around the drain, opening them up for spring melt much sooner than without the tube. 

There you have my first random photo post–a simple solution that provides great benefit.