Getting ready for winter

We just finished winterizing our irrigation system.  It is an important to procedure.  If we did not winterize the system the water in the plastic pipes would freeze and crack the pipes.

To remove the water we rent a large air compressor.  The compressor gets hooked up to the irrigation line outside the pump house near #7 fairway.

Air compressor at pump house

Once we have enough air pressure built up in the lines, we turn on each irrigation head until the water stops flowing out and it is just blowing compressed air.  At times it looks like Yellowstone Park out there.

Removing water from the irrigation heads

We also have a transfer line that runs from #12 to #7 that needs to be blown out.  The whole process generally takes about 10 to 15 hours to complete.  This year we managed to finish winterizing the irrigation system on Tuesday November 25th, one day before we received 8 inches of snow!