Starting with “Snowmageddon” in November, 2014 – the storm that forced the postponement of our Marine Steel Painting auction sale – this winter has been long, cold and unrelenting.
Yesterday started out a reasonable day to begin our auction set up process. Before we can sell any assets there is a painstaking procedure of cleaning and organizing that Blackbird uses before every auction. For Westwood we need to clean, perform maintenance, lot, tag and photograph the greens mowers, fairway mowers, John Deere tractor (s) and other course maintenance equipment and Club Car golf carts we are selling on April 21. This date is just a few weeks away, and we have delayed our normal timeline already.
After getting the John Deere 440 front loader tractor UNSTUCK from the snowdrift that was blocking the door, we were able to use the front bucket to make a clear path to the parking lot to stage equipment for cleaning. This tractor works great! While temperatures in the low 40’s are not ideal working conditions for power washing, this work needs to be done right away so the set-up crew was ready to go. With power washer in full stream mode, last years dirt was finally washing away.
Then the wind came, with lower temperatures, and snow. SNOW! Snowflakes the size of giant cotton balls. BIG SOAKING WET GIANT SNOWFLAKES. A simple walk of 20’ in this squall yielded soaking everything… and you could not escape the misery. Needless to say, our final advertising photos of summer-use golf course equipment won’t look too appealing with snow flying everywhere. Especially this nice late model Jacobsen, DMI, Toro, Turfco, Bush Hog, FMC and other specialty golf course equipment. So, the equipment that made it out of the barn made it back into the barn.
The weather forecast for Thursday indicates temperatures into the sixties. So we will try again another day and hopefully get a break from old man winter once and for all. Regardless, the Westwood Country Club Auction remains on the calendar for April 21 at 10:00 AM, and short of another seven foot snowstorm like we had at the beginning of this winter the show must go on!