Allison - Flight Zone Toptracer Driving Range

Fancy Seeding You Here!

As you may or may not know, we’ve been working on creating a new ceremony site at the golf course. It all started last year, when the drought caused our ponds to go dry. With an empty pond, we decided to take advantage of it and build a peninsula that would double as a ceremony site. Throughout the year, we have seeded it several times, but the muck from the pond that makes up the peninsula wasn’t rich enough soil to get any germination. So, we took a month break or so and got to work on it again in this last month. We installed irrigation, speaker and electrical wire, then we covered the whole peninsula with compost to help improve the germination rate of the grass seed. Once all of that was in place, it was time to dump 400 pounds of seed on the peninsula. After the ground had been tilled, my dad and daughter walked the peninsula and threw out all the larger clumps of soil. I’m not sure if this was required or merely for entertainment purposes. Dad and his trusty tractor, tilled up the ground, then he attached the seeder and got to work. Unfortunately, the tractor got stuck when driving over one of the trenches that housed the wiring. Dad often likes to cause us problems. It’s his thing. My brother, Jason, had to do a little repair work to get it back in order. The fun part about working with your family is that no matter your age, your parents treat you like you’re about twelve. Sometimes, it’s fun to pretend that you aren’t an adult. My dad gently reminded my brother to make sure to put back the electrical tape where he found it. Jason quickly reverted back to his teenage years and hung the tape where dad couldn’t possibly miss it! The seed was planted on the peninsula. Now, we’re just waiting to see if we put on enough compost to get something to germinate. If this plan doesn’t work, we’ll probably have another post about installing sod. Given that my dad (and his brothers and dad) built the golf course. He is bound and determined to get grass to grow by seed. He did it in 1973, so why not in 2013. One of the many reasons why I love that man. How about you? Do you like to play tricks on your parents?

Sir Toad is in the HOUSE!

Family Matters

I think it is safe to say that we are probably the only golf course in possibly the world to have the name Toad Valley. It isn’t exactly what you envision when you think about a golf course. Most have a serene name that brings a mental picture of gently rolling hills and flowing creeks that wind through the property. Sure. We have hills and we have creeks, but those names didn’t come out on top when it came time to naming our golf course. The story of how we got our name isn’t really all that glamorous, but it’s our name and over the years, we have come to realize that it definitely fits our family. We’re a little quirky. A little different. Our golf course is in a valley and we really do have many toads. So many toads that they (the toads) are frequently taken home in cups by children who play miniature golf and want to take home a “souvenir”. (Those poor mothers). Enter the main Toad. This guy was placed in honor of my Uncle Dan Brady who passed away in November 2002. In the fall of 2003, this granite toad and marble base finally arrived to our golf course after a long journey from China. Forrest and Associates built the marble base for the massive toad and he was placed complete with a plaque in honor of the man who many of our golfers adored. They spent several days getting the base just right. Then, it was time to drill the hole to place Dan’s Toad. It’s always so scary to drill a hole into something that was so expensive, isn’t it? I can just hear this guy’s maniacal laugh. Can you? Once the toad was in place, our family had a revealing ceremony. We gathered around and shared memories of Uncle Dan. His boisterous laugh and ability to remember everyone’s names. He was the outgoing actor in the family and had been Toad Valley’s “face” for many years. The tarp was uncovered to reveal the toad. Some of his Dan’s ashes were spread at the site while the rest went to his wife’s family farm in Thurman, Iowa. When Dan worked in the clubhouse, he was always coming up with crazy marketing ideas. He had some pretty funny slogans. The most long running slogan was for our logo-ed Toad Valley golf balls. The sign he created for the toad balls read that the Toad Balls were rumored to provide long, straight drives and bring good golfing luck. It only seemed appropriate that his toad would have a similar affect on your golf game. Here Dan’s Toad sits today. Watching over the golf course. Ten years later, the Toad’s nose has been rubbed so many times that it has a different texture than the rest of the body. Our family loves that! It’s so fun to watch golfers rub his nose before beginning their golf game. I can guarantee that the man our toad honors would love it! I can just hear his laughter. How about you? Do you rub the toad’s nose before playing your game? Did you play Toad Valley when Dan was behind the counter?

Another Episode in the Saga of the Ceremony Site

Project List

In the next chapter of Days of our Ceremony Site Building Lives, we bring you another episode of Doug and his sidekick, Jordan. After digging the trenches to put in irrigation, the next step was to fill the trenches with electricity and speaker wire. You can read about the irrigation installation here. In order to make sure we didn’t have any feedback from our speakers, we had to run the electricity and speaker wire in two separate conduits. The boys got the electrical wire put in the trench, then filled the trench with several inches of dirt before laying in the second conduit for speaker wire. In order to feed the wire through the conduit, they attached it to a line of metal “string”. Of course, we used everyone’s favorite tool: Duct Tape. My dad always told me that everything could be fixed with either duct tape or Gorilla Glue. When I was in college, one of the legs on my dorm room chair broke. I put about three rolls of duct tape on that crazy leg, but all my friends would still fall out of the chair on to the floor. I have never seen my dad laugh so hard when he saw how I had tried to repair the metal leg on the swivel chair. In his defense, I never did give the Gorilla Glue a try. Thankfully, he welded the leg back together for me. We made about ten trips to Menards to finish this project. That’s how it goes, right? I think everyone in the electrical and plumbing department knows me by name. I have never understood why they send me to Menards to get all the supplies. I seem like a fairly unlikely candidate given my lack of electrical knowledge. Luckily, I just play dumb and someone always takes pity on me and helps me get what I came to buy. Even though it might take me several trips to get it right. Once all the wire had been pulled, they put the conduit into the trench and covered the whole thing up with dirt! They got the trench all filled back in with dirt. Next up, we’re bringing in compost, tilling that bad boy up and putting in grass seed. Will this year long project ever be complete? I guess you’ll have to tune back in for another episode of Days of our Ceremony Site Building Lives.

Going for the Green. No. Not THAT Green.

Family Matters

Today’s post is brought to you by my mom, Fred. She’s in charge of all our Food and Beverage at Toad Valley. Author: Fred Brady (Kitchen Guru) For years now, I have ordered my food online from Sysco. I also make a weekly jaunt out to Sams on 8th Street in Clive. (I usually call it West Des Moines, but whatever). So anyway, when Monday rolls around, I do my inventory and make a list for each place. Sysco’s order needs to be placed by 4:00pm if I want it delivered Tuesday, but if I haven’t ordered very much, I make the trip up to Ankeny, where Sysco is located, myself. (I always have to make a side visit to Salvation Army when I do that). Then, on Wednesday (assuming everything is going according to whoile) I make this wonderful trip out to Sams. My joy forever, has always been buying groceries in bulk. Let me tell you, I now buy groceries in BULK! Here’s a picture of one of my return treks from Sams. The important thing is to get everything in its place so “items don’t shift” during the flight home. It is sometimes a great challenge but for the most part, they move very little. Okay, now comes the biggest game of all for me which is trying to get all green lights from the moment I leave I-235 to East University and all the rest of the way back to the golf course. Today, everything looked very promising as when I came off of the freeway, that first light was green (never happens), then the next light at the Cow (Anderson-Erickson) was green. My thoughts turned to will I make it, can I make it and what do I have to do TO make it all the way. When I got to Southeast Polk High School, the light was green and I was straining my neck to see if there were any cars coming from the school to make the next light turn red. To my ever wondering mind, there were NO cars. The light was green. Yes, my dear friends, I got GREEN lights ALL the way home. Victory is so sweet sometimes. So, I’m asking you…do you have little mind games you play while driving your car? I really do concentrate while I’m driving…just thought I’d let you all know that.

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.

Golf Shop

My blogging efforts have been a little weak this week. See what I did there? Weak and week. Clever. I love the English language, don’t you? I’m sure you’re all waiting with bated breath wondering what could have possibly happened to Allison to prevent her from her daily blogging efforts. It turns out that she is a wee bit allergic to wasp stings. That’s right. I could probably compete with the elephant man on the size of my tricep that now rivals a sumo wrestler’s. I got stung by a wasp and two days later I can’t bend my arm. When you touch it, it’s about 125 degrees. I sure hope the steroids kick in soon! So, since the itching of my arm was driving me slowly insane, (I’m sure my brother would disagree with that statement. Maybe insan-ER) I did what every normal person would do. I started organizing pictures. While organizing pictures, I came across a few little ditties that I thought everyone might enjoy. The third generation of Bradys have been fixing up and putting our mark on Toad Valley for the last nine years. Nine years doesn’t seem like much until I start to look back on all the projects we have taken on and completed over the years. On a later date, I’ll go into more detail. For now, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. When we first started in 2004, we had a big to do list. Our first order of business was to update the clubhouse. We began that summer by remodeling the back of the clubhouse and putting in the bathrooms, kitchen and storage areas. The Golf Shop, front desk and Links Cafe area were tackled in the winter of 2004-05. In the spring of 2005, we opened for the season with a new look. Here we are today. Here’s a side by side view for ya! During the summer, we hired out most of the work. In the winter, our family set to work taking out walls for the inside of the clubhouse. We had insulation up to our ears. It was a family affair and even my small children, at the time, pitched in to help. This picture is looking at the destruction of what were our former bathrooms and storage area that were located at the front of the clubhouse. When we were done with that part of the remodel, we had a new snack bar and dining area. Here is the view from the same angle when we opened for the season in the spring of 2005. I will never forget that year when golfers kept walking to the location of the old bathrooms out of habit. They would get over to end of the snack bar and stop dead in their tracks. A year had passed, so in 2006, we decided to tackle the back side of our building and put in an events center. Luckily for us, our maintenance was attached to the clubhouse. The plan was to remodel our maintenance into an events center. Originally, our contractors had given us a month long time schedule to get all of the 30 years of mowers, supplies, and small equipment moved out of this building. When they called and said they could bump us up a little, I jumped all over that option. The sooner they started, the sooner it’d be done, right? You should have seen my family’s face when I told them that we had three days to get ready for the remodel. Once all the mowers, small tools and equipment had been removed, we were left with just a small pile of miscellaneous items. Tongue in cheek. Today, our events center is host to wedding receptions, plus graduation open houses, anniversary celebrations, birthdays, business seminars, bridal showers, holiday parties. It’s never ending all of the fun events that we have gotten to host over the years. Here it is from the same angle today. It’s amazing what a difference a little drywall, windows and carpeting can do for a space, huh? How about you? Do you like to remodel in the winter? We’ve finally run out of square footage to remodel. I think the family is pretty happy about that!

999 Chairs on the Ground, Take One Down, Set it Up, 998 Chairs on the Ground…

Events

We are fortunate enough to be the site to about 40 wedding ceremonies a year. Since they currently get married near number nine green, we have to take down and set up the chairs for every. single. ceremony. It’s tedious. Just for fun, I like to keep track of how many chairs we set up and taken down throughout the year, then I tell my staff at the end of the year! Guess what! You took down and set up 4,596 chairs! Good job! For some reason, it usually depresses them more than it excites. Our chairs are stored on a rack that my brother-in-law made for me about 7 years ago. Ideally, I’d like to make some changes to the chair rack since we have used them for so many years, that I definitely know some improvements that I’d like to make. Unfortunately, it’s pretty low on my priority list. We are currently building a new ceremony site and we aren’t sure if we’ll continue to use these chairs or not. Only time will tell where we end up. For now, the boys remove the chairs from the rack and set up each and every chair. Once all the chairs are opened up, we line them all up according to how many chairs are required for the ceremony. Pinterest has made the horseshoe style of chair arranging quite popular in the last couple of years. When we set up a horseshoe, we always do one side first before moving on to duplicate the opposite side. Project complete! Looking good, there Connor! This couple did something unusual for their unity ceremony. They purchased a tree for it! During the ceremony, they poured water into a watering can, then they watered their tree. They plan to plant it in their backyard. The events center was decorated really beautifully with grasses that the bride had grown herself. They turned out perfectly! Plus, I was in love with her cake topper that she found on etsy! My favorite part for this ceremony was the officiant that the couple had selected. His name is Joe. He is the most gentle and amazing man. My favorite part about Joe is how he arrives to the ceremony and rehearsal. That’s right! The preacher arrives on his motorcycle. He always fixes his tousled hair and then performs the ceremony. Cool as a cucumber. How about you? Ever have to set up a bunch of chairs for a party at your house? Do you ride your motorcycle to a wedding?

New Tools Make Work Fun?

Our Green Thumb

In 2011, we had a major overhaul to number two green. It was in some serious need of drainage. The east side of the green had all but died because of all the heavy rain we had in 2010 and the first part of 2011. We basically dug up the east side of the green and put in a new drainage system. In order to make the green be playable in the fastest amount of time, we used bentgrass sod from our nursery green and laid that sod on the green after all the damage had been repaired. After two years, we had some settling on number two green where the sod had been laid which had caused a couple of bumpy low spots in the green. Ron decided to purchase a slick tool that would allow us to cut a small section of grass up and fill in underneath the layer of sod with some sand to help balance out the green. It has several different blade attachments to it which will come in handy to do some other repair work without causing too much damage to the ground. It’s a pretty easy tool to use. Here is Jordan demonstrating how fun work can be! The sod was placed next to the hole. Once the section is cut, the boys got to work filling in with sand. They continued to fill in the sand and lightly tap it down, so they could see if it was level. Determining if it is level is highly scientific. Ron got down on the ground to take a look. Once everything seemed level to the naked eye, they poured a light mixture of sand on top of the sod and brushed it in with a broom. This will help it repair moving forward. How about you? Do you remembering playing on this hole in 2011 when half of it was dead? So glad the drainage that we put in seems to have been working well.

A Place to Rest

Project List

Our miniature golf course opened on June 30, 2004. I wasn’t there. Yep, that’s right. I missed opening day. I had a good reason, though. I was in the hospital having just given birth to my daughter the night before. I often wonder how I managed to find the time to have my daughter in June. It is easily our busiest month of the year. She made a stop at the golf course on her way home from the hospital! It’s hard to believe that we have had our miniature golf course for 9 years! Time sure does fly by. From the beginning, we planned to install benches on the minigolf. I’m not sure how nine years went by without us getting to that project, but it did. Last fall, our outside guys got to work building some benches for the main golf course. I asked them to build a few for the miniature golf while they were at it. The benches are sunk into the ground pretty deeply, so we had to go rent an auger from Star Equipment in Des Moines. They are always good to us. I called in the morning and one of my staff members picked it up an hour later. I can’t complain about that service! The auger is a two man job, so the boys got to work drilling out deep holes on the miniature golf course, so we could sink the legs in deep for stability. Once the holes were dug, they began placing the base to the benches. They had several benches to install, so they made their way around the miniature golf course. Once the legs were sunk into the ground, they had to tidy up their work area to make the whole bench area look seamless. It took them most of the morning to get the bench bases in place. Once Niko and Austin were done with their project, it was time for Doug to make an appearance and attach the top portion of the bench. Sometimes carpentry work requires a fair amount of forethought. I can just picture the wheels turning in his head. He lined everything up with the bench bases and attached the tops. Boom, Pow. How do you like me now? A bench on which to rest your weary legs! Here’s another bench near number 16. I picture us like the little engine that could. Chugging along. One project at a time. Knocking them off the list. Is there an end in sight? Probably not, but at least the miniature golf finally has benches! How about you? Have you put something off on your to do list for nine years?

Polar Bear Open

Events

Six years ago, I had a group of men approach me and ask if they could have a Polar Bear Open at our golf course. They had never planned a golf outing before, but as graduates from North High School in Des Moines, they had a strong desire to raise money for Dollars for Scholars at North High School. That winter, I went to about five of their golf outing planning committee meetings. Each time I went, I was greeted with many questions on event organization and how to raise more money. I gave them many suggestions and offered as much help as I could. In 2007, they hosted their first golf outing with about 40 golfers. The golf outing was considered a success. Money was raised and (more importantly) new alumni had been found with a desire to help. The following year, I only attended two of their committee meetings. It was clearly evident that they were beginning to work out all the kinks that are involved in taking on such a project. Several committee members also began attending the O’Donnell & Friends Open. The O’Donnells have had 20 years of experience in charitable fundraising drives, so the Polar Bear committee played in their outing and took down some notes of things they thought worked well for fundraising. Then, the Polar Bear planning committee set some pretty high goals for themselves. Every year for the last six years, they have continued to grow. I no longer go to their actual committee meetings in the winter because they have the system down. It’s just a matter of putting in the long hours to get the job done. Luckily, the north side of town and its businesses have been very supportive. They have a good reason to be supportive, too! The Polar Bear Open is a great success and treats the students with respect and gives them a reason to achieve. The day began with the North High ROTC escorting golfers and carrying their bags to their carts. These are some fine young men and women who work very hard. Once they were done with the bag carrying, they headed out on to the course to monitor the silent auction items on the holes.The golfers were treated to a fun activity at the practice green. They had a putting contest where you could use old fashioned hickory sticks to putt. If you made the putt, then you were put into a drawing to win a trip to Branson, MO. The golfers were eager to give a try with these old time putters. There are many tee sign sponsors to help make the event a success. I think my favorite part of the Polar Bear Open has to be the celebration of North High’s school colors. Green, Pink and White. The golfers attire, advertising, and general golfing gear celebrate their school colors.The planning committee works hard to have sponsors for the golf outing as well as the lunch and awards presentation. School pictures for all of the recipients of the scholarships are on display, so golfers can see who they are helping. At the conclusion of the event, they have an awards presentation where they hand out prizes. During the day, the prizes are drawn to make this portion of the day go as quickly and efficiently as possible. The guys drew the tickets, then attached them to all of the prizes. As golfers finished, they could look to see if and/or what prize they got to claim. The awards presentation takes place in our Events Center. Not leaving any detail left unturned, the planning committee even decorates the tables to add to the fun festivities. They had the most number of golfers they have ever had in their six years. The golf outing was only eight golfers short of their goal that they made for themselves five years ago. With time and commitment, I know they will get to where they want to be and beyond. The presentation included a number of people who had come out for the miniature golf tournament. The main golf course began its play at 8:00 in the morning and the miniature golf tournament began at 11 a.m. Everyone from both golf outings gathered to eat the lunch donated by Noodle Zoo and the NHS classes of ’78 and ’79, then they listened to the presentation. The leader of the planning committee, Pat, took the microphone and thanked everyone involved. Then, he turned it over to the students whose lives this golf outing has affected. Last year, the Polar Bear Open planning committee had a young man who had just graduated from college (he had been awarded a scholarship in the Polar Bear Open’s first year in 2007) come and speak to the crowd about how much it meant for him to have fellow alumni cheering him on. Fruits of their labor! This year, they were treated to several students who had recently graduated from high school and were just beginning their journey on to college with the help of the Polar Bear Open and the Dollars for Scholars money they had been given. It is so inspiring to watch alumni and fellow community members come together to provide a benefit to the students at North High School. There was a splattering of pink, green and white throughout the crowd. All there to support the future of their school. This year was their top fundraising year and they are already excitedly making plans for next year! Although a final determination has not been made regarding dollars raised, this year’s Polar Bear Open easily surpassed the $10,500 raised last year for scholarships for graduating North High students. It has been so fun for me to watch this group of people grow and accomplish something great. Planning a fundraiser isn’t the easiest job. They have stuck with it and their success will continue into the future. Were you in the ROTC? Have you contributed to your local Dollars for

American Persimmon

Our Green Thumb

Tom’s back with another Non-Native Tree found on the golf course. To find out about other trees, click here or here. Author: Tom Brady Persimmon Diospyros virginiana Persimmon is a deciduous tree with distinctive dark thick bark typically broken into small squarish blocks. When young, the bark is lighter brown with pale fissures. The leaves are 2 – 5 inches long, somewhat thickened, egg-shaped and without teeth. They are dark lustrous green above and much paler below. Persimmon has a medium growth habit reaching 30 – 50 feet and half as wide. The fruit is an edible berry one to one half inches in diameter, yellow to orange when ripe, and with one to eight flat brown seeds enclosed. They make you “pucker up” if you taste them before they are ripe. They say it takes a frost to ripen them, but I wouldn’t plant the tree for its fruit production. To me, they seem awfully mushy when ripe. Persimmon is native to the southeastern United States but should grow anywhere in Iowa. Although like any tree with a wide range, seed source location is critical to its success. I’ve found a 30 foot tree producing fruit at Ewing Park in Des Moines. It requires a pollinator, so there must be a male nearby, but I haven’t noticed one. There are also several trees at the Iowa Arboretum in Luther, Iowa. The tree is in the Ebony family and the wood is close-grained and hard. Golf club heads were formerly made of persimmon before metal “woods” took over. There are several of these on the golf course but currently no fruit. To the right of ladies eight tee is a large Pin Oak. North of that Pin Oak about 50 feet is a Persimmon.

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