Sing it with me! We are a highly seasonable business. For the most part, we are a pretty hopping place for about 3 months out of the year. There are 52 weekends in a year, so we make the best of them. That is, those twenty weekends in the summer months when our Iowa weather […]
Altoona Chamber’s Wine Tasting
Several years ago, the Altoona Chamber began putting on a wine tasting for the community. In the last decade, the wine industry in Iowa has experienced tremendous growth. There are many local wineries popping up all over our state. Some of that growth is because of the experimentation with wine in recent years. Iowans are […]
It’s Hammer Time!
When you ask a teenager to get up early in the morning to come to work, you are usually greeted by a few groans. Those groans suddenly become grins when they find out there will be a sledgehammer involved. I’m not sure how long ago we put up this fencing around the clubhouse area. If […]
The gods Must be Crazy!
Remember that movie? When the airline pilot dropped a Coke bottle out of the window of his airplane into a third world country. The tribe’s leader decided that the bottle had caused great harm and he set off to to throw the bottle off the edge of the earth. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI-WJtGC8dI] We think that someone must […]
I Heart Quinceañeras
My title at the golf course is the Wizard of Fun. When you’re in a family owned business, you get to make up titles. It compensates for the long hours. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. The Wizard of Fun title best describes my job. I’m in charge of all the fun. I […]
Someone Call the Doctor! My Soil is Dead!!
Last year, we decided to take advantage of our drought and we built a peninsula where we plan to hold wedding ceremonies because our pond was dry and made it easy to get in there and move dirt around. Last month, we got the area prepped for seed. As it turns out, the only thing […]
Iowa’s Power
About five years ago, we decided to name our holes. I had played another golf course who had named their holes and I really liked it. I casually mentioned it to my dad. Unbeknownst to me, he had basically named all of our holes in his head already. He started rattling off names that he […]
Six Degrees of Separation
At the end of June, our family has a big family reunion at my cousin’s farm. I love to be able to look across the sea of faces with a visible family tree. It seems like we meet a new relative or a person with some degree of separation every day at the golf course. […]
Sawtooth Oak – Quercus Acutissima
If you recall, my dad, Tom, is our resident tree guy here at Toad Valley. Over the years, he has planted nearly every tree you will find on our golf course. He writes an article for the Iowa Woodland Owners Association. In it, he shares information about trees that we have on the golf course […]
O’Donnell & Friends Open
This was the 20th year for the O’Donnell family to host their annual golf outing at our course. Their golf outing is cleverly called O’Donnell and Friends Open. What started out as a small family gathering has turned into a huge charity drive every year. The O’Donnells consist of Dan & Dee O’Donnell, their 10 […]