Allison - Flight Zone Toptracer Driving Range

Propping Trees

Last year, we had a severe drought. Our golf course actually ran out of water. It was the first time in our 40 years of business that all of the creek beds that feed our course’s ponds dried up. By the end of the season, we looked pretty rough. In order to keep the greens alive, we had to hand water them to conserve as much water as we could. It was one of the harder years we have had in this business. With the drought, we also lost many trees. Trees need water. My dad, Toad Valley’s Tree Guy, has been busy this spring planting new trees where old ones didn’t make it through the Iowa weather. Dad has basically planted every tree on the golf course. Because he is a lover of trees (the family calls him the human squirrel), he thought it would be unique to have all of our 150 yard markers be trees. Arborvitaes to be specific. These poor arborvitaes have had a tough last few years. In 2010, we had snow on the ground from December through March and the deer found these trees to be delicious that year. They were all completely eaten up as far as the deer could reach. So, dad had to replace many of these 150 yard markers. We also have discs and posts that mark the 150 yard markers, but the trees are very easy to see from a distance. For the non-golfers in the group, a 150 yard marker is simply a crude method of measuring how far away from the green you are, so you can properly choose a club from your bag. Obviously, there are apps and other more modern methods of finding the exact distance nowadays, but these are markers that provide a general reference in distance. The trusty tree spade made its appearance because dad had a small nursery of arborvitaes just for use when they need replacement. Then, we had lots of rain. Almost 6 inches of rain in a week. Add to that a little snow. Ok. Not a little. Nearly 8 inches of snow. I’m not complaining about the moisture because we desperately need it. But newly planted trees need a little more help when it gets too wet. Tree down! Tree overboard! Dad grabbed his rope and attached it to his cart to pull the tree back up into place. My dad wasn’t a Boy Scout, but he can definitely tie a rope. He never goes anywhere without a rope in his cart because you just never know when you’re going to need it. My dad is very protective of his trees and his tools. At the golf course, we have nearly 70 employees, so it is important to make sure you label where things go and what others are allowed to touch. As I stated here, no one is allowed to use dad’s loppers nor his hand saw. Once dad had the tree tied to the rope, he hopped in his cart and pulled the tree back up into place. The tree stood right back up. I think I heard that tree breathe a sigh of relief. Dad finished off standing the tree up without cart assistance. I love my dad. It is a good thing that I know he loves me because trees get lots of dad’s love. My brother, sister and I could easily get jealous. He told the tree to stay there while he went and fetched some fence posts. Not surprisingly, the tree listened to him and stood perfectly still. Trees listen to my dad. Then dad went to get some fence posts and rubber hose to prevent damage to the tree’s bark. He put the stakes in the ground surrounding the tree and wrapped the wire around the hose and the bark . Now our little 150 yardage marker just needs to grow some deeper roots before we can remove the stakes that are keeping him propped up nice and tall. How about you? Have any trees fall over because they got too much water and the soil was soft? Who knew they required so much care!

Goose Be Gone

Project List

Canada Geese can cause lots of damage to a golf course. Because they don’t have teeth, they eat the greens to use the sand to grind up their food. Golfers don’t like geese. Golf course owners don’t like geese. The DNR loves geese. Yep. They are protected. If a skunk digs up the golf course, we can eliminate it, but the geese are a different story. These two lovebirds are very protective of their “property.” We often hear them squawking to make sure no other geese find this spot attractive. KA BOOM! Bam pow. How do you like me now? Good bye geese. Here’s hoping they flew off to a nice nearby pond to set up camp. Otherwise, Mr. Bird Banger will have to make another appearance. How about you? Have any geese in your neighborhood? Full disclosure. We even had to get certified by the ATF.

Turning Lemons into Lemonade

Golf Course

In case you live under a rock or outside of our great state of Iowa, we’ve had a pretty ugly spring. So ugly, in fact, that it actually snowed. In. May. Yeah. Let me tell you that I have no doubt this will definitely be one of those springs you talk about for years. As I mentioned in this post, we have done our best to make the best of it. We continue to work on outdoor projects, keep positive attitudes, and realize that the snow will melt. Someday. As my Grandma always says, “Nothing lasts forever.” The big snow storm started to fall on Thursday and continued into Friday. I don’t honestly mind snow. I just don’t like May snow. In our business, we need all the good weather we can get. On Saturday, we woke up to a blanket of snow still on the ground. That’s when I made the phone call. The phone call that let my Saturday golf outing know that I wasn’t sure what to do for them because the golf course was simply covered in snow. Ryan and his wife, Holly, have a foundation that honors their infant son, Little Al, who passed away almost 8 years ago. They have been holding a golf outing to raise money for their foundation every year since Little Al passed and the weather has always pulled through. They have had rain, then 10 minutes before it was time to golf, the rain stopped. They have had oppressive heat and massive thunderstorms, but they have always gotten to golf. Ryan has always attributed the good weather fortune to his son. Little Al is watching over them. Unfortunately, the snow was just simply not going to melt in time. That’s when I got a lesson in the power of positivity. I told Ryan that he got the award for most optimistic person I had ever met. He never gave up hope that the snow would eventually melt. When I met Ryan in the parking lot, he greeted me with his clubs propped up in the front seat of his car. “There’s still three more hours,” he remarked while I stomped snow off of my shoes. Ryan and Holly had a plan. They would honor their son no matter the cost or weather. My brother, Jason, went up to the miniature golf to prepare for Ryan and Holly’s plan. Everyone had agreed that while it seemed a bit difficult to shovel the big golf course free from snow, shoveling snow off holes on the miniature golf course wasn’t nearly as daunting. The hole that was covered the most in snow was number 18. Jason went around all the edges of the miniature golf holes with his shovel and cleared them off. Jason and I actually felt pretty good that we had an alternative option for Ryan and Holly to use. After all, who would think that you’d get 6 inches of snow on May 3? One of the best parts about my job is that I get to help people raise money for good causes. Ryan and Holly have done their best to make lemonade out of their lemons ever since their sweet boy passed from this earth. One of the ways they do this is by helping families who need money because they are staying in hotels or hospitals far away from home. It is a natural thing to do. Stop your life and spend each waking moment with a sick child. Money shouldn’t be a burden to those families. Jason was happy to lend a helping hand to help Ryan and Holly raise money for their son. Ryan had booked his biggest turnout yet. Almost 60 golfers showed up to enjoy the day. They arrived and treated the day like any other golf outing by ordering hot dogs and lemonade. It seemed like an appropriate drink. Everyone was in good spirits and ready to enjoy the day. They registered like they would for any other golf outing and got Little Al gear. The outing didn’t begin with the normal shotgun. It began with a raffle where people could win lots of great prizes. All of the proceeds benefit the Little Al Foundation. There were many great prizes available, but I had the distinct impression that none of the 60 people had any interest in the prizes. They were there to help Ryan and Holly and their foundation. In the group were many people who had traveled a long distance to thank Ryan and Holly because they had provided them financial support in a time of need. There were friends and family members who could reflect on Little Al and the impact that he has made on everyone’s life. The festive group of golfers decided to have a long drive contest on a very snow covered driving range. We just happened to have a range mat for them to use, so we set it up for them on the driveway, so they could hit balls. When they were done, everyone headed over to play a few rounds of miniature golf and compete for prizes. It was a great day. A lesson in the power of positivity and that you can make a difference in this world if you put your mind to it. As I left the clubhouse, I noticed some snow that seemed to have melted into the shape of a toy dinosaur. I couldn’t help, but to think about Little Al and his parents and sisters. They continue to do such great work for our community with their drive, passion, but most of all with their positive thinking. You can always make lemonade with your lemons. Do you want to know more about Little Al’s Foundation? They have many events throughout the year. Check out their website.

Going a Little Shabby Chic

Golf Shop

First of all. Guy Alert. This post is about Women’s Clothing and refinishing furniture. If you’re interested, read on. Otherwise, you can check out some man projects right here! We have tried all kinds of ways to attract women golfers to purchase our products. Over the years, we’ve tried golf cook books, different styles of clothing, pink clubs, green bags, grilling tools. You get the picture. Then, we met Trisha Trixie. She custom makes aprons and fun hair options as well as bling for shoes. Theresa and I decided that it was worth a shot, so we met up with Trisha for some idea inspiration with a little golf flare. We were pretty excited after our first meeting when she introduced some of her ideas. She creates custom shoes that are super fun. Obviously they wouldn’t be worn on the golf course, but you could definitely sport them at one of our other events! Plus, she had some fun hair clips or pins to put on a golf hat, bag or towel. Ladies. It isn’t always about the golf. It’s more about playing the part! We tried these out on some of our golf hats and thought they might be worth a try to see if our women golfers thought they might be fun. In order to get things looking good for our new ladies area in the Golf Shop, we decided to create a little room area in one of our display cabinets. My husband’s grandma had given us a chest of drawers a few years ago. I didn’t have a use for it, so I brought the chest to the golf course thinking we could find some way to use it here. Theresa decided she wanted to paint it. She got the old chest of drawers primed and then she painted them red. This would eventually be the undertones on the cabinet. I must admit. I truly thought she had lost her mind when I walked in to find her looking like this. Let me tell you. The girl knows how to have fun! Next up, she painted the drawer fronts and chest the same color as our walls in the Golf Shop. After the paint was applied, she got some sandpaper and got to work rubbing off some of the paint. Sometimes blood is the sacrifice for a good clothing display! The main cabinet got painted and started looking much less scary. To give the drawers and cupboard some interesting definition, she added some additional colors in a similar hue. This paint is from Home Depot. We love it. Over the years, we have gotten so many compliments on our choice of color in the clubhouse and we owe it all to this color at Home Depot. We also were given some sample paints of several different green colors. They worked really well for this project! The drawer pulls had previously been all wood, so Tree picked up some coordinating fabric that would tie the color scheme together and covered all the drawer pulls with the fabric. Because this chest isn’t going to be used in a home, we didn’t have to make everything exact. Our intention is to have some of Trisha Trixie’s designs spilling out of the cabinet once we get the whole display set up! Theresa wasn’t satisfied with only the sandpaper roughing up the edges, so she went at the cabinet with a wire brush that she found lying around in my dad’s shop. Use what you have, right? I asked her if she had ever done this before and she just started laughing. Apparently there is always a first for painting and scratching furniture with a wire brush. Check out the final product! Looking good! Now, we can’t wait to get our display put together. Check it out! How about you? Ever rummaged around and decided to paint with a wire brush? Have you ever thought your sister-in-law lost her mind when she painted furniture red? Yeah. Me neither.

Caught Ya!

Project List

On Wednesday, I was out taking some photos of the golf course when I noticed a familiar foursome. Yep, that’s right. Our outside crew was out playing a little golf after their morning of work. We thought that we might try to conquer the weather and our quest to get the items stained by bringing them inside to a more suitable environment. Our outside crew was out golfing, so when they made the turn, we sweet talked them into helping us carry in the benches that they had made last fall inside of the clubhouse to be stained. Dick wanted me to point out that it took two guys to carry one end, while he was able to carry the other end without assistance. Obviously, he’s been working out. They placed them inside on an 80 degree day to prepare for the snow that was predicted for later on in the week. It is hard to believe, but the snow started to fly! It was my mom’s birthday, so we had a good time celebrating her birthday in style! Theresa was so happy about the snow. Seriously? What else can you do, but celebrate! She told us that she was brought home from the hospital in a blizzard, so a May snow has happened at least one other time in history! The snow flakes were so huge that it was actually a really pretty snow. We thought it was pretty until the snow started to accumulate. Kim got busy staining these benches. What else are you going to do on snowy day at a golf course? She opened up her big five gallon bucket that she had used for this project. If you recall, the benches were made last fall and we were just waiting for some good weather, so we could get them stained. In case you didn’t notice, we gave up waiting for good weather this spring. Inside staining it is! She spent the majority of the day staining all the many crevices in these loooooong benches. When they were done, they looked amazing! We let the benches cure for a day before carrying them back out in the snow. The outside guys weren’t around, so Kim and I carried them out by ourselves. We remarked that it took three guys to carry them inside. Two gals carried them back outside in the snow. Alone. Not quite sure what that means. How about you? Have you taken advantage of the snow and gotten a few more winter projects done around the house?

Sysco Makes Our Brains and Stomachs Work

What's Cooking

Our main food supplier is Sysco. They are located up in Ankeny, however, they are a national corporation that serves the food industry. We have worked with them for about the last five years and they have been very good to us. For the most part, we do our ordering online and by-pass a relationship with a sales person. It has worked well for our kitchen guru because it keeps her efficient and then she can order when the timing is right. Lately, Sysco has been brainstorming ideas on how they can help their food service businesses to be more successful. Last year, they decided to build a test kitchen, so they could invite their customers in to take a peek and brainstorm some ideas. That is my mom, Fred, the Kitchen Guru! She and I were very excited to spend some time in the test kitchen to get some ideas for different food options. We had scheduled a time of 10 a.m. and weren’t exactly sure what to expect. Then, we walked into their test kitchen and were immediately overwhelmed with all the goodness that was flowing from every angle of the room! There were many vendors that Sysco supplies their product and they all had countless options of how you can prepare their food. Before we began, we stopped into the seminar room for some information from one of the business helpers with Sysco. She discussed ideas on how to create menus. I really liked her and she had some amazing stories to tell from her restaurant in Montana. They had all of their plates and items on display. Then, we started on the tasting good times. First stop was at the Angus Beef booth. It was 10 a.m., so it made sense to call it breakfast. They had prepared some prime rib and smoked meats for us to try. They simply melted in your mouth! Then, we wandered over to the fresh fruit display. This lady was amazing and her pineapple was great. She was full of energy and had an adorable display of fruit cups and examples of how the food comes in off the truck. Everything is picked fresh from the United States. She also had an amazing veggie pizza that she had created. Her company supplies Sysco with fresh fruits and vegetables that are ready for food service personnel to use. Each one of the vendors had some great recipes that used their product. Here you see pictured some potato chips that were covered in balsamic vinegar and blue cheese. It was an amazing combination that made our mouths very happy. They also had lots of ready made desserts that were very tasty. As a rule at Toad Valley, we make everything from scratch. That makes it easier for us to control having to purchase food in bulk when we are cooking for a small group. We have always made our lemon bars from scratch, but it was nice to know that they had a very tasty lemon bar that could easily be purchased if we were in a time crunch. We were also looking for some ideas on different product that we could offer to golfers when they make the turn. Most of our exploring was driven by finding new foods for our weddings and catering events, but we thought these paninis might be a fun option for golfers to eat at the turn. We shall see what we come up with. Most of our decisions on new products have to do with the amount of space they require and how easy and quickly we can prepare it for the turn. After all of that food, we were introduced to the Sysco chef who had prepared some new recipes for us to sample. This summer, we are going to start having a weekly burger buffet on Tuesday nights. We were looking for a good juicy burger and bun that would fit the bill for this event. This hamburger was one of the most delicious things I have ever put in my mouth! It had a spicy coleslaw on it with sauteed onions. The whole thing was just full of fun flavors. Our burger buffet will consist of burgers, then a fixin’s bar where guests can load up their burger however they see fit. We are pretty excited about this new option for golfers and non-golfers alike. The chef also prepared a crusted salmon that was very good. This is huge for me to say because I do NOT like to eat seafood. I even had two bites! He had also prepared a steak sandwich which was also excellent and we discussed changing up our menu for our golf outings. Changing menus is one of the hardest things to do for many reasons, but the biggest one is time. It takes a lot of time to create the menu and then to prepare and regulate the recipes, so that our kitchen staff knows how to prepare the meal. Also, because we serve most of our items in a buffet style, we also have to take all of those things into account before we make any decisions to change our menu. Here was just a small sampling of all the food we were tasting. We really should have brought more people along to help us! This was being served to us at 11 a.m., so we figured we had quickly moved on to lunch! We continued to meet new vendors and sample more food products. It was actually lots of fun because we met up with many of our golfers who work for Sysco! Small world. One of our golfers suggested that we try offering wraps at the turn. We weren’t sure if our golfers would go for them or not. He told us that he would buy one! This had a great sauce on it. These were wings with a spicy sauce on them. The dipping sauce was amazing, it consisted of

A Little Tree Trimming

Project List

The trouble with having hundreds, probably thousands, of trees on your golf course is that they need care. They are forever getting hit with a disease, lightening or wind. When I was a kid, I would ride around the golf course with my dad and he would point out something that I believed to be a truly dangerous disease. Dad called it mower blight. I can remember thinking that it sounded so terrible. Dad made it sound like it was the worst disease known to man. Mower blight is caused from mowers who run into a tree and scrape off the bark. One of the hardest working tools we have at the golf course is my Dad’s tree trimmer. My dad is Tom, Toad Valley’s Tree Guy. He often comes in with scrapes and bloody arms, but he always gets his way when trimming out dead branches on trees. His handy tool makes his job easier. You can often find this tool in my dad’s cart. Typically, you can see the long line of trees that he has trimmed on the golf course. He does a lot of trimming in the spring because that it is the best time to trim trees. He won’t have another opportunity until the fall. Tom has perfected his method of picking up tree branches. He puts the biggest branches on the bottom of the pile. Then, he fills in with all the smaller branches until he has a nice tight pile of branches. He attaches the biggest branch to his cart with a rope and drags the whole pile to the burn pile that we have on the golf course. Smaller branches get a little clipping with his loppers. These are his special loppers. No one else is allowed to touch them. How about you? Been doing any tree trimming in your neck of the woods?

Tom the Trouble Maker

Family Matters

As mentioned here, my dad has planted basically every tree on the golf course. He has had some help from the birds and squirrels who forget where they bury their winter meal. Overall, however, they have all been planted by Tom and his tree spade. We ran into dad while we were filming our zombie commercial. Since we could hear him coming, we all decided to hide in the trees and jump out to scare him. It didn’t work. Mostly, he just laughed at us. Here’s the funny thing about my dad. He thinks he can remember things like where wires are buried and irrigation pipe lines. After all, he and his brothers are who built the golf course, so why wouldn’t he be able to remember something like where wires are buried. Dad and his trusty tree spade keep things interesting on the golf course. We like to call it job security. Dad plants a tree. Dad forgets where the wires were buried. Dad cuts the wires. Irrigation doesn’t work correctly. Ron and Jason fix the wires. How about you? Ever cut some wires for the sake of a nice looking tree?

Running Scared Zombie 5K

Family Matters

Sometimes it pays to have a large family. Especially when it comes to rounding up zombies. Toad Valley is hosting a zombie 5K run on June 22 where we will be raising money for Shoes that Fit. It is an organization that helps kids who can’t afford something as simple as shoes. Before we can launch the run, we have to make a commercial to run on the Mediacom stations in Des Moines. I put out an all call to my zombie loving family and they delivered in style! It has been so funny to me because I will call my children and ask them questions about zombies and they always know the answers. What kind of zombies are there? Duh, mom. There are crawlers and chasers. The crawlers move slowly. I honestly feel kind of dumb that I don’t know the answers to these questions. My boys frequently explain how to kill zombies and what guns are best to use. Who said that video games are of no use! Meet my cousin, Jen. She was dressed as a zombie golfer complete with bloody golf shoes. My other cousin, Ben, was our professional runner. I figured since he frequently runs in 5K’s he would be pretty believable in a commercial. My oldest son, Brady, would also be a runner. However, he would be staged as the weak runner who gets eaten by my zombie cousin, Jen. Here is Brady before he gets his brains eaten. We headed up to the trails where the 5K will take place. I have wanted to have a run at the golf course for several years, but just never made the commitment to organize it. There are so many beautiful areas to run, so we are all pretty excited about this event. Here is Brady while his brains are getting eaten. Jen’s children were very concerned that she had eaten Brady’s brains. The funny part about all our advertising is that I frequently talk about eating brains because… well… that’s what zombies do. I was talking to Doug, who is one of our outside workers, and he was very excited because he thinks brain patties are good when you grill them with crackers. Uh. No, Doug. We aren’t actually planning to eat brains. The rest of the cast included my other two children as well as my brother and I who were all dressed as zombies. You know you’re going to have a good day when you have to bring a gallon of blood to work. The best part of the day was that we had to continue to help golfers behind the counter until our camera man was ready to get to work. We headed up into the trails where the zombie run will take place to shoot the commercial. There was a lot of laughing among the zombie posing. Tony is our producer with OnMedia who is the advertising branch of Mediacom. All in all, I think it ranks right up there in the top five best days that I have ever had at work. Here is the finished product! Visit our website: www.RunningScaredZombie5K.com [wpvideo JwN9bDbX] How about you? Any Walking Dead lovers out there?

Insurance Can Be Fun?

Golf Course

Sometimes the hum drum of owning and running a business can be daunting. Like insurance. There are just so. many. options. Luckily, we have an absolutely awesome insurance guy by the name of Brian who owns Donaghy Kempton Insurance. I can’t honestly say enough nice things about the guy. He has taken good care of our business for many years. Because we have many segments to our business, we have to make sure we are covered in many areas. To make sure we are all on the same page and things don’t change from one year to the next, we have an annual meeting. Brian brings our whole family lunch to discuss all the things that are going on at Toad Valley. He has been bringing us In the Bag for many years. They have delicious sandwiches and even better brownies! We sat around and told lots of jokes. Everyone was able to put in their order for what sandwich they wanted. Here’s my brother, Jason, looking happy with his selection of a chicken cordon blue sandwich. My mom had to order for me because I was in Charleston at the time the order was due. She got me an Advocado Chicken. She also ordered one for herself. Theresa was in on the meeting, too. We were all very happy that we didn’t have to do any of the cooking! Then, there was also the two men of the hour! My dad, who is on the right and Brian, our amazing insurance guy is on the left. The best part about eating at In the Bag is that they give you fortunes and goofy gifts in each lunch sack. Several of us got ducks, but mom got a wrench. I wonder what that means? We also weren’t quite sure what to make of Jason’s fortune. Seriously! It’s like they know him. We ate and laughed and had a good time in general. Brian brought out the insurance fun. I guess the pain of signing over a big check was lessened by a good lunch. How about you? Do you hate to figure out insurance? Man. There sure are many options!

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