We have had several consecutive years of interesting weather. Hum. Ok. Maybe I should use the word challenging. In 2010, we had more water than we knew what to do with. It basically rained every single day. On 6 separate days, we had to close the course. When you really only have about 100 days of […]
Fixing Cart Paths
This post is about one of our great nemesis: our cart paths. It seems like we just can’t ever save enough money to put in continuous cart paths. There are many factors that come into play, but typically there is always a project or piece of equipment that ends up being more important in the […]
Project. Project. Man. I want to be a Project Man.
Please sing that title to the tune of Macho Man. It will make you smile. Or maybe not. As I told you earlier, we have been blessed to have a great crew. Not the least of which is our outside staff who also happen to be great carpenters. Evidence seen HERE. They have been building […]
Grass Seed is King this Spring
We have been seeding this spring. My husband, Kelly, always likes to comfort me by telling me that the seed only costs about $1 per pound. The trouble with that? We order about 5,000 pounds of seed. We use a rye/bluegrass mix. The rye grass germinates quickly, while the bluegrass is a more hardy grass.The […]
Golfers. Start Your Engines.
In a family run business, everyone just chips in. Clogged toilet? I’m on it. Carpets need cleaning. Yep! That, too. Tables and chairs need moved around for a party? Garbage left in the driveway. There is no shame. You get dirty. You get pulled away from your “real” job. You just chip in. Same goes […]
Burn Baby. Burn
In the spring, we burn down all of the grasses that grow along the pond banks as well as along the front of the clubhouse’s landscaping. It’s a great trick to turn the grass green much faster. It seems like this year, the grass just doesn’t want to turn green. I can’t remember the last […]
A Frosty Morning
Sometimes the frost is so pretty as it glistens in the sun. When I arrived to work this morning, I couldn’t help, but take some pictures.On this particular morning, the frost was covering all the trees. They were glowing. I grew up on the golf course, so I didn’t fully come to appreciate my surroundings […]
Chinese Elm “Ulmus Parvifolia”
This is Tom, Toad Valley’s Friendly Tree Guy, back with my first introduction to the trees of Toad Valley. If you recall, I earlier described how I have planted nearly all of the trees on the course. Over the years, I have planted almost 300 different varieties. Today I’m going to introduce you to the […]
Oh UPS Man… Over Here!
In the spring, the UPS man and FedEx guy make regular stops at the golf course bringing us new product for the Golf Shop. It is always so exciting to get the big boxes filled with goodies, until the inventory part starts. Each item gets rung into inventory and all new products have to be […]
Oregon Trail
As it turns out, my gift of gab got me several speaking jobs this winter. At the National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA) conference in San Diego, I got stopped by Liz Doyle who asked me to come speak at the Oregon regional NGCOA conference. I had never been to this part of the country before, so […]