Allison - Flight Zone Toptracer Driving Range

Trees of Toad Valley

Author: Tom Brady To most golfers, trees are just an obstacle to be overcome, but Toad Valley is more than just that. Forty years ago, when we opened, there were no trees on the course. Every tree has been planted. Some by “critters” and wind (once a seed source was near enough), but most have been deliberately planted where you see them or grown elsewhere and moved with our tractor mounted tree spade. Since we had to start them from scratch, I decided to plant a wide variety of trees. There were several reasons for this, primarily because it amused me, I suppose, but just as important was the thought that when a disease like Dutch Elm Disease came to Iowa, our diversity of trees will save us. Consequently, Toad Valley, along with being a golf course, has become literally an arboretum (tree museum) with nearly 300 kinds of trees and shrubs from the northern hemisphere all around the world. About 15 years ago, I “volunteered” to write articles for the Iowa Woodland Owners Association newsletter, Timber Talk. The title of my articles are “The Non-Native Tree of the Quarter.” My plan is to share with you all of the many trees that I have featured in Timber Talk as well as pictures and location of the trees on the golf course. I hope you enjoy learning more about Toad Valley’s arboretum. The Human Squirrel, Tom Brady Here are links to the articles that I’ve written: Tulip Tree Larch American Persimmon Sawtooth Oak Sweetgum

Annual Tasting

What's Cooking

We are host to about 40 weddings a year. When we first started doing weddings, we did an individual tasting for each couple. This wasn’t that big of a deal when there were only 4 couples. As we grew, we needed to come up with a better way for our couples to try out food. About four years ago, we offered our couples to ask for specific food items, then we would make that for them in addition to making extra of the items, so others could sample. We have grown and learned new things doing our best to make everything be as efficient as possible. This year’s tasting was held the first weekend of March. It was on a Friday and Saturday. I had these grand ideas of all the pictures I was going to take showing you how we do our tastings. I started by getting a picture of Rick helping us grill all the skewers for the tasting. Then, the staff started to arrive. About three hours later, I picked up my camera to capture the reason for the lack of pictures. We were busy. We had dishes coming out of our ears. Typically our goal is to have all the dishes done by the time the event is over. Not today. We stayed for an additional two hours getting all the dishes and serving platters clean. How about you? Have you had company over before and gotten the place all fancy only to forget to take pictures of all the fun that took place?

Meet Freddi. The Kitchen Guru.

What's Cooking

I thought it might be fun to share some of the kitchen “behind the scenes” with you. My plan is to show you pictures of some of our creations, share recipes, and just an overall view of life in the kitchen with Freddi. Jason, my son, and his wife,Tree and Allison, my daughter, and her husband,Kelly, came into business with us 9 years ago. When we first remodeled the clubhouse,they pulled me in off of the mower and said, “Start cooking, Mom.” So… I did. We began with thinking that we would have a short order kitchen offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After going through about 3 cooks (I didn’t think I could work 6am to 9pm every day), we quickly revisited the idea. That was when the idea of just cooking for golf groups and offering the sandwiches up front in the snack bar would be sufficient. (I was totally in favor of that idea!) Well, as time goes by, we eventually remodeled the maintenance and put in a conference center. Along with that, we had to offer people food, didn’t we? Of course! So… we did. Ur. Rather, I did. I spent time putting together a golf menu plus a wedding reception menu. Then after a while, we thought maybe we should be offering dress rehearsal dinners, shower menus, birthday menus, bridal brunches, lunches for the favorite cats and dogs… just kidding about that last one in case you really believed that. At this time, a friend of mine offered to help with dishes if I needed it… she must have been crazy but, boy oh boy, I accepted her offer in no time flat. That friend, Julie, is still with me, but now we are making the food together and I have someone else doing the dishes. (Jason, my son, wouldn’t cook so he has to do dishes… that’s just the way it is in a family run business). Here is a picture of Julie and Me celebrating our final wedding of the year. Forty of them down! We did remodel the kitchen which happened one winter while I was in Texas (thank goodness) and we’re pretty much at maximum efficiency for the moment. (That would be until we decide to do something else… always want to leave the door open for that, you know). This week I’m letting you see how happy I was when we first installed our dishwasher. Up until this moment, we were handwashing all of the plates, goblets, and silverware. Now we only hand wash the kitchen tools, serving dishes, pots and pans which barely amounts to anything! (You may not talk to Jason, Julie, or Dylan about that last comment!) Well, that’s all I’m going to share with you this time but believe me there are lots more stories coming. Take care and God bless, Freddi

Come On Baby. Light My Fire.

Project List

On August 1, 2013, we will celebrate our 40th year of being in business. Our business is located in Polk County. In those 40 years, we have never ever met up with the county’s fire inspector. Enter. Chad. The Polk County Fire Inspector. He told me that he was hired 5 years ago and it has taken him that long to circulate through all of the businesses in Polk county that had never had a fire inspection. He was actually quite pleased with how well we had maintained a safe environment without him. We had just a few things to fix for him and we would be in business. First up, we had a few batteries that were no longer re-charging in our emergency lighting. Easy fix once we ordered the batteries online. Nope. No AA batteries in these bad boys. They cost $15 per battery! Next item up for fixing was switching out lightbulbs in our Exit signs. We have about 10 lit exits signs throughout the building, but one of them needed new light bulbs. We also had to call Capital Fire Equipment to make sure all of our fire extinguishers were in good working order. They came out the next day and inspected all of our extinguishers. Tyler is the name of the young man who took good care of us. He used to work for us when he was a teenager, so it was fun to see him all grown up as an adult. We also have to make sure that our ansul system in the kitchen was primed and ready to extinguish any grease fires. The ansul system is located in the kitchen around the fryer and stove top. It is designed, so that if you have a grease fire, you can pull a trigger and the fire retardant will fall from these valves in our hood. The last thing that we had to adjust, so that it was according to code was our doors. Our doors had turn key locks. Our inspector had us put in keyed lock entries. We put a call in to Strauss and Lock and they got us in good working order. For about $500, we had ourselves in good working order and fully approved by our fire inspector. What a good feeling to know that we are safe. Having had a fire in my house about five years ago, I understand the importance of keeping things up to code! Put out any fires yourself? Have you ever set off the fire alarms while you were cooking? Yeah. Me neither.

Rise and Shine!

Golf Course

I am the seventh generation of Bradys who live within a five mile radius of the land that encompasses Toad Valley. That’s a lot of generations. In the early 1900’s, my great grandparents, Dan and Martha (Kit) Brady traveled to Wyoming to homestead a farm with the hope of owning a lot of land some day. My grandpa, Dale Webster Brady, was born in Wyoming along with the first five Brady children. When Dan and Kit lost a child, they realized that they were in over their heads. It was simply too difficult to raise 5 small children and farm without the help of family. They climbed in their covered wagon and headed back home to Iowa. Specifically Carbondale, Iowa. I’ve often wondered why. Why couldn’t they have moved farther west? Why not look for land where the weather doesn’t make winters with no electricity and five children nearly impossible? All 12 of the Brady children have gone on to meet their Maker, so I can’t ask them. On a morning such as this, I don’t need to ask. I understand. The beautiful sunsets at this time of the year are breathtaking. Every color in the rainbow can be seen in the sky for a short amount of time. Pinks, purples, oranges and reds cover the morning sunrise and greet the cold with a little bit of sunshine. I picture them in their wagon with their small children on a cold morning greeting them like I do my own. Wake up! Wake up! Look at the sunrise! It’s absolutely beautiful this morning. My children always groan and wish for additional time in their warm beds. Not today. There’s only 30 minutes that its beauty is visible and then it is gone as quickly as it arrived. How about you? Are you a fan of Iowa’s winter sunrises?

Did you say Toad Valley?

Golf Course

Yep. It’s the first thing someone says when I introduce myself. They really want it to be another name. After all, don’t most golf courses have a creek or spring in their name? Trust me. When you meet my family, it all makes sense. We are, for lack of a better term, a little uh, well…strange. No. Let’s call it quirky. It is easily the most anticlimactic story ever. I’ve often thought about making up some great tale about how my aunt got attacked by toads. No wait. Killer toads. That’s better. She ran and ran and ran until she came to a beautiful valley and the toads became submissive and made her food? I got nothing. Basically, the family got together. There were 8 of them at the time who were involved in the operation and started to call out names. Oh. There were normal golf course names, like Spring Creek. The name StephenDale was considered as that was the name of both my uncle and grandpa. A total of sixty-six names were called out and the voting began. The winner? You guessed it. Toad Valley Golf Course. In case you are wondering, we really are nestled in an, albeit small, valley and if you stick around at night, there are many toads that come out hopping. What do you do with the name? You make the best of it! We even have honorary bride and groom toads who sit atop our wedding cakes. Thanks Allison Marie for the great photo! Over the years, we have come to realize that the name actually fits us quite well. We do things, including naming our golf course, just a little bit differently than most. People like that. How about you? Anyone else succumb to the pressures of naming a family business?

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