Allison - Flight Zone Toptracer Driving Range

Our Sweet Tooth

It is that time of the year. Time to eat. Sysco had their spring show and they invited us to try all of their goodies. Last year, we were looking to try a burger for our Tuesday burger night. This year, we had our Easter Brunch and new General Store‘s Bakery section to fill. We were in luck because they had some great food on display. By now, we have a pretty good (cough. cough.) reputation at the Sysco food shows. I’m the lady with the camera and loud laugh. Theresa is the girl posing for weird pictures. My mom is the one who keeps us in line. We definitely aren’t like most of the other people checking out product. Clearly, we’re beginning to rub off on my mom. Theresa spotted this slotted spoon and was transformed into a pirate. The first room is the fruit and vegetable room. They have it on display like a fresh food market place. Lots of great displays. Everything was so bright and colorful. I can’t wait to get my garden planted. I miss the sun. The fruit lady also had some infused water for us to sample. Green is my favorite color, so I was happy to give it a go. I’m a huge fan of cucumber water. Have you tried it yet? This was a delicious mixture. It was filled with mango, pineapple, blue raspberry syrup and cilantro. Looks pretty weird, but it was delicious. Make it at home. You’ll be the talk of the town. Next up, we moved on to the big room that was filled with maybe 30 different vendors. We like these guys because about 80% of the vendors are golfers. The General Mills/Pillsbury rep had a really delicious brownie recipe. I may or may not have had to sample three of them. Theresa also helped herself to the displayed apple fritter. He was kind enough to offer to come out and help mom with some of her recipes. Theresa and I are big fans of cheesecake, so we were pretty excited about this booth. We moved on to the Dream Factory vendor. The Dream Factory is the bakery for the Cheesecake Factory. Yeah. These are definitely showing up in our bakery shop. They were delicious! Sorry, I was so busy eating cheesecake that I didn’t take a picture. Here’s some yummy cinnamon bread. We’re going to have cinnamon bread in our bakery, but it’s going to be homemade by my mama. She made some today. I think I ate an entire loaf. Burp. Back to the show. We also found a vendor who had some trifles on display. Theresa spotted the can of whipped topping. He told us that he only had it on display. After we smiled sweetly, he cracked open the whipping cream and topped off our sample. I like this guy. He clearly has a true understanding of cake vs whipped topping ratio. We made our way over to the meat section. I’m not a huge fan of fish. A fish wearing sunglasses, though… I think I could make an exception for that. As we made our way back out to the car, we stopped by the main check in table. Because we are candy addicts, Theresa loaded up on the display of candy that was spread on the tables. Score one for the team! How about you? Are you a cheesecake fan? I can’t wait for all of the finishing touches to be made on our General Store!

Easter Brunch

Events

Join us for Easter Brunch! Celebrate Easter Sunday with us this year! EGG HUNT BEGINS AT 1 P.M. Seating times for Easter Brunch Begin at 11:00 a.m. and end at 12:30 p.m. Please call for Reservations with desired seating time and Number in Your Party. 515.967.9575 Reservations Must be Made by Thursday, April 17. $17.99 for Adults || $8.99 for Children 4 – 12 || Free for Children 3 and Under **Discounts are Available** Season Pass Holders & Their Guests are $14.99 || Seniors (62 & up) $15.99 You Won’t Want to Miss Our Fabulous Brunch Menu Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find! BREAKFAST STATION Biscuits & Sausage Gravy Scrambled Eggs French Toast Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Bake with syrup Fresh Fruit Display with Dipping Sauce Cinnamon Rolls Freshly Baked Bread with Preserves LUNCH STATION Honey Baked Ham Tuscan Chicken Breaded Shrimp Cheesy Hashbrowns Sweet Potato Bake Green Beans with Bacon & Onion Escalloped Corn Mixed Green Salad Cole Slaw Deviled Eggs DESSERT STATION Brownies Strawberry Shortcake Pecan Pie Bars Complimentary miniature golf is also included when you sign up for the brunch. **Please note: only those families who attend the brunch will be included in the Easter Egg Hunt.

Tasting Till They Drop

Events

A few weeks ago, we hosted our annual tasting for all of our couples who plan to hold their receptions at our place this year. Of all of the events that we host, I think this one requires the most amount of preparation time. Our couples are allowed to request foods that interest them. Each couple can bring up to six guests to help them decipher what they enjoy the most. This behind the scenes organization takes me several weeks to prepare. Then, once everything is organized, I pass all of my information on to my mom, the kitchen guru, where she and her team start organizing how they are going to map out and prepare each item. We host our tastings on two back to back nights to ease with the set up, but it’s an exhausting two days. The one good thing about it was that I was seriously cranking out the steps on my FitBit. It’s especially exhausting for our kitchen staff who basically spend the entire week preparing. Mom maps out when what food items must be prepared. She separates them into what requires baking, sauteing, frying or last minute prep work. Then, she writes up who is preparing what. Here’s a shot of one of our last minute items. Individual seven layer dip cups. Earlier in the week, mom and her staff spent time cutting up all of the fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs to make everything run smoothly. On the design front, we display all of the items that we have available for rent. We also number each table and seat each table according to what the couple has requested. On each table, we have a list of the items that the couple requested. It helps as a gentle reminder. When they begin tasting, they sample their requested items. Once everyone has gone through, then we open it up to everyone to try anything they thought looked good. Theresa and I have a lot of fun with this process. It’s our goal to help our couples envision what the room will look like for a reception. This really helps couples and their parents envision what preparation needs to take place. Here’s a shot of our fake cake that we have with our toad bride and groom. Fred and her staff prepared nearly 25 different hors d’oeuvres options each night, plus almost 20 different entrees. Her kitchen was hopping. When I came home from the event, I sat down and told my husband, “I have absolutely no idea how my mom does that.” Here are the taco cupcakes getting assembled. It’s truly amazing that she is able to have all of that food up at the designated time and looking great, more importantly, tasting fabulous. The beef tenderloin gets grilled just before being served. Here’s a final shot of the seven layer dip that was being prepared in the kitchen. It’s beautiful and tasty! The best kind of food. I still didn’t get as many pictures as I had wanted to take, but I definitely did better than last year. Here’s a shot of the room as viewed from the head table. Here’s a shot of our mock head table set up. When we serve the food, we bring up the hors d’eouvres first. They are displayed on a food station table, then that gives the kitchen staff 30 more minutes to put the finishing touches on all of the entrees. The entrees are served at the opposite side of the room. Here’s Theresa sporting our new uniforms for our events. One of our staff members made all of us these awesome aprons! She’s clearly super excited about lighting the sternos. We have new up-lights that are available this year. They’re LED, so we can turn them into any color imaginable. These lights are blue, but they are showing a little purple-ish in these photos. There you have it. That’s a small glimpse at our food tasting. I’m happy that I remembered to take a few more pictures this year, maybe I can even take a picture of all of the food on display for next year. I might have to tie a rope around my arm to keep me from getting distracted. Would that be weird? Wait. Don’t answer that.

The End of Winter

Golf Course

There’s always one sure sign that winter has come to an end. That’s when all of our soda machines get filled up for the year. The first time loading the machines is always the worst. They are a usually pretty filled with winter debris, so we have to clean them out. Then, we make our Coke rep super happy and place the order to fill all of the machines. We were a little ambitious this year and ordered these probably a week too soon. The weather has been teasing us this spring. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we’re definitely ready for it to be DONE! Since our machines are outside, we have to make sure the temperatures cooperate. Frozen soda isn’t any fun to clean up. Steve got busy one day and began loading up all of the machines. He had a good system down. Steve is known as the box fairy around these parts. This time of the year, we have many boxes that come into the shop. We put them outside of the door and Steve puts on his fairy wings and hauls them away. We were very happy to have Steve return after a looooong winter. The best part about Steve is that he is happy in every single job he is performing. You seriously can’t beat that! How about you? Have you ever loaded up a pop machine? I used to do this job when I was a little kid. I thought it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. It definitely was higher on the fun list than picking up garbage on the course!

Titleist Rocks. Period.

Golf Shop

No. Titleist isn’t paying me to say that. I just have to brag on them a little bit. We recently had a meeting with them to get ready for the new year. Our sales rep is named Trent. He is amazing and treats us really well. When he came in to the clubhouse, he was surprised at all of the changes that we have underway right now at the golf course. Titleist is offering a great promotion to their loyal fans right now! I’ve been playing golf since about the time that I could walk. My parents tell me that when I was a really little kid (maybe two-ish), I would go out on the course with them. Every time my mom or dad hit the ball, I’d holler out, “Good Shot!” It didn’t matter if they had duffed it or if it really was a good shot. Every time, I hollered it out. I have very vague memories of hurrying up to the green, so I could have that super important job of removing the flagstick for my family members who were playing golf. No one ever told me what type of ball that I needed to hit. In fact, I don’t think I ever hit a new golf ball until I was an adult. Growing up on a golf course meant that I was never in need a golf ball. They were either hit and lost in my back yard or found by a mower. I guess I owe all of my golfers a hardy thank you! When I was in high school, I played on the golf team and thought I should pay a little more attention to my game. I had grown up with my dad whose idea of a gimmee is about a four foot putt. It’s surprising how much better I played with my dad than those crazy girls on the golf team who made me make the ball actually go into the cup! They were constantly pulling out their book of golf rules. Apparently the USGA never approved the foot wedge as a real golf club! I fooled them and used it while they weren’t looking. HA! At this time, I decided to try a myriad of different golf balls to find which one I liked the best. It didn’t take long before I settled on Titleist. My favorite types of Titleist golf balls are ones that have some sort of weird logo on them. I like to differentiate myself from the other members of my foursome. My mom also prefers Titleist. My sister is a fan of Pinnacle. The fourth member of my foursome is my aunt. She plays with anything that isn’t white. I’m always surprised at the golf balls she is able to find. Some of them are green or silver. Over the years, my sister and I have found that we also enjoy naming whatever golf ball my aunt Nancy pulls from her bag. For the longest time, she played with what we deemed to be The Silver Bullet. It was a super cool golf ball that sadly ended up in the pond. It looked like this. My guess is that now it is probably covered in pond muck. Ok. Back to my original story. I like Titleist. As it turns out, many golfers like Titleist. Luckily. Titleist likes golfers, too. As I mentioned before, I prefer to have a golf ball that has some sort of interesting marking on it. Imagine if you will, if the golf ball had my name on it. Possibly the words – Return to Clubhouse. (That way no one would be able to see that I had hit my golf ball under the willow on number 18. Yes. I have many golf balls under that stupid tree.) Titleist is running a special from now until April 13, 2014. When you order three dozen personalized ProV1 or ProV1x, you’ll get the fourth dozen for FREE. I won’t make any guarantees, but I bet that’d be at least three strokes off your game! It’s super easy to get started. You just need to fill out this form. There is a four week window they need to get the balls all printed up fancy with your name or initials. Once they get shipped to us, we’ll give you a call and then you can stop out to pick them up. Maybe you could even play a round of golf while you’re picking up your new fancy Titleist personalized golf balls. You’ll be the talk of your foursome! The other cool option they are offering is if you have a lucky number that you’d like to be imprinted under the Titleist logo, they will make it happen. As long as it’s a two digit number, you can have it printed. There is a nominal fee ($1/dozen) to make that happen, but if you like the number 13, then you can go for it! Spill the beans. What’s your favorite golf ball?

Trees of Toad Valley – Sweetgum

Our Green Thumb

Tom is back with a new tree. Here’s his next entry in the Trees of Toad Valley. If you’d like to check out all of the others, find them here. Author: Tom Brady Sweetgum, “Liquidamber Styraciflue” I first encountered Sweetgum in Harper’s Ferry National Park, West Virginia. I was there to learn about John Brown’s pre-Civil war attack on the US Garrison that led to his hanging, but you do have to look at trees, don’t you? I was struck by the bright red fall color at first. The books say that the color varies from yellow to purple and lasts a long time. As I approached, I thought it might be a Maple with its star-shaped leaves. When I got close enough, I noticed that it had very non-maple-like fruits, brown balls with prickly burrs about the size of a ping pong ball. When I was later able to identify the tree, I found that the leaves are alternate, not opposite like the Maple. The limbs have corky ridges that distinguish the tree further. Sweetgum can grow to over 100 feet and show good symmetry. It is native along the southeastern United States from Connecticut clear down to Mexico, so again, seed source is critical to success. I have found the tree to struggle in our winter climate, but it is such a neat tree that I have to try it. I have grown some from seed sent to me from Kansas City and have one tree that is six to seven feet tall. I’ve been told there are good-sized trees at Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, but I have not seen them. This tree that I referred to when I originally wrote this article back in 2000, died to the ground in one of our winters after having grown to nearly twelve feet. Sweetgum do survive in Iowa, but you must make sure you have a Northern variety. I have three struggling examples, all of which look like multi-stem shrubs. They are all on hole number two. Two of them are in the no mow area. The easiest one to see is just to the left of the yellow tee, near the creek.

The Golfer’s Lounge New Digs

Project List

In this post, I mentioned that we had some cabinets that needed to be installed in the Golfer’s Lounge. The Golfer’s Lounge is a building that stands alone just south of our main clubhouse. It was built as a screened in porch about twenty-five years ago. In the last several years, this building has done a pretty drastic transformation. It didn’t take long before the screened in porch was pretty hot once many golfers were inside. Since this room was primarily used for golf outings, we decided, about twenty years ago, to replace the screens with windows and installed air conditioning. About ten years ago, we upgraded the inside, adding carpeting, walls and upgraded windows. At the time, we weren’t entirely sure how we would use it because we had a new Events Center and most of our golf outings were held in the new room. After five years, we now see all the many ways this building is used. We host graduation open houses, rehearsal dinners, birthday parties, anniversaries, reunions, you name it, we host it and the building has continued to see its use grow more and more. We’re pretty excited about this upgrade because it means our staff won’t have to haul as much as they currently do when setting up for an event. There is plenty of storage! Kim and I had carried all of these cabinets into this building and placed them in the general configuration of how I’d like them to go. Then, I made a to do list and left to go to the golf conference. My lists are infamous around here. When I got back, my carpenter had been busy! I had made mention in my notes that I’d like the fridge to be enclosed. Hi Ben! What’s he doing? He’s making me a fabulous enclosed area for my fridge including a space above where I can store product! Now you see it. Now you don’t! When I got back into town, I couldn’t wait to come see what they had accomplished! The only thing they needed to finish was adding countertops. My carpenter was unsure what I’d like. I told him to pick out something pretty, but overall, I trusted his judgement. I think he did a great job! Don’t you? He even made a serving center for drinks! Here’s a shot of the fridge in its new cubby. I’ve been thinking about painting the wall hiding the fridge in chalkboard paint, so people can use it to greet their guests to this space with a clever design. We’ll have to wait and see where we end up! Now that I’m back in town, there’s a paint brush in my hand and I’m ready to get to work! How about you? Are you knocking things off your to do list while you’ve been stuck inside this winter? I must admit, it feels great to put a big line through the project marking it D-O-N-E.

Recovering Chairs Revisited

Project List

When we last left off our super hero, Jason, was busily removing staples from the backs of the seat cushions preparing to put on new material. While I was having fun in Florida, Jason and Theresa stayed back home to man the fort. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to attend the golf conference, but one of their daughters was due with their fifth grandchild. Somehow being home to meet their granddaughter was more important than meeting Jack Nicklaus. Geesh. Priorities! Good news! The baby arrived on Friday! Because I’m a good sister and the family foolishly gave me the General Manager title, I rallied the troops before I left with a gentle list of things that needed to get done while I was away. What? Maybe I went a little overboard? The first order of business was to pick up some more material. Poor Theresa had to go to about seven different stores before she finally had enough of the fabric to get all 83 chairs recovered. Next up, she cut them into squares. You’ll notice that our chair recovering operation had to be moved from the room they were originally working because (being the good sister that I am) I booked an event in the larger room making it so that Jason had to move all 83 chairs to the front of the clubhouse, so they would be out the way of the event. Dude. I know this makes me look bad, but just think of all that exercise Jason got moving all of those chairs to the front of the building. His heart health is secretly thanking me. I think. It was finally time for the fun part. Stapling your fingers the material to chair seats. They work as a team because they found it to be most beneficial when there are many hands involved. Theresa neatly folds the material around the edges of the seat base. Jason staples in the four corners. Then, they work their way around the seat until it is completely and securely recovered. All of our seat cushions are attached with velcro. This makes it really easy for us to switch out a seat cushion should we need to or remove it for any reason. After the material is attached, Theresa sprays every cushion with Scotch Guard. As I mentioned earlier, we recovered all 250 of our chairs about five years ago. Every year, we clean and spray them with Scotch Guard and it really has made them last well. There you have it. A beautifully recovered seat. Here are Jason and Theresa with their We’re so Happy We Didn’t Get to Meet Jack Nicklaus and Stayed Home to Recover Chairs Instead faces! I’m please to say that all 83 chairs are officially recovered, so now we’re ready to move on to our next project!

And Then… I Met Mr. Jack Nicklaus

Events

For the last couple of days, I’ve been sharing all of my golfing adventures with you while I attended the National Golf Course Owner Association’s (NGCOA) annual conference. Here’s the golf course tour of Shingle Creek and here’s a view of the Golf Industry Show just in case you missed it. I must admit. I’ve saved the best for last. Get ready. I’ve got a lot to say… In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been blessed with the gift of gab. That’s probably why I’m able to type out like I’m talking to you. I pretend it’s just my mom who reads these blog entries, but I’d like to think it’s at least a couple of others. Hi Mike! This gift of gab has gotten me into some interesting situations over the years. Not the least of which is my uncanny ability to embarrass my children. We’ll be on an elevator and I can have a conversation with a complete stranger. When the stranger gets off the elevator, my kids will ask, “Who was that?” I always reply, “I don’t know.” Is it the friendly Iowan in me? I’d like to think so, but I don’t honestly know. Last year, the NGCOA asked me to be on their National Board. Was it because of my gift of gab? Probably. Either that or my inability to say no. I am just glad they asked, though. It’s been a fun year! I’ve written about a few of my experiences from being on the board. We have two main meetings a year in Charleston. Here’s a peak at my first board meeting. Then, you can also click here to read about my second board meeting. Although it has only been a year since I’ve been a board member, I’ve enjoyed my time and getting to meet new people. There is a downside which is the travel time and being gone from my family. Also. I hate flying. My daughter also hates me leaving her for days at a time. Thank goodness for Skype! I’m sure I look pretty funny walking down the street talking into my phone like I’m a robot, but it keeps my daughter happy. She’s nine, so I only have a few more years of her enjoying our time together in this way. To keep my husband sane and my daughter happy, I scheduled my flight for the golf conference so I would only be gone three days. That’s two nights. Surely they could handle that! Then, I got an email that said something along these lines: You’re invited to a reception with Jack Nicklaus before the main Celebration Dinner. When I asked for clarification, I was told that this would be a private meeting for the board members. One small problem. My plane was to be landing in Des Moines right when I should have been meeting Jack. After reading this email, I turned to my brother and asked him, “How important is it that I meet Jack Nicklaus?” The look on his face confirmed what I was thinking in my head. Luckily, I had booked Southwest and they make it super easy to move your flight around. I love my husband and daughter, don’t get me wrong, but it seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Just like that, I was staying an extra day. All in the name of Mr. Nicklaus. I’m sure my daughter will understand some day. This reception took place before the main Celebration Dinner. The Celebration Dinner that the NGCOA holds celebrates everything about golf. Picture the Academy Awards minus the twerking. There are many awards given out. Some go to people who have made a difference in growing the game. Others go the Golf Course of the Year as well as regional golf courses. There are people who are awarded who have made a difference to the NGCOA and people who have had an impact on golf. Then, there is the Award of Merit. The Award of Merit is the longest running award and goes to individuals who have had a long-term and significant contribution to the game of golf. Yep. That explains Jack Nicklaus in my book. The time had come. While I was visiting with a fellow board member, I watched as Nicklaus walked into the room and was greeted by a small group of people. Many people were snapping pictures and congratulating him on his award. It was very exciting. There aren’t many things that I enjoy more in life than hearing people’s stories. I love when golfers stop and tell me about playing golf with my grandpa on the course or what they did when they were my age. Some of my favorite golfers used to tell me about their time of fighting overseas or how they played the trumpet in the band during WWII. I find that sort of history so incredibly interesting. Because of this obsession, I thought I would casually eavesdrop on a conversation Mr. Nicklaus was having with some fellow golf course owners. Hoping to hear a golfing story or two. As it turns out, Jack was discussing football. Apparently even one the world’s best golfers talks football or basketball when he’s in a room full of mostly men. I asked him for a picture and he graciously obliged. This reception lasted only a brief while. I would have loved to have carried on a conversation with him, but time simply didn’t allow. We walked into the Celebration Dinner and took our seats. I was seated with the NGCOA past president, Linda Rogers, and her daughter, Michelle. They run a golf course in Indiana called Juday Creek. I truly enjoy spending time with them. Here are some of my other favorite board members. They like to pick on me. Rock Lucas is on the left. His golf course, Charwood, in Georgia is set up very similarly to ours. His southern drawl makes him fun to talk to and he has

The Golf Industry Show

Events

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I attended the National Golf Course Owner Association’s annual conference last week. It’s a pretty major event because it coincides with the Golf Industry Show as well as the Superintendent’s conference. There are nearly 16,000 people who come to Orlando for the Golf Conference. There are bad pants and polos as far as the eye can see! The Golf Industry Show is open to anyone who would be interested in attending. In fact, the last I knew, they often air portions of it on the Golf Channel. I can’t imagine it being all that interesting to watch, but to each his own. I thought it might be fun to take you on a quick tour of the GIS. To get started, picture the Varied Industries Building at the State Fair grounds on steroids. The first time I went to this show, my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. I felt like a little country bumpkin from Iowa who had never seen a building quite the likes of this. We’re talking. B-I-G. If it has anything to do with golf, then it’s here. Mowers, golf cars, fertilizers, flags, computer systems, golf balls, signs, artificial turf, etc. My proud Iowa heart is always exploding when I feast my eyes on the display of Standard Golf. They are based out of Cedar Falls where they produce everything you ever needed for a golf course. There were vendors with all of the cool new gadgets available to spice up your golf carts. Wouldn’t it be fun to pimp out our fleet of carts with some of these tires? They even had some old school golf carts on display to show just how far we have come! Here’s a look at an EZ-Go cart from 60 years ago! Club Car has some forward thinking in their new design of a golf car. It’s a four seater with room for four sets of bags. Perfect for family golf or the foursome who likes to visit more than they like to golf. No. I’m not being offensive, but that definitely describes the group of four women that I play with! We like to talk just as much as we like to golf! Depending on our golf game that day, sometimes the talking is the only thing we like to do! The Jacobsen dealers were out in full force. I’d never seen so much orange in my life! I think every single northern salesperson signed up to be in the show! I can’t say that I blamed them since my poor kids had to stay home from school because of the snow storm while I walked around outside and enjoyed the GIS. We had just purchased a brand new Jacobsen mower last year, so they would have to be pretty charming to talk me into another one any time soon. I also ran into the Golf Pipeline based out of Chicago. They have a brilliant concept in online tee times. You can store all of your golfing buddies in a network. Then, when you make a tee time, you can ask any number of them to join your group! If you’d like, you can keep track of your score, track your handicap or talk smack to your buddies. You just need to sign up on their website to get started! I loved this company that I found that sold gigantic golf balls made out of fiberglass. I’m not sure where I’d put it, but I know that I want one. Just because. That brings me to the best part of the show. What’s that you ask? That would be the portable toilets that were made to look like a tree trunk. Suddenly being stuck in a outside toilet seemed like a pretty cool thing. Or not. The booklet that shows all of the vendors to the show is about an inch thick! It’s crazy just how many different businesses are out there to make our little golf business tick. For many of the vendors, it’s fun simply putting a face to the name. In fact, I was visiting with the company (ETS if you’re interested) who takes care of our credit card processing. I’d been emailing him and talking to him off and on for several months because we plan to get those fancy pin pads where our golfers will be able to swipe their own card and then sign all fancy like on the screen. The guy said, “Wait! Are you Allison George?” Sure enough. I’d been talking to Mike for months and I never would have known him in person had it not been for the Golf Industry Show. What’d you think? Anyone want to stow away in my suitcase when next year comes around?

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