Un-Retired …..Again!

[rgfixit]

Busy day tomorrow.
I’ll be mowing 18 greens after which they will be deep tined , top dressed, rolled and dragged.

Sure will be happy not to be picking up sticks.

Trees should be banned on golf courses.

[fish/hunt4ever]

For the trees being banned how would they keep the lines for the guys to hit the little ball down the field or have some hazards in the way, I hear you on picking up the branches and all after the wind, looks like more around here after the storm this week, I really hate the high wind as it causes more pain than anything.

[rgfixit]

Never played a Links style course eh? Very few if any trees in play. Intermediate and long rough bordered by tall grasses.

10 1/2 hour day yesterday. Mowed greens in the morning and dragged greens in the afternoon. Greens we’re mowed, deep tined, rolled, top dressed with sand and dragged. Long day humping 100 lb coco mats in and out of the cart. Had to get it all done for play and while the sand was dry.

Perfect day for it as it turned out.

I’d imagine we’ll be mowing tees today. Then I’ll probably be off the rest of the week.

[rgfixit]

First Sunday morning of the season. My Son and I cut cups, moved tee markers and whipped the greens of worm castings. Crappy weather for sure. 35 and snowing….sort of.

But, the wildlife was out.

This little red fox was hunting along the entrance road.




It had something in its mouth. Maybe a bunny.

Saw a beaver moving from low water below a slough to higher backwater.



Went up to my son and told him “ Hey …..I saw my first bever” . Thought he was gonna fall over laughing ( for obvious reasons) Good chuckle anyway.

Spooked a group of deer on the front 9  and saw one of the resident eagles.  A quick 3 1/2 hours of exercise hitting 34 tees and 18 greens.

Hope I’m sitting on a greens mower tomorrow. Asked my Son “ who mowed greens on Friday.” The guy left a bunch of big banana lines. Apparently it was a volunteer member who has “years of experience mowing greens”

It’ll take me 3 trips around to fix it.
😒

[Raquettedacker]

Sounds like a good day Bob..
 I planted 2500 vegetable plants listening to the snow and wind outside..
 Lots of condensation falling on my head every time the wind blew…

[rgfixit]

I hear you there. Freezing rain all morning.


My Son changing cups in the snow.

[rgfixit]

Ahhhhh…mowing greens.




Love this stuff.

[Raquettedacker]

At least 8 inches of snow on the number 2 green at the course up the road....

[rgfixit]

I like my greens better. Still plenty wet on the course and gonna rain again later. 4 more guys starting on Monday. Should be interesting to see the assignments. First tournament of the season on 5/7. 9 am shotgun start. I have no idea how we’re gonna get the course mowed by then or that morning before 9.

We’ll probably have to start around 4 am to get it done. I’m not a big fan of mowing in the dark.

[rgfixit]

Frustrating day yesterday. We only have one working fairway mower at the moment. The other is undergoing a massive upgrade. Mowed fairways and everything went pretty well till I got on a couple that were just too wet to mow. Machine was squirming all over the place trying to cut grass that’s gotten way too long due to the excessive rain this spring.

Then an old problem cropped up. The mower has an electrical problem somewhere that causes it to intermittently shut down. Ended up getting 4 fairways done and part of another before I had to take it back to the shop. Hopefully the Super can finally find the issue and get it repaired. We struggled with it all last season. Hard to see a $65k machine just sitting.

Good news is, 4 more guys come on board on Monday. 3 will be mowing and one will be a service mechanic in the shop. He’ll be doing all the little stuff that needs done to maintain the equipment. Tires, grease, oil, pressure washing and such. It’ll take a huge load off the Super so he’ll be able to concentrate on the course and major repairs. My son is a bit skeptical as this guy didn’t take directions very well last season. Hopefully he’ll come around to our way of thinking.

I have a feeling that there’s going to be at least 2 fairways that are going to be dug up for drainage issues. May have open drainage ditches for the better part of the summer. Gotta get them to drain off somehow. We suspect there’s a beaver dam somewhere down stream that’s backing up water into a good part of the course. May have to get the Kayak out and do some investigating.

People think all we do on the golf course is mow grass every day. We do that but there’s so much else that goes into maintaining a golf course. I learn something new every day. Should have started doing this 20 years ago. Love the work.

[Raquettedacker]

Sure hope the ground dries up for you Bob…

[rgfixit]

Well it did fore the most part. Started out mowing fairways to discover that the Super screwed up and put a couple gallons of gasoline in the diesel fairway mower.

OOPS! ( glad it wasn’t me)

Anyway I ended up working a full 8 hours mowing 33 of 34 tees. Double and triple mowed some to recover the original intended shape. The Super got the fairway mower straightened out and took off mowing. Course is really looking good.



(No I didn’t mow that tee yet)

[ran7ger]

 hey rg, i'm a turf equipment tech for a living.  just curious what make/model is that fairway mower that's giving you issues?  without knowing i would guess you're looking at a seat switch or temp sending unit.  even the temp gauge can cause that type of intermittent condition.

 trying to clear 3-4ft of snow off our greens up here right now.  skid steers are getting a work out  and we're 58 days out from hosting a pga event..

[rgfixit]

I don’t envy you that task. We’re starting to dry out a bit, but there’s above average precipitation predicted for the next month.

Toro 3550D. Turns out the former “mechanic” had the reel speed set way high …max. The machine was faulting out on high hydraulic pressure. The super, who was a Toro service tech for Finch, adjusted the reel speed for the actual height of cut and reduced the travel speed for cutting. Problem solved.

He mowed 12 fairways yesterday without incident. Cut beautifully…given the conditions. (Super wet)

I repeatedly told the former “mechanic” that I thought it was a hydraulic problem and was basically ignored. He kept saying it was electrical and something was shorting out. At one point he disconnected one reel drive motor, removed one reel and sent the unit out with 4 of 5 reels. It operated fine with the reduced load. The super, my Son and I were discussing it yesterday morning and he decided I was right. All last year the machine  sat doing nothing while we used a 20 year old 5410 that cut like crap.

The 5410 is getting a $5-6k upgrade. All the roller and reel bearings are shot. He’s replacing the worm out bed knives and roller scrapers and a couple of lift cylinders. There’s a longer list, but you get the idea. That poor machine has been hacked away at by several bad mechanics over its life. The electrical is a nightmare of disconnected stuff and bypassed safeties. It’s still a basically sound unit though and worth having in the barn for backup.

The 3550 is a pleasure to operate although I don’t like the bald tires (needs turf tires in my opinion).

[ran7ger]

 sounds like a long line of shade tree farmer mechanics to me.  glad you guys got it sorted out.  we have 5410's up here and they do struggle to handle the big growth flushes we experience in june.  the smaller reels don't handle it like our old 5500's could and tend to get gummed up by all the elk nuts right off the bat.  i'm glad i've been at the same course for 15 years now and know where all my equipment is at.  can't imagine falling into a situation like what you describe.  reel speed and clip rate are kiiiiiiind of important!

 you're lucky to have a super with equipment experience!  i'm not on here all that often but if you guys have any issues i'm happy to help if possible.  another great resource is www.golftechs.net.  some of the best minds in the biz on there and the search function always turns up something!