Hopefully everyone is reading this blog from some place where it is 75 and sunny! It is anything but that here at the golf course. We are still working through our fleet of equipment and the end is in sight. We have serviced all four of our turf gators, pictured below, and they are ready for the hauling of stone, sand and mulch when spring finally arrives!
Our tow behind blower has also been serviced and cleaned. This piece of equipment does an outstanding job of moving leaves, small sticks and debris that has accumulated after the snow and ice from winter. It is also run from a remote that can increase of decrease the rpm's and rotate the shoot on the back!
Trailer repair has kept us busy as well. Our trailer that transports the sod cutter was in need of some new bearings and seals. The old bearings were pretty rusted and the seals were shot. Here is a picture of the axle before the new parts were assembled.
We also have two trailers to transport our walk mowers and they too have been worked on. These trailers have been sanded down to remove some rust, then were primered and painted.
New tounges were made because the old ones were rusted out and too short in length. Here are a couple pics comparing the old and new.
Push mowers have been serviced and cleaned. Here are the two mowers, these don't take a whole lot of time to go through.
Last but not least, our aerifiers. These play a vital role in the health of our turf during the golf season. They can be used on greens, tees or fairways and the tines can be switched out from solid to hollow in an array of sizes. They are transported throughout the course by hitches that Brad had made last winter. That man can make and repair just about anything!
Here are some pictures of our solid needle tines that are used to vent the greens during the season. This process allows for improved gas exchange in the root zone while at the same time improving surface drainage resulting in a firmer, healthier putting surface.
The hollow or "coring tines" are used to remove thatch and organic matter in the root zone, these are more aggressive than the solid tines and turf recovery usually takes a little longer. These tines can vary is size from as small as 1/4" to as large as 7/8" depending on the location on a golf course and the severity of your thatch layer. We typically do our coring in the fall, but early enough to have full recovery before shoot growth stops. If the ground is not too saturated, spring can also be an opportune time to do aerification. Here are some pics of new tines vs. old tines. As you can see, they can wear down a great deal even after just one aerification job.
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