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It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these. I see Brian Eplin in here. What’s happening, Brian? What’s going on, Trent? Not much. What’s happening? Oh, nothing. Probably had time to get on with it, it’s yeah. I’m a little slow out of the gate here too. I was having trouble with my tablet, getting it to connect and all that good stuff. It seems like when you’re, when you need it, it’s the stuff doesn’t work. Yeah. And I’m using a tablet. So I can record on my recording device, because now my phone doesn’t have a port where you can plug a cable into it. So, I know. You like that, don’t you? Yep. Um, am I supposed to get back with you while we’re waiting for people to get on here? Uh, yes, I wasn’t going to worry about it because they changed the dates again, I guess, because it was conflicting with something else. Um, So, I think now it’s like right the week before, uh, TTAC, but I haven’t got a confirmation on that for sure. Okay, yep, just let me know when you, when you find out and we’ll, we’ll work something out. That would be probably better for me anyway, versus 1st of October. Right, yeah, that’s what the, that’s what the president said too. He said for you to come up, cause he didn’t know you were coming up until our spring meeting, which I didn’t know either, but. Uh, right, right, yeah. I got you. Everything’s been going good. I’ve heard you talk to Big Shooter the other day. Yeah, I talked to him, uh, was it yesterday? Thought it may be. I talked to him yesterday. Yeah, it must have been after I talked to him. Yeah, I know. I was, uh, on my way to pick up our 1298. I had to have all the bushings, um, welded up and bored back out. Oh, geez. How many hours is on that thing? I don’t know. We share it with, I mean, we, we got two in the network for eight golf courses, so. I would imagine more than most 1298s out there. Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, it wasn’t taken care of. It’s the one that came from the east coast, so. Those poor east coast guys. You never know about them. Yeah, well, yeah. Not in the far south, though, the east coast. It was North Carolina and New Jersey and Virginia. Okay, yep. So, I wasn’t throwing you under the bus. No, no, I know. I’m just, I’m kidding, man. I’m kidding. No, I just, it just didn’t get maintained very well, and I don’t know. It just, all the bushings were out of it, and I had to replace the H frames on it, and all the pins and everything. Wow. Is the bushings greasable? No, it’s the, it’s the pins, the black piece that holds up the, that the entire head pivots on. I don’t know why they’re not though, to be honest with you. And they’re plastic bushings too that are inside the frame, so I don’t know. Yeah, that doesn’t seem like the best idea. Well, they don’t, they don’t really pivot that much, so it’s only when you adjust your height. So, I don’t know how, I think it’s just vibration over time and they wore out. Okay, gotcha. I had to be a pretty expensive repair getting it welded up and machine back out. Yeah, but we’ve, we’ve, we’ve got two, one, two new ones on order and we don’t know when we’re going to get them. So, you know, I mean, they were talking like a year and a half, two years, right? Yeah. Yeah. So if it’s 5, 000 now, I mean, in the last three or four more years, maybe longer than that, it’s worth it to me. Yeah. Cause and probably to the superintendent too. Cause he’s wanting to punch holes. I’m sure. Not right now. We’re, we’re in the nineties right now. And like 90% humidity, we’re pretty, there ain’t no punching holes, but well, that’s, yeah, that’s different for y’all. That’s, that’s when we punch all our holes. When it gets so bad, don’t like that. No, no. Yeah. When we were banned, we always done it early. Yep. March, May. Yeah, that’s pretty nice for you guys because that back grass outside and not liking the Georgia heat, it was probably liking that spring weather for you. Yeah, yeah, I love, yeah, spring and fall. The shoulder months is happy, but summertime is tough deal. Yeah, otherwise I’ve been busy with the Nebraska Association stuff and DCSA stuff and then I’ve been going out to Grey Bull about once a week the last couple months. So. What’s that? Yeah, what is that? That’s that new, that’s our new course they’re building out in the Sandhills. Um, that’s one Dave McLeod kid designed and, um, his company is one that did all the shaping and everything too. Okay. Still Nebraska? Yep. Okay. Yeah, it’s about five hours away from where we’re at. Oh, gotcha. And that’s about, I think, 20 miles from the nearest town. Ah, middle of nowhere, huh? Um, yeah, I mean, they’re talking destination golf. They got it. Yeah. Yep. That’s kind of like sand Valley and Wisconsin. There’s nothing around there. And they’re building, um, another course, aren’t there two more? I think so. Well, yeah, I know. Uh, when I was there last fall, one course, the Lido was getting ready to open. Okay. Another course. They had like the front nine done and a few holes on the back nine and yeah, then I think they were building another course. Wow. Yes. They got, it’s beautiful out there from what I’ve heard. So, oh, it is. Yeah, yeah. It was really, really pretty and yeah, it just blew me away to the, they dig their top dressing sand right out of the ground. That’s nice. They must have a wash plant or something to clean it. Well, what they did is the sand for the greens, they had a company come in and screed like a three year supply. Oh, cool. Yeah. And then, but if they’re doing fairways and stuff, they just dig it out of the ground. Top dress, fairways and tines. You get that natural mixture in there, it’s probably good. When all the greens are pushup greens. Well, yeah, why wouldn’t they? Yeah, right. Why wouldn’t I be, you know, when they said that I was like, really? You know, I always look down on pushup greens, but down here in the Georgia clay, that doesn’t work. Yeah. Yeah. We’re on clay here too. And we got pushup greens and it sucks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was really cool. Yeah. That was a cool property up there for sure. And I’m so envious of Austin, the equipment manager up there driving his side by side to work every day. I could if I had one out here, but they’re too pricey for what you get, I think. Yeah, no, they’re not cheap. He had a Polaris Ranger cab, you know, it was enclosed, so had a little heater for the wintertime. Oh, yeah. Cause I think he was a mile and a half from the core or something like that. Yeah, I think I’m five or six miles, something like that. But it’s still doable. And we can, if they’re legal here, if you pay the insurance and get a tag over here. Yeah, that’s how his was. I think you had to have insurance and then you get a sticker from state of Wisconsin for 30 bucks or something. So you can drive it on the road. But yeah, we don’t, we don’t have anything like that here in Georgia. I mean, yeah, especially in Atlanta. Oh, well, no, yeah, definitely not Atlanta for sure. They get pretty out of control, I think. Well, I don’t, they have it a lot in downtown Atlanta. Yeah. These groups are riding four wheelers and dirt bikes through the Atlanta streets. Yeah. It’s on the news. Yep. It’s, uh, it’s made news several times. And then, yeah, I just don’t, I don’t get that, but whatever, have fun, I guess. Yeah. The other thing they do, they call it, I hadn’t figured this out because they call it street racing, but all they’re doing is drifting and they, they’ll like block off an intersection and start drifting and I don’t know, I mean, people film and I don’t know, it’s pretty, it gets pretty wild in Atlanta. That’s why I try not to go there any more than I have to. I don’t blame you. Yeah, I like staying out here where I’m at. But Atlanta just keeps getting closer every year. Oh yeah, I’m sure it’s expanding pretty big, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah, I mean you really don’t know when you’re in Atlanta and when you’re out of Atlanta. I mean, at least a 50 mile radius. I have a friend that lives in Noonan, and back when I was still going down there it was still separated, but now I’m sure it’s… All part of it or included. Yeah, it’s probably getting close. Yeah, probably getting close. Yeah, that just keeps building up more and more and more. Um, anybody else want to speak? Just ask to speak and we’ll get you on here and hopefully big shooters gonna. Chime in sometime, cause he called me last night. He’s like, we’re doing a space tomorrow, right? And like we are, oh yeah, it is the third Tuesday of the month. Sure. We’ll do a space. He’ll get on here, but he won’t do a podcast, you know? Well, actually he said that last night. I don’t know what changed, but he said, he said, I know you sent me that email 20 times, will you send it to me again? I’m going to do the podcast. And I said, what, what changed? You know, are you sick today? What’s going on? He finally probably has time, or It’s hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I just, I think it was, uh, just became one of those things. Um, he kept putting it off and not doing it and all that stuff, so it, it was a running joke. So we won’t have that joke anymore. Did he talk to you about that, that Honda engine or whatever, is that what he called you for? No, no, I think he called me to be on the podcast and just checking in, seeing, seeing what was up. And he did say that he had, uh, talked to you and you called him Big Shooter and he was blaming that on me. So every time he, every time he calls me now, I say, what’s up Big Shooter? Well, I have him, uh, saved in my phone as Big Shooter. You have to call him that. Yeah, that’s right. So that’s, that’s how I answered it. I said, what’s up big shooter. And he said, brah, call me that earlier today. I did. It was good stuff. Well, what’s up? Well, yeah, that’s right. I don’t, I mean, I wish I had that conversation recorded and I can’t remember the guy’s name. It was skip something. He’s a Michigan guy too. And that’s where the name came from. Cause when their clubhouse was on fire, Skip sent him a text and he says, Hey, big shooter, looking a little toasty over there, you know, while it’s burning down, I was like, geez, yeah, it was kind of rude, but it was pretty funny at the time too. Yeah, we were, uh, it was during MTI and we were out at dinner one night and, uh, They were telling that story. So that’s where the nickname comes from. I tried to go to that, the MTI, but they were flying me to Texas that week or something. I can’t remember what was going on. Oh yeah. Yeah, no, it was a lot of fun. I really, I enjoyed it. It was a good group up there for sure. I don’t want to get up there, but it’s just hard to certain times of year and stuff. It’s hard to get away. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s always the struggle. I know. Believe it or not. I hadn’t, um, I’m not believing it myself, but I’m supposed to fly out Thursday morning to go to Connecticut for the travelers with, uh, Robert Martizek. Yeah, and uh, hang up there for the tournament. So I’m looking forward to it, but I’m gonna Are you working the third day through like Saturday then or are you doing Sunday too? No, I’m doing Sunday too, and then I wasn’t thinking, but I got a 6 a. m. flight back to Atlanta. Monday morning. Oh, yeah. So I wasn’t really, didn’t really think that out. I was just thinking, I need to get back to work, so I better leave early Yeah. So you get excited about it and you don’t think, oh, shoot. Right. Oh, I’ve gotta be at the airport at six o’clock. You know, I, I like flying earlier. I’m that kind of guy, but it’s not for everybody. Well, yeah, I don’t guess flying early bothers me. I’m just, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t really like, uh, after long hours for four days, yeah. After four days of those long hours, trying to get up the term I work every year, we, we, we, we work Sunday through Sunday and then we have a nine hour drive back, so it’s not fun. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that’s for the company. So it’s not really optional. Craziest thing I did. This is like, Oh, five. Um, friend of a friend type thing got me in and we crewed me and this guy did on a GT3 Porsche for the Rolex 24 hour at Daytona. So the race starts at noon, Saturday, it ends noon, Sunday, and we drove back to Atlanta. It was one of the dumbest things that I’d ever done. And I took, I tell your knuckles deep in it, you know, that you’re like, this was a bad idea. When I took, uh, the first stint, he had a F 350 four door and, uh, so he lays down in the back seat and he’s like, you got the first stint. And I’m like, Oh, God. And, uh, yeah, I called my wife at the time and talked to her for like three hours, trying to stay awake. I mean, it was tough, really, really tough. Oh, I know. I know the feeling. Yep. Especially after a couple of barley pops, you know. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, and that was the thing like leading up to it. So we went down on a Thursday and every night we wouldn’t get done until, you know, time we eat dinner and have a few beers or whatever. It’s close to midnight and then we’re up at seven o’clock the next morning. And yeah, fun times though. I wouldn’t, wouldn’t trade it for anything. It was so much fun while we were there. Um, my buddy, he, uh, took the door off the car and he threw it at me. And yeah, and I’m like, what is going on? You know, and I catch it, it’s carbon fiber. It weighs five pounds. Maybe. No, I had no idea. I had no idea. He chucks it at me. Like you’re trying to kill me, but yeah, no, it was really cool stuff. Um, they, uh, figured out that the car was burning about a quart of oil. I think every three hours and you never have to change it then well right you want to change it but so the engine’s sealed from portion you can’t touch it you know race specs or whatever so they had uh this canister and it was like a small fire extinguisher and they would put a quart of oil in it and pressurize it and they put a port on the car and, you know, every other pit stop or whatever, they’d put a quart of oil in it. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, not, you know, don’t check it, nothing, just add more oil. Don’t want to run out. Um. Well, you’re better off having too much. Well, yeah, yeah, for sure. No, it was fun though. It was a good time. I’d love to go back and uh, do something like that again. Well, anybody else want to, want to get in here and, and speak? Not taking anything away from Brian, but, um, so it’s a, it’s a small crowd tonight. I know Kevin just said in the group he wanted to come in, so, and he’s here. Okay, well, I’m gonna invite him to speak and see what happens. I know a couple times, uh, before he, uh, was having trouble. Yeah, when him and Kayla were having problems that one time. Yeah, yeah. Yep. And if Kayla wouldn’t have any problems, I would have said it was a Canadian thing, But since Kayla was in that group, I’m really excited about the episode that’s coming out tomorrow, Erin Miller, she’s an assistant. Well, you, you probably saw her cause they recognized her at T TAC. Oh, yeah. Yes. You won a technician of the year, TPC, Piper Glenn and Charlotte. Cause I think they’re, I think they’re a wardener when I show it back up down there after I missed the morning classes. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. After you missed the morning classes. Yep. That’s a, it’s easy to do at the beach. I talked to him down again. Yeah. I’ll definitely, I mean, you know, unless something comes up, I’ll definitely, uh, Be down there this year to talk to Chad Kintzer Here a week ago or so just saying hey, and what’s up? I thought about texting him not too long ago Yeah, he’s a good one, and I’m in the Yeah, if anybody else wants to hop on and talk Well, I invited, uh, Kevin to speak and I don’t know if it’s not working or what the deal is. Hard to tell. It’s supper time for a lot of people. They might just have it on and listening. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve been. That’s right. About 15 minutes, I got a date with some tacos. So. Oh, I see. Yep. Yep. I’ll have to get up. I’ll have to get off, but I want to make sure I got on this one because I missed the last two. Well, no, I appreciate you hopping off for sure. So when is harvest? Uh, just the year to year, it’s a little different. I mean, basically when the, you’d start with corn generally, and then usually once it gets dry, but usually end of September, beginning of October around here. Okay, so. But it may, it goes through, you know, it takes us a month, month and a half almost, because there’s only three or four of us that do it, so. So I should get to experience some harvest action. Yep. If not, if not, we can run the four of the big tractor with the Ripper on it and we can do some dirt work or something. Oh yeah, that would be awesome. We’ll get you, I’ll get you in something. Yeah, what was the horsepower of the tractor? Uh, that one is like a 450. Yeah, only 450 horsepower. That’s nuts for a tractor. Yeah, it’s bigger than a semi, that one, it’s huge. I remember one of the first times I ever got on a D5 dozer. I was like, how many horsepower is this? And they’re like, that’s a hundred horse. What? Yeah. That’s amazing what you could do with hydraulics and gearing. Oh yeah, for sure. Like our, our skid steer is a hundred horsepower and you wouldn’t know it. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, a hundred horsepower and a skid steer, that’s, that’s heavy duty. That’s big. It’s way too big for golf course, but that’s what they wanted. Uh, we got a Kubota SVL 75 so 75 horse and honestly, it’s about perfect for golf We’re under lightweight too because ours is so heavy. It seems like it’s hard to turn it on concrete even it’s just this is big Mm hmm. I remember when we were buying it I asked the sales guys like how long will these tracks typically last? And he said, well, how much will you be using it on concrete? And I said, 100% of the time. And he goes, Ooh, I mean, not that we’d never take it off the concrete, but that’s majority of his life. Yes. Loading sand. Once you get that, that little thin layer of sand underneath you, then you’re good. They’ll turn easy. Yeah. Yeah. No, it definitely helps. I would think. Yeah. We just opened up our. 12 bedroom, eight bedroom and owner’s cottage or house, whatever you want to call them. I think we’ve got like 60 rooms on site now. Oh, wow. That’s really cool. If you come up, I’m going to try and get you to stay in the nice one, but we’ll see if they’ll let me or not. We won’t be busy that time of year. So. Well, yeah, I mean, I’ll, I’ll stay wherever. It don’t matter to me. I can pitch a tent if I have to. You wouldn’t have to do that. Yeah. I already got it approved for you to stay if you come up. Okay. Sweet. Sweet. Awesome. No, I’m really looking forward to it. That’ll be a fun time for sure. Yeah, always is. How many people do y’all usually have come out? Uh, for just in general? Well, yeah, well for y’all’s events. The EM won last year. I think it was the first, uh, equipment manager won and it was 35 people showed up. Okay, awesome. And then I anticipate more this year. Yeah, definitely. Well, Kevin finally made it on. What’s happening, Kevin? Ah, can you hear me okay? Yeah, I can hear you. Okay. Um, I, I can hear myself with your speaker on a lot of feedback for some reason. God, this thing’s crap. You might have to turn it down just a little bit here. Your speaker’s picking up. I got, I got headphones in though. Oh, I don’t know then. Yeah, that’s strange. Yeah, I don’t know. Well, how are you doing, Kevin? How are you doing, Kevin? I’m okay, yourself? Yeah, I’m doing good. You’re doing good. You keeping, uh, keeping, uh, Tay the mechanic straight? Uh, trying to. We’re both pretty busy right now. It’s been crazy. Um, lots on the go, but also crazy family life, too. So, uh, better work life balance. Um, Just lots on the go. I was, uh, I was just talking to Tay and Mike and, uh, something that came up today. I was going to throw this out to you guys. So, having a new guy in the shop, and you’re always like, this is the way I like things done. You know, you’ll see a reason why I do things the way I do. And, so what I, what happened towards the end of the day, all the fairway mowers get parked in the barn, and I like them all perfectly lined up. With the heads down, like, you know, I don’t even need a chalk line because they’re so straight, right? Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And, uh, so, after we set them up, he puts them away, and normally I put the furthest one away, and then just keep building off of that so they all fit in perfectly. And, I go down to the barn, and it’s like, he put one on each end first, and then he couldn’t fit the one in the middle, so he just left it out like a foot with the heads down. Hmm. And I just, I, I move it out. I moved the other one over and then I said, I’m all in perfectly. And I said, I’m like, come down here. You got to see this, see the fairway Mars. It’s like, yeah. I’m like, I know it might not be a big deal, but what it shows me, I’m always watching is your attention to detail. Right. Right, right. And. If you can’t figure out that attention to detail, how can I trust you on major things? Right. Now, that’s a good point and Yeah, I went all right. It’s just I’m like, oh my god, just so many little things, you know Yeah, it can definitely be really frustrating all that stuff and I’m always a stickler with when we park machines, especially greens mowers and stuff Whatever ones you want used the next day, you make sure they’re up in front, because even if you told them which ones to use and not to use, the operator will just grab the first one they can get to. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yep. Every time. Every time. That’s why I keep saying there’s a method to my mayhem. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. It’s funny you say that, because… We park, uh, we started parking our ferry motors different this year, so there’s six of them, and they get parked all right in a row. So I told the superintendent, I said, you know what’s going to happen, right? They’re going to, they’re going to take the first few all the time, and they get all the hours. So, once a week now I have to go rotate them and put the highest hours in the back and the lowest in the front. Or you have to physically disconnect the batteries so they can only take the two you want to use. And then they come in and say, Hey, this isn’t working. Because you weren’t supposed to use it. Yeah, you can look at that, Brian, a couple ways. Because if they’re always using one unit, it goes faster than the other six or five, whatever you got. It’s true, it’s true. Um, because I’ve definitely had my own dialed in within like a sense of each other. I think it’s kind of funny. You’d be like, oh, can you make this one faster? It’s not as fast as like number three. And it’s like, how about I slowed down number three? Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. That’s always my answer to you, Kevin. It’s like, Oh, that one’s faster than the other ones. I’ll slow it down. Yeah. I’m actually the other one. Yeah, let’s really have it that way. Yeah, let’s have it that way. Even on our, the, the one end fairway mar, I don’t park it facing outward. I have to park it facing in because the progators park next to it. That’s where they start. And if I have it sitting the other way, I’ve already had it happen. They’ll pull a progator out and drive right over the corner of the cutting unit. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was out on the course the other morning. And it was an e car pulling a John Deere trailer, the guy was mowing grains, and there’s a guy on a pro gator that is trying to pass him and just totally runs right into the trailer, like tire to tire, so there’s not really any damage. Uh, but you know, like throw my hands, uh, what, what happened? And he said, I thought I cleared it. It’s like, well, obviously you did not clear it. I was, uh, I don’t know. How did these people get driver’s license? They can’t figure out that they’re sitting on top of the wheel, right? And even bridges will get whacked and stuff because they don’t turn wide enough. To let that tire, you know, that’s trailing. Oh yeah. Yup. Yup. The fuck, man. Well, yeah, every, every corner on our golf course does not have grass and I really think it’s due to our operators, not the golfers. I think what you meant to say was every corner on every golf course. Well, yeah, maybe I can’t speak for everybody else’s golf course. I know what mine looks like and it drives me crazy. Well, and Goodwood. You know, Angus Clan is like Tournament Factory, but in Goodwood it averages 25 rounds a day, okay? And, all the quarters are chewed out, and I know for a fact it’s not because of the golfers. Uh, yep. Good point. What? The entrances and exits to fairways, it’s from the, the maintenance staff, not the golfers. Mm hmm. We had a sign up on the board for a while and it was a picture of one of the corners and it says cut a corner today equals a saw job tomorrow, but that didn’t help. They still do it all the time. Our place Well, yeah, I thought about that too, like putting a boulder, but then I’m just going to have bent axles and that kind of stuff. And if you do gravel, where does the gravel end? You know, the gravel end up being all the way to the fairway at some point. They did at Angus in the past, like cobblestone bricks, you know, in those areas. Mm hmm. They just drove on them and then it got wider again, Right. That, that’s be my concern too. Yeah. Even if you do any like flagstone or cobblestone, they, they’ll still cut that corner Right. So it doesn’t matter what you do. Yeah. Yep. No, it’s, it’s crazy. Well, I, it does make me feel better that I’m not the only one that, uh, suffers from that. I’m gonna look at all the, all the corners when I get up to, uh, T p c Highlands, see what, see what they’re looking like. Did the, uh, Detroit, um, golf club or whatever after the greens got sprayed with that stuff to get that figured out? I’m not sure what, yeah, what are you referring to where they do the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Somebody sprayed like Roundup and or something on a bunch of their greens. Oh, yeah. I hadn’t, I hadn’t heard any, but not a, not an employee, but, Yeah, I hadn’t heard anything about that. I heard it was an ex employee, disgruntled employee, but that could be a rumor. Yeah, and it was in like a pattern, like somebody took a bottle with a hole in it and was just spreading it. My dad did that to our home lawn a few years ago. Instead of, instead of killaxe, he grabbed the roundup, and it was… The second bottle was dripping from spot to spot. Nice. Yeah, I don’t we had a backpack blower this morning. Poor gas all over our putting green. I don’t know if he didn’t have the cap on or what the deal was. I couldn’t find anything obviously wrong and why it was leaking. So, that’s all I can think is the cap was loose. He’s out there blowing the green off and spreading gasoline everywhere. That’s going to look good tomorrow. Well, job security though. I guess, I guess that’s job security. Not for him, maybe. Well, he’s uh, H2B. So I think we’re stuck with him. I don’t know how that works. If you can fire those guys or not. What’s H2B? It’s um, a program they put together to bring in immigrant workers to the U. S. And, um, some of these guys are from Mexico, I think. Um, I’m trying to remember where some of the other ones were from. Um, but I will say the work ethic is awesome. After being around all these high school kids that are a little… Privilege probably growing up and then you have these guys come in, they work circles around them. Not scared to get their hands dirty. They just hop in there and get it done. I thought the immigrants were taking all the jobs down there. Well, that’s that’s what they say, but… Um, we need somebody that wants to do the jobs. Yeah, exactly. They’re doing the jobs that other people don’t want to do. Yeah. I really don’t think that, uh, there’s any jobs that, um, need to get done that you couldn’t get a job for if you wanted one right now. I mean, every place you drive by is hiring. So if you’re not working, it’s probably your own fault. Agreed. I don’t, what’s it like up there, Kevin? As far as employees and labor and all those things. It’s all about exactly the same. And, uh, it’s so tough that even like the restaurant, trying to hire staff for servers. And they, they’re offering even more money than what you can pay the maintenance staff. So then the maintenance staff are like, you know, why should I work out here when I can go do that and make more, you know? But every place is looking for something. But again, there are jobs that, you know, uh, fast food restaurants, they don’t pay much. Like. If you want people, you’re going to have to pay more. Um, can I say, right? Oh yeah, for sure. And I know us at the golf course, our pay has went up tremendously in the last couple to three years for sure. But if you want somebody who’s going to stick around for a while, you have to give them the money that You gotta be able to live off of it and everything is so expensive that, you know, I sometimes like how the heck am I doing it? You know? Oh yeah. One like JR up on Long Island, they own a house, the golf club does, to house employees because the cost of living there is so expensive. I know. Exactly. Exactly. Like. Uh, it’s a huge deal that I have living on the property cause it’s just crazy. I think there’s more and more courses doing stuff like that, buying, you know, houses close by and things like that for interns or whatever it is. Yeah. And I think that’s a really good benefit too for. Getting employees in if you got a place to house them. So, uh, Tyler D put a commented on our space here and he said, speaking of high school kids, how do you feel about wealthy communities getting those kids into the summer jobs on a golf course? And I’ll take it first. Um, I don’t have an issue. Anybody that wants to work, let’s put them to work. Um, my personal experience with the wealthier kids, they don’t have the same drive, work ethic, or lack or, you know, they lack common knowledge and skills that a lot of the people in rural areas have. And when I grew up, I grew up in a rural area and hauled hay as a kid. You know, so I was around tractors a lot as a kid, you know, and when stuff broke, we had to work on it, whether, and my dad, he’s no master mechanic, but he knew, you know, a lot of stuff about a lot of things. And if he didn’t know how to fix it, he knew somebody that did. So I learned a lot, you know, just growing up and that culture, if you will, where the. Kids that I have experience with growing up and wealthier communities. Um, they don’t really get that practical knowledge, um, as they grow up. So I think it is, uh, it’s harder for those kids to, to work on a golf course and do a lot of the jobs that we need to do. Anybody else want to take a stab at that? I mean, yeah, as long as you’re willing to train and keep an eye on them while they’re doing those tasks for a while until they get used to it. Um, I’ve got some experience with that a little bit and it’s worked out pretty positively for us, but I’m not speaking for everybody on that. So yeah, how did it work out positively? Uh, good, one of them still works there and he’s, he’s there, uh, working every day, does a good job. As long as you, sometimes there’s remedial training on certain things verbally, but, that’s, that’s just, you have to have the drive to want to work and everything, so. Well, I guess, yeah, that’s what it boils down to, probably, more than, uh, anything. You know, anybody that wants to work can, can work and be successful. Hey guys, I gotta hop off, but thanks for, thanks for having me again, Trent, and good seeing everybody that I know in there. Yeah, no, thanks for coming, Brian, and enjoy your date with your tacos. Alright, thanks. See ya, Brian. I love tacos. Oh, I do too. Yeah. Who doesn’t love a taco? Who doesn’t love a taco? Uh, yeah, anybody else want to jump in here? Got anything they want to say? Get off their chest? We probably won’t go too much longer. I’m just thinking like, uh, you know, a lot of the wealthier kids that they don’t want to work. Yeah, I think that’s a great point too. Um, and that’s, you know, kind of been my experience too. You know, even if we hire them, they don’t pay for university. Do you know what I mean? Or to pay for their first car because they’ve never had to do that. So, well. Well, yeah, I don’t know how many kids on our crew drive BMWs and Mercedes. And not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m not driving a BMW or Mercedes. Our director of agronomy doesn’t drive a BMW or Mercedes and he gets paid pretty well. I think I’d question you if you were driving a BMW and Mercedes. That’d be okay. You can question me. Probably don’t get any dirt under your fingernails either, right? I’ll, I’ll send you a picture right now, Kevin, of the dirt. I couldn’t get out from under my fingernails from today. Uh, it has, uh, it’s changed a lot. I mean, I do sit at a computer a lot more than I did in the past, but really the last, I don’t know, three or four months I’ve been in the shop a lot and I’ve really enjoyed it. It was nice getting back. Doing that kind of stuff. All the paperwork just gets tedious and boring and not my thing. I just want to be in the shot where I’m not constantly pulled every two seconds. Well, I do think that’s one of the biggest challenges that we have as equipment managers or technicians or whatever, you know, you get focused on one thing and then you get pulled away and then when you go back, then you. I’ll speak from my experience. The older I get, the longer it takes me to get back going. I always find like when you’re like, how long did it take you to sharpen a triflex? Well, it’s been a couple of days now and I’m on the second cutting unit. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I had a superintendent and I didn’t even know the superintendent really, but he sent me an email or something asking me, how long does it take to grind the triplex? And I didn’t know he was a mechanic either, but I’m just assuming that it was taken longer than the superintendent thought it should. But, you know, I just gave him the vague answer of, it all depends. There’s many different variables and like somebody said, you’re, you know, one broken bolt away from a day lost in labor. I’m always finding lately, if I have, like if I have to be somewhere, like I got to get out right on time to be somewhere, nothing goes right. But if that. My end of the day is still the same time, but I don’t have to go. Everyone goes well and I’m done early. You know what I mean? It’s a fricking deadline. Nothing goes right. Yes. Uh, Murphy’s law, I guess. I don’t know what it is. Bastard. Yeah. Poor Murphy. What you got going on? Chris Turfer. Hey guys. Not much is happening right now. We’re actually having to deal with a lot of rain storms. Is that unusual for you? Well, no. June is our good month. That’s when we usually get a lot of rain, but we actually just had a whole pile of, uh, forest fires and stuff, so we still got it. Yeah, I can’t. So, hang on. My our choir’s place. Um, but yeah, we’ve had a whole bunch of, uh, rainstorms and we had some fire horse fires and stuff. And now we’re just trying to just re sod some stuff and, uh, make the golf course pretty again. All right. So what’s a horse fire? Oh, sorry. Forest. Forest fire. Okay. Okay. I got you. All right. I was like, I didn’t know that was some Canadian thing about horse fires. Horses are pooping on the trail and starting fires. I, you know, I didn’t know that would be a hell of a lot more educating. Yeah. Well, haven’t you ever gone through a Canadian airport and gone through what is it horse tax instead of duty free? I don’t, yeah, I missed that one too. I guess the one time I come through the airport there in Calgary, it was saying, uh, what is the Mounties dressed up? Yeah, that was, that was cool. Seeing those guys and gals. I think I did see, uh, yeah. What, what, what are they? White pants. Uh, red shirts, no, no, that was a black pants and red shirt. Yeah. Yeah. The people that you saw were just volunteers who we in Calgary, we call them white hatter and they have a cowboy hat on red, red shirt, white pants, and they welcome guests to Calgary. If you buy a cowboy hat. Yep. Okay. It’s one of the silly things that are happening around here, but I actually had a guest, um, Shane Courtney, he and his wife actually came by and they finally came up, he did, he came up and uh, went to BAMF, so he dropped in and said hello. Oh, that is awesome. So cool. to see him again. Oh, it was really cool. I don’t, that guy gets around, it seems like, cause he’s in the Bahamas and I mean, he travels all over. I think it’s his wife. Ah. Apparently she just really likes our national parks and she wants to go out and see a bunch of them. And, and change just along for the ride I suppose. Or he’s the driver to get her there. Well, hey, I’d take it. Yeah. I’ll have to, too. You’ll have to ask him if she needs a ride somewhere else. Yeah. He’ll be happy to drive somebody around. To get, I mean Banff, that, that was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, for sure. Who are you talking about? I can’t even hear Chris. Um, Shane Picorni, at uh, in Kansas, Manhattan, Kansas. What’s the name of the course? Colbert Hills. Yes, Colbert Hills. Who’s the super there? Um, Matt Gourlay. Yep, Matt Gourlay, a fellow Canadian, I believe. Hey, you can call him a Canuck. A Canuck, okay. That’s good. Well, no, that’s awesome. Yeah, if any of y’all ever get to Atlanta, make sure and come see me. Oh, I’m gonna try my hardest. Um, about an hour from the airport. So you were still a long way away. Plus it takes you an hour to get out of the Atlanta airport. Oh, it’s big shooter. Big shooter. Finally made it in. He was only an hour late. He’s probably going to tell us some story about how he had to mow the driving range to you or something. SDM joining the club. Yep. What’s up, Seth? What’s up, boys? Do you have to mow the driving range, too? Not tonight. With fresh ground reels? I’m still at the shop. Oh, wow. Okay. I hear the echo. What are you doing there so late? We got the Michigan in this week. Like I said, what are you doing there so late? Well, we’re, uh, I’m hanging out. I, I come in when the guys come in and I leave when the guys leave, so, no, I gotcha. One, one team, one mission. When does the, the round start, are they already started? Uh, they started today. Okay. Yep. How many days? Uh, they go till Saturday. Okay. Wow. Yeah, it’s a big, big tournament. That is a big tournament. We’re supposed to host it next year for the, uh, It’s the hundred year anniversary of the, the, the GAM Golf Association in Michigan. We’re supposed to host it next year, but, uh, since we’re hosting the U SS G A Junior Ram, they’re, uh, they, they pushed it up a a year on us. Gotcha. Makes sense. Yep. Very cool. How, how’d the, uh, I totally whiffed on the, uh, turf talk. How’d it go? Um, Oh, this is it, man. I don’t, it was, uh, it was a small crowd. Me, Kevin, Brian, uh, Chris got on and then there’s a couple other listeners. Um, not nothing, nothing too exciting. You didn’t miss much. Hey, I’m going to say this because I’m sure since you’re recording this, people will listen, but we can do better than that. Oh yeah, for sure. And I mean, I’ll take a lot of the blame for not putting it out soon enough. And hell, I forgot about it until you called me last night. So I told that story earlier too. And I told how you got the nickname Big Shooter. I told that story. Oh, did you? Mm hmm. Sure did. Yep. Did you give out my address again? No, I did not give out your address. This time. Oh, okay. That’s fine. Yeah. No, it’s all good. Yep. Good times. For sure. You, uh, you didn’t send me that email. I know. Um, I might do that tonight. All right, but yeah, I got, I got sidetracked last night. I was trying to get that episode out that drops tomorrow. That’s a, it’s good to, good to see Kevin’s on here. He’s got nothing better to do. Everything’s all tip top shape, bud. Tip top shape. I sound, do I sound like I’m underwater? Cause I’m currently down exploring the Titanic. Oh, are you? You’re on a submarine, huh? This is such a cold I don’t, I remember Jr. Telling me when I was up there visiting him, you know, he’s volunteer fire guy. And so they spent a lot of time at the firehouse and they really give each other a hard time. I mean, to the point where I thought Jr would probably get in a fight with his brother in law. He was talking to him so bad. I was like, how do you put up with that? Is this really a joke? You know, I mean, they’re ragging on each other hard. But anyway, he was telling me that they always do that. And if somebody walks in the room and it gets quiet, you’re the guy that nobody likes. So you better watch out. Yeah, Well, yeah, exactly. Yep. I’ll second that one. Yep. That’s, uh, that’s what we do. Yeah, that’s what I tell people that all the time. I say, if I’m not making fun of you, it’s because I don’t like you. Right, exactly right. You must really like me then. Mm hmm. I love you. I love you, Kevin. Aw, sweet. Yeah, I think he like likes you. Yeah, I like, like you. Good stuff. Now this is being recorded, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah, we might have to throw this one out, Trent. That’s okay, well yeah, I’ve kind of been dropping the ball on this anyway, because I don’t think I’ve uh, published like the last three we’ve done. Hey, I like it, I like it better if you don’t publish it. Okay. So you can talk about loving Kevin and they’re not getting published. Yeah. Okay. Chris, how you been? I’ve been doing good, Seth. Been really good, actually. Having a fun time still. You bean good or been good? I am good. That’s good stuff. A bean good of no excellence. What kind of bean? Is it a pinto bean or a kidney bean? What are we talking about? Nah, we’re just gonna go with the good old fashioned chickpea. Long coast there, buddy. Good to hear, man. You’re further east than I am. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I’m from the south, so we say Bean. Bean, you, you eat beans, you don’t, you bin good. Bin’s my brother, but, uh, we also bin good. I thought bin was what you put your rubbish into. Oh, yeah. Rubbish. What’s rubbish? Yeah, what’s rubbish? Okay, it’s the garbage can in the garage. Yes. Why are you rubbing ish? Because, I don’t know what better to deal with it. Oh, man. Oh, boy. I love my neighbors to the north. Yep, yep. On a serious note, looking at your neighbors. Oh, what, what, what kind of beans do you eat in Canada? Cooked ones. Really? That’s a serious, yeah, that’s a serious question. I don’t know. Brown beans. Any type, I don’t know. Stuff that comes out of a can. Yeah, I don’t, none. None of this is, uh, Really working for me. I didn’t even realize that there was a bunch of beans that you could consume. Oh, there’s tons of beans. The thing is called a bundle of beans. Kidney beans. Pimento beans. Yeah, I’ve heard of kidney beans. I haven’t had those. That’s a pea, Kevin. We’re talking beans, not peas. Pimento. Well, a pea and a bean is the same thing. Pimento’s what you eat on a sandwich with cheese. You are a beiner. Says shows up in the content just goes right into the rubbish bin. I’m trying to make this so the current can’t post it. Well, yeah, it’s definitely, uh, it’s definitely getting there. I think we lost everybody with the bean talk. Bean talk This is shop talk. Yeah, shop. Shop. Bean talk. Bean Talk. Well, just so y’all know. Here in the south. Here in the south. I love pento beans. I love pento beans. Oh yeah. This is the best bean out there. Bean out there. The guys don’t like it when I’ve had beans in the shop. Well, probably not. Yes, Definitely not. 24 hours after you have them. Yeah. Yeah. No, we, we, we just have beans. I don’t know. It’s like chili beans. You have chili, you have beans in it. Well, that usually has kidney beans, right? And chili. It could. But yeah, there’s, uh. It depends on who’s cooking. What, what normally? Chili beans are technically pinto beans with some chili sauce. So, it’s actually not a chili bean. You can’t actually grow a chili bean. You can grow a chili pepper. Oh boy. That’s not a bean Oh, lordy. Look at you. Put some rub on your steak and now you’re a connoisseur. Oh yeah. I’m a connoisseur of all things, bro. My name’s big shooter. That’s right. Don’t forget it. People don’t forget it. People who puts a rub on a steak, like really? Oh dude, it changed my life. I don’t, I am a big fan of Weber. Steak and chop on a steak or a chop Montreal Steaks, please. It’s really good Montreal, of course, no I wouldn’t really say No, all you need is salt and fire. That’s all you need. You need some heat, and you need some salt. That’s it. Hey, Chris, I used to be on that same page, and I used some seasonings the other night that I got as a present. I was like, I’ll give it a shot. Probably best steak I’ve ever cooked. What kind of seasoning? Yeah, but that’s because you’re not a good cook. No, no, no. That’s the, that’s like my, that’s my thing. When, when Trent asked me… You know, what would you do for another career? I’d probably be a chef. Okay, uh, what level of cookiness You gotta cook a lot in the kitchen. Yeah, it’s like, are you eating it well? That’s like a violin. It’s like the shop also in the kitchen. XDM, baby. Yeah. Struttin around. Yep, yep. The big shooter strut. I take my shirt off. Would you guys cook at medium rare? Uh, I, I do cook my steak. Medium rare. It depends on what steak. Oh, thank God. Yeah. Yeah. New York strip is medium rare, filet is rare. And, uh, ribeyes a little more towards the rare, but still medium rare. Just so that fat renders down a little more. Oh yeah. It’s gotta start flowing a bit. Oh, okay. You’re not that bad of a cook. Yeah, I know. I know what the hell I’m doing. Oh my god. That’s one thing about that. You gotta be an expert at at least one thing in your life. Exactly. I suck as a golf course mechanic, but you know what? I’m pretty good cook. If your greens were firmer, it would be, you’d be doing alright. Jesus. Was that your beans are firmer or is it your greens are firmer? What beans are those? Man, we got soft greens. I wouldn’t expect anything else from you. Yep. Well. What, you’re not getting that 13 foot roll off of the, uh, off the stint meter at 2 o’clock? Well, that has nothing to do with firmness, but, you know, we can go there. What, 2 o’clock? Well, considering they don’t get any grass, they get less grass than they did the day before on the morning that we mowed. Yeah, we were probably rolling faster than we were at 8 o’clock. No, it’s a 2 o’clock stint meter party. That’s where the guys are supposed to take it, I thought. All 2 o’clock having to go out with their stint meters and go checking everything. That’s what Twitter tells you. Yeah. The, the, uh, the, the golf course, Twitter intendant. Oh, thank goodness. I don’t have one of those. Yeah, I did have a superintendent tell me one time, this was a long time ago, but he, and it was ultra dwarf, um, Bermuda greens. And he said, they only grow at night. They don’t grow during the day. So, so the greens would actually get faster during the day because the grass wasn’t growing. Can you believe that you can be a superintendent? I mean, there’s, there’s some, you know, there’s, okay. So like our clip yield on, on greens is nothing. I’ll take a picture and show you. I mean, it’s literally nothing. So I think personally here, our greens speed up throughout the day because they’re not growing one, two, it dries out, it does get firmer. Right. If you were to take a step at seven o’clock, there’s still going to be some moisture on the leaf and that’s going to slow your ball down. So I think actually our greens do get faster as the day goes on, not slower as what everybody else tells you. Okay. Yeah, I gotcha. That’s pretty good for soft greens. Pretty, pretty good. Yeah. I don’t know what I’m doing. I gotta sign off. My phone’s about to die. Night guys. Yep. Yeah, I gotta, I gotta run too. I’m getting out of here. I’m gonna hop in my car and drive home. Alright. I’ll see y’all. Thanks everybody. Enjoyed it. Good night y’all. I don’t wanna eat beans. I have a bean tastic night. I won’t be able to think about anything but though. I gotta bean able to think anything else? Well, I’m just a has been, I can’t do anything. Yeah, what kind of bean is that? Alright, boys. See y’all. Later. Yeah, I should probably hop off too, Trent. I’ve gotta go actually cook. Alright, have fun. Everybody have a good night. Yeah, later. Good night, all. See y’all later.

 

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