Our host, Trent Manning, CTEM recaps his trip across Wisconsin with Austin Wright, CTEM. He started at Chicago Golf Club where he met Tony Nunes. Then, stopped by Medina to see Brian Bressler. He spoke a Kenosha Country Club for the Wisconsin Chapter of GCSAA. Next he spent the day with Austin Wright. CTEM at Sand Valley Golf Resort. He did a tour of the Foley Company factory in Prescott, WI. He also went to the Toro Company headquarters. He stopped by Town and Country Club to visit Chad Braun.
Check out the YouTube video here.
Transcript
Trent Manning: 0:05
welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we’ll learn tips and tricks. I’m your host, Trent. Manning let’s have some this episode are real turf techs on golf course industries Superintendent radio network is presented by Foley county a strong supporter of equipment technicians and golf course maintenance departments everywhere Foley county offers a proven solution for above and below the turf for turf professionals To learn more about Foley company’s line of real grinders bed knife grinders and the air to G2 family of products or to find a distributor visit www dot Foley C o.com Foley Ready for play Welcome to the Real Turf Text, Wisconsin Roadshow Recap with Austin Wright. Thank you Austin for being here.
Austin Wright: 1:14
Thanks, Trent. I’m, I’m excited to be here and, excited to see that you made it back to Georgia and it was, uh, it was a great week up here, so, I’m, excited to talk about it.
Trent Manning: 1:23
Yeah, I had, I had so much fun. And first things first, I wanna thank you and Justin Prescott for, uh, having me up to speak at Justin’s club in Kenosha, Wisconsin. That was my main reason for the journey. But, uh, we gotta do a lot of other cool stuff
Austin Wright: 1:41
Yeah. That was, uh, that was a fun event. We’ll, we’ll talk about that here in a little bit. I’m sure.
Trent Manning: 1:46
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Um, for. So the way, just for the listeners, the way this is gonna break down is I got the camera roll pulled up again, so hopefully I won’t miss anything. And unfortunately, Austin wasn’t able to be with me when I was in Chicago and I stopped at Chicago Country Club and Meina. But I’m gonna scroll through some of those pictures and, see what jogs my memory. one of the first things I noticed at Chicago Golf Club is, well obviously it’s one of the oldest courses, I think in the country or something like that. I don’t remember when it, like 1880 or something. It was really old. but I met with the technician there, Tony, super nice guy. the facility was pretty old, but he does a really good job of keeping everything organized. Everything’s clean and. He’s doing a great job there and he’s doing it all by hisself. He said he’d been look looking for an assistant for like a year and a half and haven’t been able to find anybody.
Austin Wright: 2:50
Wow. And he’s got 18 holes.
Trent Manning: 2:53
Yes. 18 holes and I think it was about a hundred acres. I mean it was a pretty small property, but it was amazing. And yeah, they’re in like the top 15 or something of golf courses, amazing facility, lot of history there.
Austin Wright: 3:08
Very cool.
Trent Manning: 3:09
super flat piece of property and they had a lot of native areas kind of in between the holes and they pay a farmer, I guess, to come in and bill it for hay
Austin Wright: 3:20
Oh, there you go.
Trent Manning: 3:21
Yep, they had just, uh, done that. And I don’t, all the greens complexes, you know, it was like a square almost. Made me, I don’t know that much about golf, but it made me think of like really old traditional golf club
Austin Wright: 3:35
Mm-hmm. old architecture.
Trent Manning: 3:37
yeah, where the bunkers, if they wanted a bunker, they just dig a hole in the ground, pile the dirt up behind it, and then fill the hole in with sand and call that a bunker,
Austin Wright: 3:46
There you go. What, uh, what turf type do you remember? Trent.
Trent Manning: 3:50
I think. Kentucky Bluegrass, I’m pretty sure, and then bent grass greens, and I think the bent greens had some po in ’em, but not a whole lot, if I remember right.
Austin Wright: 4:03
That’s really good for, you know, an older facility like that.
Trent Manning: 4:06
yeah, it was beautiful out there too, of course, timing with the leaves and all that. and some of the, the collars were unbelievable. The slope of the. He said they mowed it with a Toro 1000 and it took two people. So you had a person using the mower and then another person with a rope holding the mower up on the collar it was such a angle. I mean, it was nuts. Never,
Austin Wright: 4:33
Wow. Look at that. Yeah, you’re right, man. Yeah. If no one’s holding that bunker or holding that mower up, it is right in the bunker.
Trent Manning: 4:41
yeah. I mean, it was pro, at least a 30 degree slope into the bunker off the green. And they’re mowing that with a aluminum drum.
Austin Wright: 4:50
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 4:51
Tony had, he had, uh, Foley 6 53, real grinder, pretty new. So I was, uh, trying to get some pictures for tips and tricks, and he’d made a little, It’s a piece of pipe with a hole drilled in it and uh, an eyeball. And that’s what he uses to pick up his 55, 10 cutting units. So it just goes over the pin that attaches to the machine.
Austin Wright: 5:17
Okay, so it acts like a sleeve and then it goes through the pin, like the, the pin hole there and basically locks it in like it would. That’s really cool. the fact that it picks it up from that, that Toro pin, and then you’re lifting it from a normal standpoint. That’s, that’s, that’s a cool little device there.
Trent Manning: 5:35
so after I left Chicago Golf Club, I went over to Medina to see Brian Wrestler. And as soon as you pull in is this massive clubhouse, and I think Madonna had 54 holes. So three 18 hole golf courses. really impressive. The whole facility was,
Austin Wright: 5:55
That is an amazing clubhouse.
Trent Manning: 5:57
and then you go in Brian shop and. It’s like eating off the floor. I mean, I’d be happy to eat off the floor cuz everything is so clean. He keeps it spotless in there. And when we were doing the testing at his shot, we were giving him a hard time about, you know, do you work in here? You do all your work outside. And this is just for show, you know? Yeah. Crazy. But his, uh, I loved his parts room because it’s all drawers and all the parts are stored in drawers. I don’t, you know, it just looks a lot neater and organized.
Austin Wright: 6:28
That is a good looking parts room. Definitely something to take with you.
Trent Manning: 6:33
And then his pride and joy was this air compressor. I don’t know what it cost, but it’s a rotary screw air compressor with a dryer on it. and he was all excited about this air compressor that he had in. Another cool thing that he had that I really liked was he had this, uh, storage cube and you could store used dull waste fuel and waste antifreeze, and it was all in this one containment and it was a double wall tank, so you didn’t have to have secondary containment underneath it. And whatever company he uses would come and pump it all out, and it’s all right there in one spot. I thought it was pretty slick set up.
Austin Wright: 7:17
did he mention where he got that tank?
Trent Manning: 7:19
No, I don’t remember. But if you’re on Twitter, just send Brian a dm. He’s gonna get a bunch of dms now. It’s like, what is this about? But yeah, no, he’d be happy to tell you where he got it from. He just got a, a new advent five 30 little wheel. Pretty, uh, cool machine. So they were checking it out, making sure everything was good to go before they put it in service.
Austin Wright: 7:42
Is that an articulating machine? Yes. Okay.
Trent Manning: 7:46
Yes. It’s like a little mini wheel loader and I’ve, I think, uh, Kevin Henninger, he uses ’em up in Canada. I think there’s a lot more golf courses going to them versus a skidsteer, and not that they wouldn’t have a skidsteer, but for loading sand, I think they’re a lot better.
Austin Wright: 8:08
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 8:08
Then he had this really cool, uh, welding table in there that was, uh, mobile on casters, and it came with all the clamps, and it’s got all the holes on top so you can clamp down different fixtures and you’re working on a flat surface. I really like the idea of that. And then his, uh, MIG welder, uh, 2 55 Multimatic Miller. So it would do TIG arc.
Austin Wright: 8:34
Oh, the table. How it has all the, the mounting hardware underneath it there,
Trent Manning: 8:39
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s, yeah, he said it came with all of that, which is, yeah. Really cool. oh, and this was kind of first for me at Madina. The shop has their own bathroom for the shop guys. I thought it was pretty nice.
Austin Wright: 8:55
No way. That’s awesome.
Trent Manning: 8:57
Yeah. Yeah. And the crew and everybody else has got their set of restrooms, but the shop had their own set with the shower back there too.
Austin Wright: 9:05
I mean, this looks like it should be in the clubhouse. How nice it was.
Trent Manning: 9:09
Oh yeah. No, it’s, yeah, it’s super nice. For sure. so the other thing I really like there, he had all these, workstations and they were all set up the same. So a lot of the same tools and all that kind of stuff at each workstation. And the other thing they have, uh, I should get Brian probably to talk about this more in depth, but he’s got an apprenticeship program where he brings in technicians and they give him a toolbox, Husky box, fully stocked with Husky tools, about a $3,000 value. if they stay there for the three years, I think it was, they get to keep the tools, which I thought that was super awesome that he’s doing that. Trying to get more younger people in there.
Austin Wright: 9:56
That’s really cool.
Trent Manning: 9:57
yeah, it was just a super nice facility. It was huge and the equipment storage and the amount of equipment they got, it was, it was pretty impressive. And they took me out on the course for a ride around.
Austin Wright: 10:09
Are they serving all 54 holes out of the one location?
Trent Manning: 10:13
Yes. Yep, yep. Everything happens at that one location. So they basically had a huge barn where everything was stored, and then the shop offices and break room were in another building.
Austin Wright: 10:28
Okay.
Trent Manning: 10:29
He had two lifts in the shop. I thought that was pretty neat. And then of course, like a lot of shops are, this was the old horse stables back in the day and they had turned that into a shop, but they done an awesome job, renovating it.
Austin Wright: 10:42
I love the fact that older facilities have the ability to renovate these old spaces, cuz it really brings in so much character that you just can’t build. It’s just part of it, you know?
Trent Manning: 10:54
Oh yeah, for sure. Cuz I, I mean that was a cool thing. Everything’s painted and it looks nice, but when you really look, you can tell that they’re like eight by eight beams that’s, uh, holding it up, you know what I mean? A lot of cool architecture that was not lost. And another cool thing that had skylights that opened and closed on top of the roof. When they were renovating the building, they asked Brian like, you wanna take these out? And he’s like, I don’t know. Do they work? They’re like, oh, yeah, they still work. So he still, you know, they left them in there and they can open and close ’em. Not that they open and close ’em a whole lot, but
Austin Wright: 11:29
Oh
Trent Manning: 11:29
that’s the skylights I was talking about. Thought it was super cool.
Austin Wright: 11:32
Oh yeah, on warm days. Get the little extra airflow going through there. Yeah,
Trent Manning: 11:37
Mm-hmm. So after I left Medina, I made my way up to downtown Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Austin Wright: 11:45
there we go.
Trent Manning: 11:45
time I’d, uh,
Austin Wright: 11:47
to that area before.
Trent Manning: 11:49
first time I’d ever. Ever been there. And it was a cool little town. It had a nice downtown area. I stayed pretty much right on Lake Michigan. when I booked the hotel, I tried to get, a lake view room, but, uh, it didn’t, didn’t quite work out. Did not have a, a view of the lake, but beautiful little city. And I got up the next morning and met Justin in Austin at Kenosha Country Club.
Austin Wright: 12:15
It was really cool to be able to host an event for the Wisconsin Gcsa, Tag teamed in with, uh, the Mags chapter, and, and have it be in Kenosha there, right on the border and, and kind of get a group of guys together and gals, you know, that really haven’t spent much time together before. And this was a prime location. So I’m super thankful that Justin was willing to host and, he had a great little facility there for.
Trent Manning: 12:41
So what’s the Mags chapter?
Austin Wright: 12:43
I think it’s MidAmerica. It’s kind of part of the Chicago, Chicago chapter.
Trent Manning: 12:49
Yeah. And there were several that came up right from Chicago Land.
Austin Wright: 12:53
Yeah. I think we had three or four that came up,
Trent Manning: 12:55
Okay. And then most of the others were from Wisconsin or somewhere.
Austin Wright: 13:00
correct. Yeah, and I would say most of them were kind of from the Madison Milwaukee area, sand Valley guys. I mean, we had probably one of the longest drives, about three hours down there, but we had a pretty good group there about about 20 or so people and some great education provided by yourself. And, it was, it was a fun.
Trent Manning: 13:20
no, it was, it, it was a great time. Yeah. And I mean, everybody, uh, seemed entertained. Hopefully, uh, I did okay at that, but, uh, I really enjoyed, I mean, I love speaking and, just getting the word out there so the presentation I done was on growing your network, and then we also talked about mental health and how important that is. It was really good. Everybody seemed to enjoy it and I got a lot of good feedback. And even after the mental health section, one guy come up to me and, uh, you know, talked to me off to the side and told me how much it meant to him. And it seems like every time I talk about mental health, usually there’s at least one that’ll come up, say, I really appreciate you saying that. So it makes me feel good for sure.
Austin Wright: 14:07
And I’m glad that you talked about it cuz it’s something that’s becoming more and more, you know, into the spotlight of everybody’s lives. And, you know, in our industry we, we tend to carry a lot of stress and, take a lot of pride in the work that we put out and, it’s really important to be able. openly discuss mental health, especially with people that are kind of living a similar life as you. So I, I’m very thankful for it and, I think it’s gonna benefit a lot of people.
Trent Manning: 14:33
Awesome. So yeah, kinda after I did my thing, y’all did a little shop tour around Justin’s shop and he’s got a really nice setup there.
Austin Wright: 14:42
He does. He does. And kind of talking about, Brian’s or his parts room has, a lot of the drawers, Justin’s has a lot of file cabinets. And so, like his whole shop area had a good amount of, file cabinets and things like that, that really. Keep everything good and tidy and looking nice and it really was a nice shop to go through. And, Justin’s also a c Tim and, and his facility definitely showed it.
Trent Manning: 15:08
Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, it, it was definitely squared away.
Austin Wright: 15:11
Mm-hmm. you gotta say Toro the cat, you know, it’s like a lot of facilities have dogs, but Toro the cat was really cool.
Trent Manning: 15:20
Yeah, that was, yeah. Yep. That was uh, and I mean a lot of, I’ve seen a lot of clubs that have shop cats, but that’s the first cat I’ve ever met that was named Toro.
Austin Wright: 15:31
Mm-hmm. had a little spot there on top of the toolbox, and the shop was just home. Man,
Trent Manning: 15:36
that’s right. No, that’s
Austin Wright: 15:38
was, it was cool.
Trent Manning: 15:39
Very cool. So after I left there, I followed Austin all the way back to Sand Valley, and he was nice enough to put me up in a Airbnb that was owned by his in-laws. So it worked out awesome for me and I think for him too.
Austin Wright: 15:53
Yeah, it was, it was, great to be able to have you come up and, and stay nearby and, be able to hang out with us for a full day, and you kind of got the full. The full gist of the operation, kind of during our, our fall shutdown.
Trent Manning: 16:08
One. So how long did we ride around? So on Wednesday morning I get up and I come over to your shop around seven or something, and we didn’t get in the Ranger immediately, but we rode around for, we had to ride around for five hours, didn’t
Austin Wright: 16:24
Yeah. It was at least four or five hours. I mean, and. doing a full tour like that. I mean, the resort is a big, it’s a, it’s a really large operation and, multiple golf courses and, and then also all the growth that’s happening as well. I mean, it was really cool to have you come out and ride around and see all that and, and, you know, see the mature courses and then also, get some sneak peaks of, of what’s coming down the.
Trent Manning: 16:50
Yeah, no, it was, it was an incredible piece of property and just so everybody will be envious like I was, Austin gets to drive his Polaris Ranger to work every day from his house and what is two and a half miles or something?
Austin Wright: 17:05
Yep. It’s about two and a half miles on the nose driving, so it’s, it’s about a five minute trip.
Trent Manning: 17:11
Yeah. It was incredible. I just, I don’t know. It was one of the things I think I like the most and you get to drive it around out on the course too.
Austin Wright: 17:18
Yep. So I have all my shop tools, um, my toolbox in the back of it and, you know, we also have a, a shop Polaris that we have equipped. And, it’s really neat being able to, drive to work and your own personal vehicle and then use it out on the golf courses. And it’s a huge tool that we use all the time and, four wheel drive you saw out there. I mean, everything’s sand, it’s bare sand, PAs their sand. I mean, especially during construction, pulling a lot of equipment out, a lot, the wench is getting a full workout frequently.
Trent Manning: 17:52
Yeah, I’m sure it is because, yeah, we went through some pretty hairy stuff. I mean, nothing too bad, but it’d been pretty dry too. Right.
Austin Wright: 18:01
Yeah, yeah, it had been pretty dry. Um, we do have a couple water trucks that come, come around for erosion control, and, and those areas can get a little hairy, especially with the ruts that they tend to make sometimes. you have to kick it in four wheel drive and, and let her eat sometimes.
Trent Manning: 18:18
That’s right, But I mean, you have a, a huge facility too, and a huge property. How many holes of golf is it?
Austin Wright: 18:26
so we have 54 on the resort side, and, and then we have, uh, 18 for the Lido Golf course, which is just across the road. and then we will have another 18 for the Sedge Valley.
Trent Manning: 18:43
Yeah. That’s incredible.
Austin Wright: 18:45
Plus the
Trent Manning: 18:45
Yeah. So Austin’s got us. Austin’s got a super awesome facility too, and a ton of, how many total acres is it there?
Austin Wright: 18:54
it’s right around 2000. I couldn’t give you an exact number off the top of my head, but, yeah, as, as we’ve continued to grow, I think it’s right around two.
Trent Manning: 19:02
yeah. No, it was uh, crazy. Oh, and then, yeah, the other thing at Sand Valley, you just dig this top dressing sand out of the ground. That was something that kind of blew my mind to when we were getting it trucked in.
Austin Wright: 19:16
Yeah, that’s, it’s a very special piece of property, being able to, dig into a dune and, and use that for your Todd dressing sand. And then, Rob Doom, our director of agronomy, he’ll go through and check the sand and make sure, that it’s what he’s looking for for these particular holes. And then we’ll go ahead and get it screened for green. Everything gets screened, that goes on the greens and then, but all of our fairways tees, fine, fescue top dressing just comes right out of the.
Trent Manning: 19:44
Yeah, it’s crazy. And you said that whatever couple years you get a company to come in and screen the.
Austin Wright: 19:53
Uh, every few years. So, we’ll, they’ll come in and they’ll screen. Large amounts to last a couple years per course,
Trent Manning: 19:59
and then how many pits do y’all have around the property?
Austin Wright: 20:03
we have right around one pit per golf course.
Trent Manning: 20:09
Okay.
Austin Wright: 20:10
depending on the type of sand that was used to build the greens on the given golf course, that’s where we try to match that sand, the best of our abilities to, to keep that, that same aggregate, throughout the top dressing process?
Trent Manning: 20:25
Oh, okay. I got you. No, that’s, yeah. That’s awesome. And yeah, so your greens are not U S D A specs, right?
Austin Wright: 20:33
Correct. Yeah, they would be considered just a pushup green. but everything is sand, they did relocate some sands, Four different greens. so instead of it being just a pure pushup, they did move around some different sands, for the greens complexes. But yeah, as far as drainage goes, we, we have plenty of that
Trent Manning: 20:54
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. But even still then you still had the mudhole everywhere.
Austin Wright: 21:00
Yeah. On the paths.
Trent Manning: 21:01
yeah. On the pass, which was kind of surprising to me with everything being sand.
Austin Wright: 21:06
yeah. It’s that, that top layer, that organic that it can get, it can get pretty, pretty muddy.
Trent Manning: 21:13
Mm-hmm. are y’all responsible for running the water trucks or is that another company?
Austin Wright: 21:18
it would be part of the construction cruise? It’s part of our employees.
Trent Manning: 21:23
Okay, very cool.
Austin Wright: 21:25
but it would be considered, you could. The construction, the golf course construction operation
Trent Manning: 21:31
does that fall in under you anyway?
Austin Wright: 21:33
Uh, it does not, the superintendents assist with that, but, I don’t have to manage the water trucks. They’re all rented machines,
Trent Manning: 21:41
Yeah. And then you top dress all your fairways
Austin Wright: 21:44
all fine. Fsq. Yep. So that would be tees, fairways, everything in play, gets, we’ll call it a heavier rate of sand in the fall. And then, uh, we do what we can in season. the process that you were seeing was our fall top dressing to where we’re putting down a, a pretty heavy amount of sand, to not only help kind of smooth everything out, but really utilize. Manage that, which luckily fine pesky is not a heavy that producing turf. but also to protect the crown going into winter. So it really serves for multiple purposes and, and we’re lucky that we have the ability to do that.
Trent Manning: 22:25
Yeah. No, very cool stuff.
Austin Wright: 22:28
And
Trent Manning: 22:28
And well, and y’all were pretty much top dress and everything, right?
Austin Wright: 22:31
yep, so we also did greens too, while we were out there. And we’ll, we’ll go out with a heavier rate of sand for the greens and then we’ll needle tie the greens, kinda work that all in. Uh, it also serves for the same purpose of protecting the crown going into winter. and then, yeah, we’ll needle tie it, roll it, spray it for snow, mold, and put up all our snow fence and, let ’em go to bed. Wake him up in the spring.
Trent Manning: 22:54
and what’s the deal with the snow fence? Why do you put it around the greens?
Austin Wright: 22:58
So we actually want to try to keep, the snow on the green as much as we can. So, the snow fence actually kind of traps the snow, because we, we wanna have that coverage, throughout the winter with a really cold temp so we can get up here. it really serves as that blanket.
Trent Manning: 23:15
Gotcha. Now that, yeah, that makes sense.
Austin Wright: 23:18
and then we also put in large areas, uh, just to keep sand, in the bunkers or in the native areas, to try to keep it off the golf course. And it’s, it’s something that we’ve learned, as the operation continues to evolve, we’ve learned these spots where we need to hit ’em and, and keep the snow fence up. And, uh, yeah, we put miles and miles of snow fence, uh, across property.
Trent Manning: 23:41
Yeah, it was a pretty impressive operation. How many people do y’all have on the crew?
Austin Wright: 23:46
At peak we’ll be, so like, you know,
Trent Manning: 23:48
Mm-hmm.
Austin Wright: 23:49
July at peak we’re, we’re about at 100.
Trent Manning: 23:52
Wow.
Austin Wright: 23:53
And then, we’ll dwindle, we’re a lot lower on the shoulder seasons, like everybody. And then it’s just, we have a, a handful of, full-time year round crew members and then all their managers are all year round.
Trent Manning: 24:07
right. But yeah, super beautiful piece of property y’all had some really good views, especially if you like looking at.
Austin Wright: 24:15
Yeah. Yeah. The, the sand really, really makes it pretty out there.
Trent Manning: 24:20
No, it does.
Austin Wright: 24:21
Big native areas.
Trent Manning: 24:22
Well, pretty much it’s the fine FES and then it goes to native, right?
Austin Wright: 24:29
correct. Yep. So we have bent grass greens and then everything else is fine fes and, and then fading off of the managed turf grass goes to kind of a, an outer rough fine fess, and then it blends into the native area, native sedge, sand trees. So,
Trent Manning: 24:48
I thought, I mean, it was super cool. Look for me, I don’t play golf, but.
Austin Wright: 24:52
I will say that with, you know, the, the architects that have done all the, all the golf courses, they’ve done an exceptional job of making something that is relatively new, look like it’s been there for decades.
Trent Manning: 25:06
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. One, even like the picture we’re looking at now with the Old House Foundation that got turned into a bunker.
Austin Wright: 25:15
Yeah,
Trent Manning: 25:16
was really cool.
Austin Wright: 25:17
that was really cool. building Mammoth Dunes, whole number seven, David kid’s operation as they were clearing and, to shape the golf courses. They found this old settlers’ foundation and instead of them, just continuing to do their thing, they’re like, no, let’s, let’s keep that. And they made it into a really cool, cool bunker. That is definitely one to play at your own risk, for sure.
Trent Manning: 25:40
Right? Yeah. Yeah. Be careful swinging a club in there.
Austin Wright: 25:43
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 25:44
Get a ball in the eye.
Austin Wright: 25:46
But it’s, it’s really cool, really cool little spot.
Trent Manning: 25:50
And then as I was taking all these pictures, Luna had to get in most of them.
Austin Wright: 25:54
Yeah. Nina?
Trent Manning: 25:55
Nina? Yep. Sorry. Nina. Jace.
Austin Wright: 25:59
Yep. She, uh, she has to sneak in as many photos as she can talk about great life for dogs out there, man.
Trent Manning: 26:06
Oh yeah, yeah. Yep.
Austin Wright: 26:08
Total of seven dogs across all the different courses. And, and they got, they have our, their own herd and pack and just get a
Trent Manning: 26:19
when they all, they all get along good too. Right.
Austin Wright: 26:23
Oh, yeah.
Trent Manning: 26:23
Which is cool too. Yeah.
Austin Wright: 26:25
yeah. They, they love each other and they’re so excited when someone from across the road comes over and then they get a play in wrestle for a while and, life of the dog.
Trent Manning: 26:35
cool. Yep. Tell me about this, uh, I Beam you got and your one shop with the hoist that goes back and forth.
Austin Wright: 26:44
Yep. So, um, so this picture here is the Lido shop and in our main hub we also have an IBM hoist and we’ve. Really utilized it to, manage just lifting anything and everything, primarily cutting units. And so it’s a three ton. I-beam with a two ton hoist and we’ll use it for pulling top dressers or pulling engines or, but primarily it runs from, our main work area into the real grinding area.
Trent Manning: 27:16
Yeah. Very
Austin Wright: 27:17
a great tool for us, and, it’s hugely handy.
Trent Manning: 27:21
Yeah, I really, I like that idea. Thought that was awesome idea and I really liked your indoor wash base.
Austin Wright: 27:27
Yeah. So coming up from Kansas, you just valve off your, you know, your water when, when it’s cold and then you turn it back. You know, when you’re ready to wash and, up here in Wisconsin, you have to, valve it off and blow it out to protect it. And so, what we’ve done is incorporate indoor wash base into our shop operations, and this allows us to, really wash the equipment from top to bottom and make it look as new as we possibly can every year. And, we’ll wash cutting units off before we throw ’em in the grinders. And,
Trent Manning: 28:01
Mm-hmm.
Austin Wright: 28:02
it’s a great tool to have, definitely for the duration of time that it’s, it’s pretty darn cold up here to where we can’t have water running outside.
Trent Manning: 28:11
Yeah. I thought that was a great idea and I don’t know that I need one in the south, but I sure would like to have one. It’d be awesome
Austin Wright: 28:19
Oh yeah,
Trent Manning: 28:20
to have one set up like that.
Austin Wright: 28:22
It’s nice and you know, none of it runs, uh, to the septic. Everything goes to a holding tank, so it gets pumped out. And, gas oil hydraulic, especially if we’re working on diagnosing something that isn’t really wanting to show itself, it gives us a good opportunity to wash it, let it dry, and then we can really see, where the issue lies.
Trent Manning: 28:41
Mm-hmm. No, that was very cool. Oh, I didn’t ask where’s all the water come from? The sand Valley water.
Austin Wright: 28:48
so we have a few different wells. wells would feed our irrigation ponds, and then that’s where the water would come from. But, in our area, basically we’re sand to water, so it’s, and it’s super clean. It’s, it’s fantastic.
Trent Manning: 29:03
When you didn’t have like a lot of lakes on property either. Right.
Austin Wright: 29:07
All the lakes that we have are manmade, lined. but yeah, we have a few. but they do, they do serve, for, most of them serve to assist with, uh, irrigation,
Trent Manning: 29:18
And what was the, the idea behind this green and the hole in the middle of it?
Austin Wright: 29:24
yep. So this is hole nine on the sandbox, and it has a bowl like right in the middle of it. It’s a ginormous green for a par three hole, as you can see. I mean, it’s, it’s less than, I think, less than like 70 yards shot. And the greens probably 40 yards wide, it seems like. but yeah, we have a, there’s a, there’s a bowl down in the middle of it. the superintendents, they’ll throw the pin right in the middle of that bowl. And you, we can always tell when the pin’s in the bowl because at the shop you can hear people hoo and hollering for haul ones. And
Trent Manning: 30:00
Oh, I bet.
Austin Wright: 30:01
it, and it’s right there next to where the food truck is. So there’s always people up there eating and watching and very, it’s a fun spectator hole right there. So it was really cool that Core Crenshaw put that in there cuz it, it really does make for a fun experience for the golfers.
Trent Manning: 30:18
Oh yeah, I’m sure. No, that’s, yeah. That was awesome. Never seen anything like that before. Super cool. Oh yeah. And then I, I seen you were getting your tracks out. Will you talk a little bit about the, the way the seasonal stuff that you wrap it all up, ran, rap, and put it on the shelf?
Austin Wright: 30:37
Yeah, so, what we’re seeing right here, the picture that we’re looking at is our tracks, for our Polaris Ranger 1000. And what we do, since we are a seasonal operation, uh, we do convert from, uh, maintaining turf grass and then switching over to, winter maintenance where we would do cross country ski trails, ice skating, snowshoeing, fat tire biking, pond hockey. And so we have to have ways to get around the golf courses and get into the different areas, when we do have feet of snow on the ground. And so, these tracks, what we’ve done is we’ll go through, pull ’em off the machine. Clean ’em really good. perform the, the proper, uh, storage procedures on whatever the machine is. And then we’ll get it on pallet racking and then use pallet wrap to wrap it all up. And then we’ll throw it on the pallet rack for, that, six months or so. and then we’ll bring it back down and unwrap ’em. And we know that basically we just need to knock the dust off of ’em and then they’re ready to go for, for whatever they are. So, that also goes for our, golf cart chargers. And we, we were doing that process while you came up. And, we’ll take those, we’ll bring ’em in the shop, we’ll blow ’em out, and, and you saw how much sand comes out of those things.
Trent Manning: 31:57
Oh, I couldn’t, yeah, I couldn’t believe the amount of sand coming out of
Austin Wright: 31:59
I mean, it, it is, it’s wild how sand gets in every nook and cranny of everything. so yeah, we take those, we blow ’em out real thoroughly, and then we wrap those up really good with wrap, with pallet wrap. And then we, we actually store ’em with the golf cart. so the charger stays with that particular golf cart, during the winter storage?
Trent Manning: 32:22
When I was thinking, I seen you put some of your greens mowers on pallets too. The walking greens mowers.
Austin Wright: 32:27
Yep. So, during the duration of time, as our winter equipment comes down off the pallet racking, we try to store as much as we possibly can back on the pallet racking. And so our walking greens mowers all get stored on pallet racking. So we’ll take those in once, once the superintendent say, Hey, we’re done. Walk mowing. we’ll wash ’em, service ’em, grind them, relief ’em. and then we’ll get those put on pallet racks. and we just use heavy duty zip ties and we zip tie the mowers, uh, to the pallets and throw ’em up on the pallet racking. So we know that when we pull ’em down in the spring, we knock the dust off and they’re ready to rock and roll.
Trent Manning: 33:06
No, that’s awesome. I think that’s really cool.
Austin Wright: 33:09
Yeah, it’s, we call it our seasonal transition time, and there’s, it’s on, you know, both ends of the season and, it requires a lot of, a lot of labor going into it, but it really gives us a head start, for whatever we’re gonna be doing the next season
Trent Manning: 33:23
Mm-hmm. when even, down here in the south, I could see us doing some of those things. Not to the extent that y’all do up there, but we still have stuff that’s somewhat seasonal, just like our, you know, back and all our leaf, you know, removal stuff. We’re not really using that year round. We’re only using it for a few months.
Austin Wright: 33:47
Yeah. Yeah. You guys can treat it the same, for
Trent Manning: 33:49
Yeah, you could do, do some stuff like that. So I think it’s really clever what you’re doing and optimizing the space that you have, even though you have a ton of property.
Austin Wright: 34:00
A ton of
Trent Manning: 34:00
Yeah.
Austin Wright: 34:01
Lot of acreage to maintain.
Trent Manning: 34:03
Yeah, a ton. So yeah, that was Wednesday. I hung out with you all day. And then I got up Thursday morning and drove to Foley Company, which was a really cool experience. I hung out with, the marketing guy, Chad, and one of the sales guys, Kurt, and they gave me the, the full tour of their facility and they even, uh, had my name up on the screens around the shop telling everybody to welcome me and I was there from Atlanta. Even with the real turf text logo on there. I mean, it was super cool. And I posted a picture on Twitter of, uh, how they welcomed me there. And then the other thing I was really surprised. So they give me a factory tour and I didn’t take a single picture because every factory I’ve been in, most time even before you walk around, they make you sign a you know, a nondisclosure agreement or something. So I didn’t even take a picture. And then, so we toured the whole thing and I asked Chad, I said, can I take a picture of the screen with my name on it? And he’s like, yeah, you can take any pictures you want to take. And I’m like, really? I can take pictures of the manufacturing process? He’s like, there’s no secrets in here. Yeah, you can take as many pictures as you want. We encourage it. So we done another lap around. So I took, uh, took a lot of pictures as uh, I was walking around, but they got an awesome facility there. And they’re trying to crank out their air two G2 line of products. I think some of the components had been back ordered, so they’d really got that line ramped up and just all the cool stuff in there. Uh, everything. CNC milling machines.
Austin Wright: 35:52
So they build the Foley grinders and Air two g2, all in the same facility.
Trent Manning: 35:58
Yes. Yep. It’s all in the same, same shop there. And they didn’t talk about it, but, and I don’t know exactly where they’re going with it, but they have more property there, so when it’s time to expand. And I think they did say something by the way the building was built. It was built for expansion too. You know, if they were to get into other stuff,
Austin Wright: 36:22
Mm-hmm. ,they’re planning for the future
Trent Manning: 36:24
they’re definitely planning for the future and
Austin Wright: 36:28
when did they move to Prescott?
Trent Manning: 36:31
I don’t know the exact year, but it’s been three or four years maybe.
Austin Wright: 36:36
Okay, so it’s relatively new.
Trent Manning: 36:38
Yeah, it’s relatively new. And then like this machine is super old and it was one of the only machines they brought from their, uh, their old factory. And it’s the machine that grinds the magnets parallel for the bed knife grinder. And then yeah, whole state of the art welding shop with the ventilation in there, return air. Um, real, really cool process. And they make all their lapping compound right there. I thought that was really cool.
Austin Wright: 37:08
That is neat that they make it up all their own product like that in house.
Trent Manning: 37:12
Yeah, I just, you know, I assume that somebody else made the lapping compound and they stuck their name on it, but they make it right there, but they buy all the chemicals and mix ’em together and the, they got a auger and looks kinda like a homemade auger to mix the stuff together.
Austin Wright: 37:29
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 37:30
I thought that was pretty neat too. And
Austin Wright: 37:32
So, so when they make a batch like that, how big of a batch do they make? Do you know?
Trent Manning: 37:38
I don’t know, that’s a good question. I’m not exactly sure how big a batch at a time that they’re mixing up before they put it in the pales and they had been sending their paint out and now they just got it set up. So they, they’re doing powder coat in house too for all their frames and stuff. And then, yeah, a huge four by. Plasma cutter. So you stick a four by eight sheet of steel in there and cut out whatever you want to cut out. All CNC driven.
Austin Wright: 38:08
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 38:09
I mean, it’s amazing the advance in technology and where, where everything’s going.
Austin Wright: 38:14
Yeah, just everything can get more precision and, and faster.
Trent Manning: 38:19
Yeah. And I had, uh, no idea that the Mississippi River was, uh, up y’all’s way. You know, I think Mississippi and I think down here in the south and going through the state of Mississippi or maybe even Memphis area, the Mississippi River, I didn’t realize it run through Minnesota. So I had to, I had to stop and take, take a picture of the, the grand old miss. Yeah. And the, actually this picture is St. Croix and Mississippi is just south of here where it runs in, but it kinda run Mississippi and St. Croix run together right there at Prescott.
Austin Wright: 38:56
Okay.
Trent Manning: 38:56
Pretty cool. Cool. And then, yeah, you came and stayed with me that night, Thursday night, and we got up the next morning and went and hung out with Chad Broun, which
Austin Wright: 39:06
Oh man, that was so much fun. That was, that was a great day.
Trent Manning: 39:11
Yeah. He had, uh, I mean, just like all the pictures everybody saw on Twitter, I mean, amazing shop and set up. Everything’s just so clean. It was funny when me and Austin’s walking up to the maintenance building, we wasn’t sure if it was a maintenance building or not. Like it kinda looks like one, and then we saw a tractor. We’re like, okay, I think we’re in the right spot.
Austin Wright: 39:33
It is an amazing facility. It really, really is.
Trent Manning: 39:38
don’t, I really liked his, uh, exhaust set up for like his rotary, blade grinding area. I thought that was super cool. And then he had all these, benches built,
Austin Wright: 39:50
Yeah, the custom the custom benches were really, really neat and
Trent Manning: 39:56
and yeah, they’re on casters. I mean, that was really, really cool.
Austin Wright: 40:00
I mean, the attention to detail is, was so cool to see in Chad’s facility.
Trent Manning: 40:07
Yes, for sure. He also had a overhead I-beam, similar to the one you had
Austin Wright: 40:12
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 40:13
thought that was cool set up. Yeah. And yeah, the break room and all, I mean it looked like executive dining or something. I mean, you know, it didn’t look like a typical shop break room. I was, I was, pretty impressed. And he said that they’ll have board meetings and stuff in there too.
Austin Wright: 40:32
Yeah. Greens committee meetings out there and. It just speaks so highly of, of the way Chad and his team, you know, they maintain the facility and how much the ownership takes pride in it. And, he was saying how they hosted, like club tournaments with other clubs and that they would host their dinners in the, in the shops. it was really cool. Really cool.
Trent Manning: 40:58
Yeah. I thought that was crazy though. They were hosting, I’d never heard of that hosting stuff in the shop like that. And yeah, the other thing I liked about his, uh, bay doors is they had windows on ’em. And I thought that was a nice touch.
Austin Wright: 41:13
I actually wanna see how much it would cost to convert a panel of ours to the windows that like he has here. Cuz man, I mean, the amount of natural light that he brings in with those is really cool. And didn’t he say he had a he? They’re like tinted and so the birds would fly into him.
Trent Manning: 41:31
Uh, yeah, I think they, yeah, the bird could see their reflection, so they would fly it to ’em sometime and that got annoying.
Austin Wright: 41:38
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 41:39
I think, yeah, first they were clear and then it faces the south, so too much sun.
Austin Wright: 41:47
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 41:48
Summertime and was heating up, so he got ’em tinted and now the birds. But anyway, I think that’d be a decent problem to deal with, to have some natural light coming in.
Austin Wright: 41:58
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 41:59
I, really like the setup or staging area he called it. So he, where he stored all his, uh, real mowers after they were checked out and ready to go. like the idea of that.
Austin Wright: 42:11
Yeah, that, and they’re right there. They’re close by. those are the delicate machines. and he’s got those within reach in the shop and yeah. I thought that was a really cool, cool area.
Trent Manning: 42:23
Yeah. And then all his equipment looking brand new like the whatever, the 20 year old. 31 50 we were looking at. And it looks new.
Austin Wright: 42:32
Yeah, I mean, he was talking about how it was a 2005 and the pictures don’t do the justice. I mean, the attention to detail to every single nook and cranny of that machine is polished and cleaned and greased and maintained. I mean, it’s, it’s exceptional. And if you put a brand new one right next to it, the only difference would be the, the areas on the step where the paint has worn off.
Trent Manning: 42:59
Oh, right. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Crazy. This is something you really liked and was thinking about, wasn’t it? the putting your brand in on all the equipment.
Austin Wright: 43:08
Yeah, I thought that was really cool. And it, you know, it says, commitment to excellence right there, and so the operators have a chance to see it and take the pride in the equipment like Chad does. And I thought that was a really cool little, little detail that can really, get your teams to buy into the overall operation.
Trent Manning: 43:28
I really like the way he stored his spark plugs and it was in a nuts and bolts bin, and I just thought that was a perfect area for him.
Austin Wright: 43:38
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 43:38
So I’m, I’m gonna see if I can get some more nuts and bolt bins and do my spark plugs that way.
Austin Wright: 43:43
his, his parts room’s really another really nice area. Super organized, well lit, really clean. The wire holder idea too is where he is, has his, his pull cord string and all of his different wires. I, I really like that. I’m, I’m gonna work on adapting something like that over in our operation.
Trent Manning: 44:02
Yeah, I think it’s really important to have something like that because how else do you store ’em? You know, even you leave ’em in a cabinet and then you gotta, you know, it’s just a hassle. So a rack system where they hang on the wall and you can just unroll what you need and clip it off is, uh, really hard to beat. And then I really like that they were thoughtful enough when they built this building that they put in all these extra circuits to have, uh, charging stations.
Austin Wright: 44:29
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 44:30
So if anyone is getting ready to update their facility, make sure you got plenty of charging stations, especially everything going electric. We’re only gonna see it more and more and more.
Austin Wright: 44:43
Yeah. Yeah. Overpower. You don’t need to put it in right away, but just have it to where it’s accessible.
Trent Manning: 44:48
Oh, and then, yeah, overhead, uh, lube set up. That was a super awesome thing he’d done in the shop.
Austin Wright: 44:56
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 44:58
And he said that he used it more than he thought he would originally.
Austin Wright: 45:02
Yeah. Doing walkers, you know, where it’s like, Point six quarts or, whatever the number is, and boom, boom, boom, boom, done. you just knew exactly how much was going in each machine. And that’s like something you see in an auto shop or something like that. And, it’s really cool to see it in the golf operation.
Trent Manning: 45:21
Yeah, I think, I think we’ll start seeing more and more of these setups, hopefully. Um, it’s definitely, uh, on my wishlist to get us set up like this.
Austin Wright: 45:31
Yeah. That, that staging room is really,
Trent Manning: 45:34
Yeah, I really, I really like the, the staging room and it had, uh, two bay doors that exited outside and then there was a bay door that went into the workshop. If you. Yeah, it was just, it was a really good setup.
Austin Wright: 45:48
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 45:49
Yeah. Also like this little room, I don’t know what they called it, but kind of their construction room, but it also had a little semi paint booth in there with ventilation so you could paint and I’m sure all over people painting t markers and, you know, I mean, all the stuff we end up painting at the golf course every winter, it’d be, uh, super handy to have a little space like that.
Austin Wright: 46:13
Yeah. Like this kind of looked more like a woodwork slash paint room.
Trent Manning: 46:18
I inspire to have a woodwork slash paint room at, at my facility one day.
Austin Wright: 46:25
I thought these were cool. The little, uh, the custom built walk mower or a push mower trailers, they hold two, two push mowers. Yeah, I thought that was, those were pretty neat. We ain’t talked too much about ’em, but it’s pretty handy to have something that’s built for a particular machine.
Trent Manning: 46:44
Right. Well, and I could see maybe some other stuff going on there too. You might put a So cutter or, you know, I mean, so it wouldn’t be just push mowers, but I, I like where you’re going with that. Yeah. Because it is a pain in the ass hauling a push mower around a golf course. Cuz you don’t, well you don’t wanna pick it up and put it in the back of the cart.
Austin Wright: 47:05
no. And then the trailers are too big. So you’re finding ratchet straps all over and,
Trent Manning: 47:11
Yeah, no, that, that was a good setup for sure.
Austin Wright: 47:13
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 47:14
I really like they had a man lift on, on property that, you know, that was a piece of their equipment for those would be so handy for anything.
Austin Wright: 47:25
Oh yeah. Especially like, you know, they had bigger trees there. I mean, anything you can do in house correctly and safely is always an awesome thing.
Trent Manning: 47:34
Right. I would like to have it just around the shop for changing light bulbs and you know, all some of that kinda stuff.
Austin Wright: 47:42
Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. I thought these were really cool. The shovel hangers, and those definitely had some age to ’em, just the way that they were made just is like perfect.
Trent Manning: 47:53
have you, uh, been able to find any?
Austin Wright: 47:56
I haven’t done any research on em yet. I haven’t looked for ’em, but
Trent Manning: 48:00
I mean, they’re so simple and I don’t know why they don’t just sell ’em everywhere,
Austin Wright: 48:04
mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 48:05
and I don’t know if it’s something, maybe a hardware store, you know, if that’s what they use, maybe they would know where to get it from, but I’ve never seen any available in my internet looking.
Austin Wright: 48:18
right. You know, there’s tool hangers all over the place, but these that have these little notches in ’em are, are pretty cool.
Trent Manning: 48:26
Yeah. Well then you can store like eight shovels or something on there,
Austin Wright: 48:30
yeah. And they’re not gonna slide around, they’re not gonna fall off. They, they lock in.
Trent Manning: 48:36
Mm-hmm. I like their water recycle area. And it was indoors and heated too. Of course. I guess you gotta kind of have that up there.
Austin Wright: 48:45
Yeah. I like how theirs is like its own bay, to where, like ours is kind of incorporated inside the shop there, it’s like an entire bay built to wash everything off. So this is like their, their main wash bay and then also kind of their, their detailing area.
Trent Manning: 49:01
Mm-hmm. when I’m just now noticing. He built, uh, one of the things that rolls up under the decks to wash out under like a rotary deck was hanging up on the wall there.
Austin Wright: 49:12
Oh yeah. I didn’t even see that when
Trent Manning: 49:14
I didn’t even notice it when we were walking.
Austin Wright: 49:17
Yeah. Getting underneath there, I mean, can get like the little ones from Car Quest or Vance, but that one is, that one will go all the way under.
Trent Manning: 49:25
Yeah, yeah. Yep. It’s homemade set
Austin Wright: 49:27
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 49:28
and I don’t remember if it was, uh, Kevin Henninger that kind of come up with that, or who, whose, whose idea that was, that we’ve all started to steal, but great idea.
Austin Wright: 49:41
Borrow. Prefer to use the term Borrow
Trent Manning: 49:44
Borrow. Yes, yes, yes. Yep. You’re correct. Borrow.
Austin Wright: 49:48
I never even would’ve thought that there was a storage area behind those bins when we were just walking by.
Trent Manning: 49:55
Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. So they had, uh, indoor sand storage and then underneath that was a basement, which was a little scary. But, uh, ton of space down there.
Austin Wright: 50:10
Mm-hmm. the details that that Chad has in his equipment is just amazing. Like the cutting units and numbering and marking and just, it’s the little details that go such a long way there. It was. That was so cool. So cool to be able to meet Chad and. And see his operations firsthand is, was really special. I’m, I’m very thankful I was able to join you guys for that.
Trent Manning: 50:34
No, for sure. Yeah, I, yeah. yeah. it was a incredible experience. And yeah, writing down your real diameter on the frame of the reel, just so you know, if you’re ever curious, you know, it’s right there.
Austin Wright: 50:49
Yeah,
Trent Manning: 50:50
Yep. Super cool. And then after that we went over to Toro, which we had to sign our life away and we can’t talk about any of it, but it was a super awesome time.
Austin Wright: 51:00
it was a great time. Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 51:04
with Jeff Drake, one of the engineers. awesome dude. And, uh, got to tour that. All the r and d stuff, just super cool while they’re doing there. Very, very cool.
Austin Wright: 51:15
Yeah, it was neat to, it. It’s always good to be able to see the tour facility and, and see Jeff and it just a awesome group of people there and, it’s really cool, really cool to, to be part of that
Trent Manning: 51:29
And then Jeff kind of got to pick our brain too, so that that was good. And it’s always good to give back and to, talk to an engineer and he knows what our role is. And that was another cool thing. I didn’t realize how much Jeff and Chad had worked together on equipment stuff over the years, and I think it’s really cool that they’re doing that and working with someone like Chad.
Austin Wright: 51:55
Oh, a hundred percent. You know, so when they, when the products are ready, they’re, they’re ready.
Trent Manning: 52:00
Yeah, for sure. You wanna talk about shop tours?
Austin Wright: 52:04
Yeah. So kind of the, your little trip up here to Wisconsin kind of inspired me to think of some new ways to provide education, for the Wisconsin chapter or, or any local chapter, years as well. And, and I wanted to pick your brain a little bit, but, spending a couple hours at Chad’s, we weren’t there for a crazy long time and we were able to see so much and learn so much in that short period of time that I was like, man, if we can get like, geographically located golf courses that are within, we’ll just say a 30 minute drive from one another that would be willing to open up their shops. It’s, I think it would be really cool to, have a, pure educational session that doesn’t really involve like, formal education, you know, to where you’re sitting down and having a projector and all that fun stuff that comes along with it, but just doing it to where you can go and get a group together and, and tour these facilities and meet the guys. And, and I was thinking even just in our little area up here, cuz I mean, you saw how Remote Sand Valley is, in comparison to the cities and like you always said to, to build that network with your neighbors. And I think it would be really cool to kind of even have it to where it’s like, hey, today we’re doing. Shop tours, Justin’s gonna run a shop tour in the Milwaukee area and then, we’ll do one in central Wisconsin, but it’s like all in the same day. And it’s like, if you can make it to these areas, come on out. No pressure. Pretty casual. Have you guys done anything like that?
Trent Manning: 53:38
No, we haven’t. But I think that’s an excellent idea, and especially if you’re in an area where there’s quite a few courses together. I mean, why not? I mean, even if you’re not in an area, maybe you gotta drive a little bit further, but I know here in Atlanta you could be to, you know, 10 courses in 30 minutes.
Austin Wright: 53:58
Oh Yeah.
Trent Manning: 53:59
I mean, not that you could visit them, but just, you know, logistics wise, driving around it wouldn’t, wouldn’t take that long. Yeah. And you could hit whatever, 2, 3, 4, a.
Austin Wright: 54:09
Yeah. You know, you, you start off at, eight in the morning or nine in the morning at one place, and. Do a couple hours, drive, couple hours, drive, couple hours, and then, you know, it’s a full day. But you saw three operations, you met some new folks and you saw, their tips and tricks and then, building your network. And so I was just, it, it kind of inspired me to think like, Hey, maybe we should consider doing more of that. cuz we always try to provide, education that’s very informative and, and sitting down and, and, anything you can provide and get like CEUs for, which we’re all thankful for and we want to push for. But I think we have so much to learn from each other. and honestly I think that’ll help build the local chapter too. It’s gonna get more people connected with one another and get people inspired to, become a member if they weren’t before. And then I guess that leads into Emcp and c2.
Trent Manning: 55:02
Right, right. Yeah, no, for sure. I think that’s an excellent idea and it just, anytime you can meet your neighbor down the road and get a little bit of a connection or relationship going there, the better off you are. And visiting different shops, you find that, especially shops in your area, you find out what equipment they have and you might need to borrow something. They might need to borrow something from you, especially in the times we live in now where we can’t get parts when we need to.
Austin Wright: 55:31
Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 55:34
So I think it’s an excellent idea.
Austin Wright: 55:36
that’s kind of a goal of
Trent Manning: 55:37
I’m gonna steal that. I’m gonna borrow that idea from you.
Austin Wright: 55:40
Awesome. And I hope a lot of other people borrow that idea too.
Trent Manning: 55:44
Yeah. Very good. Austin. Well, thank you so much for, uh, coming on. I guess you got anything else you wanna cover?
Austin Wright: 55:51
Oh man, I just, it was so much fun. I, the week flew by and it, it really helped kind of reignite the fire a little bit, you know, and I think it was, it was a fun trip. Great to see up here in Wisconsin. next time you’ll bring a stocking cap up, but, cuz you just never
Trent Manning: 56:10
yes, I will. I was not, I was not prepared.
Austin Wright: 56:14
uh,
Trent Manning: 56:14
I, yeah, I didn’t know the, the wind blew 10 to 15 miles an hour. Nons.
Austin Wright: 56:20
yeah, there’s nothing to block the wind out here at Sand Valley.
Trent Manning: 56:23
Yeah. Not a whole lot of trees out there.
Austin Wright: 56:26
thank you for coming up. Thank you for teaching, for the local chapter and, it, it was a, it was a fun week. Met some really cool people along the way, so it, it was special.
Trent Manning: 56:35
Yeah. Yeah, No, it was, it was, and I mean, it was, I think you said it right, it was one of the things that you kind of talk about. Oh yeah, I wanna get up there sometime. Well, we finally did it. And how much fun was it? It was awesome.
Austin Wright: 56:46
Yep. we’ll have to plan the next trip.
Trent Manning: 56:48
Yeah. No, we’ll, we’ll definitely do another one. And unfortunately, this trip, uh, JR. Wilson wanted to come with me and his, uh, daughter had a sports obligation or something, and he couldn’t get away. but I, I plan on keep. Doing these from time to time as as much as I can afford it. And if anybody needs me to come speak, that helps too. So at least covers our hotel or two.
Austin Wright: 57:13
Provides
Trent Manning: 57:13
be happy to do it. Yes, yes, for sure. Well, thanks Austin. hope you enjoy your day and thanks again for putting me up and, uh, hanging out with me.
Austin Wright: 57:24
Hey, thank you Trent. You’re always welcome to W come back to Wisconsin.
Trent Manning: 57:33
thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf techs podcast. I hope you learned something today. Don’t forget to subscribe. If you have any topics you’d like to discuss, or you’d like to be a guest, find us on Twitter at Reel turf techs.