This is from a friend of mine in TX, Alex Kac of Web Information Systems. He helped host TurfTech through the early years :) He also builds some of the best contact management software out there so please take advantage of his Memorial Day Sale.

The United States of America celebrates Memorial Day to all the fallen heroes of our country and our lives. We have many heroes to look up to who spend each day of their lives to serve the people: Firefighters, Policemen, Soldiers, Nurses, Doctors, and many more First Responders. Originally conceived to celebrate our soldiers we have learned the importance of every one of these people who put everything they have at risk when the need arises

Not everyone agrees with the actions that the USA has taken over the years, but nevertheless the people who serve our nation in all colors of uniform deserve our respect. America has led the world in providing aid to other nations, in providing relief, and in providing support. It is not the government we love (who we can cheer for after one election and scorn the next), it is the people who make this nation great and the people who fought and died to give us the freedoms we have. We love our nation and God Bless the USA!

- Alex Kac, CEO

To read about their programs visit WebIS . As a small token of appreciation this weekend we have dropped our prices dramatically for most of our software at MobiHand. Direct Purchase Links include:

Pocket Informant for Windows Mobile Pocket PC (touchscreen) $29.95 $16.95

Pocket Informant for Windows Mobile Smartphone (no touchscreen) $29.95 $16.95

Pocket Informant for BlackBerry $19.95 $16.95

FlexMail for Pocket PC (touchscreen) $29.95 $9.95

FlexMail for Smartphone (no touchscreen) $29.95 $9.95

From The New York Times:

…This seems to be a moment when the useful arts have an especially compelling economic rationale. A car mechanics’ trade association reports that repair shops have seen their business jump significantly in the current recession: people aren’t buying new cars; they are fixing the ones they have. The current downturn is likely to pass eventually. But there are also systemic changes in the economy, arising from information technology, that have the surprising effect of making the manual trades — plumbing, electrical work, car repair — more attractive as careers. The Princeton economist Alan Blinder argues that the crucial distinction in the emerging labor market is not between those with more or less education, but between those whose services can be delivered over a wire and those who must do their work in person or on site. The latter will find their livelihoods more secure against outsourcing to distant countries. As Blinder puts it, “You can’t hammer a nail over the Internet.” Nor can the Indians fix your car. Because they are in India.

Read the Entire Article at:

The Case for Working With Your Hands

I was talking with one of my friends last night about 6500 reels and adjusting the bedknife came up.  We have one of the early models and while I've updated about everything I can, the thing we left alone was the bedbar adjuster. 

The original uses a bolt and spring, along with 2 lockdown bolts.  Loosen your lockdowns, turn the adjuster bolt (the spring moves the bedbar) tighten everything down.  Pretty simple.  Occasionally there is some final adjustment and every now and then, one can be pretty tempermental, but overall, okay.

The new 6500's they "upgraded" the adjustment system.  Instead of the spring they used 3 lock nuts. It really did not look harder but it turned out to be a royal pain in the ass to adjust.  So we put the original style on all our reels.

Here's a pic of the original on a late model reel.  The parts needed are a clip 93-9784 and spring 93-2516.  You can use your original bolt.  They do get knocked out of adjustment either way, and this makes tuning them up easier. 

For those of you  who have Red Iron, Carl Osterhaus of Toro is now on Twitter.  Carl is in charge of their training and is using this to get info out to techs and companies.  From my point of view, in the shop, it's pretty good.  A typical Tweet would be something like, "Version 2 of the Aftercut Appearance Guide is now online at.....  "

If we think about it, for years techs have been complaining about, "I never got that service bulletin".  Well now we can and right to our mailbox..  I expect Jac and JD to follow shortly..

So to get this, on Twitter, go to Twitter.com and signup for an account.  Then search fro ToroTurf or Carl Osterhaus.  Click on "Follow" and make sure you have "device updates On". This means you'll get the Tweets, which come as text messages on your cell phone.

A January Meeting at Heritage Springs, FL
In 2002 the Westech Turf Equipment Technicians Association met at Heritage Springs in Pasco County Florida.

Tim Canfield TEM, receiving Certificate of Appreciation.

Ed Monfort and Mark Veldhuis of COLDfire.

Developer and Engineer Ed Monfort and Assistant Mark Veldhuis show the machine that takes the materials to -300 degrees F to +400 degrees F in cycles to treat the material. Hearing someone else talk about it was one thing, hearing them tell their stories was another.

The seats emptied when asked if we wanted to view the machine.

By realigning the molecules of the material to a unidirectional pattern rather than random (Particulate Reinforcement Dislocation Modification Grain Refinement), the material has less voids in between them. Less space in between means less cracks (dullness) and also less vibration. Less vibration equals more kinetic energy.

A golf club head for example, about an average of 15 yeards (Norwegian yard) more. Aluminum bats, banned for college play. Automotive brake rotors, 20% increase in braking, 300% increase in life. That's not to mention drill bits, the titanium arms on the Space Shuttle or the Space Station, gun barrels, knives, the runners on the US Bobsleds in the Olympics or tennis racket strings that don't stretch.

Ed Monfort receiving his Certificate of Appreciation from Westech President, Paul Shortway (click)

With all those wonderful things happening to other items, the subject of reels came up. How about reels that stay sharp three times as long? That was the question. The person who had the test reels wasn't at the meeting, but the report was he didn't have to touch them for 2 months. Some of us have lived in or been through Arkansas, "The Show Me State", and want to see for ourselves. We sent in 3 new 11-blade triplex and 3 walkmower reels as well as 3 Tournament Bedknives to have treated. The bedknives I'm not sure about??? But imagine, reels that stay sharp 3 X's as long.. I figure it's worth a shot. Where it would really pay off is with our fairway and rough units.

Some of us weren't quite sure how this "New Age" metallurgy would go over. As it turned out, the meeting was a huge success. I can't remember a meeting where people had to wait to get questions answered.

I’ve been commuting by bike for almost 2 years now.      I have what’s called an Xtracycle, and this is me on it this winter at about 5 in the AM.

Today was interesting because the alternator went out on the shop truck.  So I took it home with me (just the alternator :) ) on the bike and stopped off at Advanced Auto Parts  to get it checked.  It checked out bad so I bought a new one but *** they wouldn’t accept my company credit card.  I called up since I had my cell phone with me, I was not over my limit but it turns out I can only use it 5 times a day (who would have thought).  Today I had been buying mulch, fertilizer and staff prizes and had used my limit up.. 

So I guess that shoots the story about saving the day on the bike ‘cause I’m going to drive back tomorrow morning  in the dump truck and get the starter :) 

My main ride to work has been my Trek and I have added an Xtracycle addition to it.  this effectively moves the rear wheel back about 18 inches in a frame addition.  People at work have asked, “You could make something like that, why didn’t you?”  Well, it’s their idea and it’s made really, really well.  The workmanship is outstanding. I couldn't have done it "as good" let alone better.  And if you think about it, it's really nice to be able to buy something "quality".

It never fails, I was waiting for mine to arrive and the factory had their first really big sale on the Internet.  So I couldn’t really take advantage of most of it but I did buy what is called a Kickback.  To those older folks, maybe the ‘60’s, it is really a center stand for a motorcycle.  You pull it down with your foot and pull the bike back up on it.  Absolutely the same thing.  What it does is make it a bit easier to balance the bike while loading it with a lot of stuff.

The legs for the stand come a bit long which is not too much of a problem until you really put a load on it and the front wheel comes back off the ground.  One of the folks on the Twitter thread wanted to know if anyone had modified their stand and since I had been putting it off I decided to tackle it.

So first is to get a good look at just how high the rear wheel is off the ground when on the stand.  This is about 1.5 inches which means the front is about 3-4 inches off when loaded. (because it pivots on the stand) Next is to look at where the legs are in the stand.  there’s a set screw holding them in and measurements to gauge the distance.  The problem is my tire is as low as it will go so to get things evened out I’ll have to pull out the legs, cut them off, and reinsert them.

So my idea is I need to loose about 1.5 inches of leg.  With the legs off I put them in a vice, use one of the present markings which is close to what I need, and cut them off with a hacksaw.  When done I’ll refinish the edges with a file.  Originally these are lathe cut ends.   Even the inside of the tube has been finished.. 

When finished put them back in and line them up with your new measurements.  I used the 4 circles plus 2 marks.   The finished measurement was about 1/4 inch off the pavement.  Tomorrow I’ll adjust it a bit closer to 4 points of contact on level ground and see what happens next time I go grocery shopping.

Probably biggest caution would be to not squeeze it to much in the vise.  It could flatten the tubing a bit and make it hard to get back into the stand. 

Today is Wednesday, well, it’s not, it’s Thursday :)  That’s the kind of week it’s been.  The fairways have been double cut every day this week.  The tees, collars and approaches, same thing.  The greens have been fourple cut and rolled every day as well.  A “fourple” cut is 2 double cuts and 2 double rolls.  If I was the grass I’d surrender and stop growing. 

To watch it is something along the lines of a ballet.  There’s upwards of 6 machines on a green at a time.  Two mowers, two rollers and 2 tee mowers.  All working in unison.  Trying anyway :)  I thought I was getting some pictures of it but the camera malfunctioned.  Broke shutter.  That’s the 4th camera I’ve gone through although they usually get retired not broke. 

This was also the day we had 4 fairway mowers out.  That was an interesting deal.  Once down the middle, then up one side and down the other, a big oval.   Not quite how they do it at Augusta but about as close as we’ll get.  Special thanks to Golf Ventures for letting us demo a Jacobsen 1880.  It kept up with our Toro 6500’s.  I even  had to run them down a couple times.   We did ask the Toro people but they didn’t want to play.

I’d like to do a review of it but I don’t see myself doing many more.  It really wouldn’t be fair to critique it, and not any others.  So I consoled myself with buying some Textron stock instead.  I wish I’d have bought it 3 days ago.  It was reported that it’s the lowest it’s been in 75 years.  Toro’s up $5 in the last 2 weeks and JD’s up $6. 

The tournament starts tomorrow morning. 

Most of the world would see this and think, “What the heck is a Member/Guest”?   For most private clubs it’s the most important tournament of the year.  It’s the one where the Members bring their Guests and hopefully, impress the heck out of them.  We hope so..

Last year, and I’ve been here since 1992, was the first year the tournament was cancelled.  Our greens were horrible and it was felt that under the circumstances it would be best to cancel it.  That’s pretty bad.  This was nothing you really wanted to deal with at any time.

Our grass is TiffEagle.  That’s not quite what I call it.  It’s an UltrDwarf cultivar.  They say it’s a good grass for this area.  From what I hear there are quite a few that would disagree with those claims.  Regardless of personal feelings it can be well one day and on life support in two.

That was last year, this is now, and it’s great.  Well, we’ll see.  So far this week it’s been 5:30 Am to 4PM, tomorrow practice starts in the afternoon so we get off at normal time.  Friday the tournament starts and we’ll be there from 5 to 9Am and 5 till 9PM.  They don’t hold back for this.  Considering the economic times most of us are grateful for the chance of overtime. 

I’ll be writing about some of what goes/went into it..

From the Archives by David Robinson..  timeless..

Cherry Hills Country Club, Englewood, CO

1. Do not bring your machine in for service until you, your crew leader, and everyone on the crew has had the time to form an opinion as to what may be wrong with the unit. Allow each person in this group a chance to correct the problem. Whenever possible, move several electrical connectors around and turn all the adjusting screws you can find.

2. If you can't bring the unit in for service immediately, wait until the malfunction has become a major emergency before calling a mechanic to tow it to the shop. If towing the machine yourself drop the unit in front of the shop door so we must fix your machine before we can get another out of the shop. Fridays are best but anytime after 4:00 P.M. is okay.

3. When describing the problem be sure not to tell us the whole story, the only thing better than that is a good Hardy boys mystery.

4. Invite your section helper to the shop so they can give their version of what is wrong. Suggestions on how to fix your machine will be welcomed by the technicians.

5. The minute we begin working on your machine, ask how much longer it will take. Make it clear that you have important work on the course that has to be done within the hour. Be sure to look at your watch often and to remind the technician of the time in case he has forgotten.

6. If you are unable to be with us while your machine is being repaired, assign someone who has never worked on, or operated the machine to take your place and supervise the repair. Bad breath is a plus.

7. Your machine should be as dirty and greasy as possible. Drive it down a dusty road on the way to the shop. Half-eaten bags of food, golf balls wedged behind control levers, and empty soda cans in the battery compartment are always appreciated.

8. Ask again when your machine will be ready. This question is particularly welcome when the engine is in 100 pieces and spread out on the workbench.

9. If the technician is looking at a schematic diagram, ask if he knows what he doing. Be sure to mention that you fixed your toaster last week, without using a schematic diagram.

10. When the technician tells you that parts are needed to complete the repair, be sure to tell him how your Grandpa could fix anything with a piece of wire or some duct tape.

11.Always stick to your story, “I didn’t hit anything”, “ I checked the oil”, and “That’s the way it was when I got it”.

12. After the repairs have been made, and you have used the machine be sure to come back and let us know how Johnny’s machine mows ½ mph faster than yours.