Culvert Collapse

You may have noticed the gaping hole in the cart path on hole 1 for the first half of the season. At some point the 24" x 20' plastic culvert collapsed allowing the soil to fall in and wash down stream. Luckily the sink-hole was to the one side so golfers and carts could still gain access to the first fairway.

Oddly enough a 3" irrigation line crossed right over collapsed part of the culvert so our opinion is the irrigation crew damaged the pipe during installation and covered up the incident. That lasted 17 years until the area collapsed. Luckily it was over winter and not while a customer or employee was crossing the creek.

One challenge to the job was to stop the water flow so we could install the new culvert. We did this by building a dam upstream and pump downstream to provide as dry as workplace as possible.

It took three of us a full day to remove the old culvert, prep the area and install the new culvert. We have no doubt the new culvert will last 50 years of more without issue.

As you play the hole you may notice the creek is holding water. We did change the grade to get the new culvert under the irrigation pipe and after things firm up we will need to work downstream to improve water flow and clean out debris.

In case you have not noticed there is always work to do on the golf course!

Almost Showroom New

Each off-season we pick one special project that might not need to be done but could be done to make something work better or look better. This year we choose to paint a classic golf course tractor, our 1972 Jacobsen G-10.

The G-10 has a three point lift, belt drive PTO and 3 speeds. This tractor will never pull a plow but is a great unit for pulling trailers or a gang reel mower through the rough. Comfortable to drive the G-10's gasoline engine is quite for a 50HP power unit.

The decals were no longer available from the manufacture but we had some custom made by the Graphic Center in Fond du Lac at a great price.

The finished unit looks great thanks to James hard work and efforts to bring back that showroom shine.

Don't throw that tank away!

We have purchased a new sprayer for the golf course.  The old one was from 1997 and served us well with only a few parts and a new pump every few years.  Now what to do with the old one?  Some of the parts we took off to save for when we need them and others were taken to the scrapyard for a few bucks in the brat fund.

The 200 gallon tank was plastic so it could not be scrapped for metal but it was in good condition.  We decided to make it into the water tank for trees and flowers.  After we removed most of the parts we mounted it to a homemade skid so it would sit in the back of a cushman truckster without taking the box off.  Then a simple length of 1 1/4" hose with a valve at the end and off we went.

It worked great for planting last weeks trees and much faster then the old 35 gallon drum we had.  By using the skid we elevated the outlet to increase the gravitational push on the water so we can apply a large amount of water in a hurry if we want.

The tank should last 15 years until it is time for the next sprayer and we can do the job over again.

Shown is the 200 gallon water tank next to a new Cherry Tree.