March 5, 2025 • 51 mins
In Episode 138 of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, we’re live from the trade show floor at the 2025 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in San Diego! This special episode features conversations with three industry pros sharing their experiences, insights, and takeaways from the event.
Justin Wilkerson, a first-time attendee, braved a Wyoming blizzard to make it to sunny SoCal. He discusses the best education sessions he attended, the innovations catching his eye on the trade show floor, and the challenges of implementing cutting-edge technology—like autonomous mowers and agricultural drones—at a remote cattle ranch.
Chris Whittaker, CTEM, shares his thoughts on his favorite class, teaching on the importance of superintendents supporting their equipment managers’ professional growth, and what Canadian EMs do during the winter months.
Tyler Miget makes history as the first equipment manager selected for the prestigious Bernhard Delegation.
Join us for an exciting episode packed with insights on education, technology, and professional development straight from the heart of the industry’s biggest event!
- Tweet us @ReelTurfTechs and @MTrentManning
- Email us at ReelTurfTechs@gmail.com
- Check out our YouTube Channel
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Trent Manning (00:00):
Welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the
technician that wants to getreel follow along.
As we talk to industryprofessionals and address hot
topics that we all face alongthe way we'll learn tips and
tricks.
I'm your host, Trent.
Manning let's have some
Thank you so much for joiningus, Justin.
(00:21):
I'll just clip this right hereon your shirt.
Perfect, thank you.
Yep, we can leave this righthere, and I want to hear all
about your adventurous tripgetting to San Diego from
Wyoming.
Alright, well it's not thatexciting, but you know, woke up
Sunday morning to get here midSunday afternoon, direct flight.
Woke up to the roads beingclosed due to avalanche control.
They shut down the road, saidseven to nine hours to open.
(00:44):
It never takes seven to ninehours, so I'm like, I'm just
gonna go anyway.
On my way, flight got canceled,so turned around, headed back
home, figured out a new flight,headed out, had an avalanche
slide maybe 20 minutes in frontof us, so we're shut down for a
few more hours.
That flight gets canceled.
So I go so we start headed backto town.
Get a new flight and thankfullyroads opened back up and finally
(01:08):
made it up, made it on theflight, got here, oh, just after
midnight Monday morning.
So it was mass, it was, youknow, another 12 hours of the
day or whatever than I wasplanning on.
But yeah, it's.
It sounds like a lot, but it'snormal where I live, so it's
just another day if you wanted,like, if you wanted a crazier
story in the 90s and late 80s,like when most of my friends
(01:32):
were born, we had what werecalled canyon babies and it's
because their moms would givebirth in the canyon because they
couldn't get past theavalanches.
Oh, wow.
A little more extreme.
Yeah, that's a little moreextreme.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For me, it was just, yeah it's along delay getting just part of
life.
So, all right, well, good.
Yes, sir.
So, what do you think about yourfirst show?
(01:53):
How are you enjoying it?
It's been a great experience.
You know, I think most peoplewould say fairly overwhelming.
You know, I'm a fairly quietperson.
Tend to be introverted.
You know, I came out to do thismorning with you just because I
really appreciate all you'vedone for us equipment managers.
And so, I was like, I've alreadybeen on the podcast once, might
(02:13):
as well come again and, youknow, support this thing because
you know, it's important for allthe rest of the equipment
managers to kind of get pluggedinto each other because we're
kind of our own islands untoourselves.
So, you know, in a lot of ways,unless we intentionally, you
know, reach out to others andstuff.
So, and it's been what's reallyhelped progress my career.
So anyway, getting back to theshow part, you know, the classes
(02:34):
have been awesome veryeducational.
This whole industry show hasjust been, you know.
Drinking out of a firehose, butyes, definitely like drinking
out of the firehose.
What was the best education youattended?
Honestly, it was your class.
Oh, so.
Yeah, of course it was.
(02:55):
I did pay Justin to say that.
Yeah.
I'll expect my payment in fullnext week.
Yes, I will.
Anyway.
But no, it was just nice for thetips and tricks.
You know, we're in process ofbuilding another nine holes.
We want to expand the shop.
And there's a lot of things thatjust gave great ideas on things
we can add to the shop to reallyimprove the workflow and stuff
like that.
So it's been Awesome.
(03:15):
So that was great.
Also taking the the case studyfor Applebrook out there in
Pennsylvania for their newfacility.
They did like a breakdown ofcosts and process of building a
whole new facility because thereis the option we might be
building a new facility versusjust expanding.
So, so that was a great justvery concise breakdown.
(03:36):
That was awesome to be able tosee how that actual process
works.
So at what club was that?
I think it was Applebrook.
Okay.
So cool.
Pennsylvania.
I might've said that wrong.
It's something broke.
Is that where Terry Apple's at?
No, you don't know.
You don't know where we're at.
We're polling the audience here.
All two of them.
(03:57):
Well, sorry, three, we got threepeople in the audience.
Whoa, here comes Chris Whitakerto make number four in the
audience.
So mental note to self.
And since we're recording this,hopefully I'll remember.
Maybe don't pick the 9 o'clockslot as soon as the show opens
on the last day of the show.
(04:17):
That's, yeah.
That's okay though.
I mean you did put out theannouncements.
I did put out the announcementsand Does he count as a guest?
He's taking pictures.
So, yeah.
Yeah, you're a guest.
Alright, hey! We got our fifthguest.
Thanks for coming.
Appreciate you.
What, sorry.
You know, J.
R.
(04:37):
calls himself the squirrel.
Yeah, I'm pretty squirrely too.
Yeah, that's exactly how it is.
Bright light over there.
Yeah, something shiny.
Let's do that over there.
Yeah, that's 100 percent how Ioperate.
What's the coolest thing you sawon the trade show floor?
So, the main focus for us whenthey sent me to the show we're
moving a lot into the roboticsstuff.
Ah, okay.
(04:58):
So, seeing all the new dropstuff from Toro and John Deere
to You know, the new Husqvarnastuff.
We're already heavily involvedwith Husqvarna mowers.
I've got 13 of them already, so.
Oh, awesome.
And we would like to double thatfleet this year, so We'll see
how that actually turns out, butso that stuff was cool.
(05:18):
Anything in particular that ledyou to Husqvarna?
Over other competitors?
They they were the mostproactive towards us.
Yeah.
And then when they did Come outto demo for us because we're out
in the middle of absolutelynowhere.
You know, cell service and allthat's limited.
So, their system worked well onour property.
You know, all this new RTK stufflooks awesome.
(05:41):
We're just not sure how it'sgoing to actually work out on
our property.
Cause we're so remote, you know,like three quarters of my day.
I have no cell service.
So like, you know.
I mean, are they putting an RTKrepeater or something on
property?
Well, that's what we've beenlooking into is that option.
So, you know, Husqvarna doesn'tuse the RTK.
So we haven't gone that routeyet.
(06:01):
But our distributor just pickedup two more brands.
And so they're like, well, let'sbring you some options just in
case.
So they have Husqvarna.
Now they have Nexmo, Cress.
So, you know, cool.
See what works.
So what did.
So John Deere's got some newstuff or not?
Not really.
Okay, but Toro's got yes, theygot lots.
(06:22):
Honestly, that new triplex isgoing to be looks like it's
going to be really sweet for thefairway units.
Also the fire, the fireflyautomatics looks pretty awesome
as well.
It's all up and coming, youknow?
Yeah, I talked to I got Caughtor trapped, however you want to
call it, from Firefly yesterdayas I was trying to get out of
here.
And talking about, so theydesigned that cutting unit like
(06:45):
from the ground up.
So it's totally different thanany other cutting unit I've ever
seen.
Did you try, like did you touchthe cutting unit?
Yes.
Yeah, so those adjustments, Ilike that.
Like it's just a very positive,very concise feeling, you know.
They said the rear roller had acut.
I know the audience is going tolove this when we get deep in
the weeds.
(07:06):
So the how to cut adjustment,the gentleman told me it was ten
thousandths per click.
Yeah.
On the rear roller.
I thought that was kind of cool.
Yeah.
And then the reel to bed knifeadjustment was six and a half
ten thousandths.
And I, so I was giving him ahard time.
I said, you just wanted to getin between John Deere and Toro.
(07:27):
Right.
Yeah.
You know, cause Deere's five andToro's seven.
Right.
Yeah.
Six and a half.
Oh, they are?
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
It's kind of like the guy whosays he's like five foot eleven
and a half, you know.
Oh yeah.
I got to throw that yeah.
Not quite six foot.
Yeah, not quite there.
I think my daughter's five twoand a half.
Yeah.
You know.
Trying to get to five three.
Yep.
(07:47):
Maybe one day.
Yeah.
So what all did Toro have?
So they have partnered.
I haven't been to their boothyet.
So they partnered with Echo forsome of their robotic stuff.
So they have mowers that aresimilar to the Husqvarna's.
They offer much larger optionswhich has some nice benefits,
you know, for that wider cuttingpath.
(08:07):
The ones that we use have the 9inch cutting path.
And so, they aren't necessarilyfast, but they work 24 hours a
day.
So they cut an acre and a half aday.
And and right now we're runningthem exclusively on our sorry,
words landscaping areas.
And but we're trying with thisnew grow in to put robots out
(08:28):
there, at least for the initialgrow in and then to maintain the
rough.
And we're trying to decide whatwe're doing with fairways.
So, you know, they do provide agreat cut on the fairway.
These Husqvarna's do, becausewe've already experimented with
that.
It's just, it comes down to whatthey want for appearance.
So, you know, they still reallylove the stripes, and I
understand that, so.
Yeah, I don't, that's one thingI guess I've saw with the, you
(08:51):
know, just pictures I've seenwith the robotic stuff, it's all
the little tire tracks goingback and forth, it's not
necessarily the most.
That's the most appealing to theeye.
It actually looks great in ourlandscaping.
It really does.
You just have to work with itfor when they're doing the
transport paths, when they'redone mowing, that you put it
around the outer perimeter.
Otherwise it'll just cut rightthrough everything they just
(09:12):
cut.
So you just have this one randomline but just straight through
everything else.
But other than that, it'sactually very appealing.
I'll have to show you somepictures of it.
So, okay.
Yeah.
Cool.
Yeah.
I think maybe in the EM roundtable somebody was talking about
they're getting frustrated It'sbasically mowing the cleanup in
a three to nine direction.
(09:32):
So it's just like back andforth.
And then somebody else in thegroup said that they come out
with a firmware update.
Yeah, exactly.
So I was gonna say ours don't dothat.
Ours do the regular cleanuptasks.
Okay.
Nice.
Yeah.
Very cool.
But yeah, it's been, they'vebeen awesome.
You know, I change blades once amonth.
Really?
I mean, granted we're in coolseason grasses, so a little less
(09:53):
aggressive, But we've been very,for me, it's kind of a relief
because we added on 16 acres ofsod that we need to take care of
instead of buying another bigrotary mower and all that, that
I have to change oil and dostuff on, which is obviously
part of my job, but I'm alreadyswamped, you know, having these
mowers that just once a month Igo change all the blades, make
sure everything's cleaned up onthem, let them roll again.
(10:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that's awesome.
It just makes it nice.
And I guess the other thing thaty'all deal with there, you're so
isolated, it's probably hard tofind labor.
Yeah.
And that is the biggest thing.
Cause like, you know, when westarted bringing them on, a lot
of our people were like, oh, areyou replacing us?
We're like, no, we're justgrowing so fast.
Like you guys aren't goinganywhere.
Yeah.
We just.
We can't keep up with all thisexpansion.
(10:37):
So it, and it does help a lot inthat sense.
Cause like I was actually prettyanti robotics when I came into
the industry.
Just because small town, I'mlike, we just need to support
the community, like hire morepeople and stuff like that.
But after four years, like it'sso hard to get people like.
We've tried to expand the crewand it's just been super
difficult.
So it's like, okay, well, thenwe just jumped in full on into
(10:59):
robotics, both feet.
And like I said, we've been verypleased with it so far.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Didn't you say you're in a townof 2000, 2000?
Yeah.
2000.
Yeah.
Not a huge labor pool.
No.
I mean, we are halfway betweenthe next town over, which is
like.
1400.
Okay.
So a little bit more, but yeah,it's, you know, it's a 35 minute
(11:20):
commute roughly for most people.
So yeah, it's just, you know,and maybe you're doing 35
minutes in the city, but worksfive miles away where for us,
you know, you're driving 30miles for that 35 minutes, you
know, you're going out in themiddle of nowhere.
So Well, you know, in Atlanta,the hardware store is my
(11:41):
favorite hardware store.
It's called Highland Hardware.
And it's two and a half milesfrom the shop, and it takes 25
minutes to get there.
I mean, it's stupid.
Right.
Yeah.
All the traffic lights and stuffin the city of Atlanta is crazy.
I'm gonna go turn his volumedown over there.
(12:01):
Cause it is it's a littleaggressive.
And it's very distracting.
I don't, do they have amicrophone over there and a
speaker?
Yeah, they have to.
Yeah, they have to.
Right.
They have to.
All right.
Well, our audience has dwindleddown to three again.
So it's about to dwindle to twowhen you get Chris up here.
(12:25):
Yeah.
We're gonna have to send ChrisWhittaker out to recruit more to
more audience members.
So, yeah, anything else excitingyou've seen here at the show?
We're definitely looking intosome of the drone technology as
well.
Okay.
So, yeah, what do you plan ondoing with drone technology?
Well, initially we were justlike we can just fly the drones
just to take, you know, weeklyvideo of the course just to have
(12:46):
comparisons.
But now with all the newtechnology they have that we can
just scan the turf directly andit shows up.
It's not thermal imaging, butdoing the chlorophyll readings
and stuff like that, so that wayyou can see the actual health of
the turf.
Oh, really?
Wow.
Like, it'll map it, and like,and you can set it up, so when
it comes up, it looks like athermal image, about like,
here's your hot spots, here'syour dead spots, here's your
(13:07):
like, super healthy grass,here's So, daily you can adjust
your irrigation and stuff to it.
Really?
Yeah.
That's pretty cool stuff.
It is super cool stuff.
Yeah.
That is neat.
So we've kind of looked intothat a bit.
And then also because we'rebuilding this new nine holes,
just having a drone forconstruction documentation and
all that stuff.
Yeah.
It makes it really handy andslick.
(13:27):
But then I've already forgottenthe name of the booth but they
have the agricultural sprayerdrones, which, you know, has 110
pound payload.
And so they said roughly twoacres per gallon for
application.
Depending on what you'reapplying.
But, you know, it holds 13gallons, so you can do 20 to 25
(13:48):
ish acres.
Huh.
26, if we went by perfectnumbers.
But yeah.
But just the the abilities forthat.
So for, like, for us, you know,we could apply on greens one
day, and then we could load itup with like Mosquito Killer,
and go out and, like, spray thefairways and kill mosquitoes and
other things.
You know, it's a, it's actuallysuper cool technology.
Huh.
Interesting.
so.
(14:08):
I don't know.
I just always kind of looked atthe drone spraying as maybe that
was just a game.
Well, more than, you know, Ithink it's gotten a lot more
serious in the last two, threeyears.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, beneficial.
Yeah.
And you know, especially withdrift and propellers and right.
Well, so where we're at, likeour, all of our mosquito control
is done by helicopter and someground application.
(14:32):
But The pilot that we had movedon they got a new pilot, but
he's not sure if he's stickingaround So like we're looking
into better options.
Okay.
Yeah, particularly themosquitoes because we're at like
it should be the state bird.
So It's bad They're giantthey're nasty so They're and
especially out there because wegot lots of sitting water,
(14:52):
especially because we're on thatsix thousand acre cattle ranch
So when we they still do floodirrigation So, what that is they
just kick open the ditches andjust flood the entire field.
And that's how they irrigate forthe hay out there.
And so, as a result, you haveThat turns into a rice field.
(15:13):
Yeah, so think about rice fieldsand mosquitoes.
Same idea.
That's how that works.
Yeah, anything else exciting,or?
I mean, those were the biggestthings.
I mean, there was, there'salways lots of cool things
around here, but you know, thoseare the ones that stick out the
most in my mind.
So I don't, did you make it byHector's booth?
That's where I'm headed next.
All right.
Yep.
All right.
(15:33):
Yeah.
His presentation at 10 o'clock.
I'm headed over there.
Oh, okay.
Perfect.
Yep.
I'll make sure and get you outin time to get over there.
Yeah, for sure.
I think you've got plenty oftime.
Yeah.
We got plenty of time.
I mean, so I'm trying to think,did I see anything cool?
I don't, I started on Hector'send and I made it.
(15:53):
to about the 5400 block.
Okay, yeah, so not very far.
Yeah, not very far.
And I don't know how many hoursthat was.
We started, what time did westart yesterday?
10?
Started at 10, took a littlelunch break, left here at 5,
made it maybe a third of theway.
Yeah.
(16:13):
Through.
I did the opposite, I went thatway and worked my way.
So I'm 80 percent of the waylike this way.
Oh, you're doing good then.
Yeah, way, way ahead.
Way ahead of the curve.
You know, I'm trying to hit upother things other than just
equipment, but equipment's whatwe do.
Yeah, that's what youautomatically, you know, zone in
(16:34):
on.
Yeah, when I see some of thesebooths, I'm like, eh, nah, I'm
out of the apartment, right?
Yeah, exactly.
You know, there's been a fewthings I've collected
information, you know, for oursuper and stuff like that, that
I've seen, I'm like, oh, I knowhe'll want something from this,
but.
But other than that, becausethey sent me by myself.
So like, Oh, nice.
Yeah.
So, so as your superintendentattended before.
(16:56):
Oh yeah.
Okay.
Yep.
Just chose not to come to thisone.
Yep.
Yeah.
Why did you want to come to thisone?
Well the biggest part, sothey've been trying, well, we've
been wanting to send us back outsince I got hired and it just
hasn't worked out for us to makeit.
And so this year because of thenew nine coming on.
We need to come up with moreefficient ways and more
(17:17):
equipment, you know, we'reexpanding the equipment.
So we're trying to come up withwhat is best for what we're
bringing on, you know, how arewe bringing the owner the most
value for his money.
So, you know, and so some ofthat, like I said, particularly
the robotics and what's new inthat area, but also we're only
halfway through this new nineand we've had a few hurdles
(17:38):
because we're mostly doing itkind of in house.
Yeah.
Like we're the contractor.
So we're hiring different peopleand stuff like that, but we're
trying to fill gaps and stuff.
And some of that means we'reproviding equipment and stuff
like that.
You know, either we're buyingit, some of it, we plan on
renting, but for the most partwe're buying up equipment for
finishing out this new nine.
So that's kind of was part ofsending me here was in, in the
(18:02):
full perspective of a new ninecoming on what, you know, How
can we outfit this better?
Yeah.
Very cool.
I don't know, it makes me thinkabout coming to the trade show
and the conference andnetworking with everybody and
Mitch told me this, Mitch Huntfrom Traverse City, Michigan
(18:22):
told me this story, and hisfirst trade show was in Orlando.
And he, you know, so weconnected, Hey, how you doing,
whatever, traded numbers.
And then it's like six monthslater, he calls me one day.
And he's asked about his Foleygrinder.
I don't even remember what theproblem was.
I didn't have the solution, butI said, call Vince at Foley.
(18:45):
So Vince, he's been at Foley for30 plus years.
And he knows everything there isto know about a Foley grinder,
inside and out.
And Mitch had already, before hecalled me, he had called his
local distributor that sellsToro, or Foley, and also Toro.
And they came out and gave him aquote of 4, 500 to repair his
(19:08):
grinder.
And so anyway, he calls me, Isend him to Vince.
Vince says you need a 200 part.
And, it's so he's telling SteveHammond, his boss.
That's also a GCSA board member,that, and he's like, that's
worth the price of getting intothe trade show.
Yeah.
You know, you made oneconnection, you made one phone
(19:31):
call to another phone call, andit saved the club that much
money.
Yep.
So that's a good way to justifyit.
And then, Kelli and I weretalking to what is his name the
northeast guy, Connecticut,another board member.
Mark Weston second favoriteboard member of mine.
Just below Scott Griffiths, theGeorgia guy.
(19:52):
Anyway, Mark was saying that heputs his equipment manager
coming to show and the partsline item on their budget.
Yeah.
Because if he puts it undereducation, they're like, eee,
we're cutting education.
You don't need education.
(20:12):
So he puts it in parts.
I'm like, that's pretty, thatwas pretty clever.
Yeah, that was pretty clever.
That was worth my price ofadmission to come this year to
find out that little trick.
Right.
Yeah, no, that's good stuff.
Does your whole crew come outfor this?
No.
Actually I'm the only one herefrom my club.
We're doing the renovation now.
(20:32):
So super or director ofagronomy, he didn't want to come
out.
And normally he doesn't send alot of people.
Yeah.
I mean, the main reason that Iget to come is put in a proposal
to teach for GCSA each year, andthat's a good way of getting in.
So anybody that's looking to getto a trade show, put in your
(20:54):
proposal.
And it's open to the end ofFebruary.
March.
End of March.
Okay, we've got plenty of timeto get those proposals in.
And if you need help puttingtogether a proposal, reach out
to GCSA.
You want me to name any names?
Reach out to BrandI.
What's your last name, BrandI?
(21:16):
Turner.
I knew that.
I've seen it on your name tagseveral times, but reach out to
BrandI Turner.
And she would be happy to helpyou put together a proposal to
teach.
That's a good way to get here.
Yeah.
And it gets you out of yourcomfort zone.
Yeah, that, that's the biggestthing that's so I've told the
story, I know, before on thepodcast, but I'll tell it again.
(21:37):
My first year being aninstructor was in San Antonio.
And I did that in conjunctionwith Corey Phillips and the late
Eric Duncanson.
Yeah.
Passed away a few years ago, andso it was three of us giving
this education, and it was howto study or train up for the
(21:59):
EMCP exams.
Like, how to pass the exam,right?
So a little study guideoverview.
And I was so nervous, I wasready to throw up in the corner.
Yeah, it was terrible.
There was probably 15 people inthe room.
You know, I mean, it wasn't likeit was a really big room.
It was just, it was a smallroom.
But I was so nervous and justabout to lose it.
(22:21):
And then, now, I mean, you sawthe presentation Tuesday.
We had a hundred people inthere.
And it's like, yeah, it's whatyou do.
Yep.
You know?
Yeah, you just gotta get used toit.
Right, you gotta get used to it.
And I was explaining this tosomebody, I think, last night.
is the first time you took acarburetor apart, it could have
been a little nervous.
Like, ooh.
There's a lot of little parts.
Yeah, these are a lot of littleparts.
(22:42):
I got to keep up with all theseparts.
Maybe you get a littleoverwhelmed.
But after you tear it apart forthe 10th time, you're like,
okay, yeah, this goes here, thatgoes there.
You know, it's no big deal.
Yeah.
It got, you get to the pointwhere literally somebody brings
you a carburetor in 46 piecesand they're like, I don't know.
And you're like, yeah, you canjust put it back together.
You're like, don't have to thinkabout it.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly right.
So, yeah, but any, so what's onyour agenda for today?
(23:07):
This work.
Well, I mean, any certainthings, I'm going to hit up.
Yeah.
I'm going to hit a Pector's bothhis classes and then just finish
out the trade show.
And, but that's all I've gottoday.
Gotcha.
So I don't, you want to come uphere and talk for a minute,
Chris?
Why not?
Yeah.
Chris has nothing to say.
Yeah.
Whatever.
(23:27):
Chris always has something tosay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Come on.
Well, thanks.
Thank you so much.
Justin Wilkerson, everybody.
Thank you.
Yes, sir.
Yep.
Great job.
You know how to use that?
Yeah.
I had to do this yesterday.
Oh, okay.
Maybe that'll work right there.
We'll see if your tag hits it.
Alright, hopefully it doesn't.
(23:48):
Did you get a shorter lanyardthan everybody else?
No, I tied it on the back justso I'm not ripping off my
ribbons at the bottom.
Oh, alright.
Are you trying to see how manyribbons you can get on a badge?
Yes.
Okay.
The ribbon game, it has to bestrong.
Yeah, it's gotta bring a strongribbon game to show.
(24:08):
Yeah.
So, yeah, is that a custominternational member ribbon?
Of course it's a custominternational, well, it's one of
these things being Canadian,there isn't a lot of other
things out there, but you havean international buyer and you
also have a committee member.
So if you combine the two ofthem, you get international
member and my superintendent,he's an international member.
(24:33):
So why doesn't the GCSA have aninternational ribbon?
But it's, you know, there's notanother color in the alphabet, I
suppose.
Yeah, there's no more selectionof colors, background colors.
Yeah, there's no more colors.
(24:53):
Yeah.
This is my podcast.
I can make it up as I go here.
All right.
Yeah.
No more help from the peanutgallery.
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(25:35):
Let's get back to the episode.
So.
Have you enjoyed your show here?
I love these shows.
Yeah.
Yeah.
These are awesome.
What was the best education?
The one you gave?
Well, no.
The one that I actually reallyappreciated was Austin Wright's
portfolio.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How he's working it inconjunction with the resume and
(25:56):
when you're out going actuallylooking for that new position or
that new location the portfoliojust supports your resume and
it's basically pictures whichare a thousand words.
And it really sort of promotedhim, so he was able to get his
position.
But I'm not looking, but it'snice just to have a record of
what you've done because it doesshowcase you and your career.
(26:19):
Yeah.
And Austin is not a social mediaperson.
I know.
So, I think the, you know, I dothink some people and You know,
Twitter's changed.
It's not the same, in myopinion.
I really dislike the platform.
I mean, you know, it's just notwhat it was.
And it doesn't seem like there'sas much activity, or the
(26:42):
algorithm's different, orsomething.
Because I just see all this crapin my feed, and I don't even
follow all these people, and I'mlike, I don't want to see any of
this stuff.
But, anyway, social media can bea good portfolio.
It can, and that's what Istarted, and that's why I was
all over Twitter.
(27:02):
I'm still calling it Twitter.
I love Twitter.
But yeah, it was nice to be ableto put all your pictures on
there.
Just send messages, see whatother guys are doing, learn from
them.
But yeah, there's way too muchadvertising.
I think Elon needs some moremoney or something.
Yeah.
It's foolish.
Right, crazy.
But no, that's awesome.
Hey, we got some, I got someother people showed up.
(27:24):
Yay! Our South Florida guys,John Watson and Haas.
Minglo?
Manglo.
I don't know sorry dude.
That's alright.
Yeah, you know, it's tough.
It's just Haas.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's just Haas.
That's what I like.
It's Haas.
Alright, other than theportfolio, I was busy teaching.
(27:44):
Busy teaching.
Yeah.
So what talks did you give?
I was actually speaking to thesuperintendents about building
relations with your equipmentmanager.
You did that with Chris Hyman?
Yeah, we did that and that wasrunning around all over the
place, one end of the buildingto the other.
I know how many steps I didn'tdo, but it was just crazy.
(28:06):
But yeah, it was it's awesomejust to be able to, To network,
do this kind of stuff, makefriends, get out of your comfort
zone because I'm totallythrowing this at you because
when you came up to see me inCalgary, Alberta, Canada, I met
this guy outside who was havinga dart and he's just enjoying
(28:26):
the weather and enjoying theview and we just started
chatting and talking and Iassociate you as one of my
friends and one of my mentorsbecause of the fact that you
basically started puttingyourself out there and showing
me what you could do as anequipment manager.
And I've never been one on onewith you to be able to say thank
you, but thank you very much,buddy.
(28:48):
Oh, well, thank you.
I totally appreciate you andwhat you've done.
And anytime that you're going todo one of these things, if I'm
in the area, I'm going to comedown and support you.
so much for supporting me andsaying that, too.
And, yeah, I don't know whatinspired me to do that.
You know, I don't know.
Started doing it, you know, but,and then that's the thing I've
(29:09):
learned since starting is justget out of your comfort zone and
do some stuff, you know, and itcould be fun.
Oh, it's very fun.
I think it's the funnest thingout here.
I mean, I was always the guy atmost of these parties that was
over in the corner, hanging outby myself, or maybe I knew
somebody and I would just staythere and talk to them the whole
time and not meet any other newpeople.
(29:30):
And I still struggle, you know,sometimes with that, but You've
definitely blossomed and comeout of your shell.
Yeah, I come out of my shell alittle bit.
And there's probably, maybe somepeople want to put me back in
there, but that's alright too.
No, it's good.
It's good.
It's been it's been a lot offun.
It's been super rewarding.
The podcast, and now the YouTubechannel.
(29:50):
You know, I get text and DMS andemails and, but you're willing
to accept them and respond tothem as well.
That's the best part of it.
And that's almost like a tightcommunity that's equipment
manager based that we can relyupon and we can lean on.
And yeah, it's just a greatexperience just to be able to be
(30:11):
part of this organization andpart of this group.
Well, yeah, the WhatsApp group Ithink is truly remarkable.
And I don't know where thegentleman got my number from,
but I've added him yesterday,last night.
Oh, yeah.
But he sent me a message inWhatsApp, a voice message.
So, and I listened to it, andhe's in I forget the name of the
(30:34):
club, but he's in St.
Lucia.
And he's having, you know, agood many problems with
different equipment and wantedto join the group.
Yeah, so he's in there going toall the little corners of the
world.
Yeah, I mean, it's crazy Butit's I think one of the most
valuable resources in ourindustry for an equipment
manager is that group?
Network is there's so muchknowledge in there Yeah, and the
(30:58):
network and I mean that's a hugeaspect of it And then the other
cool thing about coming to theconference and the trade show
you get to put a lot of faces tonames Yeah, you see him in the
WhatsApp group or on socialmedia or something like that and
here they are sitting in personjust like this.
It's awesome.
Well, yeah, I know Haas forfishing, but at least I see his
(31:21):
picture all the time.
Everyone knows me as the littlegolf ball, but they've never
seen my face that much, but whoknows, that could change.
Yeah.
But it's totally a wonderfulthing to be able to network and
put faces with.
Profiles.
Yeah.
For sure.
For sure.
In this world and yeah, how thehell am I supposed to know about
you guys with deep south states,warm states and I'm stuck in the
(31:44):
frozen north and yeah, I canstill call you up.
I have called you up in the pastand I've chased something down
and with the John Deere worldbecause I don't have a lot of
John Deere.
I'm mostly total but It's niceto be able to do that part of
it.
Well, I don't, you know, I don'tknow because I don't see it, but
who knows how much in theWhatsApp group, how much chat
(32:07):
goes on outside of the group.
You know, people connectingdirectly.
You know, especially if they'rein kind of the same area or
whatever.
Y'all have a WhatsApp group,right, in South Florida?
I mean, huge group.
Yeah, we've got one in Alberta.
All right.
That's great.
We started off just as aroundtable talk.
Yeah.
Everyone sort of threw theirname into the WhatsApp thing and
(32:27):
we'll shuffle it around andwe'll bounce questions off or
we'll try to unload a piece ofequipment that we're not using
anymore, but it might be helpfulfor someone else.
Oh, right, right, right.
We're selling stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's nice to be able to dothat as well.
Because little groups becomebigger groups that become
international groups.
Yeah.
(32:48):
Yeah, I hadn't seen much.
You know, we do have someinternational people in there.
The real Turf Tech WhatsAppgroup, but I hadn't seen much
for them lately, but, you know,oh, they're in a way different
type zone.
Lot different time zone andYeah.
Especially from you, the UK toYeah.
Yeah.
We time Chris Miton and stufflike that.
Yeah.
And stuff like that.
And Matthew Axton he's way overthere as well, so, and then
(33:10):
Matthew Kane.
Is in Dubai.
Yep.
So, so yeah, that's the one Igotta get on the list.
That's where I want to go.
To do a tips and tricks seminar.
Well, they should actually becoming here and presenting the
differences.
Well, yeah, that would be goodstuff too.
If they actually came and showedthe differences between what
(33:31):
they do during the It's like,from what I do in the winter
December months, I basically sitand build.
Where, how are you in December?
Are you guys busy playing golfand shutting down in the summer
or anything like that?
That, for me, that wascompletely different.
And I wouldn't have known thatyour busy season is December
through February whereeverything is frozen and
(33:53):
hibernating in my world.
Right, right.
When I was even taken back alittle bit, when they invited me
down to South Florida, they werelike, yeah, we're fixing to get
our H 2B labor in, and this islike September.
Like, H 2B comes in October andleaves in what, April ish or
something?
And we get our HTB help inApril, and they leave at the end
(34:15):
of November.
You know?
And we're not that far away.
Seven hours away.
Or, way I know, from ChrisJohnson's shop to my place is
like nine hours.
But, yeah, that's a good point.
That's just because of traffic.
Yeah.
But no, it is eye opening.
It is.
(34:35):
The way, you know, we're alldoing similar stuff.
And one thing that Brian Eplinsaid that's been sticking with
me, he's in Nebraska and I mean,they're probably a longer season
than you have in Alberta, youknow, it's a lot shorter than
the season I have in Atlanta.
He's like, you know, the pay'sabout the same, you know, for
(34:56):
me, you know, versus him andhe's got a lot more free time.
Which is, you know, cool too.
I don't see how y'all do it inSouth Florida.
Like, no thanks.
No thanks.
Yeah, when a few years before itstarted, they were having a lot
of difficulties keeping anequipment manager, or keeping
even just a mechanic.
(35:17):
They would lay them off, andthen they would have to go
through the hassle of trying tofind someone in April or March,
or May, depending upon whenMother Nature would show up.
And it was very difficult forthem to maintain.
a full time position.
So at one point they said, okay,we're going to need to make this
a full time position and theysort of bit the bullet.
(35:38):
And when it's cold and when thegreens are put to sleep and
stuff like that I really don'tdo a lot of grinding.
All my superintendents, theybasically said, okay, the
assistance, we need to keep themon as well.
Let's see them about realgeometry, real.
bearings, blades, whatever,angles, faces, why you do all
(36:00):
that kind of stuff.
We, so we said, okay, let'sshare the knowledge of it.
So there is a little bit ofsharing of some tasks, but I'm
not going to ask them to rebuildthe carburetor because yeah,
it's not in their lane andthey're not going to ask me to
say, what would you recommend onthis?
disease.
I have no idea.
I'm in my lane.
(36:20):
I'm happy in my lane.
I'll just travel along and doit.
Right, right, right, right.
No, that's awesome though.
And I think it, you know, itgives them a head start on their
career because I do think everysuperintendent should at least
understand the basics of cuttingunit set up, you know,
sharpening and those kind ofthings.
(36:40):
Yeah, they should know thebasics and I appreciate the fact
that when they do Some of theselittle things that they
understand where we're comingfrom when we have to deal with
it.
And when, yeah, I know that yourbig pet peeve is, yeah, should I
put blades into sand?
And put that in the right budgetand stuff like that.
(37:01):
But I don't know any different.
So it's just like, oh, right,well, they're putting sand out
there.
They're going to eat metal.
And that's what's going tohappen.
Right, right, right.
Yeah, I mean, that's definitelywhat happens.
Yeah.
In the overall big picture ofthe whole golf course, it's
still one bank account that thecheck gets cut from.
So if they're buying sand, ifthey're buying parts, if they're
(37:22):
buying new equipment, if they'repaying labor, it's still the
whole club.
And if I can, Yeah, but I onlygot so much in my equipment
repair line.
Yeah.
So I don't want any more to comeout of that than than has to.
Live audience question righthere from Haas.
So Haas's question is, inAlberta, when does the grass
(37:45):
shut down?
And what do you do as, yeah, andhow long are you shut down?
We have a hard shutdown date ofOctober 15th.
We basically closed down thecourse.
We put tarps out, we insulateall the greens and stuff just so
they stay sort of alive.
But we'll have kill, frost killand stuff like that.
(38:07):
But we could still be like tankwatering up until November and
December sometimes, dependingupon how much the weather
changes.
Because I'll have a temperaturechange of 40 degrees easily.
It will go from 10 degrees.
All the way up to 50 degrees.
So any water or any ice that'sout there, it'll have melted.
(38:29):
Any, anything that we can do tohelp sort of keep the grass
going, we do it.
So, we've lost all of our staff.
We'll have an assistant superhaving to fill up a tank and go
out there, wear big rubbergloves to keep his hands warm
and they'll just go out thereand water the grass.
We will have, we've got POA.
(38:49):
So it'll look like crap untilthe middle of June.
So, yes, we might put outsomething to make it look a
little greener.
But we also have ryegrass mixedinto it as well.
And we just try to keep itgoing.
It's just one of these weirdthings that we react based upon
what Mother Nature gives us.
(39:10):
If we can open up in May, we'lldo it.
If we have to open up in March,even better.
But we still could have a snowevent In what July the hottest
months.
Yeah, that's crazy.
We have all kinds of weirdthings We had one where with
snowmageddon we had Trees wereall in full leaf We had all the
(39:34):
snow come in here and itbasically just snapped trees in
half It would rip limbs off andstuff and we just ran around
trying to get a second part tothat question What do you do in
the wintertime?
Yep.
All right.
Yep.
We mow our greens up until wecover them.
With our insulation of thegreens, we have a permeable
(39:55):
tarp, some form of insulation,and then an impermeable tarp.
We throw down the permeable tarpjust because it'll collect all
the straw and all the littlebits and pieces that we get like
a good 12 to 18 inches ofinsulation.
Then we cover that with animpermeable, so if any water or
snow gets onto it, it's notgoing to leach into the
insulation.
(40:15):
So we have that good air zone onit.
In the winter, we'll also haveto put in venting tubes.
So any necrotic gases and stufflike that, there's getting some
fresh air going into it.
And it tries to keep it in ahappier state.
And my boss says, I don't knowif it works or if it doesn't.
But if we didn't do it and thegreens totally.
(40:37):
died out on us, there would be,there'd be a lot of issues.
So as a precaution, we're goingto do it just because.
So it's helpful.
It helps.
It just makes me think inAtlanta, when we cover our
Bermuda greens, if the coursedown the road covered, you
better cover too, you know,because if you didn't, then you
(40:58):
don't, you have winter kill orsomething like that.
Like, well.
But how quick does it recoverfor you?
Well, winter kill, luckily ongreens, we have not had winter
kill, but I remember havingwinter kill on 419 Bermuda grass
fairways and there is norecovery.
Yeah.
I mean, it'll like kill thewhole fairway, which is, yeah,
(41:22):
and then we've had sections ofre sodding.
Yeah.
A whole fairway.
Yeah.
When you start sodding orsprigging fairways, that takes a
while for it to come back.
Yeah, we've had situations wherewe lost half of a green, so
we're throwing seed out, we'reputting growth tarps on it,
that'll let the light in, keepthe moisture in, peel them off,
(41:43):
put them on, peel them off, putthem on, and we've had to do
that for weeks, just to get itback into a playing surface and
condition.
Yep, crazy.
Any other questions?
From the audience?
Our audience is growing.
It's around Christmas.
Come on, Tyler.
Why don't you come up here andtalk about Bernhardt stuff?
(42:04):
Alright?
This young gentleman, he won theBernhardt experience and he went
over to Britain.
Oh yeah.
And he was one of the equipmentmanagers that actually got to
experience that.
Where do you want me at?
Right here.
So down.
Yeah.
And we only got just a minute,but figure out how to get this
off.
There it is.
(42:24):
Here's the clip.
Alright.
Thank you Chris Whitaker for thesupport, the friendship of this
clip.
Just clip clipper, right?
There should be good.
Check.
Check.
Yep.
Yep.
Mic check.
I get the buttery smooth onhere.
How do you say your last name?
Mijet.
Mijet.
It looks like midget without theD.
(42:46):
Okay.
Is that French?
Very French.
Very classy.
All right.
So Tyler, Mijet thanks forsitting down with us.
And Chris Whitaker kind ofpointed you out and said, Hey,
come up.
Because is it the BernhardtAcademy?
So what was it called?
The Bernhardt Delegation.
Bernhard delegation.
So it was the Bernhard companyand big the British and
(43:08):
International GreenkeepersAssociation and the GCSAA put
this all together.
So the Bernhard delegation, theyhad been bringing guys to our
trade show for, I think over 20years.
So there've been a coupleiterations of it where they've
taken, you know, folks from ourassociation and took them over
to.
(43:29):
B.
T.
M.
E., which is their trade showand and their continuing
education stuff.
But I think this is our kind oflike Thank you, Justin, for
coming by.
Sorry to interrupt.
The, this'll be like the nextiteration where every other
year, kind of like a Ryder Cupor something, I guess, where
they'll send 10 of us over thereand then the following year, 10
(43:49):
of them will come over here tothe U.
S.
and kind of back and forth.
So I was yeah, I was honored tobe selected for the first
iteration of that for us.
Was it all equipment managers?
I was the sole equipmentmanager.
Sole equipment manager?
Awesome.
I would, yeah, out of the ten.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, it was a real honor.
I got to brush shoulders withsome pretty awesome folks.
(44:12):
Yeah.
I'd be remiss if I didn't shoutout DJ Brent Downs.
Okay.
And Matt Gourlay was on ourdelegation as well.
He won the president's awardyesterday.
So, clay pain, buffalo dunes, areal legend in the business of
making.
So, yeah, really awesome.
Good stuff.
Yeah.
So we got to go.
We got to do a number of sitevisits and I just, I can't say
(44:34):
enough for the experience andthe hospitality that the
Bernhardt company folks showedus.
Sammy Angelique and Steve and Wegot to, so obviously we got to
do the education and trade show,which is way different than ours
here.
A lot smaller, I'm guessing.
Yeah, definitely smaller.
And it's in a, it's in a towncalled Harrogate which is like
(44:55):
north of leads.
And it's, you know, we have likeone big open hall here and
there's this like, I don't know,maybe five or six different
smaller halls and it's kind of alabyrinth.
You know, you get in and thenyou're just kind of stuck in
there until you can find yourway out.
Um, but yeah, it was a blast.
And and then another part ofthat is, you know, we got to go
(45:18):
tour like the Man City campus,Manchester City Football Club.
And see all of their agronomicstuff.
And yeah.
Where's Chris Minton at?
Chris Minton.
Yep.
He's a UK guy and he's at one ofthe Oh, Chris Minton, he, oh
geez, what a, I I'm awful withnames, but I can picture a face.
(45:38):
Okay.
So Chris Minton is actually,he's at Leicester city football
club.
And he's actually one of theguys spearheading, um, over
there, the Tito, which is theturf equipment technicians
organization spelt with an S.
So they're very classy.
No but no, they're studs overthere.
They, I got to go in and sitwith them for a little bit.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Connected with them and did youget to meet Matthew Axton?
(46:01):
Probably at some point.
Yeah.
He's part of that group too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I get that off the floor, oractually, I think Matthew wasn't
there.
If Matthew, if you're listeningand you were there and I did
meet you, I, and I suck.
I'm really sorry.
Oh, it's all good.
But I got to hang out withJames.
Okay.
Wil Wilkerson, I think.
I didn't put, I didn't put it'sall good.
(46:22):
Yeah, us right now.
You're not stuff.
Yeah, everybody li names.
I mean, I'll do it show mepictures, you kno board.
I could poke anybo I met thatguy, I met tha then, you know,
the last we got to go toManchester city.
(46:43):
Got to go to Ro and Wallacey andget site visits at all those
places.
And it really, it was atremendous experience, but I
think getting to do it shoulderto shoulder with eight other of
my countrymen.
Well minus Carol Turner, she's aCanadian total stud.
Yeah, they were all awesome.
(47:04):
But I guess people from ourcontinent, my continents lads.
It was so awesome.
Just, you know, To get to seewhat they were thinking what
they were observing at thesedifferent places kind of the you
know Where are the problemssimilar that we're solving and
where are the problems?
Different and it was just afabulous experience and stoked
(47:25):
to have those connections cominghome.
Yeah how do you get in on that?
It's a pretty lengthyapplication process.
I think it was maybe five monthsobviously like a written
application that's vetted.
They had hundreds of applicants.
Yep, I was one of them.
Were you?
Yeah, I applied.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I sure did.
That's why you're angry at me.
Yeah, that's why I'm really madright now.
(47:46):
No, man, I'm happy for you.
Seriously.
Yeah it, I don't know.
It Yeah, that's awesome.
It written application you know,a couple phone interviews.
I saw an email maybe.
For, you know, asking for theapplication.
Oh.
And then I sent in anapplication.
Yeah.
And then obviously I didn't hearanything else back, but you
gotta do Yeah.
Well, yeah.
(48:06):
Nobody reached out to me for it.
I was just, I was piddlingaround on the GCSA website
looking for for someprofessional development
opportunities and, okay.
I read through the links tosuccess thing and thought it was
a complete long shot.
Like I would have no chance todo it.
So, but yeah, it, you know, itwas a written interview, a
couple phone interviews, andthen you had to make a a five
(48:27):
minute video and that was aboutall the direction that you got.
So, yeah we pestered Sammy aboutthat.
Like what, you know, what wasthat like, could you give us a
little more direction?
And she was like, well, thewhole selection committee,
that's kind of what we wanted.
We wanted to see what you wouldcome up with.
Sammy Strutt is the, she'sleading the Bernhardt Academy
like organization.
(48:48):
Now they, I guess, I guess SteveNixon poached her from Vegas.
So Jim Croxton's a littlepissed, but not actually, but
it's all in jest, but yeah.
Real studs out there.
Well, thank you so much fortelling us about your
experience.
Yeah, it was awesome.
We're going to wrap this thingup.
We had an hour, so.
(49:08):
We're a little over.
You can cut me out.
No, it's all good man.
No.
It's really good.
Thank you so much for getting uphere.
And thanks for therecommendation, Chris.
And thank everybody else forstopping by and supporting the
RealTurf Techs podcast.
I hope we can do it again nextyear.
I don't know.
This might go away, I guess.
So I get here today, and I'mlike They sent me an email in
(49:29):
December and said, You want todo the live podcast?
Sure, did it the last two years,it's fun, whatever, we'll do it.
And, so, well yeah, I will do itlater in the day, next time for
sure.
But, you can sign up Wednesdayor today.
And I just picked 9 o'clocktoday, whatever.
Nobody done one yesterday, andthis will be the only one today.
So maybe it's going away.
(49:51):
I don't know but so let's keepit alive Trent.
We're gonna try to keep it aliveWell, I mean long as they'll
give me the space.
I'll do it.
If not, I mean we could I guessget in on.
I know a guy Put some chairstogether and stuff.
But yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks, Justin Wilkerson andChris Whitaker for also Guesting
(50:11):
today until next time See youback
thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf
techs podcast.
I hope you learned somethingtoday.
Don't forget to subscribe.
If you have any topics you'dlike to discuss, or you'd like
(50:31):
to be a guest, find us onTwitter at Reel turf techs.
Welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the
technician that wants to getreel follow along.
As we talk to industryprofessionals and address hot
topics that we all face alongthe way we'll learn tips and
tricks.
I'm your host, Trent.
Manning let's have some
Thank you so much for joiningus, Justin.
(00:21):
I'll just clip this right hereon your shirt.
Perfect, thank you.
Yep, we can leave this righthere, and I want to hear all
about your adventurous tripgetting to San Diego from
Wyoming.
Alright, well it's not thatexciting, but you know, woke up
Sunday morning to get here midSunday afternoon, direct flight.
Woke up to the roads beingclosed due to avalanche control.
They shut down the road, saidseven to nine hours to open.
(00:44):
It never takes seven to ninehours, so I'm like, I'm just
gonna go anyway.
On my way, flight got canceled,so turned around, headed back
home, figured out a new flight,headed out, had an avalanche
slide maybe 20 minutes in frontof us, so we're shut down for a
few more hours.
That flight gets canceled.
So I go so we start headed backto town.
Get a new flight and thankfullyroads opened back up and finally
(01:08):
made it up, made it on theflight, got here, oh, just after
midnight Monday morning.
So it was mass, it was, youknow, another 12 hours of the
day or whatever than I wasplanning on.
But yeah, it's.
It sounds like a lot, but it'snormal where I live, so it's
just another day if you wanted,like, if you wanted a crazier
story in the 90s and late 80s,like when most of my friends
(01:32):
were born, we had what werecalled canyon babies and it's
because their moms would givebirth in the canyon because they
couldn't get past theavalanches.
Oh, wow.
A little more extreme.
Yeah, that's a little moreextreme.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For me, it was just, yeah it's along delay getting just part of
life.
So, all right, well, good.
Yes, sir.
So, what do you think about yourfirst show?
(01:53):
How are you enjoying it?
It's been a great experience.
You know, I think most peoplewould say fairly overwhelming.
You know, I'm a fairly quietperson.
Tend to be introverted.
You know, I came out to do thismorning with you just because I
really appreciate all you'vedone for us equipment managers.
And so, I was like, I've alreadybeen on the podcast once, might
(02:13):
as well come again and, youknow, support this thing because
you know, it's important for allthe rest of the equipment
managers to kind of get pluggedinto each other because we're
kind of our own islands untoourselves.
So, you know, in a lot of ways,unless we intentionally, you
know, reach out to others andstuff.
So, and it's been what's reallyhelped progress my career.
So anyway, getting back to theshow part, you know, the classes
(02:34):
have been awesome veryeducational.
This whole industry show hasjust been, you know.
Drinking out of a firehose, butyes, definitely like drinking
out of the firehose.
What was the best education youattended?
Honestly, it was your class.
Oh, so.
Yeah, of course it was.
(02:55):
I did pay Justin to say that.
Yeah.
I'll expect my payment in fullnext week.
Yes, I will.
Anyway.
But no, it was just nice for thetips and tricks.
You know, we're in process ofbuilding another nine holes.
We want to expand the shop.
And there's a lot of things thatjust gave great ideas on things
we can add to the shop to reallyimprove the workflow and stuff
like that.
So it's been Awesome.
(03:15):
So that was great.
Also taking the the case studyfor Applebrook out there in
Pennsylvania for their newfacility.
They did like a breakdown ofcosts and process of building a
whole new facility because thereis the option we might be
building a new facility versusjust expanding.
So, so that was a great justvery concise breakdown.
(03:36):
That was awesome to be able tosee how that actual process
works.
So at what club was that?
I think it was Applebrook.
Okay.
So cool.
Pennsylvania.
I might've said that wrong.
It's something broke.
Is that where Terry Apple's at?
No, you don't know.
You don't know where we're at.
We're polling the audience here.
All two of them.
(03:57):
Well, sorry, three, we got threepeople in the audience.
Whoa, here comes Chris Whitakerto make number four in the
audience.
So mental note to self.
And since we're recording this,hopefully I'll remember.
Maybe don't pick the 9 o'clockslot as soon as the show opens
on the last day of the show.
(04:17):
That's, yeah.
That's okay though.
I mean you did put out theannouncements.
I did put out the announcementsand Does he count as a guest?
He's taking pictures.
So, yeah.
Yeah, you're a guest.
Alright, hey! We got our fifthguest.
Thanks for coming.
Appreciate you.
What, sorry.
You know, J.
R.
(04:37):
calls himself the squirrel.
Yeah, I'm pretty squirrely too.
Yeah, that's exactly how it is.
Bright light over there.
Yeah, something shiny.
Let's do that over there.
Yeah, that's 100 percent how Ioperate.
What's the coolest thing you sawon the trade show floor?
So, the main focus for us whenthey sent me to the show we're
moving a lot into the roboticsstuff.
Ah, okay.
(04:58):
So, seeing all the new dropstuff from Toro and John Deere
to You know, the new Husqvarnastuff.
We're already heavily involvedwith Husqvarna mowers.
I've got 13 of them already, so.
Oh, awesome.
And we would like to double thatfleet this year, so We'll see
how that actually turns out, butso that stuff was cool.
(05:18):
Anything in particular that ledyou to Husqvarna?
Over other competitors?
They they were the mostproactive towards us.
Yeah.
And then when they did Come outto demo for us because we're out
in the middle of absolutelynowhere.
You know, cell service and allthat's limited.
So, their system worked well onour property.
You know, all this new RTK stufflooks awesome.
(05:41):
We're just not sure how it'sgoing to actually work out on
our property.
Cause we're so remote, you know,like three quarters of my day.
I have no cell service.
So like, you know.
I mean, are they putting an RTKrepeater or something on
property?
Well, that's what we've beenlooking into is that option.
So, you know, Husqvarna doesn'tuse the RTK.
So we haven't gone that routeyet.
(06:01):
But our distributor just pickedup two more brands.
And so they're like, well, let'sbring you some options just in
case.
So they have Husqvarna.
Now they have Nexmo, Cress.
So, you know, cool.
See what works.
So what did.
So John Deere's got some newstuff or not?
Not really.
Okay, but Toro's got yes, theygot lots.
(06:22):
Honestly, that new triplex isgoing to be looks like it's
going to be really sweet for thefairway units.
Also the fire, the fireflyautomatics looks pretty awesome
as well.
It's all up and coming, youknow?
Yeah, I talked to I got Caughtor trapped, however you want to
call it, from Firefly yesterdayas I was trying to get out of
here.
And talking about, so theydesigned that cutting unit like
(06:45):
from the ground up.
So it's totally different thanany other cutting unit I've ever
seen.
Did you try, like did you touchthe cutting unit?
Yes.
Yeah, so those adjustments, Ilike that.
Like it's just a very positive,very concise feeling, you know.
They said the rear roller had acut.
I know the audience is going tolove this when we get deep in
the weeds.
(07:06):
So the how to cut adjustment,the gentleman told me it was ten
thousandths per click.
Yeah.
On the rear roller.
I thought that was kind of cool.
Yeah.
And then the reel to bed knifeadjustment was six and a half
ten thousandths.
And I, so I was giving him ahard time.
I said, you just wanted to getin between John Deere and Toro.
(07:27):
Right.
Yeah.
You know, cause Deere's five andToro's seven.
Right.
Yeah.
Six and a half.
Oh, they are?
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
It's kind of like the guy whosays he's like five foot eleven
and a half, you know.
Oh yeah.
I got to throw that yeah.
Not quite six foot.
Yeah, not quite there.
I think my daughter's five twoand a half.
Yeah.
You know.
Trying to get to five three.
Yep.
(07:47):
Maybe one day.
Yeah.
So what all did Toro have?
So they have partnered.
I haven't been to their boothyet.
So they partnered with Echo forsome of their robotic stuff.
So they have mowers that aresimilar to the Husqvarna's.
They offer much larger optionswhich has some nice benefits,
you know, for that wider cuttingpath.
(08:07):
The ones that we use have the 9inch cutting path.
And so, they aren't necessarilyfast, but they work 24 hours a
day.
So they cut an acre and a half aday.
And and right now we're runningthem exclusively on our sorry,
words landscaping areas.
And but we're trying with thisnew grow in to put robots out
(08:28):
there, at least for the initialgrow in and then to maintain the
rough.
And we're trying to decide whatwe're doing with fairways.
So, you know, they do provide agreat cut on the fairway.
These Husqvarna's do, becausewe've already experimented with
that.
It's just, it comes down to whatthey want for appearance.
So, you know, they still reallylove the stripes, and I
understand that, so.
Yeah, I don't, that's one thingI guess I've saw with the, you
(08:51):
know, just pictures I've seenwith the robotic stuff, it's all
the little tire tracks goingback and forth, it's not
necessarily the most.
That's the most appealing to theeye.
It actually looks great in ourlandscaping.
It really does.
You just have to work with itfor when they're doing the
transport paths, when they'redone mowing, that you put it
around the outer perimeter.
Otherwise it'll just cut rightthrough everything they just
(09:12):
cut.
So you just have this one randomline but just straight through
everything else.
But other than that, it'sactually very appealing.
I'll have to show you somepictures of it.
So, okay.
Yeah.
Cool.
Yeah.
I think maybe in the EM roundtable somebody was talking about
they're getting frustrated It'sbasically mowing the cleanup in
a three to nine direction.
(09:32):
So it's just like back andforth.
And then somebody else in thegroup said that they come out
with a firmware update.
Yeah, exactly.
So I was gonna say ours don't dothat.
Ours do the regular cleanuptasks.
Okay.
Nice.
Yeah.
Very cool.
But yeah, it's been, they'vebeen awesome.
You know, I change blades once amonth.
Really?
I mean, granted we're in coolseason grasses, so a little less
(09:53):
aggressive, But we've been very,for me, it's kind of a relief
because we added on 16 acres ofsod that we need to take care of
instead of buying another bigrotary mower and all that, that
I have to change oil and dostuff on, which is obviously
part of my job, but I'm alreadyswamped, you know, having these
mowers that just once a month Igo change all the blades, make
sure everything's cleaned up onthem, let them roll again.
(10:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that's awesome.
It just makes it nice.
And I guess the other thing thaty'all deal with there, you're so
isolated, it's probably hard tofind labor.
Yeah.
And that is the biggest thing.
Cause like, you know, when westarted bringing them on, a lot
of our people were like, oh, areyou replacing us?
We're like, no, we're justgrowing so fast.
Like you guys aren't goinganywhere.
Yeah.
We just.
We can't keep up with all thisexpansion.
(10:37):
So it, and it does help a lot inthat sense.
Cause like I was actually prettyanti robotics when I came into
the industry.
Just because small town, I'mlike, we just need to support
the community, like hire morepeople and stuff like that.
But after four years, like it'sso hard to get people like.
We've tried to expand the crewand it's just been super
difficult.
So it's like, okay, well, thenwe just jumped in full on into
(10:59):
robotics, both feet.
And like I said, we've been verypleased with it so far.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Didn't you say you're in a townof 2000, 2000?
Yeah.
2000.
Yeah.
Not a huge labor pool.
No.
I mean, we are halfway betweenthe next town over, which is
like.
1400.
Okay.
So a little bit more, but yeah,it's, you know, it's a 35 minute
(11:20):
commute roughly for most people.
So yeah, it's just, you know,and maybe you're doing 35
minutes in the city, but worksfive miles away where for us,
you know, you're driving 30miles for that 35 minutes, you
know, you're going out in themiddle of nowhere.
So Well, you know, in Atlanta,the hardware store is my
(11:41):
favorite hardware store.
It's called Highland Hardware.
And it's two and a half milesfrom the shop, and it takes 25
minutes to get there.
I mean, it's stupid.
Right.
Yeah.
All the traffic lights and stuffin the city of Atlanta is crazy.
I'm gonna go turn his volumedown over there.
(12:01):
Cause it is it's a littleaggressive.
And it's very distracting.
I don't, do they have amicrophone over there and a
speaker?
Yeah, they have to.
Yeah, they have to.
Right.
They have to.
All right.
Well, our audience has dwindleddown to three again.
So it's about to dwindle to twowhen you get Chris up here.
(12:25):
Yeah.
We're gonna have to send ChrisWhittaker out to recruit more to
more audience members.
So, yeah, anything else excitingyou've seen here at the show?
We're definitely looking intosome of the drone technology as
well.
Okay.
So, yeah, what do you plan ondoing with drone technology?
Well, initially we were justlike we can just fly the drones
just to take, you know, weeklyvideo of the course just to have
(12:46):
comparisons.
But now with all the newtechnology they have that we can
just scan the turf directly andit shows up.
It's not thermal imaging, butdoing the chlorophyll readings
and stuff like that, so that wayyou can see the actual health of
the turf.
Oh, really?
Wow.
Like, it'll map it, and like,and you can set it up, so when
it comes up, it looks like athermal image, about like,
here's your hot spots, here'syour dead spots, here's your
(13:07):
like, super healthy grass,here's So, daily you can adjust
your irrigation and stuff to it.
Really?
Yeah.
That's pretty cool stuff.
It is super cool stuff.
Yeah.
That is neat.
So we've kind of looked intothat a bit.
And then also because we'rebuilding this new nine holes,
just having a drone forconstruction documentation and
all that stuff.
Yeah.
It makes it really handy andslick.
(13:27):
But then I've already forgottenthe name of the booth but they
have the agricultural sprayerdrones, which, you know, has 110
pound payload.
And so they said roughly twoacres per gallon for
application.
Depending on what you'reapplying.
But, you know, it holds 13gallons, so you can do 20 to 25
(13:48):
ish acres.
Huh.
26, if we went by perfectnumbers.
But yeah.
But just the the abilities forthat.
So for, like, for us, you know,we could apply on greens one
day, and then we could load itup with like Mosquito Killer,
and go out and, like, spray thefairways and kill mosquitoes and
other things.
You know, it's a, it's actuallysuper cool technology.
Huh.
Interesting.
so.
(14:08):
I don't know.
I just always kind of looked atthe drone spraying as maybe that
was just a game.
Well, more than, you know, Ithink it's gotten a lot more
serious in the last two, threeyears.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, beneficial.
Yeah.
And you know, especially withdrift and propellers and right.
Well, so where we're at, likeour, all of our mosquito control
is done by helicopter and someground application.
(14:32):
But The pilot that we had movedon they got a new pilot, but
he's not sure if he's stickingaround So like we're looking
into better options.
Okay.
Yeah, particularly themosquitoes because we're at like
it should be the state bird.
So It's bad They're giantthey're nasty so They're and
especially out there because wegot lots of sitting water,
(14:52):
especially because we're on thatsix thousand acre cattle ranch
So when we they still do floodirrigation So, what that is they
just kick open the ditches andjust flood the entire field.
And that's how they irrigate forthe hay out there.
And so, as a result, you haveThat turns into a rice field.
(15:13):
Yeah, so think about rice fieldsand mosquitoes.
Same idea.
That's how that works.
Yeah, anything else exciting,or?
I mean, those were the biggestthings.
I mean, there was, there'salways lots of cool things
around here, but you know, thoseare the ones that stick out the
most in my mind.
So I don't, did you make it byHector's booth?
That's where I'm headed next.
All right.
Yep.
All right.
(15:33):
Yeah.
His presentation at 10 o'clock.
I'm headed over there.
Oh, okay.
Perfect.
Yep.
I'll make sure and get you outin time to get over there.
Yeah, for sure.
I think you've got plenty oftime.
Yeah.
We got plenty of time.
I mean, so I'm trying to think,did I see anything cool?
I don't, I started on Hector'send and I made it.
(15:53):
to about the 5400 block.
Okay, yeah, so not very far.
Yeah, not very far.
And I don't know how many hoursthat was.
We started, what time did westart yesterday?
10?
Started at 10, took a littlelunch break, left here at 5,
made it maybe a third of theway.
Yeah.
(16:13):
Through.
I did the opposite, I went thatway and worked my way.
So I'm 80 percent of the waylike this way.
Oh, you're doing good then.
Yeah, way, way ahead.
Way ahead of the curve.
You know, I'm trying to hit upother things other than just
equipment, but equipment's whatwe do.
Yeah, that's what youautomatically, you know, zone in
(16:34):
on.
Yeah, when I see some of thesebooths, I'm like, eh, nah, I'm
out of the apartment, right?
Yeah, exactly.
You know, there's been a fewthings I've collected
information, you know, for oursuper and stuff like that, that
I've seen, I'm like, oh, I knowhe'll want something from this,
but.
But other than that, becausethey sent me by myself.
So like, Oh, nice.
Yeah.
So, so as your superintendentattended before.
(16:56):
Oh yeah.
Okay.
Yep.
Just chose not to come to thisone.
Yep.
Yeah.
Why did you want to come to thisone?
Well the biggest part, sothey've been trying, well, we've
been wanting to send us back outsince I got hired and it just
hasn't worked out for us to makeit.
And so this year because of thenew nine coming on.
We need to come up with moreefficient ways and more
(17:17):
equipment, you know, we'reexpanding the equipment.
So we're trying to come up withwhat is best for what we're
bringing on, you know, how arewe bringing the owner the most
value for his money.
So, you know, and so some ofthat, like I said, particularly
the robotics and what's new inthat area, but also we're only
halfway through this new nineand we've had a few hurdles
(17:38):
because we're mostly doing itkind of in house.
Yeah.
Like we're the contractor.
So we're hiring different peopleand stuff like that, but we're
trying to fill gaps and stuff.
And some of that means we'reproviding equipment and stuff
like that.
You know, either we're buyingit, some of it, we plan on
renting, but for the most partwe're buying up equipment for
finishing out this new nine.
So that's kind of was part ofsending me here was in, in the
(18:02):
full perspective of a new ninecoming on what, you know, How
can we outfit this better?
Yeah.
Very cool.
I don't know, it makes me thinkabout coming to the trade show
and the conference andnetworking with everybody and
Mitch told me this, Mitch Huntfrom Traverse City, Michigan
(18:22):
told me this story, and hisfirst trade show was in Orlando.
And he, you know, so weconnected, Hey, how you doing,
whatever, traded numbers.
And then it's like six monthslater, he calls me one day.
And he's asked about his Foleygrinder.
I don't even remember what theproblem was.
I didn't have the solution, butI said, call Vince at Foley.
(18:45):
So Vince, he's been at Foley for30 plus years.
And he knows everything there isto know about a Foley grinder,
inside and out.
And Mitch had already, before hecalled me, he had called his
local distributor that sellsToro, or Foley, and also Toro.
And they came out and gave him aquote of 4, 500 to repair his
(19:08):
grinder.
And so anyway, he calls me, Isend him to Vince.
Vince says you need a 200 part.
And, it's so he's telling SteveHammond, his boss.
That's also a GCSA board member,that, and he's like, that's
worth the price of getting intothe trade show.
Yeah.
You know, you made oneconnection, you made one phone
(19:31):
call to another phone call, andit saved the club that much
money.
Yep.
So that's a good way to justifyit.
And then, Kelli and I weretalking to what is his name the
northeast guy, Connecticut,another board member.
Mark Weston second favoriteboard member of mine.
Just below Scott Griffiths, theGeorgia guy.
(19:52):
Anyway, Mark was saying that heputs his equipment manager
coming to show and the partsline item on their budget.
Yeah.
Because if he puts it undereducation, they're like, eee,
we're cutting education.
You don't need education.
(20:12):
So he puts it in parts.
I'm like, that's pretty, thatwas pretty clever.
Yeah, that was pretty clever.
That was worth my price ofadmission to come this year to
find out that little trick.
Right.
Yeah, no, that's good stuff.
Does your whole crew come outfor this?
No.
Actually I'm the only one herefrom my club.
We're doing the renovation now.
(20:32):
So super or director ofagronomy, he didn't want to come
out.
And normally he doesn't send alot of people.
Yeah.
I mean, the main reason that Iget to come is put in a proposal
to teach for GCSA each year, andthat's a good way of getting in.
So anybody that's looking to getto a trade show, put in your
(20:54):
proposal.
And it's open to the end ofFebruary.
March.
End of March.
Okay, we've got plenty of timeto get those proposals in.
And if you need help puttingtogether a proposal, reach out
to GCSA.
You want me to name any names?
Reach out to BrandI.
What's your last name, BrandI?
(21:16):
Turner.
I knew that.
I've seen it on your name tagseveral times, but reach out to
BrandI Turner.
And she would be happy to helpyou put together a proposal to
teach.
That's a good way to get here.
Yeah.
And it gets you out of yourcomfort zone.
Yeah, that, that's the biggestthing that's so I've told the
story, I know, before on thepodcast, but I'll tell it again.
(21:37):
My first year being aninstructor was in San Antonio.
And I did that in conjunctionwith Corey Phillips and the late
Eric Duncanson.
Yeah.
Passed away a few years ago, andso it was three of us giving
this education, and it was howto study or train up for the
(21:59):
EMCP exams.
Like, how to pass the exam,right?
So a little study guideoverview.
And I was so nervous, I wasready to throw up in the corner.
Yeah, it was terrible.
There was probably 15 people inthe room.
You know, I mean, it wasn't likeit was a really big room.
It was just, it was a smallroom.
But I was so nervous and justabout to lose it.
(22:21):
And then, now, I mean, you sawthe presentation Tuesday.
We had a hundred people inthere.
And it's like, yeah, it's whatyou do.
Yep.
You know?
Yeah, you just gotta get used toit.
Right, you gotta get used to it.
And I was explaining this tosomebody, I think, last night.
is the first time you took acarburetor apart, it could have
been a little nervous.
Like, ooh.
There's a lot of little parts.
Yeah, these are a lot of littleparts.
(22:42):
I got to keep up with all theseparts.
Maybe you get a littleoverwhelmed.
But after you tear it apart forthe 10th time, you're like,
okay, yeah, this goes here, thatgoes there.
You know, it's no big deal.
Yeah.
It got, you get to the pointwhere literally somebody brings
you a carburetor in 46 piecesand they're like, I don't know.
And you're like, yeah, you canjust put it back together.
You're like, don't have to thinkabout it.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly right.
So, yeah, but any, so what's onyour agenda for today?
(23:07):
This work.
Well, I mean, any certainthings, I'm going to hit up.
Yeah.
I'm going to hit a Pector's bothhis classes and then just finish
out the trade show.
And, but that's all I've gottoday.
Gotcha.
So I don't, you want to come uphere and talk for a minute,
Chris?
Why not?
Yeah.
Chris has nothing to say.
Yeah.
Whatever.
(23:27):
Chris always has something tosay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Come on.
Well, thanks.
Thank you so much.
Justin Wilkerson, everybody.
Thank you.
Yes, sir.
Yep.
Great job.
You know how to use that?
Yeah.
I had to do this yesterday.
Oh, okay.
Maybe that'll work right there.
We'll see if your tag hits it.
Alright, hopefully it doesn't.
(23:48):
Did you get a shorter lanyardthan everybody else?
No, I tied it on the back justso I'm not ripping off my
ribbons at the bottom.
Oh, alright.
Are you trying to see how manyribbons you can get on a badge?
Yes.
Okay.
The ribbon game, it has to bestrong.
Yeah, it's gotta bring a strongribbon game to show.
(24:08):
Yeah.
So, yeah, is that a custominternational member ribbon?
Of course it's a custominternational, well, it's one of
these things being Canadian,there isn't a lot of other
things out there, but you havean international buyer and you
also have a committee member.
So if you combine the two ofthem, you get international
member and my superintendent,he's an international member.
(24:33):
So why doesn't the GCSA have aninternational ribbon?
But it's, you know, there's notanother color in the alphabet, I
suppose.
Yeah, there's no more selectionof colors, background colors.
Yeah, there's no more colors.
(24:53):
Yeah.
This is my podcast.
I can make it up as I go here.
All right.
Yeah.
No more help from the peanutgallery.
Thank you.
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(25:35):
Let's get back to the episode.
So.
Have you enjoyed your show here?
I love these shows.
Yeah.
Yeah.
These are awesome.
What was the best education?
The one you gave?
Well, no.
The one that I actually reallyappreciated was Austin Wright's
portfolio.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How he's working it inconjunction with the resume and
(25:56):
when you're out going actuallylooking for that new position or
that new location the portfoliojust supports your resume and
it's basically pictures whichare a thousand words.
And it really sort of promotedhim, so he was able to get his
position.
But I'm not looking, but it'snice just to have a record of
what you've done because it doesshowcase you and your career.
(26:19):
Yeah.
And Austin is not a social mediaperson.
I know.
So, I think the, you know, I dothink some people and You know,
Twitter's changed.
It's not the same, in myopinion.
I really dislike the platform.
I mean, you know, it's just notwhat it was.
And it doesn't seem like there'sas much activity, or the
(26:42):
algorithm's different, orsomething.
Because I just see all this crapin my feed, and I don't even
follow all these people, and I'mlike, I don't want to see any of
this stuff.
But, anyway, social media can bea good portfolio.
It can, and that's what Istarted, and that's why I was
all over Twitter.
(27:02):
I'm still calling it Twitter.
I love Twitter.
But yeah, it was nice to be ableto put all your pictures on
there.
Just send messages, see whatother guys are doing, learn from
them.
But yeah, there's way too muchadvertising.
I think Elon needs some moremoney or something.
Yeah.
It's foolish.
Right, crazy.
But no, that's awesome.
Hey, we got some, I got someother people showed up.
(27:24):
Yay! Our South Florida guys,John Watson and Haas.
Minglo?
Manglo.
I don't know sorry dude.
That's alright.
Yeah, you know, it's tough.
It's just Haas.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's just Haas.
That's what I like.
It's Haas.
Alright, other than theportfolio, I was busy teaching.
(27:44):
Busy teaching.
Yeah.
So what talks did you give?
I was actually speaking to thesuperintendents about building
relations with your equipmentmanager.
You did that with Chris Hyman?
Yeah, we did that and that wasrunning around all over the
place, one end of the buildingto the other.
I know how many steps I didn'tdo, but it was just crazy.
(28:06):
But yeah, it was it's awesomejust to be able to, To network,
do this kind of stuff, makefriends, get out of your comfort
zone because I'm totallythrowing this at you because
when you came up to see me inCalgary, Alberta, Canada, I met
this guy outside who was havinga dart and he's just enjoying
(28:26):
the weather and enjoying theview and we just started
chatting and talking and Iassociate you as one of my
friends and one of my mentorsbecause of the fact that you
basically started puttingyourself out there and showing
me what you could do as anequipment manager.
And I've never been one on onewith you to be able to say thank
you, but thank you very much,buddy.
(28:48):
Oh, well, thank you.
I totally appreciate you andwhat you've done.
And anytime that you're going todo one of these things, if I'm
in the area, I'm going to comedown and support you.
so much for supporting me andsaying that, too.
And, yeah, I don't know whatinspired me to do that.
You know, I don't know.
Started doing it, you know, but,and then that's the thing I've
(29:09):
learned since starting is justget out of your comfort zone and
do some stuff, you know, and itcould be fun.
Oh, it's very fun.
I think it's the funnest thingout here.
I mean, I was always the guy atmost of these parties that was
over in the corner, hanging outby myself, or maybe I knew
somebody and I would just staythere and talk to them the whole
time and not meet any other newpeople.
(29:30):
And I still struggle, you know,sometimes with that, but You've
definitely blossomed and comeout of your shell.
Yeah, I come out of my shell alittle bit.
And there's probably, maybe somepeople want to put me back in
there, but that's alright too.
No, it's good.
It's good.
It's been it's been a lot offun.
It's been super rewarding.
The podcast, and now the YouTubechannel.
(29:50):
You know, I get text and DMS andemails and, but you're willing
to accept them and respond tothem as well.
That's the best part of it.
And that's almost like a tightcommunity that's equipment
manager based that we can relyupon and we can lean on.
And yeah, it's just a greatexperience just to be able to be
(30:11):
part of this organization andpart of this group.
Well, yeah, the WhatsApp group Ithink is truly remarkable.
And I don't know where thegentleman got my number from,
but I've added him yesterday,last night.
Oh, yeah.
But he sent me a message inWhatsApp, a voice message.
So, and I listened to it, andhe's in I forget the name of the
(30:34):
club, but he's in St.
Lucia.
And he's having, you know, agood many problems with
different equipment and wantedto join the group.
Yeah, so he's in there going toall the little corners of the
world.
Yeah, I mean, it's crazy Butit's I think one of the most
valuable resources in ourindustry for an equipment
manager is that group?
Network is there's so muchknowledge in there Yeah, and the
(30:58):
network and I mean that's a hugeaspect of it And then the other
cool thing about coming to theconference and the trade show
you get to put a lot of faces tonames Yeah, you see him in the
WhatsApp group or on socialmedia or something like that and
here they are sitting in personjust like this.
It's awesome.
Well, yeah, I know Haas forfishing, but at least I see his
(31:21):
picture all the time.
Everyone knows me as the littlegolf ball, but they've never
seen my face that much, but whoknows, that could change.
Yeah.
But it's totally a wonderfulthing to be able to network and
put faces with.
Profiles.
Yeah.
For sure.
For sure.
In this world and yeah, how thehell am I supposed to know about
you guys with deep south states,warm states and I'm stuck in the
(31:44):
frozen north and yeah, I canstill call you up.
I have called you up in the pastand I've chased something down
and with the John Deere worldbecause I don't have a lot of
John Deere.
I'm mostly total but It's niceto be able to do that part of
it.
Well, I don't, you know, I don'tknow because I don't see it, but
who knows how much in theWhatsApp group, how much chat
(32:07):
goes on outside of the group.
You know, people connectingdirectly.
You know, especially if they'rein kind of the same area or
whatever.
Y'all have a WhatsApp group,right, in South Florida?
I mean, huge group.
Yeah, we've got one in Alberta.
All right.
That's great.
We started off just as aroundtable talk.
Yeah.
Everyone sort of threw theirname into the WhatsApp thing and
(32:27):
we'll shuffle it around andwe'll bounce questions off or
we'll try to unload a piece ofequipment that we're not using
anymore, but it might be helpfulfor someone else.
Oh, right, right, right.
We're selling stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's nice to be able to dothat as well.
Because little groups becomebigger groups that become
international groups.
Yeah.
(32:48):
Yeah, I hadn't seen much.
You know, we do have someinternational people in there.
The real Turf Tech WhatsAppgroup, but I hadn't seen much
for them lately, but, you know,oh, they're in a way different
type zone.
Lot different time zone andYeah.
Especially from you, the UK toYeah.
Yeah.
We time Chris Miton and stufflike that.
Yeah.
And stuff like that.
And Matthew Axton he's way overthere as well, so, and then
(33:10):
Matthew Kane.
Is in Dubai.
Yep.
So, so yeah, that's the one Igotta get on the list.
That's where I want to go.
To do a tips and tricks seminar.
Well, they should actually becoming here and presenting the
differences.
Well, yeah, that would be goodstuff too.
If they actually came and showedthe differences between what
(33:31):
they do during the It's like,from what I do in the winter
December months, I basically sitand build.
Where, how are you in December?
Are you guys busy playing golfand shutting down in the summer
or anything like that?
That, for me, that wascompletely different.
And I wouldn't have known thatyour busy season is December
through February whereeverything is frozen and
(33:53):
hibernating in my world.
Right, right.
When I was even taken back alittle bit, when they invited me
down to South Florida, they werelike, yeah, we're fixing to get
our H 2B labor in, and this islike September.
Like, H 2B comes in October andleaves in what, April ish or
something?
And we get our HTB help inApril, and they leave at the end
(34:15):
of November.
You know?
And we're not that far away.
Seven hours away.
Or, way I know, from ChrisJohnson's shop to my place is
like nine hours.
But, yeah, that's a good point.
That's just because of traffic.
Yeah.
But no, it is eye opening.
It is.
(34:35):
The way, you know, we're alldoing similar stuff.
And one thing that Brian Eplinsaid that's been sticking with
me, he's in Nebraska and I mean,they're probably a longer season
than you have in Alberta, youknow, it's a lot shorter than
the season I have in Atlanta.
He's like, you know, the pay'sabout the same, you know, for
(34:56):
me, you know, versus him andhe's got a lot more free time.
Which is, you know, cool too.
I don't see how y'all do it inSouth Florida.
Like, no thanks.
No thanks.
Yeah, when a few years before itstarted, they were having a lot
of difficulties keeping anequipment manager, or keeping
even just a mechanic.
(35:17):
They would lay them off, andthen they would have to go
through the hassle of trying tofind someone in April or March,
or May, depending upon whenMother Nature would show up.
And it was very difficult forthem to maintain.
a full time position.
So at one point they said, okay,we're going to need to make this
a full time position and theysort of bit the bullet.
(35:38):
And when it's cold and when thegreens are put to sleep and
stuff like that I really don'tdo a lot of grinding.
All my superintendents, theybasically said, okay, the
assistance, we need to keep themon as well.
Let's see them about realgeometry, real.
bearings, blades, whatever,angles, faces, why you do all
(36:00):
that kind of stuff.
We, so we said, okay, let'sshare the knowledge of it.
So there is a little bit ofsharing of some tasks, but I'm
not going to ask them to rebuildthe carburetor because yeah,
it's not in their lane andthey're not going to ask me to
say, what would you recommend onthis?
disease.
I have no idea.
I'm in my lane.
(36:20):
I'm happy in my lane.
I'll just travel along and doit.
Right, right, right, right.
No, that's awesome though.
And I think it, you know, itgives them a head start on their
career because I do think everysuperintendent should at least
understand the basics of cuttingunit set up, you know,
sharpening and those kind ofthings.
(36:40):
Yeah, they should know thebasics and I appreciate the fact
that when they do Some of theselittle things that they
understand where we're comingfrom when we have to deal with
it.
And when, yeah, I know that yourbig pet peeve is, yeah, should I
put blades into sand?
And put that in the right budgetand stuff like that.
(37:01):
But I don't know any different.
So it's just like, oh, right,well, they're putting sand out
there.
They're going to eat metal.
And that's what's going tohappen.
Right, right, right.
Yeah, I mean, that's definitelywhat happens.
Yeah.
In the overall big picture ofthe whole golf course, it's
still one bank account that thecheck gets cut from.
So if they're buying sand, ifthey're buying parts, if they're
(37:22):
buying new equipment, if they'repaying labor, it's still the
whole club.
And if I can, Yeah, but I onlygot so much in my equipment
repair line.
Yeah.
So I don't want any more to comeout of that than than has to.
Live audience question righthere from Haas.
So Haas's question is, inAlberta, when does the grass
(37:45):
shut down?
And what do you do as, yeah, andhow long are you shut down?
We have a hard shutdown date ofOctober 15th.
We basically closed down thecourse.
We put tarps out, we insulateall the greens and stuff just so
they stay sort of alive.
But we'll have kill, frost killand stuff like that.
(38:07):
But we could still be like tankwatering up until November and
December sometimes, dependingupon how much the weather
changes.
Because I'll have a temperaturechange of 40 degrees easily.
It will go from 10 degrees.
All the way up to 50 degrees.
So any water or any ice that'sout there, it'll have melted.
(38:29):
Any, anything that we can do tohelp sort of keep the grass
going, we do it.
So, we've lost all of our staff.
We'll have an assistant superhaving to fill up a tank and go
out there, wear big rubbergloves to keep his hands warm
and they'll just go out thereand water the grass.
We will have, we've got POA.
(38:49):
So it'll look like crap untilthe middle of June.
So, yes, we might put outsomething to make it look a
little greener.
But we also have ryegrass mixedinto it as well.
And we just try to keep itgoing.
It's just one of these weirdthings that we react based upon
what Mother Nature gives us.
(39:10):
If we can open up in May, we'lldo it.
If we have to open up in March,even better.
But we still could have a snowevent In what July the hottest
months.
Yeah, that's crazy.
We have all kinds of weirdthings We had one where with
snowmageddon we had Trees wereall in full leaf We had all the
(39:34):
snow come in here and itbasically just snapped trees in
half It would rip limbs off andstuff and we just ran around
trying to get a second part tothat question What do you do in
the wintertime?
Yep.
All right.
Yep.
We mow our greens up until wecover them.
With our insulation of thegreens, we have a permeable
(39:55):
tarp, some form of insulation,and then an impermeable tarp.
We throw down the permeable tarpjust because it'll collect all
the straw and all the littlebits and pieces that we get like
a good 12 to 18 inches ofinsulation.
Then we cover that with animpermeable, so if any water or
snow gets onto it, it's notgoing to leach into the
insulation.
(40:15):
So we have that good air zone onit.
In the winter, we'll also haveto put in venting tubes.
So any necrotic gases and stufflike that, there's getting some
fresh air going into it.
And it tries to keep it in ahappier state.
And my boss says, I don't knowif it works or if it doesn't.
But if we didn't do it and thegreens totally.
(40:37):
died out on us, there would be,there'd be a lot of issues.
So as a precaution, we're goingto do it just because.
So it's helpful.
It helps.
It just makes me think inAtlanta, when we cover our
Bermuda greens, if the coursedown the road covered, you
better cover too, you know,because if you didn't, then you
(40:58):
don't, you have winter kill orsomething like that.
Like, well.
But how quick does it recoverfor you?
Well, winter kill, luckily ongreens, we have not had winter
kill, but I remember havingwinter kill on 419 Bermuda grass
fairways and there is norecovery.
Yeah.
I mean, it'll like kill thewhole fairway, which is, yeah,
(41:22):
and then we've had sections ofre sodding.
Yeah.
A whole fairway.
Yeah.
When you start sodding orsprigging fairways, that takes a
while for it to come back.
Yeah, we've had situations wherewe lost half of a green, so
we're throwing seed out, we'reputting growth tarps on it,
that'll let the light in, keepthe moisture in, peel them off,
(41:43):
put them on, peel them off, putthem on, and we've had to do
that for weeks, just to get itback into a playing surface and
condition.
Yep, crazy.
Any other questions?
From the audience?
Our audience is growing.
It's around Christmas.
Come on, Tyler.
Why don't you come up here andtalk about Bernhardt stuff?
(42:04):
Alright?
This young gentleman, he won theBernhardt experience and he went
over to Britain.
Oh yeah.
And he was one of the equipmentmanagers that actually got to
experience that.
Where do you want me at?
Right here.
So down.
Yeah.
And we only got just a minute,but figure out how to get this
off.
There it is.
(42:24):
Here's the clip.
Alright.
Thank you Chris Whitaker for thesupport, the friendship of this
clip.
Just clip clipper, right?
There should be good.
Check.
Check.
Yep.
Yep.
Mic check.
I get the buttery smooth onhere.
How do you say your last name?
Mijet.
Mijet.
It looks like midget without theD.
(42:46):
Okay.
Is that French?
Very French.
Very classy.
All right.
So Tyler, Mijet thanks forsitting down with us.
And Chris Whitaker kind ofpointed you out and said, Hey,
come up.
Because is it the BernhardtAcademy?
So what was it called?
The Bernhardt Delegation.
Bernhard delegation.
So it was the Bernhard companyand big the British and
(43:08):
International GreenkeepersAssociation and the GCSAA put
this all together.
So the Bernhard delegation, theyhad been bringing guys to our
trade show for, I think over 20years.
So there've been a coupleiterations of it where they've
taken, you know, folks from ourassociation and took them over
to.
(43:29):
B.
T.
M.
E., which is their trade showand and their continuing
education stuff.
But I think this is our kind oflike Thank you, Justin, for
coming by.
Sorry to interrupt.
The, this'll be like the nextiteration where every other
year, kind of like a Ryder Cupor something, I guess, where
they'll send 10 of us over thereand then the following year, 10
(43:49):
of them will come over here tothe U.
S.
and kind of back and forth.
So I was yeah, I was honored tobe selected for the first
iteration of that for us.
Was it all equipment managers?
I was the sole equipmentmanager.
Sole equipment manager?
Awesome.
I would, yeah, out of the ten.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, it was a real honor.
I got to brush shoulders withsome pretty awesome folks.
(44:12):
Yeah.
I'd be remiss if I didn't shoutout DJ Brent Downs.
Okay.
And Matt Gourlay was on ourdelegation as well.
He won the president's awardyesterday.
So, clay pain, buffalo dunes, areal legend in the business of
making.
So, yeah, really awesome.
Good stuff.
Yeah.
So we got to go.
We got to do a number of sitevisits and I just, I can't say
(44:34):
enough for the experience andthe hospitality that the
Bernhardt company folks showedus.
Sammy Angelique and Steve and Wegot to, so obviously we got to
do the education and trade show,which is way different than ours
here.
A lot smaller, I'm guessing.
Yeah, definitely smaller.
And it's in a, it's in a towncalled Harrogate which is like
(44:55):
north of leads.
And it's, you know, we have likeone big open hall here and
there's this like, I don't know,maybe five or six different
smaller halls and it's kind of alabyrinth.
You know, you get in and thenyou're just kind of stuck in
there until you can find yourway out.
Um, but yeah, it was a blast.
And and then another part ofthat is, you know, we got to go
(45:18):
tour like the Man City campus,Manchester City Football Club.
And see all of their agronomicstuff.
And yeah.
Where's Chris Minton at?
Chris Minton.
Yep.
He's a UK guy and he's at one ofthe Oh, Chris Minton, he, oh
geez, what a, I I'm awful withnames, but I can picture a face.
(45:38):
Okay.
So Chris Minton is actually,he's at Leicester city football
club.
And he's actually one of theguys spearheading, um, over
there, the Tito, which is theturf equipment technicians
organization spelt with an S.
So they're very classy.
No but no, they're studs overthere.
They, I got to go in and sitwith them for a little bit.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Connected with them and did youget to meet Matthew Axton?
(46:01):
Probably at some point.
Yeah.
He's part of that group too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I get that off the floor, oractually, I think Matthew wasn't
there.
If Matthew, if you're listeningand you were there and I did
meet you, I, and I suck.
I'm really sorry.
Oh, it's all good.
But I got to hang out withJames.
Okay.
Wil Wilkerson, I think.
I didn't put, I didn't put it'sall good.
(46:22):
Yeah, us right now.
You're not stuff.
Yeah, everybody li names.
I mean, I'll do it show mepictures, you kno board.
I could poke anybo I met thatguy, I met tha then, you know,
the last we got to go toManchester city.
(46:43):
Got to go to Ro and Wallacey andget site visits at all those
places.
And it really, it was atremendous experience, but I
think getting to do it shoulderto shoulder with eight other of
my countrymen.
Well minus Carol Turner, she's aCanadian total stud.
Yeah, they were all awesome.
(47:04):
But I guess people from ourcontinent, my continents lads.
It was so awesome.
Just, you know, To get to seewhat they were thinking what
they were observing at thesedifferent places kind of the you
know Where are the problemssimilar that we're solving and
where are the problems?
Different and it was just afabulous experience and stoked
(47:25):
to have those connections cominghome.
Yeah how do you get in on that?
It's a pretty lengthyapplication process.
I think it was maybe five monthsobviously like a written
application that's vetted.
They had hundreds of applicants.
Yep, I was one of them.
Were you?
Yeah, I applied.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I sure did.
That's why you're angry at me.
Yeah, that's why I'm really madright now.
(47:46):
No, man, I'm happy for you.
Seriously.
Yeah it, I don't know.
It Yeah, that's awesome.
It written application you know,a couple phone interviews.
I saw an email maybe.
For, you know, asking for theapplication.
Oh.
And then I sent in anapplication.
Yeah.
And then obviously I didn't hearanything else back, but you
gotta do Yeah.
Well, yeah.
(48:06):
Nobody reached out to me for it.
I was just, I was piddlingaround on the GCSA website
looking for for someprofessional development
opportunities and, okay.
I read through the links tosuccess thing and thought it was
a complete long shot.
Like I would have no chance todo it.
So, but yeah, it, you know, itwas a written interview, a
couple phone interviews, andthen you had to make a a five
(48:27):
minute video and that was aboutall the direction that you got.
So, yeah we pestered Sammy aboutthat.
Like what, you know, what wasthat like, could you give us a
little more direction?
And she was like, well, thewhole selection committee,
that's kind of what we wanted.
We wanted to see what you wouldcome up with.
Sammy Strutt is the, she'sleading the Bernhardt Academy
like organization.
(48:48):
Now they, I guess, I guess SteveNixon poached her from Vegas.
So Jim Croxton's a littlepissed, but not actually, but
it's all in jest, but yeah.
Real studs out there.
Well, thank you so much fortelling us about your
experience.
Yeah, it was awesome.
We're going to wrap this thingup.
We had an hour, so.
(49:08):
We're a little over.
You can cut me out.
No, it's all good man.
No.
It's really good.
Thank you so much for getting uphere.
And thanks for therecommendation, Chris.
And thank everybody else forstopping by and supporting the
RealTurf Techs podcast.
I hope we can do it again nextyear.
I don't know.
This might go away, I guess.
So I get here today, and I'mlike They sent me an email in
(49:29):
December and said, You want todo the live podcast?
Sure, did it the last two years,it's fun, whatever, we'll do it.
And, so, well yeah, I will do itlater in the day, next time for
sure.
But, you can sign up Wednesdayor today.
And I just picked 9 o'clocktoday, whatever.
Nobody done one yesterday, andthis will be the only one today.
So maybe it's going away.
(49:51):
I don't know but so let's keepit alive Trent.
We're gonna try to keep it aliveWell, I mean long as they'll
give me the space.
I'll do it.
If not, I mean we could I guessget in on.
I know a guy Put some chairstogether and stuff.
But yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks, Justin Wilkerson andChris Whitaker for also Guesting
(50:11):
today until next time See youback
thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf
techs podcast.
I hope you learned somethingtoday.
Don't forget to subscribe.
If you have any topics you'dlike to discuss, or you'd like
(50:31):
to be a guest, find us onTwitter at Reel turf techs.
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