Episode 151: Andrzej Strzepek

Episode Transcript
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Trent Manning (00:57):
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 thisepisode are real turf techs on

(01:19):
golf course industriesSuperintendent radio network is
presented by Foley county astrong supporter of equipment
technicians and golf coursemaintenance departments
everywhere Foley county offers aproven solution for above and
below the turf for turfprofessionals To learn more

(01:39):
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distributor visit www dot FoleyC o.com Foley Ready for play
Welcome to The Real Turf TextPodcast, episode 1 51.

(02:01):
Today we're talking to AndrzejStrzepek, equipment Manager at
Belmont Country Club in Belmont,Massachusetts.
Belmont Country Club is aprivate 18 hole course, about 20
minutes outside of Boston.
Currently, he's the only tech inthe shop, but he's looking for
an assistant.
He has a mixed bag of Toro anddeer equipment.

(02:25):
Let's talk to Andrzej.
Welcome, andjay to the Real Turf Takes podcast.
How you doing today?

Andrzeji Strzepek (02:37):
doing good.

Yep.

a busy day, but.
Right.
Just chat.

All right, we're gonna do it.
We're gonna, we're gonna chat.
I got your name out of the way.

Yep.

guessed to pronounce it Andjay, but I'm it
was not as bad as I thought itwas gonna be.

No.

Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

So I pretty much started growing up, just
mowing my lawn at our newerhouse.
I was probably like 10.
And then all then, like doingthe weed, whacking the mowing,
trying to do the fertilizing.
And then I was moved over to myneighbor's house when I got
middle school, high school, mowhis yard to make some money for

(03:18):
goalie equipment.
'cause goalie equipment's prettyexpensive and so made a little
cash there.
And then during high school.
I was actually taking care of myhigh school baseball field after
school.
So I originally thought I wasgonna go to, into sports turf.

Okay.

so then I never went to university.
I ended up trying to play juniorhockey.
So I actually went over toVirginia, worked for.
a job.
Worked for the Country Club ofFairfax in Fairfax, Virginia,
just on the crew.
First time, learned to mow greenusing a real mower.

(03:55):
Did that for like three months.
Then didn't really work outthere for hockey.
Moved up back up toMassachusetts driving to
Zamboni, got a job driving toZamboni, living with my aunt and
uncle.
And then hockey wasn't reallyworking out.
Teams there, so my grandfatherhad a minor heart attack.
My parents moved out here, andthen I was living with my

(04:17):
parents.
My mom said, you need to go geta job.
So I was a so went to a coupledifferent golf courses.
Just walked in saying, Hey, yougot, you need openings.
It was like in August, 2008 andfound, walked into Belmont,
said, Hey, who's the super wasjust rolling in and said, Hey, I

(04:37):
need a job.
He is like, all right fill uphis application and we'll see
y'all on Monday.

Oh wow.
Okay.

just started.
So I was doing that and playinghockey at the same time.
And then, so yeah, I was like,oh, this is cool.
I did that for two years,thought I was gonna.
To be a superintendent or atleast assistant Super.
So then I tried to go touniversity at Colorado State for
turf crafts management.
Work out for me.
University wasn't good.
But then I learned, I got aninternship with the Red Sox, so

(05:07):
I actually worked on the Red Soxground screw from full-time 20.
11 to 2013.

Okay.

So I was actually there for the super, or
not Super Bowl the World Series.
So I gotta experience that.
So I never got a ring'cause Ihad another ring I had to buy.
But I learned a lot from that.
And then I was like, I wanna goback to the golf course.
So the golf course took me backfrom 2013 and I just started on
the crew again and I worked myway up to the second assistant.

(05:36):
And then all of a sudden themechanic ended up quitting in
2023, so three years ago, isabout, and or was that 2002 22.
All right.
And then a couple days later,the super was.
I,'cause I was the mechanic'sassistant in the winter.

(05:58):
I do the oil changes and justdoing little things that he
needed while he was doing reels.
And so the super's like, do youwant the job?
I talked to the wife, I said, Igotta talk to the wife.
Next we go up to Lowe's.
Get a cobalt toolbox and bringit back in the truck.
And he's like, I'm assumingthat's a yes.
So

Yeah.

how I got into the equipment side.
So,

Okay.

went and took it and running and now found
this group and loving it.

That's awesome, man.
That's a good story.
Yeah.
So.
Did, had you tinkered on stuffas a young man, or,

Yeah, I like to take things apart and never
knew how to put'em backtogether, but I

Hey, that's how we start, man.
That's how all us mechanicsstart.
We tear stuff apart and may ormay not get it back together.

Well, yeah.
'cause in high school, likeschool wasn't really my thing.
So there was a tech school kindof combo.
You do half day at like highschool and then half day at the
vo-tech area.
And I thought I was gonna dolike building and then I checked
out the the mechanic side and Ijust was thinking about playing
hockey.
So I didn't really think aboutit.

(07:08):
So, and then now I'm lookingback like, that would've been
cool, but hey,

Well, yeah.
That's, so what kind of, sinceyou're newer to this side of the
industry.
What's been one of the biggestchallenges?
going from, you know, thesuperintendent track to
technician track?

I just not really understanding engines and
I understand how they work andall that, but like trying to
diagnose and then I believeeveryone says, excuse me,
electricity.
Like I, you can't see it.
So I finally, I got my knockoffpower probe though, the Al Altel
one.

Okay.

it hasn't come in use yet, but I know it
will.

Oh yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
So do you think electrical'sprobably the hardest thing?

Yeah, because you can't see it.

Right.
Yeah, it's it can definitely bechallenging for sure.
But I don't know.
I wanna say it's like, a lot ofother things that, that you
learn like, you know, maybe youstruggle with, not you
personally, but maybe onestruggles with math.
But once it clicks, then itclicks, you know, and then, you
know, you know, whatever it isyou're trying to do.

because it's definitely re repetitiveness
That will help.
So you'd see it once and thenkeep going.
Yeah.

Yep.
Yeah.
So what is some of the thingsyou've done to.
Further your knowledge on thetechnical side.

asking questions, the finding this
group, the WhatsApp group,

Okay.
Yep.

So anybody that I can Service managers or
service techs on the road andthen Google and YouTube,

yeah.
Yep.
I mean, that's the way, youknow, I don't remember back in
the day having to.
Like, go to the library, youknow, and look through books to
try to find what I was lookingfor.
And the internet has definitelychanged that.
'cause everything's right thereat your fingertips, which is
amazing and awesome

very helpful.

to have.
What's what's your leastfavorite part of the job?

Sand.

Okay.
It is sand.
All right.

It used to be it flipped.
It flipped.
It used to not be sand.
And then I'm like, no, I don'tlike sand anymore.

Okay, well that's all right.

But we did switch over to Edge max bed
knife bed knives for our greensmower.
So that's helpful.

Okay.
So you have found them they lastlonger.

Oh

yeah, that's I've heard the same thing from a lot
of different people and.
Toro, I think they do a reallygood job with their Edge Series
reels.
And even the reels not wearingas quick do you Relief grind?

No, I don't have the capability of doing it.
I've got, the Bernhard,

Yeah.
Yeah.
That's,

Angel, master and Express tool.
So the super, the, we have a newsuper.
He wants relief, but we'll haveto figure it out some way down
the line.
I still get a good cut though,so, but I understand.
I listened to the podcast and myfirst seven I went to.
At the New England show,someone's like You.
Relief grind.

(10:23):
He asked everybody and I waslike, what the heck is that?

I, yeah.

I was like, I don't know what you're talking
about.
And I'm like, oh, okay.
It helps with wear and heat.
And I get all that.
If I could, I would.

I got an invite from Gary to the New England
show this year.
Are you coming this year

Yeah.

in 26?

20.
Yeah.

Yeah.
Awesome.
I will we'll definitely meet inperson then.
As long as nothing happens andno, you know, whatever.
But I was up there.
I don't remember if it was twoyears ago or three years ago.
Awesome.

because I just listened to that

Okay.
All right.
Yeah, I mean, it was awesomegroup and I had such a good time
and I drove up there, made awhole trip and experience out of
it.
It was awesome.
Definitely a trip of a lifetime.
And I'm gonna blank on his name.
Was it Ron?
Ron or Rob?

I can't recall

can't remember, but he's the one that told me
about the bridge tunnel thatgoes across the Chesapeake Bay.
And so I drove across there.
I mean, awesome.
Yeah, it was really cool.
So, I'm sorry that sand is yourleast favorite part of the job,
but that's part of it comes with

It is part of

right?

yeah.

What's your favorite tool?

a paint pen or a label maker or them
together.

Ah yeah.
To keep stuff organized.
Okay.

So now I just found it kind of goes into ticks
and tips and tricks, but writingthe PSI on the rim.

Yeah.
Yep.

I like, I was like, probably people have
probably done it all the time,but I'm like, let's do that.
And then labeling your height tocut, so on your machines.
Just keeping organized becauseI'm very unorganized, so

Yeah.

Definitely been helpful

yeah.
I don't, I mean that is, and Idon't know where I heard that
first.
About the, Rob Campbell is hisname.
I had to look it up.
Rob Campbell awesome guy.
I've been trying to get him tocome on the podcast too.
I'll get him on.
Maybe we have to do one inperson when I come back to New
England.

There you go.

yeah.
And then.
Also at that same show, met BobMarek and he's at TPC River
Highlands.

Okay.

Another really good guy.

haven't been over there yet.

yeah, I don't, there's just so many good people
in this industry.
Yeah really good.
But yeah, label makers, that'sdefinitely one of my favorite
tools too.
I use it all the time for.
You know what?
Whatever it is, labeling bins orlike you said, height on mowers.

I'll even take the label maker and just
get a little strip and then justblank strip, put it on the
mower, and then right on that.
With the paint pen and thentake, you can take I take break,
clean, and then take a break.
Clean on a cloth, rub it off.
You gotta change your heightsand then rewrite it.

Oh, okay.
Yeah.
So you're not, yeah, especially.
I know how we do down here inthe south and spring and fall
we're just, you know, bam.
Like we'll be, we go up to about1 25 on greens height going into
winter and then coming outtawinter, it's kind of the same
thing.
We're at 1 25 and then we're one15 and one 10 and you know, I

(13:47):
mean all these 5,000 till we getdown.
So something like that would bea lot better than and a lot more
efficient than making.
Labels, you know, that manylabels for every hot exchange
that we do.

Toro just put the whiteboard on their new
greens mowers.
So that's nice.

Yeah.
That is

like, so for like the Flex 21, we have Flex
2120s where it doesn't have anywhiteboard.
And the old mechanic, you take ablue, a strip of blue paint or
blue tape, put that down, takesome clear packing tape with
that on top.
You write on that, you can, soyou can see the number and then
you can still erase it.
So it's like a.

Oh, okay.
That's a good idea too.

So if you don't have a label maker or just
do that.
Yeah.
Lasts pretty for a good, yeah,for a good long time.

Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that's good.
What do you do to relax or findyour balance?

I like to watch YouTube,

Okay.

good.

Yeah.
Like real turf tax and

that too.
Oh yeah.
So how to videos, but, oh yeah.
Like, that and hang with thefamily.
Definitely doing that, chillingwith them and smoking meats.

Oh, all right.
Yeah, you're my guy.
All right, well, let's talksmoking meats.
So what kind of pit do you have?

I have two.
I started with char GrillerOffset.

Uhhuh.
Okay.

So I got a tent and then it went into me
getting a tent to do a brisketto then also getting an air
mattress.
And my wife's like, what are youdoing?
I'm like, I don't know.
Well, this is great.
And then once we had the kid, wegot a new house, found this
Traeger

Okay.

was Timberline something.
I can't remember the number onit, but it retails for like
1200, it got for four 50 onFacebook marketplace.

Nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.

With that.

there's some scores.
Is that a pate?

yeah.
That's the

Okay.
Yeah.

Really, it gets good flavor, but smoke
flavor.
But it's not like sitting by afire.

Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, I'm sure there's alittle trade off there.
Do you have a go-to barbecueguru for recipes or anything
like that?

I kinda just throw it together.

Just throw it.
I, that's cool.
I respect that.

Whenever I cook, it's never the same

well, yeah.
No I can definitely appreciatethat.
I would recommend Malcolm Reedand how to barbecue wright.com.
And if you Google him and yousee a picture of him, you know,
he is a really good barbecuecook.
'cause he probably weighs 4 50,500 pounds.

(16:27):
He's a big guy.
But he's from Mississippi.
He done competition barbecue.
I think he's got a podcast.
He's got a whole store now.
I started following him probably10 years ago and he's got a ton
of recipes.
He's on YouTube too.
Always smoking some stuff.
Yeah.
But anyway, really good recipesout there.

(16:47):
I mean, there's a ton Yeah.
Of recipes out there.
That was I got into barbecue forI don't, maybe three or four
years, you know, smoking and dida few competitions and all that

Yeah, see, I don't think I could do
competitions.
I have two, two young ones, soit's gonna be hard,

Oh yeah, it'd be hard.
Yeah, it'd be hard with that.
But yeah, it was a lot of fun.
And you get to eat some reallygood food too.

Oh,

What's been a biggest challenge going to the
shop?

Well, for me, like personally, I've, this is
my third year as em, and I'vehad three supers,

Yeah.

so the different styles has been
interesting.
First one was relaxed, secondone was.
Like sort of relax.
And then my, our new super, thisguy Bryce, great, just been
check reels every day.
Like I, which now I'm learningthat's what you should do.
Literally when they go out andcome back in, check'em.
And I'm, before I was like,okay, now I'm like, oh, this is

(17:49):
why people have assistance,

yeah.

have a lot of checking and anything goes
wrong.
You're grinding, you gotta doeverything.

Yeah.
Yeah,

just the being, having three different
supers definitely waschallenging.

yeah.
I could definitely see that,especially because yeah, they
all have their different ideas,philosophies, you know, how they
want things done and going oneto another.
Yeah, I could definitely seethat.
What's one of the strangestthings you've seen through.

It would be a car tire with the hub.
And I think the caliper was onit next to one of the greens
when I was mowing, either mowingor watering one morning.
'cause there's a road that goesby our, and I think there must
have been an accident the nightbefore and then.
I think they said it was asingle car accident, so

Oh wow.
So

Call the police like, Hey, you guys want
this?
And they came by and got it.
So,

yeah.
The whole

well, I had to find the right town because
we're split our TA was splitinto, there's like Delmont and
then there's Lexington, andthat's what happened in
Lexington.
So Lexington cops got usinvolved.
So I was

Ah, okay.
Yeah.
That's

that.
And then another one would be,it wasn't crazy, but.
Car driving onto the ProddingGreen, the practice putting
green lady was getting out anddidn't realize it was a neutral,
or the thing just glided downlike, oh boy.

Yep.
All kind of crazy stories aroundgolf.
For sure.
Do you have any mentors in theindustry?

So

you out?

actually the guy who left who quit, this guy
Kenny De Silva, he was anassistant at the same course and
then became a mechanic.
So when he left, he said, yeah,call me anytime you need.
So now he's actually down inFlorida, but he's a boatload of
knowledge.
So whenever I need something,he'll usually pick up the phone
or call me back later.

(19:47):
So

Yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.

I get everything from him.

Yeah.
Yeah.
That's cool.
Yeah.
What would be your dream job oropportunity?

It would be, I mean it's good now, but
Boulder Country Club,'cause Iused to live like a five minute
bike ride from there.
Didn't even realize I could haveworked there.
But that would be just back homein the mountain with the
mountain.
'cause it's on the plane.
So having the mountains there,

huh.

that would be kind of cool

Okay.

fa all my family's back there too, so.

So did you grow up around there?

I was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado.
Forgot to say that in thebeginning, but yeah.

Yeah, I gotcha.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you got family in Bostonnow.

my wife's family, but I have an aunt and
local,

Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.

one.
She's like 45 minutes from me.

Do you have a technician you'd like to work
with for a day?

technician at the country club, Toby.
I go butcher his last name withChristan.

Okay.

So I met him when I was a second assistant.
I volunteered over at thecountry club with the US Open.
So I mow greens and I wasn't amechanic at the time, but kind
of poking my head in'cause Iwas, I've always been interested

Yeah.
Yeah.

and met him and his guys and then we hit it
off and still talk to him nowjust check in with him.
So that's someone who I wanna gowork for a little bit.

Yeah, that'd be super cool.
Where is the country club?

It's in Brookline, so it's probably 15
minutes outside of Boston.

Okay.
All right.
So not far away.
Yeah.
Yeah.

like 20 minutes from me.

Yeah.
Very cool.
Yeah, I'm sure you call and hookit up especially in the off
season or whatever.
Hey, let me come hang out for aday or whatever.
That'd be cool.

I'll definitely have to reach out to
him for that.

Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I've had that, you know.
Lucky enough, you know, doingthe podcast and all those
things, you get your name outthere and people call and
they're coming through Atlanta.
I'm like, stop by.
Yeah.
Come on by.

door

I don't.
yeah, for sure.
I was bummed'cause Gary fromScotland was supposed to come
by, come last week and hang outwith me for a week from Scotland
and it fell through.
He had something come up.
So yeah, that was a little bitof a bummer, but that would've
been super cool.
To have something like thatgoing on.

(22:08):
What do you know now?
You wish you'd known on day one?

It is okay not to know it all

Yes.
Yes, it is.

that you don't have to be running around
thinking you know everythingwhen you just try.
Try your best.

Yep.
Yeah, if you can do your bestthat's good enough.
I think that's a really good onethat.
Even, you know me, I gotta stepback sometimes and say it's
okay.
Not to know it all.
I want to know it all, but it'sokay to not know it all.
And you know, I'm learningsomething new every day and
that's okay.

Yeah.
And just asking the super, whatthey think, and just the
communicating.
Just communicate with you Super.

Yeah.
I think that's probably one ofthe biggest things.
And it can be a struggle, youknow, depending on.
Personalities and those kind ofthings.
Yeah.
To communicate.
And that's, I mean, one of the,my favorite things that my
director of agronomy does iswhen he comes to me with a
problem and say how can we solvethis problem?

(23:13):
You know, like, this is theproblem I'm facing.
You know, what piece ofequipment can we use, what can
we do?
You know, all those things, youknow, and I mean, as a.
Mechanic.
I love problem solving anyway,so, you know, it is just fun
figuring that out together.
And then he's got my buy-in onwhat we're doing and, you know,

(23:34):
we got our goal that we need toaccomplish and let's knock this
out.
You know, it's a whole lotbetter that way.
Then if a person says, you needto do this, you know, I mean,
whatever, it's, you know, nobodywants to be told.
What to do or how to dosomething or you know, any of
those things.

Yeah.
You wanna work as a team?

yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Yep.
How do you deal with thatperson?
Do you have that person on yourcrew?

Not really.

Okay, that's good.
Congratulations.

Everyone's, I mean, I can't really think of
anybody at the top of my head'cause.
No, just kindness.
I would say just treat everyonethe same.

Yeah.

who was the gentleman that you have?

I don't, I have more than one.
I

You have more than one now.

More, more, it depends on the day.
Depends on the day.

laughing,

Yeah.
So, yeah, and he still workswith us and he still laughs when
he gets stuck or when he damagesa piece of equipment.
And I do think that's just his,him being nervous is why he
laughs.
And I didn't know that to startwith, so I got really mad when
I'm like, there's nothing funnyabout what you just did.

I got one guy that I can think of that the
back, it's always with backpackblowers.
It won't start like, okay,that's it for 10 minutes.
It starts.

Oh yeah.

Like you flooded it, so

Right, right, right.
Yeah.

you gotta let it sit now, or I was like,
that's when I'm just like, Iknow exactly what's wrong with
it.
Just give it a break.

Do you know Flooded start?

Do not,

so flooded start is.
Turn your choke off, you know,op, you know, open it up.
So it's getting plenty of airthrottle wide open.
You know, most of the time youcan lock the throttle on a two
stroke and start pulling andpull and pull and pull until you
finally clear the gas out ofthere.

(25:36):
Normally that will work.
That's what I call, and not justme, but people in the industry.
They call that a flooded start.
And it works.
Yeah.
And you might have to pull it 7,8, 10 times something like that
to, to clean all the fuel out ofthere.
But yeah, holding the throttleall the way open gets the extra
air through there until itfinally fires up.

You learn something new every

And that way you don't have to wait 10 minutes.

All

Get him on his way and Yep.
Get him out the door.

All right?

Yep.
Yeah, I don't remember.
Probably can't.
Carson or somebody like thattaught me that trick.
But yeah, I mean there's justall kind of tips and tricks out
there.
So that sets us up.
What kind of tips and tricks yougot?

so the other day.
We had alternator go bad on ourturf.
Go wide, spin 1550 I think itwas, and it needs the
electricity to run the computerto'cause it was the hydraulic
was pulsating to spin the wheelsor the spinners.
I was like, all right, so we'reriding the shop.

(26:42):
I'm like, how can I get thisthing just to go?
So I was like, so I just took agenerator, just a little Honda
generator B, well buckle that inthe seat.
Got a battery charger because wedon't have a booster pack.
So just load back.
Plugged that in, hooked it up.
They finished the day

Awesome man.
Yeah.

was able to get always was done.
Take the alternator off.
I'd actually didn't alternateswat.
Swapped the alternator took thebad one to the place.
'cause John Deere wanted about athousand dollars for an
alternator.

Oh wow.

we got a shop right near me.
$400.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Yeah.
Just rebuilt this guy rebuilts.
All these electrical components.
You gotta find your people.

Oh yeah, for sure.
And I mean, it's unfortunatebecause a lot of the mom and pop
shops that rebuilt starters andalternators are going out of
business because it's so cheapto get'em from China.
Now, you know, you get a brandnew starter or alternator from

(27:42):
China for cheaper than they canrebuild it with quality parts
and all that kind of stuff.
I had a good or we becamefriends.
He owned a starter generatorbusiness and or alternator
rebuilding it.
And I mean, it started, I don'tknow, he started in the eighties
or whatever and he finally soldout probably 2010 or something

(28:04):
like that.
He owned the property where thebuilding was and all that stuff.
And yeah, since then I've beenordering I'm trying to remember
the name of the place.
They're actually inMilledgeville, Georgia.
It's like discount starteralternator.com or something like
that.
And they get most of their stufffrom China, but, you know, and

(28:26):
it's cheap and you get what youpay for sometimes.
But I mean, it's hard not tospend a hundred bucks on a
starter and throw it on and seehow long it lasts, you know?

Versus a thousand dollars.

Right, right.
Versus a thousand, yeah, I canbuy 10 of these.
How long is 10 of these gonnalast me compared to one from
John Deere for a thousanddollars?
You know, you probably getquite, quite a bit of life out
of it.

Especially when it's in a top dresser, it
gets all that sand in it.

yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Any other tips and tricks?

Well, I like Kayla's.
I stole Kayla's once

Okay.
Yeah.
I think several people havestole Kayla's and I think Kayla,
I mean, hopefully this isn't topsecret, but I think she's moving
out your way.

again.
She just got the new job.

Well, yeah.
Where at?

The one in, is it still in Pennsylvania?
Oh crap.
I

I was thinking she was taking a job.
Towards Maine, Massachusetts, orMaine or somewhere out

All right.
I'll

From Pennsylvania.
Yeah.
I hadn't heard

her on WhatsApp

Yeah.
Yeah.

Was just it would be 2025 this last new
England conference that I gottameet her there.

oh, okay.
Yeah.
Cool.

So I'll have to reach out.

Yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah, she's my turf sister iswhat I call her.
She's awesome.
She usually comes down to theCarolina Show for Ttac, and so
we get to catch up there.
But she's a special person forsure.
I think the world of a littlesister or something.

Yeah.

she's a good one.

That's cool.

But yeah, the last time I talked to her, she
said something about she wastaking a job somewhere out
Massachusetts, Maine, somewhere,one of those a states out that
way.
In the Northeast.
So did you wanna talk aboutturf?
What was it?

Turf.
Turf art.

Turf art.
Okay.
Yeah.
What is turf art?

So we all know how you stripe the grass,
right?
You mow one way, you get a lightstripe, you mow the other way,
you get a dark stripe.
So when I worked for the RedSox, the guy, Dave Miller was
the head director there.
So I gotta learn how they do allthe logos and in the grass.

Okay.

So I, on the, it was 20 when we did the big BB
strong after the bombing theygot this big stencil and they
marked out.
The logo before they wereactually measuring it, but this
way I was like, okay, that's alot easier.

Yeah.
Yeah.

And then you mark out with a flag or or pins
and then you take the stenciloff and now you have this, well,
first you have, I gottaremember, I do it first.
You push the grass one way.
You do a whole, like you'reblank canvas in a sense.
So I like to push it out awayfrom you so you get the light
and then you come in when youget.

(31:20):
Your design and you just, I takea hose on jet mode and you
literally just jet the littleareas that you wanna be dark and

I

then you kinda get your logo

Huh?

or design.
Yeah.
So you can be kind of intricateon the golf courts or doing in
the rough is easy.
Because you can use water aslong as it's not hot and humid
and you get any disease.
But when it's on the baseballfield, they had to use more of
like, like floor rollers whenyou put like those they use like
those heavy rollers or theywould make their own like, PVC

(31:54):
filled concrete rollers so theydon't have to use as much water.
The player's gonna have all thiswater on the ground golf, it's
just like, it's in the rough,it's whatever.
So even that and then brooms andthen you can just literally how
the grass lays.
So then, I can't remember theER's name, but Eder Doubt.
And it was.
Magazine, it was online GCM GolfCourse Magazine.

(32:17):
he did a little art.
He saw it on Facebook.
I posted in one of the groupsand said, Hey, can I do an
article about you?
I was like, eh, go ahead.

Okay.
That's super cool.

written, yeah,

I don't, do you know what issue it come out in?

no, it was like two years ago

two years ago.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that is cool.
So you could use probably like apaint roller too, or something
like

You can use a paint roller.
If you don't get into the detailareas yet

yeah.

just you shop room works too to push it over.
Anything to push the grass theother way

yeah.
It's

then you can put your, then you can make a
little border when you're done.
So

when you're doing the.
The blank canvas, do you use youknow, a roller or squeegee or
something like that, or justwith the

I know, I literally just to get the blank,
I take our rough mower.

Okay.
And just mow it all onedirection.

Yeah.
So I'll split it.
I'll go up and round pretty muchto a circle Off to the edge, and
then go back to the middle andjust go everything, push
everything one way and then kindlike Zamboni in the way doing
that.
So you get that blank canvas, soyou don't have to do all that by
hand, because that'll be a lot.

yeah.
I got you.
So yeah,

get it cut too.
So.

for those of us that don't know how to use a
Zamboni and we are lucky enoughto have a Zamboni operator here.
Yeah.
How does that work?
Okay.

In, what's that?
A Zamboni?

Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't, I know nothing about aZamboni.
I know it drives across the iceand it looks better when it's
done.

so it's literally, it's got a blade on
it.
Which they gotta go out sharpen,which I have a story about that.
So, and you gotta set the heighton it.
There's a wheel, the littlewheel, if you ever see his,
there's a little wheel on itthat's bringing the blade up and
down, or angling it and up anddown.
So you're letting me shavingjust a little bit of the ice
off.
And then behind it, you're usingwarm water with a towel that

(34:13):
just towel smooths it out.
So you're shaving just a littlebit off and putting new water
down,

Okay.

and then it freezes, and that's the sim.
And then there's some auger.
There's an auger that brings itto the middle.
That's what that whole back partis that brings it up.
And the whole pretty much halfis empty.
It's just a empty shell that.
All the ice that you shave offgets thrown into the hopper.

Ah, okay.

Yeah.
It's like kinda like a streetsweeper.

and then does it melt or,

Yeah.
So then they take that, when yousee them come off the ice, they
dump that into a big pit andthen that just melts off and
they can recycle it.

Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense.
So yeah.
Is there any certain pattern youtry to go in or

Oh yeah.
Usually literally go, you doyour border, you can do usually
one or two passes, and then youliterally go up the middle and
then to your side, back to themiddle side.

Okay.

It's just, that's why they call it like
when you're doing bunkers andbony style versus just a spin.

okay.
Yeah, see, I mean, we don't callit Zamboni file down in the
south, surely I don't, we don'thave a bunker wreck, so we hand
rake all our bunkers.
So that's something I don't evenknow about that, but that makes
sense.
I have, I wanna say, I haveheard people say Zamboni style,
so Yeah.
That's good.
So what's your story aboutZamboni?

So someone changed the blade and didn't set
the height, kind of just set theblade and then that was my turn
to take over.
I just went out there.
I made one lap around and myhopper was full,

Oh wow.

the owner of the rink had the ice coming up
and the rest of the rink wasn'tdone.
So I was like, oh boy.

Oh.

I was like, okay, I'll get that later.
I guess

Yeah.

really happy about that.

Oh, I'm sure.
Did you get fired or not?
No.

I just blamed blame it.
Yeah.
Blamed it on the other guy.

Yeah.

Like when you can't find a tool, you blame
somebody else and then you findit.

Yeah.
That's it.
Yeah, I looked for, I had asnap-on light with a magnetic
base rechargeable.
And I put it under, I wasworking on a prog gate or
something, and I had it like upunder the cow in the front and.
It was missing for, I dunno,like two months.
I'm like, where somebody hasstole my light?

(36:42):
Who took my light?
You know?
And then I go back like to forwhatever reason, to pull the
cover off.
And I look in there, I'm like,damn, there's my light right
there.

it was.

It's been there this whole time.
I feel bad for accusing peopleof taking it.

You've always gotta blame 21st, and then
you're like, all

Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Well, it's another funny storyit makes me think of is the
superintendent I worked with hewas talking about the mechanic
at this other course he workedat they had GK four, so the
Jacobson Green Kings four.
Not the, there was a bunch ofthose sold.
Not, maybe not the best of pieceof equipment, but anyway, the

(37:20):
mechanic was like, where are mynine sixteens wrenches?
Somebody took my nine sixteenswrenches.
So, and this is, it goes on fora couple days.
He's looking for his nine 16wrenches and the GK four comes
in and he has to take the coveroff up the steering wheels in
the front and he takes the coveroff and his 2 9 16 wrenches are

(37:40):
still there on the hydraulichoses where he tightened them
up.
And then he put the cover overand the cover held the wrenches
in there.
And he's like, there's yourwrenches.
Yep.
Blaming it on somebody else.

Forgot what it was.
I think it was a 7,200 JohnDeere

Okay.

I was taking something off.
There was two incidents when onewas a hammer.
'cause I like to tap the, onthose QA sevens.
Sometimes those don't like tosit, the real doesn't like to
sit down.
So I get a little tap.
Yeah.
Left that on there.
I was like, where's that hammer?
And then the operator was like,just hold on a second.
Like, ah, yeah, thanks.
I'll take my hammer back.
And then also a magnetic.

(38:22):
Bolt holder.
I left that under one because Iwas doing something and I did
same thing.
Stop the like, I know where itis.
Stop the operator.
Like, yeah, I'll take that.
Thanks.
And they're

Uhhuh.
Yeah, I've done,

you remember where it was,

same

crap, it's being used right now.

Right?
Right.
We use t handles like on the QAfive.
Cutting units for adjusting thereel to bed knife and yeah, I
don't know how many times I'veleft a t-handle on, or one of
our guys have left a t-handleon, and sometimes they'll go out
and mow, you know, half thecourse or whatever come in.
It's still on there somehow.

(38:58):
I don't know.

I don't know how they, I don't know how they
stay on

Yep.
No, that's good stuff.
Anything else you wanna talkabout?

Yeah.
So I actually got involved with.
My local chapter for the NewEngland chapter, and I'm writing
articles about equipmentmanagers.

Oh, awesome.

yeah.
Like my next one's gonna bethinking, oh, hold on.
Now I gotta remember what mytitle will be.
Well, first it's called, oh,right now I don't remember the
title it's

Ah, it's all good.

it's gonna be thinking on the Fly.
To get the job.
Oh, no, that's not it.
I don't remember, but it'ssomething where you come up with
like quick tips on how to fix'em.
So I did that.
Interviewed, kind of did likeyou do but in writing,
interviewed this guy who was amobile tech and then just doing,
talking about EMS in theindustry,

That's awesome, man.
Yeah.
Thanks for doing that.
That's super cool.
And you're doing that andyou're, is.
It's the local publication of

yeah.
Just our local newsletter.

yeah.
No, that's super cool.
I think Chris Hyman, he wasdoing something similar to that
in New York.
So I mean, it's really greatthat other people's, you know,
taking the lead and spreadingthe word about what all's
happening out there.
I mean, it's just, it's reallygood.
It's heartwarming to, you know.

Yeah.

To have the industry come together and
promote each other.
It's really good stuff.

Yeah.
And then I was talking to ourlocal club car dealer.
I was like, do you guys have anytrainings for guys?
He is like, I don't know.
He was like, let's put somethingtogether.
So it was this winter.
I gotta actually gotta reachback out to him.
But even just'cause he doesn'tsorrys getting that time.

yeah.
Yep.
It's almost better.

yeah.
Really.
Yeah, so he is gonna putsomething together for training
and he'll have hosted lunch andstuff.
So

Oh, so yeah.
That's super

out to your local people, like, especially
if you haven't seen anything.

Yeah.
I know like our Toro distributorhere, they do a class each year
and then our, the Georgiachapter, we do a equipment
manager seminar each year, andthere's more and more chapters
that are putting on.
Equipment manager education.
I went over, done one in Alabamaearlier this year.

(41:22):
Yeah.
I've been to, I've been quite afew places.
Utah, Nebraska, you know, allthese places speaking at these
deals and it's awesome.
It's.

Yeah.
Our local Toro dealer they,every, they have classes every
winter, so.
I just did, they did a eventtrack class.
They brought the vent track guydown on the 45 hundreds.
It was a 42, I don't remember

Yeah.
Yeah.

And then Jim Ham came down.

Oh, yeah.
Yeah.

he, I had missed the real one, but then he
did the Procore six 40 eights.
So we have like 2006, 2007Procore 6 48.
So I finally learned about theSVQ on it.
So it was dropping too fast.

Okay.

said, literally just unplug it and I
unplugged it, and now it justdrops just enough where it
doesn't tear up

Really?
Ah,

because the, there's an orifice that you
could have put in there, but theold, the, those models didn't
have it at the time.

okay.

Yeah,

Yeah, I don't, Jim is a wealth of knowledge.
I mean, yeah, man, if I couldretain half, I mean that.
Quarter of the information hehad is would be overload.
And I'm actually gonna have himon again, I'm interviewing him
next Monday.

(42:45):
So, you know, the first round weall only talked about reels and
I kind of wanted to talk aboutsprayers and I wasn't even
thinking about Procore, butyeah.
Well, definitely this next onewe're gonna talk about sprayers
and Procore.
And who knows, maybe it'll betwo more rounds.
You know, there might be a partthree you can't tell

have three or four with him.

Yeah, I know.
'cause he is just a wealth ofknowledge.
And it's really great that hedoes that.
I know he came down and spoke.
Our Georgia seminar severalyears ago and, you know, just
pay his expenses.
He didn't charge any kind ofspeaker fee or any of that kind
of stuff, you know, I mean, he'sjust a really great guy that

(43:29):
loves to give back to theindustry.

And I was able to, I met Hector'cause he
came to New England,

Okay.

gotta meet him.

Awesome.

I learned, 'cause I got the plastic welder
that he gotta do.
And then I

Yep.
Yep.

we had a 8,000 a, the.
The John Deere 8,000 a guybacked into the real motor,
ripped the harness off the motorwhere the connects the motor.
I was like, oh crap.
This is, those are a thousanddollars.
So I was like, I a, it was superexhausted'cause I just had a kid

(44:04):
at the time, so

Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I can do that.
Uhhuh.

And then I ended up just taking it apart.
Soldering it and then just ressoldering it back together and
it works.

That's awesome.
That's so cool, man.

meeting.
Yeah.
Hector, I'm just saying evensolder everyone, it's broken.
Just fix it if know, becauseit's gonna break it even more.
So if you can fix it, it's cool

Well, that's, yeah, that's the way I look at a
lot of things is like, okay.
Right now, this is unusable.
It's broken.
No one can use it.
So I can spend some time and tryto repair it.
And if it don't work, I hadn'tlost nothing.

Right.

So, I mean, it's worth a try.
Right.
So I find myself, you know,doing that a lot.
And yeah, I mean, just likeHector says, anybody can solder.
It's not, you know, it's notthat complicated.
Takes a little learning, alittle practice, you know what I
mean?
It's like welding.
It's just like anything else.
None of us knew how to do thatas children as a learned skill.

(45:09):
Right.
and you talked about YouTube acouple times.
That is the welding group onYouTube.
They love to throw some negativecomments my way.
Well, I mean, not just my way,but anybody's way, you know, I
mean, there's just so manyprofessional welders, I guess,
that watch YouTube and I'm not aprofessional welder, but I can

(45:33):
stick some metal together andthat's all I need to do.
That's I don't need to have itx-rayed or a structural engineer
to check off on it, you know,I'm just sticking some

as it works.
Yeah.
So I gotta build a gas handle.
Holder for our gas tanks.
'cause before we just got newgas tanks last year and the
installers just literally use apiece of tubing and you're stuck
the nozzle in, in the tubing andit was just out in the elements.
I literally just take some, whatthe Ben knives cut them up and

(46:07):
then just welded the littlehandle from YouTube.
'cause I saw someone on YouTubedo it.

Oh, really?

all right.
Yeah.

Yeah.
Awesome.
Very cool.

Yeah, because what did you see with the gator
that I watched that video whereit didn't end up being the belt.
Oh, I, maybe it was a little bitago,

Oh, on the prog gator

Yeah, the pro

yeah, it wasn't the timing belt.
I thought maybe it was thetiming belt, but it wouldn't.

Yeah.
So that those like, now I can goback to that and be like, if
that ever does happen, we got aprog.
So I love that you're doingthat.

Yeah, I mean it's I don't, the whole YouTube thing
has been a lot of fun.
I definitely really enjoy it andI mean, I'm super lucky that my
director of agronomy supports mein doing it and that kind of
stuff.
And you know, I mean, obviouslyI'm getting my work done.
But I think it's good for theguys that help me in the shop

(47:04):
too.
'cause it gives them a betterchance of learning what we're
doing.
And it was a point that mydirector made the other day, you
know, instead of telling a guy,go put this part on, you know,
we're diagnosing, like he, theyget to see, okay, we're doing a
voltage drop test.
This is what's causing theproblem.

(47:26):
This is what we're going toreplace.
You know, a whole lot betterthan saying, just go do this,
you know, and you don't reallylearn anything, right?
You're just changing a part andyou didn't learn anything.
So really good learningopportunity.
So I wanna pass those learningopportunities along to the
YouTube channel, and that's theidea behind it.

(47:49):
So anybody listening, if you gotideas, videos you wanna see or
whatever, don't hesitate toreach out, send me a text or
email or call me or whatever.

Yeah.
Yeah.
Who's the gentleman?
I literally just.
I took my Bernhard angle masterand I put that sliding gauge on
it.

Oh Bob pno.

yeah.
Yeah.
Bob,

Yeah, Bob Shop.

somehow that just came across.
I was like, all right.
I tried to do it with a dialindicator that I think Chris, I
Hyman had, and I'm like, I don'tknow if I how mount this.
And then when I saw that, I waslike,'cause he said, did you end
up doing that on your Foley?

Yeah.
I got

Yeah.
So I'm telling other guys do it,and then I'm like, how do I
mount it to a Bernhard?
And I saw that.
I was like,

Yeah.

all right, this makes complete sense.

I know Bob's pretty slick.
I talked to John BSOs last nightand, bob come up and we were
talking about him.
We would both love to go outthere and visit him sometime.

where's he out of?

Nova Scotia, like he's an hour Yeah.
What east of us?

Okay.

the next time zone is over from Eastern Time.
Yeah.
'cause.
Back when he was on Twitter, hewas posting stuff at like 3:00
AM.
I'm like, man, when does thisguy wake up?
He never sleeps because I mean,he'd be posting stuff at 9:00 PM
and then he posting stuff at3:00 AM like, man, this, he's a
madman.

(49:18):
But yeah.

complete different time zone.

Yep.
He is in a different time zone,but Good dude for sure.
And it's great.
Yeah.
For any of the listeners, if youhadn't checked out his blog, he
has Bob Shop.
Blog and he puts all kind ofreally good information on
there.
And it's I like it becausethere's not a lot of fluff.
He's, you know, he is got somepictures on there and he is
like, do it this way and this isit, you know, I mean, just

(49:43):
direct and to the point.
And that's awesome that he'sdoing that.
You ready to do some rapid fire?

All right.

Let's do it.
What's your favorite movie?

Two Elf and Napoleon.
Dynamite.

Oh, I love both of those.
Yes, both classics.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You gonna eat all your tots?
that's my,

Tina.

yeah, that's good.
What would be your last meal?
I

Cowboy steak, mashed potatoes and corn of the
cob.

Awesome.
I can't wait.
I'm so hungry right now too.

Oh yeah.

It's dinner time.
What are you most proud ofbesides your family?

dang.

Yeah, I know what?
Tell me about your family.
You said you recently married.

gonna be nine years, October 1st.

All right.
Awesome.
All

and yeah, the wife and then a 5-year-old.
Well, five and a half.
According to her, it's gonna be

okay.
That's all right.
You gotta get that straight.

one and a half year old.

Okay.
Awesome, man.
I don't.
Everybody tells you this.
I know.
I heard it so many times with mykids.
You know, they grow up so fastand I thought, yeah, they're
right.
They'll grow up fast.
But man, it is a blink of theeye because now I got a
17-year-old and a 20-year-old,and I'm not near as cool as I

(51:12):
used to be.
I mean, they're great kids and Ilove'em, and they love me and
all those things, but they don'twanna hang out with me quite as
much.
They got better things to do,and I get it.
I had better things to do when Iwas their age,

Yeah.
I gotta play video games theother day with my 5-year-old.
It was fun.

Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah.
Any time like that, man don'ttake it for granted, for sure.

So well that, and then I would say my faith.

Okay.
Yeah.
You wanna talk about it a littlebit?

Yeah.
Well, yeah.
I just grew up in a Christianhome and, but just life was hard
sometimes and got away from itand like, you're good on mental
health, I probably wouldn't behere unless I had it.
I had my faith because.

awesome, man.

I've definitely been in times with
suicidal thoughts and

Okay.
Yeah.

It definitely grounds me and keeps me going,

That's awesome man.
Keep doing what you're doing forsure.
And never, and that's foranybody listening, you know, and
whether it's faith or you know,everybody's gotta find their own
thing.
And you know, faith is a lot ofit for a lot of people.
And then there's some peoplethat you know, don't agree with
that, or, you know, don'tbelieve in it or whatever.

(52:25):
There's something for you too.
You know, I mean, whether it'sfaith or whatever it is.
So yeah, I won't try not to getup on my soapbox too high, but
man, just do it, you know.
If you need help just reach out.
I know it's easier said thandone, but there is somebody out
there that will help you.
You know, you can gimme a callanytime.

(52:46):
I'm not a professional, but I'lltalk to you and be a listening
ear.

That's all you

Because I mean, I, you know, I've been right
there too and I'm still thankfulfor all the guests we had on the
mental health episodes and weneed to do more of those.
I know.
And you know, it is hard to getpeople to kind come forward and
talk about it'cause it'ssomething, you know, that a lot
of people don't like to talkabout.
And I mean, I understand that.

(53:13):
So thank you for saying that andI appreciate your faith.

you think it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, until next time thanks for being on.
I really appreciate you beinghere and being a guest.
And if I can never do anythingin the future, you just let me
know.
Thanks for being a good part ofour WhatsApp group.
And for any of the listeners, ifyou want to be part of that,

(53:41):
send me a text or an email andwe'll get you in.
It keeps growing and you know, Iknow it's not perfect.
I've heard some stuff the otherday that might be happening with
people screenshotting andsending it to somebody's boss,
and I'm like, man, life's tooshort for that.

(54:01):
It is, you know, it is way tooshort.
'Cause I really want it to be asafe place where you could post
whatever you wanna post in thereand not be judged for it
because, you know, we all gottastart somewhere.
But if you're interested, reachout and we'll get you in.
'cause it is a really goodresource, a ton of knowledge in

(54:24):
there.
And it is amazing how quick youcan get a answer on a question,
you know, with that muchknowledge because.
A guy down the street has seenthat, had that exact same
problem, you know, three monthsago or six months or a year,
whenever it was.
So thank you again, ONJ

Yeah.
Thank you, Trent.

yep.
We'll talk to you soon.

Oh, people can find me at STRs 2 5 6 on
Instagram.

2, 5, 6.

S-T-R-E-Z 2 5 6 on Instagram.
I think I have a Twitter, samehandle, but I'm mainly on the
Instagrams.

I got you.
Yeah, nobody's on Twitteranymore.
I don't think it's, that's adying thing and that's okay.

Yeah.
I like tagging you on that too.

Okay.
Yeah, definitely do it.

Yeah.
But yeah, thank you again.

Thank you.
thank you so much for listeningto the Reel turf techs podcast.
I hope you learned somethingtoday.

(55:36):
Don't forget to subscribe.
If you have any topics you'dlike to discuss, or you'd like
to be a guest, find us onTwitter at Reel turf techs.

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