Live from the 2024 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in Phoenix, Episode 114 brings you a dynamic lineup featuring 8 great guests including several Melrose Equipment Manager Experience alumni. Join our host as he explores the week's highlights, covering education, trade show discoveries, interactive facility tours, networking, and cutting-edge products.
In this lively episode, Trent sits down with:
🛠️ Jagger Maddock, assistant technician at JR Wilson’s shop in Noyac, sharing insights into starting his career and education in turf equipment through vocational school, on-the-job training, and GCSAA continuing education.
🔧 JR Wilson, CTEM, of Noyac Golf Club, highlighting the week's key moments and sharing great tech ideas from his class with Cory Phillips.
🌐 John Borsos, offering perspective as a Melrose Equipment Management Experience alumni.
🔍 Brian Harper, Equipment Manager at Pendleton Golf Club and Melrose EM Experience alum, expressing his excitement about learning and applying new technology in the shop.
⚙️ Chris Hyman, Equipment Manager at Cobblestone Creek Country Club in Victor, NY, discussing his journey towards CTEM.
📚 Chris Whittaker, CTEM, Equipment Manager at The Winston Club in Calgary, Alberta, providing insights into the learning process when preparing to teach a class and sharing his experience as a first-time presenter at CTS.
💡 Jordan Roth, CTEM, Equipment Manager at Champions Run in Omaha, NE, offering a valuable framework for thinking about electrical vs. mechanical troubleshooting.
🔩 Brack Crouch, CTEM, Equipment Manager at Talisker Club at Tuhaye, shares his excitement over mind-blowing information exchanged on the trade show floor and extends a heartfelt offer to help those new to this incredible industry.
Tune in for a jam-packed episode filled with industry insights, tech tips, and the contagious enthusiasm of the turf community!
Live from the 2024 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in Phoenix, Episode 114 brings you a dynamic lineup featuring 8 great guests including several Melrose Equipment Manager Experience alumni. Join our host as he explores the week's highlights, covering education, trade show discoveries, interactive facility tours, networking, and cutting-edge products.
In this lively episode, Trent sits down with:
🛠️ Jagger Maddock, assistant technician at JR Wilson’s shop in Noyac, sharing insights into starting his career and education in turf equipment through vocational school, on-the-job training, and GCSAA continuing education.
🔧 JR Wilson, CTEM, of Noyac Golf Club, highlighting the week's key moments and sharing great tech ideas from his class with Cory Phillips.
🌐 John Borsos, offering perspective as a Melrose Equipment Management Experience alumni.
🔍 Brian Harper, Equipment Manager at Pendleton Golf Club and Melrose EM Experience alum, expressing his excitement about learning and applying new technology in the shop.
⚙️ Chris Hyman, Equipment Manager at Cobblestone Creek Country Club in Victor, NY, discussing his journey towards CTEM.
📚 Chris Whittaker, CTEM, Equipment Manager at The Winston Club in Calgary, Alberta, providing insights into the learning process when preparing to teach a class and sharing his experience as a first-time presenter at CTS.
💡 Jordan Roth, CTEM, Equipment Manager at Champions Run in Omaha, NE, offering a valuable framework for thinking about electrical vs. mechanical troubleshooting.
🔩 Brack Crouch, CTEM, Equipment Manager at Talisker Club at Tuhaye, shares his excitement over mind-blowing information exchanged on the trade show floor and extends a heartfelt offer to help those new to this incredible industry.
Tune in for a jam-packed episode filled with industry insights, tech tips, and the contagious enthusiasm of the turf community!
welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we'll learn tips and tricks. I'm your host, Trent. Manning let's have some
We're a little early, but we'll go ahead and get started. So these microphones, you gotta hold'em a little close. Real close to your mouth here? Yeah, pretty close to your mouth. And you don't have to yell or anything. Um, just talk in your normal voice. Welcome to the Real Turf Text podcast. Are you a sound guy? JR. Go ahead, be sound guy. Yeah, turn it up. Yeah, Colby, let Colby over there. He'll figure it out. Oh yeah, you'll figure it out. I'm sure it is. Sure. It's a simple mixing board. Got somebody for everything here. That's right. We do. That's what that's what mechanics do. We fix stuff. Doesn't matter what it is. All right. After our, after this rambling rampage, um, I'm going to do it one more time. Welcome to the real turf text podcast coming to you live from Phoenix, Arizona at the trade show 2024. And I'm sitting here with Jagger. And I know Jagger so well, I don't even know his last name. What's your last name, Jagger? Last name's Maddock. Maddock. Um, very nice to meet you. Jagger works with J. R. Wilson at NOYAC. And it's a pleasure to have you here. Is this your first time attending show? Yes, it's my first time here at the show. I'm learning a lot, seeing a lot. It's been great so far. What kind of classes have you taken? I took the Cut line is king class first day. So my whole lot about cutting units all that. I'm still new to it So I got a much better understanding now. Mm hmm What was the one I did yesterday I can tell you right now Understanding mowing technology and Mowing technology quality of cutting after cut appearance. All right. Yeah, was that Jim Neddon? Yep. That's Jim Who's more impressive Jim Neddon or Mike Rollins? I think Mike definitely kept everybody's attention a little better. He was really fast talking, keeping everybody, yeah. He's, he's so energetic. But, I don't, I've had, I've listened to Nedden several times. He's good too. I mean, they both have really good information to share. Yeah, Jim had a lot to say and a lot to teach. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I learned a lot from him, definitely, yep. And a guy like him, he's been doing it forever. Yeah. You know, he worked at a Toro distributor, then he worked at Toro, and then he started consulting. So, really good stuff. Any other education other than that? Uh, I'm working on the, uh, the Penn Foster program through, who was that through? Yeah, the, the Penn Foster program, so I'm doing a, uh, small, online small engines course right now. And then, uh, once I'm done with that, I'll be doing a GSAA cutting unit class. Okay. Yeah, yeah. No, that's awesome. Yep. So, let's talk about that program, because J. R. was kind of filling us in the other night. And it's through Penn Foster Online, right? So it's an online program. Yeah, so I'm the first one going through it right now. It was, uh, it's like the two part program. They have Penn Foster, which does all the, uh, the small engine side of it. So you go into all the fuel systems, all the, uh, all the maintenance side of it for engines and everything. Thank y'all for coming, guys. Appreciate it. I'm staying. He's staying. All right. That's great. I just love picking on people and giving people a hard time. I haven't, I haven't gotten to the GSAA part yet for, uh, cutting units, but I'm looking forward to that. But yeah, you say one day you go to the mailbox and you got a carburetor. Yeah, carburetors. I, uh, get home from work, there's a box on the table for me, and there's a carburetor, a little mini adjustable wrench, and a screwdriver. And I didn't remember ordering any of that. I take the papers out, and I guess Penn Foster sent me a hold of it, so. Ah, that's cool. So, yeah, like, what, what'd you have to do to the carburetor? Uh, I didn't do anything with it yet, because, uh, I'm taking a little break from it. I, uh, I got half the program done in two weeks. So that was doing it for a couple hours every night getting through it. So I wanted to just take a week before I come to the show, get my ducks in a row before I come out here. And then I'll probably get back into it when I get home. Awesome. How long have you worked with JR? So I'm going, I started in 2020, summer of 2020. It was my first summer there. I, uh, I worked that summer and then through my vocational program through my high school. In the mornings every day I would go to a, uh, another vocational school about next town over 20 minutes from my school. And they have an internship program there where on, uh, Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of going to the vocational school you go to work. Okay, yeah. And you still get the credit for the class, you get paid to go to work. That's awesome. It's great, yeah. That's so cool, yeah. Yep. And as much as I make fun of JR, I love him. He's such a good guy. Yep. Um, help anybody, do anything. And I know he's spoiling you with the amount of tools he has in his shop. Oh yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta start buying my own soon. Nah. Man. It's a slippery slope. Yup. I'm gonna end like, up like him with ten snap on boxes soon, so. Yeah. And then you'll be paying the tool man a hundred dollars a week for the rest of your life. Yeah. You know. Never escape it. That's what you're signing up for. For the rest of your life. Yeah. Um, have you, I know it's early, it's uh, twelve o'clock on Wednesday. The trade show floor opened at 10. Have you been able to see anything yet? Yeah, I've been seeing a lot, so I mean, obviously it's my first time here, so there's a lot to see. It's a little overwhelming, but I've just been going around seeing everything. Seen a lot of cool people, a lot of cool new tech. What's the coolest thing you've run across so far? I gotta say it's probably the, uh, electric sand pro over at, uh, over at Toro's. That was pretty cool. Is it like full size sand pro? Yeah, it's a full size, uh, lithium, lithium sand pro. Awesome. Is it robotic or just lithium? Uh, I don't think it's robotic yet. I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's plans for that, but they're getting there. Why don't I set in a robotics class for a little while yesterday and the guy was talking about, uh, robotic, like autonomous, um, Bunker right. Okay. Uh, go in the bunkers and, you know, I mean, I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah, do all the bunkers rake before anyone gets into the morning. You're done. Yeah, and who likes raking bunkers? I mean, nobody. Right? Anybody, anybody in the crowd like raking bunkers? Nope. All right. No, no show of hands here. I don't know. The couple times I did it, I didn't mind it. It was, it was, like, one of those zen table things. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I could see that a couple times. Doing it every day, though, I don't, I'd probably get sick of it pretty fast. Well, very good. Yeah. Um, who wants to come up here next? He wants to come next. Jr. Yes. All right. Yeah. He's coming up next. Yep. Well, thank you, Trent. I really appreciate it. Yes. No, thank you so much. Uh, appreciate it too. It was awesome. So now I'm sitting here with Jr. Wilson. How are you doing Trent? Man, you sound, you sound a lot more Northern New York on the microphone. I do. Yeah. Then you do, there you go. Talking to you in the in person. I guess. I guess So I guess that maybe, maybe I put my deep voice on. There you go. Yeah. Um, what education have you done this week? well we did a little bit of cut line and then I did, um, tips and tricks with you. Oh, yeah. Sat in your class and that was great. That was the best class you attended all week. I know. Yeah, definitely, definitely was. I learned so much. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I took a bunch of tips. I got a good couple of good ones I'm going to work on. Um, and then, um, I taught my class with, um, Corey Phillips. We did, um, what you can learn in the shop, basically with technology. So we did that class and, um, it went well. It was pretty good. What's some of the highlights? Um, well, we talked about some QR code stuff, you know, different things that you can do with a QR code, like it's endless. So, I mean, you could go down a bunch of different ways with it. You can use it for, um, taking videos, you can use it for, you know, for tire pressures and stuff like that. So the guy knows, so you can hit the QR code and see that there's a tire pressure and what you put in the tire. So if you're not there, you're not chasing you around and not waiting for you to come back. I mean, that's what something that Corey was doing. Um, I'm using it for my parts room basically to show pictures so everybody can see a picture and you look at it and you can see what's going on in the picture. Um, so that, that's a cool one that I was doing. Um, and then, uh, jc I know him too. And then, um, and we talked about that and then we talked about 3d printers a bit. Um, some of the stuff that with the 3d printer that that's going to translate into the stuff coming up. So if you can run a 3d printer with the stepper motors and the code, how that's going to work with the new machines once they go autonomous. So if you get working with a 3d printer that you've actually will be ahead of the game in your shop. For when the autonomous stuff comes in and you know how to kind of it works. Yeah, do you, so do they kind of work off of like same G Code? Yeah, it's a G Code. Basically you take um, you know, like most of us cheat. We go to Thingiverse and we grab a thing and we put it in and then you put it into the software and it goes into a slicer and it slices it and then it turns it into G Code and it takes it and puts it into the machine and it runs the stepper motors and every point basically on that stepper motor Is telling it, it's just like the same as like an electric reel mower right now, electric, anything like that, but it's going to change and you're going to see that it's going to go when we go to autonomous and then mowers are out there going, that's how it's going to work. So if you take that 3d printer and put it into concept, if you can think about it that way, it's just a good way to think about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're just telling it to go to X, Y here, X, Y there. Yeah, right. Yeah. So yeah, that was kind of the stuff that we were talking about. Just different technology, like using. Ring cameras for like watching projects and stuff. Like if you're doing something at night, like we had epoxy floors done in our shop. And it was a kind of a cold storage building. But I needed to get it to keep it hot. So I needed the turbo heaters to run through the night. But I was worried about it having an issue. So I put ring cameras on them. So in the middle of the night I could wake up and check them to make sure. And then I had that hooked to an electric plug that you could shut it off. So those kind of things like that. So you could Wi Fi plug shut it down in case there was a problem. Stuff like that. Yeah, no, very cool. And, yeah, what were you talking about with the QR codes? Y'all were going to do, like, operator training? Yeah, I kind of want to do some operator training videos with the QR codes. I'm working on it, I'm not there yet, but I want to take a video. So when you click on it, the gentleman, like, your operator can go. He can lift up the, tells him how to lift the hood up. Pull out the dipstick, how to check the oil, where the level is. You know, how to wash the machine off properly. what to watch out for. Don't stick your finger in there. You know, things like that. So people don't lose fingers. That's what we were talking about the other day. I think we're at the round table where everybody's talking about losing digits. So, uh, yeah. How was the equipment manager roundtable? That was great. That was a really good time. It was a lot of fun. I, um, there was a lot of good people there. A lot of great technicians. I was, I think you said there was like over 1000 years of experience in the room. I mean, if you think just on the low end, If you think about it, how many people were there and what we were, what, what was there, you know, I think it was just incredible. And, uh, the topics were good, good topics, and I think there was, um, some good discussion about it, you know. Of course, when you go around, everybody at the first table usually has the most, and then as we go through. But we were squirreling out a little bit, so it was working. Well, no, it was good, and like you said, it was a super fun time. I mean, it's a good group of guys and gals, you know, and I mean, we all enjoy doing the same thing. We all do it a little different. But at the end of the day, the best thing was is that we all laughed and we had fun and we could make fun of each other and everybody can take a joke. That's, that's what's so good about this industry. You know, you can take a, if you can take a joke, you can, you can hang with us. You know what I mean? That's what's so much fun. That's all it takes. Being able to take a joke. And I'm sure we'll have plenty as this hour, as this hour continues. Um, you seen anything cool on the trade show floor? I think my biggest thing is I just came around the corner and I saw this drone behind me and I kind of want to go check that out. I think that's really pretty cool. It's a, it's a drone that has a tank on it and you can spray your greens with it. So yeah, I want to check that out. I think I'm a big drone guy, so that thing is like a kid in a candy store, you know? So I've got to go check it out, but I'll go check that out. That's the biggest thing I saw right now is that. Awesome. Very cool. Yeah, I'm excited to get around the show floor and see what all's out there. Anybody want to come up next? Yeah. You want to come up here? No. You're sure you're waiting on your sons. All right. Um, yeah. Anybody, it doesn't matter. Thank you very much. Trent. Yeah. Thank you. Jr. Appreciate it. It's happening. Trent, um, up next, John Borsos. Hey, good job. Is that it? That's pretty good. Dang. How many times did you listen to it today? Um, actually I hadn't listened to it any. But I'll have to, I'll have to tell this story since John's sitting up here. Every time on the podcast, what, what did I usually call you? I, I can't even tell you how you say it. I mean, it's too bad. I've said it like 20, 20 different ways and it's never been correct. So, John texts me one day and With a self video saying Borsos, Borsos. You have to do it sometimes. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I'm trying to get it right here. But, um, yeah. So, what kind of education you've had? Uh, did the Cutlines King with, you know, pretty much the whole crew. Yep. Uh, we did our shop solutions, I think it was the same day, right? Maybe, I think so. ARL, kind of. Yeah, yeah, Monday afternoon and I did the round table yesterday, um, did the Melrose breakfast with the alumni and then the Melrose class, which is always a good time talking to them people. Uh, it's a good program. Sure. Yeah. And if you don't know about, uh, Melrose, let's tell us Tell the listeners about Melrose a little bit. How do you get involved with Melrose? You have to apply, um, I think it was around September, I think, they open up their applications. Uh, you apply and, uh, Ken Melrose, I guess the Melrose Foundation, Uh, brings five superintendents, five equipment managers, mechanics, Um, they get all access to the education, the trade show. Obviously they have, uh, set schedules for them, but they can kind of move around, I guess, some things. Um, but it's, it's, it's a great program to bring people that might not be able to get to the show on their own. That's how I got here. First was like, I mean, I was coming, but it helped a lot to get me to San Diego in 22. Um, because like I said, you don't have to worry about your flights, your hotel, um, even the food. It's pretty much covered. They have you, they have you doing a lot of stuff, but it's very educational. Um, and hopefully it sparks some people that are in the program to keep coming back. And that's why I come back is because it's a great, a great association to be a part of with the GCSA, let alone like a Melrose family, uh, with the Melrose Academy. So yeah, it's good. And, and the real turf tax. Setting right here too. I mean, This awesome group. Thank you all for being here for sure and the one standing in the back and it's not paying attention It's awesome. You know But it's great great group of people and I think all of them Yeah, so anything else on Tuesday? Networked and yeah, you know seen some people any good spots to eat, huh? Ah They're all expensive and they're, uh, way, way more fancy for my palate than, uh, I'm a steak and potato type of guy and there's stuff on there I don't even know how to pronounce. I'm like, I'll try it. It's okay. But, uh, definitely, uh, like anytime we come to a trade show, like reservations are a good idea. Um, it seems like there's a lot of places, but not that many places to eat. Yeah, and I've heard that, uh, from a few others around that there's not enough places to eat. Yeah. Because I think there's 12, 000 people here from GCSAA, and we're all trying to go eat at the same time. Yeah. You know, so these restaurants get filled up pretty quick, and it's hard to find a place. And last night, we went 10 minutes, uh, north, I think, yeah, north of here, and it was still a 30 minute wait. Yeah, yeah. So, I don't know what the deal was there. Well, yeah. Yeah. Um, been a fun time so far. Yeah. What, what'd you see on the trade show floor? Ah, stopped over, uh, seeing Mark and told him sorry for his son-in-Law. Oh, yeah. Yeah. SI, yep. But he is a good, he's a good sport. Mark's a good guy. Um, but, uh, stop scene. Hector is, uh, I, I'm a, I can't remember the name of a cutting unit. Cutting unit, uh, stand, whatever. Yeah. I feel bad for not knowing the exact name. Uh, stopped seeing the Baroness guys. Um, haven't hit too many places. Toro is always packed, so I kind of wait to go later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, just try to catch up with all my reps and, you know, tell them sorry. Money ain't there yet. Uh, yeah, yeah. Does the, does the money ever show up? Ah, this, this year's bad. Real bad. From what I hear, it's September maybe. Maybe. And then you can order it and then wait two years to get it. That's a whole nother story. State, state of the industry. Yeah. Right. Hopefully one day we're back to six weeks and that's all parts too. Yeah, right. Yeah. But yeah. Who's next? Thank you, John. I appreciate you being up here. Yeah. Come on. Yep. Hey, Trent. Yep. Um, Brian, welcome Brian Harper. Yep. Um, and. So I'm going to be really honest with you here. I'm so proud of you. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I am. Um, I think I first met you in the Carolinas and you were kind of telling me your story and we don't have to go into that, but I mean, it was really good to hear and how much the podcast helped you not feel so alone, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I thought I was all on this world. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That you're the only one, uh, doing the things and anyway. I feel terrible. I have not had you officially on the podcast and I want you to officially be on the pod. I would love to. Yeah. So we'll, we'll line it up. We'll set it up. And of course my story is similar to most, except I have a, you know, a different path there generally, but yeah. And, and John was Borsos was talking about the Melrose experience, which is how I got here to Orlando last year. Yeah. Applied for that, achieved that. Honor, which is great. And, uh, they invite you back to the breakfast. And we did that. And I, and I really am glad that I'm a part of that community. I've made some really good friends. We keep in touch with our own WhatsApp group. Okay, awesome. Um, just a, you know, our Melrose group. Yeah. Yeah. It's been really fun and really rewarding. That's awesome. Yep. That's so good. So what education you got this week? So I did mind over matters. Uh, it's, it's funny, it kind of starts out like a joke, a, a therapist, a doctor, and a superintendent. I walk into a bar, right? So, uh, that was an amazing class. An amazing, anybody gets a chance to do that with key Dunning, uh, and Pete grass. Uh, and I, Stacy is her name. I can't remember her last name, the, the, the RN, but it's an amazing, uh, experience and it'll, it'll, it'll shed a lot of light on a lot of things for a lot of people. It was cool. I snuck into their second class the next morning just to watch that. And then, uh, did the, uh, interactive, uh, tour at Phoenix Country Club and saw the autonomous mowers and those things. That was cool, um. Yeah, what all did they have there? Just the autonomous mowers? Yeah, and they, and then they have a new, uh, there was a company there that does, uh, um, course mapping and stuff for you from the air with drones and, uh, show you, uh, infrared, where you're dry, where you're wet, all those things. And then we did Foley. Foley was the sponsor. And so then we were looking at their grinders and getting them. Even though I got the orange ones, tried to get the blue ones. My company said, no, we're getting you the orange ones. But, uh, what else? Um, Education, I don't know, I have to look on the back of my thing. Oh, that's all right. Were you at the round table? Yes, I went to the round table yesterday. That was fun. I liked that last year, too. That was a lot of fun. More production value last year. You know, yeah, in Orlando, you're up on the big stage. They had lights going there. Television cameras. Yeah, John made the picture. Jeff, whatever it was. What I couldn't remember is going to Corey and J. R. S. Class yesterday. Also, okay, what you can do with today's technology. Really cool. Really good. A lot of real information. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I've told you before through email or conversation, the most technologically savvy. Did I say that right? Savvy guy in the world and in the twilight of my career, quote unquote, I need to be. Because that's where it's going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, and I'm trying to embrace that as much as I can and learn as much. I just bought my first laptop, uh, a few months ago. I've bought plenty of laptops. I got two kids, 23 and 20. Right, right, right. Yeah, but my first. First for you. Yeah. That's awesome, though. And, yeah, good on you for wanting to embrace it. Right. Because, you know. No choice. Yeah. The alternative is not good to get with the times or move on. Um, yeah, no, that's great. So you seen anything on the trade show floor? I just got here. I met my friend Matt Dell from our Melrose experience at Matt's big breakfast this morning. I had a long night with John Deere at Topgolf. Did he cook you breakfast? No, no, no, it wasn't Matt. We ordered it. It just happened to be his namesake, I guess. That's awesome. Um, and I haven't had a chance to get on the floor here yet. Okay. Yep. Uh, I've spent just a little bit out of little time out there. I went by the Foley booth, checked that out. I heard Jr had already been by there, the Foley booth and checking out the bed knock grinder and saying his design was better. But anyway, anything else? It's just good to see everybody. Chris Whitaker, John. Meeting Jagger and Colby here. Yeah, that's exciting. Get some blood in the room. Jordan, uh, from Nebraska. Yeah, yeah, there he is. Yeah, yeah. Uh, and Russ, my guy, Russ from, uh, Montana. Uh, and then obviously Brian Epplin. He's my guy. Hello, Brian. Oh, he's gone. But I was going to say, I don't see Brian anymore. He got up. Yeah. Peace out. Yeah. All right. All right. Um, who's next? Yeah, Chris will do it. Thank you, Brian. Yeah. How's it going, Trent? Yep. Welcome, Chris. Chris. I'm in. Had him on before. Recently. And uh yeah, that was a really good episode. So, I freaked out about it. I called you out three times. How bad my anxiety kicked in. The OCD kicked in and yeah. When we can say it since he's not uh out here. If he was out here, I would still say it. But uh, Daniel, what was his name? He was at y'all's table. Dan Williams? Yeah, yeah. Um, we recorded an interview and I was like, oh, that was great. That was good. And he texted me the next day. He's like, let's do it again, man. Just, I don't want to do it again. That was terrible. I just want to do it again. You know, I was that close. Yeah. I called you those two times and I'm like, I almost asked you to pull it down. And I was like, no, no. And then it came out and I was like, wow, he made me sound smart. Uh, anyway, it was damn. We done it. We recorded the next one and I don't think it was any better than the first, but you know, whatever made him happy. I'm here to please. Um, no, thank you for being a guest. Thank all y'all. I think pretty much everybody here besides Colby and Jagger has, uh, been on the podcast and yeah, that'd be a good episode. Get these young guys coming up. You said you're in Delhi. Yeah. Yeah. So I went to Delhi, so I, okay. Very cool. Yeah. Go Broncos. Yeah. Anyway, uh, but yeah, I'm enjoying it here. Uh, this year's class of Melrose equipment manager experience, uh, has been phenomenal. That's how I got here. Um, for those that are listening that have not been fill it out, uh, take advantage of it. It's, uh, it's been jam packed, meet and greets, you know, met the, the, you know, Rhett, I met all the guys on board. at GCSA, and they've been phenomenal. Uh, Mishka, I don't know how that girl does it. She keeps everything going straight. I think I said it right, Mishka or Mishka? No, it's Mishka. But, um, but no, it's been fun. And for the listeners that don't know, that is Austin Wright's mother. Yes. Austin Wright was at Sand Valley. Another EM, he's been on the podcast. He was at Sand Valley for many years and he just moved on to Hazelwood. Working with Chris Trittle ball. Nice. Um, so exciting times for him. Yeah. So when do you sign up? John was saying around August, I mean, you guys started tweeting it out and putting it out as soon as it got released. Um, I actually got encouraged from the WhatsApp group. Oh, okay. And to do it, just say everybody kept on putting it up there. Do it, do it, do it. And uh, yeah. I actually went home to my wife and I'm not a good writer, uh, so I incorporated my, uh, my editor in chief, which is my wife. And, uh, she knows how I think, uh, and she helped made me sound smart. As, uh, as I always say, when I, when I, uh, ran a course, I had her do my newsletters review. I would write them first, you know, and then she goes, alright, let's get proper grammar. We homeschool, so she Yeah. She does that part of it. I do the practical side. I bring the kids to the golf course. We tear apart an engine or bring my daughter's car in. You know, we just did an oil pan change on her car and I got her underneath there 20 years old wrenching it. So she works at a golf course. I'm trying to encourage her to come to our side. She, she's, she's mechanical, but we'll see. Okay. Yeah, that would be really sweet. And yeah, I mean you make a great point. I know I've said it in the podcast before. Um, you know, most of us that got in this to turn wrenches, we're not writers, and we don't have good grammar, and find somebody that can. You know, and GCSA is a resource, your wife can be a resource, your girlfriend, you know, whoever it is, find somebody that's, uh, better than you to write that stuff. You know, or, you know, you got a friend, a colleague, whatever, find somebody else to help you out just like you did. And when you hire people, you hire to your weakness. to bring in your strength, what you're not good at, you can take their strength. You got somebody that's good at metal work, bring them in versus, you know, you're not good at it. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. So did we cover all the education you've been through? I haven't. Okay. Yeah. We're still rolling here. Yeah. So with the, uh, you know, they put us all in like CTEM guys, which is great. It's a great program. I'm going to start that program right after the show. Uh, got the books and everything. And that's one thing about with Melrose, you get. that free to work towards your CTEM. So you get the books, and then you get unlimited tries on the test. Once you pass level one, they get you into level two, and then once you hit your three years, you get a test, and then you get your certification. So, I'm in, I'm starting my second year, so, I got some time, and, uh, I like the idea of that I get unlimited tries, and, uh, you can take each individual module. There's eight of them, individually. And, uh, and it's a wonderful program and the work that you did as well as others that are here right now. Yeah, yeah, I know JR was in there, Brack. Yeah, it's just amazing and it's nice to give credibility to our position that needs to be reserved or put out there. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. But, uh, the classes that I took, um, was electric, uh, principles with, uh, was it, uh, Justin? Prescott, Prescott. And then I took J. R. S. And, uh, Corey's class there. And then Mr. Brakes man, Chris Whitaker. Yeah, he said he went through all the modules and said, there's nothing on brakes. So we talked about that. And then I went to the round table. Okay. And that was, uh, that was, I skipped out on the other class, which was Kayla's. Sorry, Kayla. Uh, I took the online C 10 thing with you. And so I kind of knew what she was doing. And I figured I went to the round table instead. Okay. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a good problem to have so much education for him that it overlaps. I mean, that is a good problem, but it kind of sucks. Chris and I got talking a topic he wants me to do next year, but I'll reserve it. I won't say what it is, but yeah, and anybody that wants to teach a class they'll have open proposals. You fill it out on the website. It's not too hard. If you need help, somebody at GCSA will help you. um, fill it out. They'll help you put your presentations together if, uh, you need help. Yeah, no, that's awesome. And you're not gonna need more than one try on the test. No, I actually thought about just taking the test Yeah. To just, without even cracking the books. Yeah. To just like, as a pre-test and me, uh, was it, uh, Kerns Diana? Yeah. Yeah. She told me sometimes people that with, I've got 35 years experience in the industry. Yeah. They've taken a test and passed out or passed. Some of the modules without even cracking a book. Right. Yeah. And hopefully you don't pass out. No, no, no. Don't pass out. No, no, no. But No. But, uh, But, no, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Starting that process. It's a great opportunity. Yeah. And congratulations on winning the CT. And you added a couple people to the WhatsApp group. Yeah, I got some of the other Melrose guys in there. Uh, got them in. Uh, there's one other guy, he's very shy. He's kind of, he didn't show up to the ceremonies. He's like, yeah, I'm not a crowd person. I'm like, that's alright. That's alright. I mean, a lot of us are not crowd people. But, you know, do like getting out of your comfort zone. If you don't get out of your comfort zone and stay in your hole all the time, life is not as fun like doing this right now. Yeah. Like doing this right now. Exactly. Right. My, my mouth just got drier as we're talking. Yeah. I need a swig of water myself. Yeah. Um, have you been able to get around the trade show? Yeah. I went to a Toro booth right away. We got some, uh, Toro stuff coming in. I wanted to hit the engineers on, uh, the new products, the new technology, you know, uh, Figure out here from the horse's mouth of what I'm getting and what's in it. So, uh, and then, uh, went over, talked to Mark over at sip and Mark, Mike, uh, I just, there's certain people you just stand next to and you just get smarter standing next to them. And Mark is one of those guys. Okay. And, uh, and, uh, it just, the way his mind thinks, I just love it. And, uh, just talking with him and about the, what he has to offer through SIP and stuff. But yeah, and, uh, That's what I like about hanging out with, uh, Roland and Brack. I mean, just when I get around them, I think I'm getting smarter. Well, I saw Roland carrying in stuff, and I was going to take a picture and put it on Twitter and like, If you don't know Roland, this is Roland. Yeah, yeah. Well, I, I talked about it the other day. When I had Roland on the podcast, and I asked, uh, What was it? What was the most valuable, er, Was it your favorite tool? It was the most important tool. It was and he said his brain, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Roland's brain. And Roland's brain is my favorite tool too. Right now, you know. Yeah. There's times I've called him, you know. Oh yeah. Bouncing something off of that next level type thinking. Yeah. And I went over to Ventrac booth. Kind of showed him some pictures of things that I modified on the Tough Cut deck and they took pictures of my pictures. We'll see how that goes. And, and that's, you know, I used to sell Ventrax when I was in sales and those companies are very responsive to customers and listening. And so that's, uh, it was really nice to see. And I'm being that I was in sales. I'm going around seeing guys that I used to work with and all the, you know, the TSMs and some of the dealers that I work for and stuff. So that's been pretty cool. Just reconnecting. And that's what I like about this element, networking. You don't get this sitting at home. No, no, no. Yeah, and I mean, just like our little mechanic or EM seminars that we do, I mean, it's more about the networking than it is about the education. Yeah. You know, I mean, if I can learn something great, but learning, uh, who to call when I got this problem or that problem is better than some of the education. Yeah, I mean, and putting it up on the WhatsApp group, instant replies. I mean, I saw you this morning, you guys were talking about something with tires, and I'm like, jeez, what are you, you guys got time for that right now? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was working. That was awesome. That's good stuff. But anyway, no, but thank you. Yeah, yeah. I'll get off. You know me, I'll take too much. No, you don't. T. A. had to cut me off yesterday, so. Oh, really? Yeah, when we were introducing ourselves, you know. That's just me. And the guys in my shop, they just say, Chris, enough. And I just walk. I don't take offense. Yeah. I'm good. I get it. I get into Nerdville pretty quick. Well, I mean, we gotta go an hour. Anybody else, I'll 30 minutes. No, we're definitely getting Chris Whittaker up here. We're gonna get Brack and Jordan. And, yeah, what's your name back there? Setting that up to Chris. That's your boss. Okay. We'll let him slide. And then Oh, you're assistant. Yeah. Love to have him up here. Spray guy. Okay. Not wrenching. Okay. Uh, we got a local courses. Spray guy just went to wrenching. So you never know. Only wrenching. How quickly do you want to move up the ladder? You can move up quicker on our side. Trust me. I ran that side. I was a superintendent. So I ran that side. It takes a while. Man, it's very true.
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Yeah. Um, front of me. Why don't we get Whittaker up here? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Out of everybody I've interviewed on the podcast. I don't know how many people People started like on the assistant or on the superintendent track and then they find their way over here to the good side. Morning, Trent. Good morning, Chris. I'm glad to have you here. Thank you very much. Um, yeah. How many, uh, Canadians do we have here? Uh, I've seen David's here, Dave's here, uh, Nate, there's Anthony from Vancouver. We have Perry from Calgary, one of the other local places that I know and deal with. So, yeah, the Canadians are invading. Alright, alright, that's good. I love, love to have y'all down. Okay, awesome. Uh, yeah, so, officially, Chris Whitaker, settin up here, from, uh, nowhere other than Canada. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Are you, yeah, how far from Calgary are you? Are you in? I am right in Calgary. Yeah. Okay. And we're probably three hours north of Montana. Just so everybody can sort of reference that. Gotcha. I don't I really liked it over towards Canmore. Oh, it's a beautiful place. Yeah. That's where I met you. And it's, uh, I blame you for all the stuff that I'm getting involved with this stuff. Don't blame me. All the golf stuff. I blame you. And I also thank you because it's impressive of what watching you and seeing what you're doing and how you're helping a lot of equipment managers out there. And if you have a good example, you can follow a good path. Oh, listen to this. Listen to this. Yeah. I got some cash. I'll give you later. Oh, don't worry. I'll accept the Canadian money as well. Okay. Do you take credit card too? Sure. Yeah. Um, no, great to have you up here. Yeah. Tell me about your education that you've had this week. This week. Actually, I slowed down compared to last week. I was one of the presenters, so I said, Okay, let's not go go crazy and try to see everything and anything like last year. But I took in the calibration for sprayers and for spreaders. Was that Jim? No, I think it was J. J. From Mississippi is one of the doctors out there who's doing the study and I'm weak in that area, so I need to learn a bit more, and if they're offering it here, why the heck not take it when you learn it? Um, I also took in the roundtable topics and stuff, and I did my break course, so I had to do a lot of studying on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I've talked about that before. Um, how much more did you learn putting the presentation together than you already knew? Well, I've had a lot of experience doing breaks and repairing stuff, but it was one of these things where you Get into the a lot more finer details of what you need to be able to present a well rounded Topic for a very broad spectrum of knowledge base, too Yeah, because we're dealing with some people who have worked for a while and there are some people who have zero experience on it So you have to sort of come up with a balance and it was interesting to be able to see of electromagnetism and the principles of the air brake system that you need air for disengagement of some systems and air pressure for the application of some systems. Okay. So, there's a lot of stuff that you definitely learn when you are going through all the material and presenting it in a manner that everyone can understand it. It's kind of cool. Yeah, yeah. No, that's awesome. And, I mean, that's been my experience anyway is I usually learn more trying to to put a class together and I do this, you know, every day working, you know, yeah, I was just happy that we had a couple of guys show up. Oh yeah. Yeah. How many did you have in the class? Maybe 50 ish or so. I don't know. That's awesome. I wasn't, I was too busy. Just try to pay attention and try to follow my presentation slides instead of going one, two, three. Yeah. How nervous were you? Huge. Okay. Oh, it was, it was hectic. I mean, it definitely gets easier with time. Oh, I'm sure an old pro like you is more than comfortable being on stage. Well, you say old pro, I'm trying to be 17. Was the first time? Yeah. So I haven't even been doing this 10 years. Well, I think it was about 6 years ago when you came up to Canmore, was it? Yeah. 2018? Well, it was 19. 19, okay. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You came up and you, you got to experience snow. I was still pretty nervous there too, yeah. Um, and I'd seen snow before. Uh oh. But not like what y'all have. You've never been in snow. No, no. I've never been. I've never been in snow. You know, Seth Sheldon giving you a hard time about that in the What's Up group. A group talking about being. Yeah, but that's uh, it was an experience actually seeing you and seeing you do it. No, it was awesome. And yeah, if you ever get a chance to go up to Calgary and Canmore. National Park. It's the most beautiful scenery you'll ever see. It is so good. Come up in July. Early July, we have a Stampede Rodeo that is just crazy. The whole city turns into a rodeo farm. Okay. Yeah, yeah. It's ridiculous. I was up there right before American Thanksgiving, and there's a good bit of snow on the ground, but I mean, the roads were fine. You know, all that stuff. Yeah, we didn't have to pick you up in a dog sleigh. You didn't have to stay at an igloo. Nope, none of that stuff. Lake Louise was solid ice. Yeah. Covered in snow. But, uh, still beautiful. It was, it's an amazing place to be. It is, it is. We get all four seasons instead of just sun and hot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. Yeah, I couldn't imagine here, um, on Sunday, me and John Patterson rode up to Desert Mountain. and to see Jason Fontana. He's the equipment manager there. They have uh, seven courses and yeah, John, uh, he lives in Atlanta. He's at Atlanta Country Club and he drove out here in his Miata that has an LS3, um, with full, you know, race suspension, all that stuff. It's his, uh, track car, but he can drive it on the road, passes emissions, all those things. So anyway, he picked me up at the hotel. It's like 45 minutes up to Desert Mountain. Um, it took us, uh, 30 to get there. No, I mean, he wasn't driving. Crazy, but, um, really cool experience. But anyway, we get to meet, uh, Jason, and it's just amazing, you know, the amount of equipment they have. So they, I think they have four shops for the seven courses. And they run three courses out of the one shop that we went to. That's kind of their HQ headquarters. And it was just so cool. Um, all the equipment, I think they just got in a new lease package. So, I mean, it was looking, looking nice, but, uh, he runs a really, uh, well, shop there and, uh, yeah, just the amount of equipment and you got all this Brown. And then they oversee the golf course with ryegrass. And it's the pretty dark green, you know, it's, it's beautiful out there. Um, but super cool experience. And this is my first time in the Southwest. So everything, everything that I've experienced is super cool. So I'm just going to keep enjoying it as it goes along. I don't, have you been here before? Not to Phoenix. Okay. I've been down here as a kid and stuff like that, but vacation with my parents. Yeah. And every time I come to one of the GCSA shows, it It's, it's beyond what I've ever expected. Okay. Yeah. So I have very low standards and I appreciate everything that occurs. Yeah, no. And Chris is probably one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. And I'm serious. Everybody, everybody says that, you know, one of the nicest people. And then that's the other thing I was wanting to say. So, you know, I'm, I'm from the South and a lot of people will talk about Southern hospitality and, uh, you know, we're pretty polite. Pretty, uh, hospitable, right? But you go to Canada, they got us beat by a long shot. I mean, I'm serious. Everybody I met in Canada is so nice, so polite, the exact opposite of what I met on Long Island. Sorry, J. R. I'm sorry. Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. But, no, it's not, man. Um, I mean, I had a great time on Long Island, but the people were not as You know, for a lot. I get it. Well, yeah, and that's the good time of the year. I didn't, I didn't see the real people that drive y'all crazy. And I remember Jr. Tell me the population on Long Island is like 10, 000 ish. And then it goes to 250, 000 in the summertime. And it's all two lane blacktop roads, 35 mile an hour speed limit. I'm like, how does anybody get around out here? Just crazy. Yeah, that's, that's nuts. I don't envy you in the summertime, but Kelly does want to come up there in the summertime, so we'll, we'll, we'll see. Yeah. Oh, she's already, she already been tapping me on the shoulder. Like we got to do that. You got to talk to Jr. You got to set that up. Um, you seen anything on the trade show floor? I've seen a lot of things. Okay. What was some of the, some of the cool stuff, everything. Everything you saw, you enjoyed. Yeah, you can't, you cannot walk into a trade show and not put on the blinders and do nothing. I've just seen everything. I've been seeing a lot of the ground stuff. I've been seeing bunker rigs. I've been seeing equipment from Toro, from Baroness, from John Deere. Everything. It's just, you're drinking from a fire hose. There's just so much that you look at that you won't be able to pay attention to everything. But yeah, take a look at the, the, The electric vehicles, the hybrid vehicles, how they're actually planning on how to work traction motors for their wheels. But yet they're running electric motors on, on the, on the cutting reel. So there's just so much to look at. I just can't really pick out one thing and I'll be all over the place. Yeah, there's a ton of stuff out there. And yeah, from the group, what do you think about, uh, your facility? Think about your facility. Can you charge? All the stuff you need to charge if you start rolling your fleet over to electric stuff. Um, I mean these power companies, I don't know what the, you know, what we're going to have to do. Electricians are going to be making a lot of money. Yeah. Upgrading, you know, maintenance facilities for sure. That's the one thing that I've been looking at. I've been looking at all these quick charge for electric passenger vehicles. And there's so much electricity going into there that We're starting to see some potential brown brown out areas where they're reducing electricity. So how much of a draw is electrical going to be on the rest of the power grid? So we're, we're sort of a bit hesitant right now of going fully hybrid or electrical. So we're still staying with petroleum product. Well, I don't, you know, I don't, you know, I don't want to get in these weeds, but California in 2024 no more gasoline. You know, for small equipment, and, uh, you know, they're the ones that already have blackouts. So how are they gonna, you know, supply that much energy now? You know, I don't know. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. But, that's why I don't live in California. Well, thank you, Chris. Um, Jordan, you wanna come up here? Yeah, yeah, that Jordan. I don't think there's any other Jordans in the crowd. Come on up. So what? Yeah. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it. As always. Welcome Jordan Roth. And I'm gonna lay the microphone down because he told me he could talk to a two by four. That's that's pretty true. Uh, our assistant superintendents in the crowd. He's laughing right now. So that's a second for the motion on that one. Uh, thanks for having me up here, Trent. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, you said you weren't gonna talk. I'm just kidding. I love it, man. And you definitely beat me and the dad joke area. You got it, man. You got it. I'll give it to you. Hands down. So no, I'm not. It's nice to be here. Second time ever being to the show was with last year's Melrose group with Brian and Matt. Uh, Chris, who just got off stage, finally got to meet up with us last year. He had some issues getting out of Canada being COVID. And I think he was actually sick, I believe for one year, like he couldn't make it because he had it, but, uh, so no, I was looking forward to this kind of setting my own schedule, like, all right, maybe a little more relaxing. I put everything in my schedule. I'm like, well, crap, it looks the same. Oh yeah. Yeah. So I was like, I'm gonna make the most of it and I'm doing it. So the feet hurt and it's all good, but no, it's a blast. It's nice to see all these faces. and put names and faces together. So yeah, you got to sit on a few classes, sat in on Justin Prescott's electrical class on, on Monday, Tuesday morning. Okay. Yeah. How was it? That was good. He's right here in the audience. Yeah. Give me some feedback first hand. It was good though. So now I'd heard other people say, good, good job. So thanks for doing that. You know, and it's people like, you know, I mean, whoever you name them. Um, that steps up and starts, you know, providing education and your first time it's gonna be uncomfortable. And the second time it's gonna be uncomfortable. But, you know, you do it five or six times and then you start getting comfortable with it. You know, just part of it. What other education? I was just gonna say when I talked to Justin after the after his presentation, I was really excited to sit in on that because I had done one similar myself in Nebraska. It's like, all right, I'm gonna watch somebody else do it and then Kind of just keep evolving it and it's, it's nice to, nice to see that. And you know, electrical hats off to you. That's always a fun one because it's usually everybody's most hated thing to talk about. Like they had a great example of how it's a long diagnosis and a quick fix. It's not like the, it's not the quick, quick diagnosis and the long fix. It's the opposite. So it's the, it's the, you know, the brain teaser in the shop. I never thought about that. So I don't know why, but it's always that way. So, I mean, that helps me. I can tell somebody like, Hey, this is gonna take a little bit, but once I got it, it's gonna be good. It's gonna be quick. So, yeah, no, that's true. Yeah, very true. Yeah, because you might spend hours, right? You know, troubleshooting or come back a day later and yeah, the one little part you need to change. So it takes five minutes. Yeah, no, that's awesome. Yeah. What other education? I did a site tour with fully believe it was Phoenix Country Club. Got to see some robotic mowers. I haven't seen those in person yet. That was pretty neat. I don't, what's the quality of cut look like? On those? Robotic. So the wheel tracks are what throws me off a little bit. Just from like that after cut appearance we're all looking for. Yeah. So there's the wheel tracks there, but I mean the quality of cut looks pretty good. It's just the weirdest thing to walk by that mower and not hear anything. Yeah. Like if you covered your eyes and listened real close, you might miss it. Yeah. So. That's crazy. I think that's probably coming down the pipeline in some, some areas, but need to think about. When the equipment manager roundtable yesterday, I know John Patterson's got 5 or 6. There's another guy that had 15, 17 or something. Yeah, from, uh, he was in the Kansas area. Yeah, and I mean, that's just, uh, crazy to think about. Oh, yeah, and, yeah, the guy that had so many said he'd never buy another rough unit. I mean, that's a bold statement, I think. It'd be interesting to put the pencil to the paper and figure out the, uh, fuel cost savings alone. As far as how much not, how much diesel fuel we're not burning. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Versus the electricity cost. I'm not sure how that all pencils out. Why don't, and who was it? Somebody said it cost, um, 300 a year or something? Oh, that was for the blades. Okay. And, yeah, I don't, I want to say somebody had a number for the electricity, but I don't remember. Okay. Um, Brian was saying 380 a year for the big one and how much for the small 30 a year or something. Um, electricity costs. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's crazy to think about. I was a small out. Yeah. Georgia. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Nice. So, you seen anything on the trade show floor? No, I haven't, I haven't been there a whole, whole lot. I found the food. Okay. Found a Philly. Alright. Philly was alright. So. Alright. Yeah. So. Yeah. So. I'm getting pretty hungry. Where is the Philly? Directly behind us. Alright. Directly behind us. I can probably find that. And I noticed, you know, Justin Prescott, he's down here with his lovely wife. And he walks by and he says, I'm gonna get an ice cream sandwich. And he didn't bring me one back. So, I don't, I know, I know, I know, I'm kidding. They asked, they said, do you want us to ring you one? And I'm like, I don't know that I could be eating an ice cream sandwich on a live podcast, but, you know. Nobody's going to see it, Trent. That's a good point. Nobody's going to see it. Yeah, yeah, Jordan had a conversation with an ice cream sandwich while I was eating it. Yeah. So, no, we've got some things we want to get around and see for our facility at the booths. Yeah, very, very spenders forward. Uh, I want to go spend some time with the Bernard fellas. See the, see the Bernard group and uh, maybe talk to the Verado cedar people. We just got one of those. So what am I just chatting with them a little bit, seeing if they got any, uh, any advice or anything there. We haven't really got to use it a whole heck of a lot. Yeah. So, but it's coming down the pipeline hopefully for us. Um, and I believe it was Thatcher way. system, where it's like a cassette system for cutting units. Yep. Wanna go check those guys out, see those in person. Not sure if that's an application for us or not, but looks neat. Yeah, y'all are bent grass? Uh, we are bent tea to green. Yeah, tea to green, yeah. I don't, we run, uh, I don't know the system. But, I mean, it's a cassette system like that, and the UltraGroomer, um, it looks like, it's kinda like a thatching unit, but the blades are super close together. a couple millimeters apart. Um, and that thing on Bermuda greens, that works awesome for opening the academy up. I don't know that you want to do that on that grass. No, probably not. Yeah, probably not. But that's a great resource that we use once a week in the growing season. I mean, it's awesome. And that for what was the cedar Verado Verado. I can't ever pronounce that. Yeah. The right way, but in my travels through the Midwest and even up Northeast, I don't know how many of those I've saw. Their subcompact model has such a great tight spacing on it, and I think that's the, the germination of the bentgrass seed has a lot better chance in, if you're doing an overseeding project. Okay. Because it's, it's tighter. One, I think a lot of people are using it, uh, for fine fescue too. Yeah. That way. Um. So yeah, awesome equipment to check out here at the show. Y'all want to wrap this thing up? Anybody else want to come up here? Yep, Brack's got, Brack's got to get up here. Thank you, Trent. Good to see you, my friend. Appreciate it. Thank you. Welcome, Brack. Glad to be here. Yes, thank you. Um, well, I was trying to wrap this up and you got something to say. What is it? Well, you know, uh, I'm kidding. I'm just glad to be here. Tell me about your week. Well, you know, um. What was some of the best education you attended this week? Probably about 13 minutes ago. Um, went to a booth to get some specific answers and I can't unhear what I heard. Oh. I think we need the cocktail hour to start a little early. Okay. Alright. So. Is that something you can share with us live here? Yeah, you know, or. What's that? Is that something you can share live? Yeah, sure. Now that we're actually live. Hopefully this will roll out in a couple weeks. Talking to Toro, uh, engineers, um, just trying to find out, you know, specific ideas that they've had in their engineering and what we can augment and not. And we got bogged down in hydraulic pulsing, cutting unit torsion, um, different cavitations on bed knives. So it, it, uh, it took me from a specific answer I wanted to. Sort of blowing my mind. Okay. It's been interesting. I'm sure we'll discuss it quite a bit. Okay. Yeah, yeah. We'll definitely discuss it. But, uh, some very interesting talk. Um, the engineer that I spoke with, I knew I wanted to talk to him. Um, he's at the Toro booth. He's wearing a button down denim shirt, jeans, work boots, and he's got a big Santa Claus beard. And I was like, that's the guy I want to talk to. That's who I need to talk to. And let me tell you, it was, it was eye opening to say the least. Okay. That's awesome. One, I didn't know this, but I was talking to Roland McPherson the other day, I mean here, literally the other day, um, because a lot of times in the South, if I say the other day, that's any time between yesterday and the day I was born, right? That's the other day. But this was this week I was talking to Roland and he was telling me that Toro had a patent for their blade spacing on their reels. And two of the blades would be closer together than all the others, and it was a frequency deal. And, you know, you're talking about hydraulic faults and, and all that stuff. We did talk about the patent on their, uh, their bed bar, and you know, they, they tout it as that no matter how small the reel gets, your bed knife, as long as you, you know, keep it ground, will stay within the same two thousands on your behind, behind center line distance. That's true. It's true. And, you know, we'll check that out, but that's it's a bold statement. And if it's true, that's great. Yeah. Yeah. Very awesome. Yeah. We got, are you going to kick me out? Two minutes. I was somebody else coming on here at one o'clock. Wow. All right. Um, anything else you want to share? Well, I don't know about sharing, but, uh, you know, this is such a great community and I know a lot of the guys that have been through the Melrose program. You know, there's there's plenty of us that, you know, sort of been in this game for a little while and You know, if you have any new and up and coming, uh, techs or you guys really want to reach out, none of us have a problem, you know, endeavoring to, you know, enhance this industry. So please feel free to talk to us. Yeah, and while you're saying that, I was kind of working on a thing, you know, me and John Patterson were together and doing a bunch of measuring on cutting units, and out of the blue, Brack sends me an email. And he's like working on the same thing. He's going a different direction to get there than we were. But it's basically the same thing. And then we start talking. And it's over my head. Brack's got it figured out way more than I do. And I'm thinking, you know, who can I talk to? And I'm talking to Kelly about it. And she's like, call Roland. And so I call Roland. And he's like, I've been working on this for three years. You know, or whatever it is. Um, but it's just the awesome community that we have and I appreciate all y'all coming today. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate the real turf tech community and the WhatsApp group that we got going and you know, everybody in there, John and chatting and solving the world's problems at your golf course maintenance facility. I love it. And thank you, Brad, for coming up here. Um, yeah, appreciate it. And we'll call this a wrap, because it is one o'clock. Thank you very much. Talk to you soon. See you, bye.
Trent Manning:thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf techs podcast. I hope you learned something today. Don't forget to subscribe. If you have any topics you'd like to discuss, or you'd like to be a guest, find us on Twitter at Reel turf techs.