Episode 156: Alex Gaddy

Episode 156 of Reel Turf Techs heads to the backyard with member, friend, and turf addict Alex Gaddy – a homeowner who’s gone from a dusty California Trimmer in his father-in-law’s basement to a TifEagle putting green and a small fleet of John Deere reel mowers.

Alex and Trent talk about how a simple reel mower turned into an obsession, why pushing a California Trimmer over 20,000 sq. ft. doesn’t scale, and what he learned moving from TifTuf to a short-lived bentgrass experiment and finally sprigging in TifEagle over 20 tons of sand.

They also dig into the equipment side: a day in Trent’s shop watching reel grinding and backlapping, how topdressing chews up a freshly sharpened reel, and why the precision techs chase in the shop is what golfers feel on the greens.

If you’re a homeowner dreaming of a backyard green or a tech who wants members to better understand what happens behind the scenes, Episode 155 is right in your wheelhouse.

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• Email us at ReelTurfTechs@gmail.com
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Transcript

Interview

Trent Manning: [00:00:00] Welcome, Alex to the Reel Turf Techs podcast. Thank you for being here tonight.

Alex Gaddy: Thanks tr I'm happy to be here. I'm excited to talk to you.

Trent Manning: you're coming in clutch. So,

Alex Gaddy: Well, good.

Trent Manning: I got, I got in a bind here and had to pull out some last stops. So I, I called our member slash friend. Alex Gaddy that has quite a bit of turf equipment in his arsenal to maintain his backyard.

It's, it's a little bit different than most people or most of the listeners are probably not. At the level, Alex is, where did your desire to have a green in your backyard come from?

Alex Gaddy: It's a, it's a good story. My, my father-in-law who has a, has a tendency for kind of going all in on certain projects, whether it's, you know. [00:01:00] Art design or you know, has a big kind of record album upstairs, but he's got a bunch of stuff in his basement. I was down there with him, we were helping him get something and I saw a a California trior and it was, looked like he was sitting there for about, I don't know how long, five or 10 years.

And I kind of looked over at it and I said, what are you doing with that? What are you doing with that mower over there? So is that a real, is that a real mark? I said, yeah. He goes, I used to cut it, you know, in the, cut the yard with it and I'm never, I haven't been doing it since we've, we've been in this house, but you're welcome to it if you wanna try it.

So I was like, sure thing. So, you know, first thing I did was wheel that thing out and realized how heavy it was and had to try to get somebody to help me put it in the back of the truck. And then I got it home and I was like. How am I gonna get this thing started? So that, that's where my story started was you know, my father-in-law with a California Trior Honda Engine, and I think it's got 20 years on it, and it, and it runs great still to this day, and I still still have it, but that's kind of the entrance to my story where I, I started [00:02:00] cutting with real mower and I started doing the grass in small spaces.

And I was like, wow, this makes a huge difference in the way the grass looks. And so that was kind of the beginning of my story. By, by chance with my father-in-law being, being nice enough to hear me as California trior that I'd used for 10 years.

Trent Manning: That's awesome. No, that's really cool. And so I've worked on about all of them. And definitely my background is working on golf turf equipment and the commercial mowers that John Deere and Toro and Jake sell. They're legit. The California tremor, the first time I saw one of those, I'm like, where did this come from?

This antique of a mower, you know? And I think you can still buy one, like a new one. They're still making them. I heard. Which is, yeah, just blows me away, but, and yeah, like the first time adjusting reeled to bed knife with a punch and a [00:03:00] hammer, I'm like, this is the first time I've ever, ever done that to adjust reel to bed knives.

This is crazy. Now.

Alex Gaddy: Well, I, I started with trying to just watch, watch a couple YouTube videos, and finally I called it's actually your buddy over in, I think he lives not too far, but he does the A service up here in North Georgia and he agreed and I got it serviced over there. So the first time I got it serviced I had him help.

I was like, ah, man, I should be able to do some of this stuff myself. And then quickly realized. Oh my gosh, I don't have the right tools. I don't know, like, what am I doing? Adjusting reel to bed knife with a, with a flathead and a hammer. Like, how close is it supposed to be? Is it too tight? I did one side too tight, not this other side.

You know, you don't get the nut just tight enough. It slips back and then you're got a big gap again. So I, I got indoctrinated pretty quickly. To just, you know, after not doing it or not knowing what to do and how, how temperamental it was even on a California tremor before I got into some of the, obviously the more sophisticated you know, commercial turf equipment that I have now.

But it's a process. [00:04:00] It's an unbelievable amount of just institutional knowledge and know-how that a lot of people have no idea or understand.

Trent Manning: yeah, yeah. Until you've actually done it. Yeah. No, no idea.

Alex Gaddy: Yeah.

Trent Manning: how would any anyone know? And I mean, even for me, having. You know, a real maintenance background. The first time I've messed with one of those, I'm like, what is this? You know, like, who, who come, you know? 'cause our stuff is pretty precise and you can make fine adjustments to it where that you're hitting it with a hammer,

Alex Gaddy: Yeah.

Trent Manning: That's, that's the adjustment. You gotta figure out how hard or firm to tap the hammer. And, and just like you're saying, when you tighten the nuts up. The bolts on the side and then that changes everything. It was just like 

Alex Gaddy: and of course I'm, you know, I'm down on the ground too, like underneath it, sidearm, like trying to see it. It's not up on a, on a table or anything too. So you, you know, everything is imprecise and [00:05:00] you're just like lucky if you get it back together and it, and it cuts anything.

Trent Manning: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it reminds me, so, and I apologize 'cause I don't remember his name. But he's a member at the club too, and you might know him. He's got Baroness and he brought it and wanted to change the bed knife. So I put it up on the lift table and so my lift table, Alex saw it, it goes up four feet so you can get it up and it's right there in front of your face.

And the whole time he was like, man, I would've been doing this on my driveway. He was like, I already planned it out. Like I had a little bank and I could get it up on the bank and lean it back and try to get up under it. It's like this is a game changer, just having the table.

Alex Gaddy: Huge, huge. Yeah.

Trent Manning: Good stuff. Good stuff. I, so you started mowing the, your yard with the California Trior. How?

Alex Gaddy: I started with the T Trior. We had a zoi [00:06:00] yard. And I had it dialed in and it was, it looked awesome. Everybody come by and they'd say, what are you doing? What are you, how, how does it look so good? And, you know, I'd say, well, I bought this all right. My father-in-law gave me this California trior.

And so then, then I knew I was onto something. 'cause I was like, all right, people are stopping. And like, I remember I had a delivery drivers come out and they. Kind of touched the turf and they're like, when Didd, you get the artificial turf in it. I'm like, no, that's just Zoia. And they're like, no way. So I got tickled over that and kind of became a lot of fun to, to do.

And then we moved north of Alpharetta now where we live and got a little bigger piece of property. And so it's all Bermuda and I didn't know at the time it was all Tiff tough. But I started real cutting that's, you know, close to 20,000 square feet, which you know, cutting 20,000 square feet with a push California tremor.

Three, twice a week is not for the faint of heart. And so, anyway, I knew that wasn't gonna be sustainable, but I remember it was one, one afternoon I was in the backyard and I have a really flat piece of grass and I was like, did a little YouTube video and [00:07:00] I was like, what does it take to make a putting green out of Bermuda?

And so sure enough, watch a couple of these videos and like. All you gotta do is scalp it down to dirt. Give yourself, you know, as long as you got eight to 12 weeks of growing season left and you can top dress it with some sand, you know, you can make a rough putting green. So I'm back there, scalping this, you know, circle size thing in the backyard and it's, you know, it's brown and the grass looks great and my wife comes outside and she goes, what are you doing? Stop making a, making a putting green. She goes, this is a putting green.

Trent Manning: known Alex for a, a couple years now and I'm pretty sure his wife probably comes out and says that quite often. Alright, what are you doing, Alex?

Alex Gaddy: are you doing? She goes, what are you gonna leave this brown spot? This is the nicest flattest part of the yard. I said, just trust me. I think this is gonna work. Right? And so. You know, I cut this big circle. I went to Home Depot, bought a bunch of place, sand drug it, the backyard, Cho dressed it, you know, bought a leveling rake [00:08:00] and then threw a bunch of fertilizer down on it.

And sure enough, I had dropped the California trimmer to the lowest setting, and I think it's like three eighths. So it's not like, you know, a green speed, but it's close enough to feel like, you know, the difference between, you know, six or seven hundreds under normal you know, over a half an inch.

And so, sure enough like. Two and a half weeks later, it comes in. It looks beautiful. You know, all the grass comes in. I'm cutting it every other day with the trimmer and sure enough, that was where I started. So like that tiff tough hung in there. It's so hardy. It works great. You know, you get cut down to maybe almost 200 to two 50 and still survive.

But once it gets hot, it it gets unhappy. And so that's, that's how I got started with the punt green in the backyard.

Trent Manning: Oh, that's, no, that's good. That's, I mean, yeah, it's cool. And I do think, I mean, I remember, this was back in the day I'm dating myself, so when I was in high school, the girl that I was dating, her dad was big into golf, [00:09:00] and he had a little put and green in his front yard, and he had a, a real mower that he, he mowed.

At, with, so I mean, people's been doing this for a while. It's not, it's not a new thing, but I do think it's got a lot more popular in the last, you know, 5, 7, 8 years. You know, I don't know.

Alex Gaddy: it, it's, it's definitely gotten, that's kind of how it got, I got started on top of it, beyond this was I started, you know, looking a little bit on. Social media and actually TJ Brie, who's they called the lawn dad, I think he's got, I don't know, 150,000, a bunch of followers, but he had a little place, some travelers rest South Carolina and did a t Tacoma 31 full install, beautiful lawn and had a putting green.

So I started watching a lot of his videos. And sure enough, you know, your algorithm starts to get tuned in. You're like, oh, that guy's got one. Oh, that guy's got one. That guy's got one. So you've got these little network of buddies that are all these kind of residential enthusiasts that have these greens in the backyards you [00:10:00] know, share tips and all this stuff.

But the hardest part everybody faces is keeping equipment up. The, you know, the standard, right? Because you're using a lot of times something that can't be maintained. Anywhere other than a golf course or something that's very, very specialized. So, that was very, very quickly something I realized as I got into, beyond the first California tremor and also talking with a number of these guys that are in that kind of social community.

Trent Manning: Yeah. And I've noticed on Facebook there's some groups too. 

Alex Gaddy: Is a group for everything. Yeah.

Trent Manning: is, yeah. A group for everything. When I don't, somebody added me to, it's a Toro Greens mower group,

Alex Gaddy: Yeah.

Trent Manning: it's all homeowners. It's not, I mean, there's, you know, a couple of golf guys in there, whatever.

For technical advice. That's the only reason the golf guys are in there. Which is fine. I mean, that's cool. But it's amazing. I mean, just the pride that these people take in their reel mower, [00:11:00] you know, they mow their yard with or. If they got a green or, or whatever. I mean, it's, it's super cool and it's exciting,

Alex Gaddy: Yeah, I think it's it, it's definitely taken off. It's, you know, it's also it's probably why you see the used market pretty expensive, right? Because a lot of residential people trying to buy, you know, x you know, call it golf mowers or whatever, and trying to get their hands on it. But there's a, there's definitely a little community out there that take a lot of pride.

For me, it's kind of therapeutic, right? Because I use my brain all day for work. And so this is a really nice thing to just. Use my hands and do something that's more tangible and I can use, I'm pretty much outside whenever you're doing it. And so, and I like the boys getting outside to try to help me a little bit when they want to come see what's going on.

So for me, it's a nice break from the day and it also gives me some purpose. I mean, I love it when that thing looks good. There's nothing but I get the cup of coffee, walk outside to, you know, it just looks awesome. And you're like, man, that is pretty dang cool when you can get it dialed in.

Trent Manning: [00:12:00] Yeah. No, that's, yeah. Really cool. Really cool. Yeah, and like you said, rewarding, you know, know the fruits of your labor, you know, you can see it every, every day when you get home or walk outside or, or whatever. So how did you get from antique California tremor

Alex Gaddy: Mm-hmm.

Trent Manning: to. I'm going to let the cat outta the bag.

A John Deere 2,500 A John Deere. What is a two 20

Alex Gaddy: Two 20 e and then A 180 E. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 180 E? Yeah. Yeah. So somebody might have an obsession. You know, I'm not calling you out. We, we,

Alex Gaddy: with John Deere or with with mowers in general?

Trent Manning: yeah. With mowers in general. If we need to have a therapy session or something, I'm, I'm here for it.

Alex Gaddy: I appreciate it. Well, I think I'm talking to the right guy. I think so. Yeah, it's you know, so that first when we moved up here, I was cutting the entire yard [00:13:00] about 20,000 square feet with that trimmer, and I was cutting it, you know, 400, 4 50. And so as you know, and as you told me, and when I start to say, Hey, I think what it's looking a little brown, you're like, well, how often you cutting it?

Like, well, once a week, but I'm doing PGR and they're like, probably need to be doing at least twice a week at least. And so I was cutting it twice a week with the tremor and it was, I mean. It was an hour and a half, two hours, you know, on average if I'm cooking. And I said, there's no way I can keep doing this with a, with a push mower, no chance.

Right? And so that's when the, the research started and I was like, all right, how am I gonna figure this out? I gotta find something that can do this in, you know, 30 minutes, half the time, but still looks still is a true reel mower. So I actually bought a Rotary X three 30 'cause I was like. You know, I'm gonna try this.

And I talked to a bunch of guys and they're like, if you just drive really, really slow and you cut frequent enough, you can almost pass as a real mower. So I bought this X three 30 [00:14:00] and you know, it's a normal, you know, deck mower, John Deere. And you know, I, I had it for one summer and I was like, this isn't even close.

Trent Manning: Mm.

Alex Gaddy: So like, it's not even close. So I traded that thing in and I remember you know, actually, I think I asked Courtney, I said, do you know of somebody that works on mowers that like commercial grade stuff? And he gave me who's the, the guy up here that works on, he's got a little shop up here in Canada.

I forget his name, but anyway.

Trent Manning: able turf and tractor.

Alex Gaddy: Abel, turf and Tractor. So I called Abel, and Abel had way too much work and I had bought one from Conyers, the John Deere down there. They had a 2,500. And so I had done enough research to say, all right, three blades, six feet wide, if I can get this thing up and running and get some new you know, some new new equipment on it, I should be able to cut the yard in half the time or better.

Right. And I had no idea what I was doing. So I bought this thing used. Abel was like, yeah, we should be able to put some new reels on it, get you fixed up. And then when he was like, you know what? I've got too much work. That's when he called you and I got the [00:15:00] opportunity to meet you for the first time to, to put, you know, basically some new reels on there, some used lightly used reels and put it on there and start with that triplex.

And so, I remember bringing that triplex home after I got it from you guys and got it fixed up and running. And that thing was, I'd say it was. Pretty rough. I mean, it was fine for what I'm doing it for, but I mean, it was barely making it up the hill and it had that, you know, I forget what year that thing had.

I had 3,500 hours on it or something like that. It had a, it was, it was used. But I remember cutting that front yard in like 10 minutes and being

Trent Manning: Oh wow. Yeah,

Alex Gaddy: thank you. Thank you, God.

Trent Manning: Right, right. It's a dream come true. A

Alex Gaddy: I was like, I could do that. I could still do this. Right? So, so then I got that I got the triplex. And since then it's been like, all right, now it's, you know, now I understand how these things work. Now I can, you know, maybe even do more on top of this. And John Deere's a weird thing for me because my, my grandfather used to have a tractor that I grew up driving at his house and he cut like.

I don't know, 5,000 [00:16:00] square feet on a riding tractor, but it was the highlight of my, you know, trip every time I'd see him to get to ride that tractor. So I got a lot of nostalgia for John Deere anyway. Triplex with you and having you guys help me put it together and actually putting it making it run and drive.

And then I realized that, you know, I should probably be using a real, if I wanted to get the green down to greens height, I needed a real green spar. I was like, the trior would only go so far, so I couldn't go more than three eights and I wasn't gonna be bringing the, the blades up and down on a six foot wide triplex to go cut a thousand square foot green right in the backyard.

So that's when I found weeks turf auction down in Moultrie. You know, I bought one from them and then actually TJ Bri had put me onto a buddy of his in Greenville that had one. So I drove to Greenville one morning at like 5:00 AM and picked this thing up, put it in the back of my truck and drove home.

And my, I remember telling my wife I had to leave at four 30 in the morning. She goes, where are you going? I said, I'm going to Greenville to pick up something.

Trent Manning: Sure you are sure you are.

Alex Gaddy: He [00:17:00] goes, what is it? I said, I don't worry about it. I, I'll be home by, you know, lunchtime tomorrow. So I brought that 180 home. And that's what I've been cutting the, the, you know, the, the putting green in the backyard with. So, that was the kind of the jump that triplex. Changed everything. And I was like, oh my gosh, now I can actually do this.

And it's like my favorite piece of equipment. And I've never looked back, but you know, people watch people that in our neighborhood, they see me, they're like, where do you get that thing? I'm like, we need to go grab a beer if you want. It's a long story.

Trent Manning: right. It's a long story, right? Yep. Yeah. You, you don't just run down to Home Depot and get one of those.

Alex Gaddy: No, no, exactly.

Trent Manning: And yeah, for any of the, the listeners that are not in the golf world to buy in Georgia. To buy a piece of John Deere turf equipment. There is only one dealer, and that's beard equipment right now.

So same thing with parts. If you want to order parts for a John Deere piece of turf equipment, it's gotta come [00:18:00] from beard equipment. And that's the way John Deere has their distributors set up, you know, throughout the country. It's that way. There's a single dealer for different regions. Which I don't really agree with,

Alex Gaddy: And I, I actually talked to Beard. I remember, 'cause I was trying to find, I, I would call dealers in Texas. I called dealers all over the place to try to find something that was lightly used that would be reasonable. And I remember calling Beard and them saying. Well, we we're not really rebuilding 'em, but like if you wanted a new one, you can get in line and you're looking at, I think at that point it was 35 to $40,000 and I was like, oh my gosh.

Or whatever the, you know, I was, couldn't believe. I was like, well, that ain't gonna work, so I gotta go find something that's gonna be, you know. That I can buy into and fix up and do all that kind of stuff. And so that's where I ended up buying the one from Conyers. But I had no idea, like, you know, I don't think, I thought this wasn't that big of a deal and you could find parts and everything else.

I just had no idea getting into it.

Trent Manning: Yeah. No, it's, it's it's a whole different, whole [00:19:00] different animal turf equipment is well, yeah, walk us through. You, you talked a little bit about your putting green. You first just started mowing it down and then, and that was tiff tough, that

Alex Gaddy: that was Tiff Tough. Yep.

Trent Manning: then you went, you did a little bent grass experiment.

Alex Gaddy: Did a Ben Grass

Trent Manning: that go?

Alex Gaddy: Well, you know, as a member of a golf, a member of a golf club, you know, you see the golf course in such great shape all year round and you're kind of intuitively thinking water, fertilizer cut. It should be not that big a deal. Right. You know, I feel like my life, I've been like, oh, I can figure things out.

You know, do a little bit of research. And, you know, I had good, I had a good experience with cutting the, the tiff tough down and like it looked good. So I'm like, oh, I, I got this. So, but when after I bought that 180 and I started cutting it down to like basically be below 200 tents, it started burning out [00:20:00] pretty quickly.

Like it, it was not happy. And so I was like, all right, this is probably, if I really want to get true green speeds back here and I really want it to look and feel like a real putting green, it's probably gotta be a real. Putting surface grass. And so I was like, what am I gonna do? And, and Georgia, you know, probably has to be some type of you know, mini dwarf Bermuda in order to, to do it.

But I remember talking to Courtney and being like, he's like, yeah, if you're gonna do it. He's like, I would burn it up in the fall because it picks up most of the roundup then, and then you're gonna wanna respray it if you're gonna do something again in the spring. So if I were you, I'd go ahead and spray it and then you can redo it again.

I said, well, what do I do if I've got a big, you know, muddy patch in the backyard? He goes, oh, just put some, put some, you know, perennial R or some vent seed on it just to keep it, you know, from, keep some roots in the ground for this, for the whatever. So then of course, I'm like, oh, this is my chance to do a bent grass experiment in the backyard.

Instead of the instead of the Bermuda. So did some more research, you know, did the same thing. Bought [00:21:00] some real bent grass seed from I think it was twin city seed up in, I wanna say Minnesota. Really reputable buyers. So I couldn't believe how much bent grass seed costs you know, did enough research, you know, did everything.

So small. I was like, couldn't believe it. And my buddy's a superintendent, a good friend of mine from Cleveland, Ohio. His name's Kevin Barth, he's a super he's moving around a couple spots, but I was getting some tips from him about, 'cause he is all, all bent and all over seed. And so anyway, I go through the process and I do everything.

And I'm like, this is gonna be great. I'm have bent grass green, and then I'll put something else in the spring. And I think it must have rained. I don't know how much it was that hurricane that came through, like, I think this was about a year ago. And I washed the entire thing out. None of the seed took, I had to do it all over again.

I spent a solid two and a half months just trying to get, get some kind of germination and then it germinated half the grass germinated, the other half didn't. And I'm like, racking my brain. I'm like, I swear I did the exact same thing over here. [00:22:00] Kevin's like, did you get a soil test? I was like, no. Said we get a soil test so you know, all of these things and, and I finally got some grass to take.

I reseed it twice, got it. To grow through the wintertime and then I turned it around in April and it looks awesome. Right. So I remember I had some buddies over for the masters and I cut it really tight and it just looked perfect. Right. Just like it should, like right around that April timeframe. 'cause it's cool, but it's grown in so I'm like maybe, yeah.

Trent Manning: they have the May, the masters, first week in April?

Alex Gaddy: Exactly.

Trent Manning: bent grass and rye grass. I mean it's, yeah.

Alex Gaddy: it was perfect. And I'm like, see, I could, I could do this too, right? So I'm like, look at this, look at this. And so, I don't know, I think it was like a month and a half went by and we got that like really warm stretch and a little bit of water. And I went away on a business trip for like three days.

I mean, I wasn't gone very long and I usually go out there and check in the morning water, some dry spots or whatever, but it was [00:23:00] fine. And I came back in like almost two and a half feet on all sides of the green was just dead brown, I mean like gone. And I was like, I sent a picture to my bud Kevin, and he goes, he goes, yeah, that ain't coming back.

He is like, that's toast. He is like, so he's like, but you probably weren't gonna be able to keep a bent green in Georgia alive anyway. And I was like, absolutely. I remember it happened so fast that I was thinking I kind of had it under control and was gone two days and it was just gone. The whole thing was gone.

Trent Manning: Is crazy and believe it, or, yeah, believe it or not. You know, Courtney kept bent, bent, grass alive at, sudden down from 88 to 2012, I think, before we went to, yeah.

Alex Gaddy: And so I, I.

Trent Manning: understand now the stress level of a superintendent in the summertime when they're sitting at home watching college football, they're thinking about their greenstein. You

Alex Gaddy: Because it can happen. It, it happened in an instant, right. I think [00:24:00] Courtney turned me on to Jerry Matthews, who does the chemical treatments for me now. He is an ex superintendent from you know, over here in and he's been helping me and he, he saw me grow the green in, and so every time he'd come over, how's the green doing?

We'd walk back there and he'd chuckle. He'd be like, just looking pretty good for residential. So finally he comes back over to do a, a treatment on the Bermuda. And he comes back there and I show him the bent green. And he goes, he goes, yeah. He goes, man, I remember you'd be like, I'd be at the grocery store.

One of these guys called me and be like, man, number seven's turning brown. He's like, what do you want me to do? He's like, get out there, put water on it, drench it like you could lose him in an instant in the middle of the summer. So I don't think your average. You think about Peachtree and all these places that keep such good bent grass greens, grab apple.

Same thing. Up here in, up here in Mil, Milton. How good they are and how, how good the agronomy and the treatment and the everything has to be. I mean, now that I'm, but you know, I got up every morning, go out there and look at it, make sure it's got water on it, do everything, and I'm, I'm talking about a thousand square feet, right?

What's your average green [00:25:00] size? It's gotta be. 10,000 square feet or I don't know, four or five depending on the size. So

Trent Manning: Yeah. Probably five to 10. Yeah. Something like that would be a.

Alex Gaddy: So that was my first like true blunder indoctrination of like, okay, I think I've got a reasonable okay of what I'm doing into, you got no clue.

Trent Manning: Yeah. Yeah.

Alex Gaddy: And how fast it could go sideways.

Trent Manning: trying, you know, I mean, that's, that's awesome. And that's the way we learn, right?

Alex Gaddy: That's right. That's right. So I was so I had the bed green for the, for the winter. It burned out. And then I was ready to do the next thing.

And so I was like kind of researching a bunch of different types of grass and everything else. I, I almost landed on putting Tomo 31 down because, you know, I've, you know, I know you can cut it really tight, almost, I think below one 50. Not quite to like, even like green speeds, but you can keep it really tight, even though it's not like a true green putting surface.

And it's really hard. And so I almost went to him at 31, but then I remember talking [00:26:00] to, I think it was Courtney, or talking to somebody else saying like, if you truly want a green that's gonna put like a green, you gotta go to a MIDI dwarf. So you either gotta go to champion or you gotta go to a Tiff Eagle or something like that.

So, I then learned how hard it is to get your hands on real mini dwarf Bermuda in the state of Georgia if you're not a golf course superintendent, right? So I spent. I don't know. I researched, where can you buy, you know, champion Bermuda or Tcal Bermuda or any so, or anything else. And you know, nobody would sell it.

Nobody sell it. They'd like call people. They'd be like, who are you? I'm like I'm a how much, what's your square footage? I asked a little more than a thousand square feet. And they're like, what is this for? I was like, that's for a, it's for a residential putting green. And they're like, no, we don't, we don't sell, do that kind of thing.

So. I think I tried four or five different locations, and finally I called the Tiff Eagle supplier down in Tifton. And I found the right guy and I was like, listen, I will drive down there and pick it up. I will pay you guys what you want me to pay for it? [00:27:00] Just let me have an opportunity to come get this.

'cause I'm, I'm called. Everybody know we'll do it. He's like, all right, I'll tell you what you wanna drive down here and pick it up. We'll sell you a bag. We'll sell you a sprigs. But you gotta come pick it up and meet this guy here at this time and bring it back yourself. I'm like, all right, done. So then that was the next story I had to tell my wife was you know, Hey, by the way, I gotta drive down to Tifton, Georgia, seven hour round trip to go pick up some crap.

Trent Manning: That's

Alex Gaddy: So That's

Trent Manning: honey.

Alex Gaddy: right. Yeah. She's like, where are you going? It's like, Tifton, Georgia. She's like, they don't sell this anywhere else. I'm like, no. It's a long story.

Trent Manning: Yep. No, they do

Alex Gaddy: You know, so, I ended up driving down to Tifton bought, I forget how many, I think it was, how many bushels of, of of Tiff Eagle. So Sprigs, and prior to that I had put down 20 tons of sand in the backyard.

So, I mean, I, I borrowed the, you know, the, the little piece of equipment to be able to just track it from the front yard to the backyard. Had no idea what I was doing there, how much [00:28:00] sand that was gonna be to, to move.

Trent Manning: yeah. Explain to the listeners a little bit about getting how, how many tons of sand.

Alex Gaddy: Yeah. So I've got about a thousand square feet and luckily, you know, sat down, was going through the renovation at this time, right? So I could actually go out in the golf course when they were Corning out the greens, they were putting in the drainage, you know, USGA green is what, 14 inches deep with, you know, drain and gravel underneath.

So all the water runs away to the lowest point. And then you're putting a you know, a gravel layer, I think it's close to two to four inches. That's the green slope. So it's already graded to the slope. And then you got another 12 inches of greens mix, which is basically sand and peat moss. Right. A version pretty much, you know, 12 inches of that.

So I'm like thinking about, do I need to bring a backhoe into the backyard and core this thing out? So that's when I get on my, my social media buddies and like, listen, like you're not building A-U-S-G-A unless you really want to A-U-S-G-A green, like put. Four to six inches of sand on top of it. And you should [00:29:00] be pretty good.

Still should, should still drain out and you should have the right you know, under layer so that the grass can grow properly. So when I did the math for about a thousand square feet, I needed about 18 to 20 tons of sand, which is a full semi tractor trailer, right? So,

Trent Manning: yeah. Yep.

Alex Gaddy: so the semi tractor trailer backs into the, the, into the driveway and dumps 20 tons of sand.

And my wife comes out again. She goes, what are you doing? So, well, I'm gonna spend the, I'm gonna spend Saturday shoveling this from the front yard to the backyard for the new pedigree and she just walked back inside. I don't even think she said anything to me at that point, but I mean, I think I got four to six inches roughly of sand back there. And then I put some pea moss in it.

And then I, that was also the part of the agronomy stuff that was really cool to do research on was understanding what springing was. I had no idea what that was. Right. So most people, when the, any residential person that's gonna go put new grass in is they buy sod. So they cut the sod from the sod farm.

You get what, two inches of [00:30:00] dirt and then a living, living grass. You put it down, you water it, it grows in. Springing is basically taking, I think the sod running it through like a wood chipper. You're still getting, you know, the, the runners and everything that's still alive. But you're spreading it very lightly under a, like a light layer on top of sand, and then you're rolling it into the sand and then you're letting it grow in from the top, right?

So it's a very different process to get a green to, to grow that way, which is the recommended path for, for creating a new green. So I went through that whole education process and talk to Courtney a little bit about that as well. And got to see it at, sat down right when they put the greens in. And I remember the putting green, you go out there and look at it and you're like, there is no way that's gonna look like a putting green.

And six weeks later, you know, it's rolling at two 50 or whatever it was unbelievable. So, so that's what I've got now. I spent my, my dad came in town, he helped me do it. We laid the, the Tiff Fi in the backyard. Drove down there, picked it up, and so I've got about [00:31:00] a thousand to 1200 square feet back there in the backyard.

First season I, I put it in, in late August or August. So it's, it's new. But I'm hopeful that in the spring it's gonna look great and I can really start getting it down to closer green speeds, but just top dressed it yesterday, so I'm still trying to, you know, make sure I, just trying to keep things, you know, going in the right direction.

But it's, it's a heck of a lot of fun to, to try to take care of.

Trent Manning: Yeah. Super cool.

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Trent Manning: Learn more at www. clubessentials. com backslash task tracker. Let's get back to the episode.

Well, let's talk about your [00:32:00] mower maintenance experience that you got the experience and I don't, it was what, this past summer, right? And I don't even, was it the one of the walk mowers?

Alex Gaddy: Yeah. The two 20.

Trent Manning: Yeah. The two 20 had brought in. And anyway, Alex he likes to get his hands dirty, so he wanted to come in the shop and, and you know, I can kinda show him how we grind a reel and we grind a bed knife and all the things we do.

And we were there for several hours. 

Alex Gaddy: It could have been four, but it felt like in 30 minutes. I mean, it was, it was amazing.

Trent Manning: Yeah. So yeah, just talk about Yeah. Your experience and how eye-opening that was.

Alex Gaddy: I think the reason I was coming in was the, I needed a, we needed to, to grind the, the 180 and then I had, I had tried to adjust the two 20. And I think it didn't catch. And so as I stepped off the, the driveway, it clipped the [00:33:00] driveway and bent one of the things. So we were trying to fix both of those things.

So I said, can I come in and can you help me? Just show me what you guys do and how you do it. And you know, I'm thinking the same thing. It's probably like a 10 minute exercise, bang, bang, I'll be outta there, whatever. And I think that was probably the most eye-opening thing for me because. What felt like heart open, heart surgery, you know, you guys are doing on a daily basis for bed knives and for a fleet of equipment.

You know, I'm, I don't know how many Toros you guys have now. Is it 2015? I forget the number. 14. Right. And I'm trying to take care of

Trent Manning: powers.

Alex Gaddy: one mower that's cutting a thousand square feet and I'm like, I can't even imagine the multiplication plus the unplanned things that start to go through it. Right. 

Trent Manning: Out six to seven every single day. In the

Alex Gaddy: Six to seven. Yeah.

Trent Manning: single day.

Alex Gaddy: Right. Not, not, not fairway mowers, not, you know, any of the other stuff, but just the, just the walk mowers, right?

Trent Manning: just the greens [00:34:00] mowers.

Alex Gaddy: Right. So I, you know, generally knew what back clapping was, but I never got it right. Every time. It was like either I was too tight or it wasn't sharp, or one's sharp side would be sharp, or the middle would be, you know, not cut and paper, but the edges would cut.

And so like, you know, I, I think back lapping is even a bit of an art, right? Trying to figure that out and what you're hearing for, and just feeling the tension or feeling all that. So that's taken me a long time to try to figure out, I'm still not perfect at it or great at it, I think. But when we came in, I think the few things that I realized were, one, you guys have.

All the right equipment, which makes, you know, all these things at home so much harder, right? You put it up on the table, you grab the, the socket right there, you know exactly which bolt to pull off. I'm like, slow down, tr I didn't see what you just did.

Trent Manning: Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Alex Gaddy: Wait, wait, which, which side was that? What kind of was that?

What size was that? Right. Why are you taking that off first? Did you, did you need to do that first? Did you have to do that second? Like, I'm going through all these things in my brain and you're doing it like it's second nature. Next thing you know, [00:35:00] I know the bed knife's on the Foley and you're already grinding, and it's been like 15 minutes, and I'm like, man, I don't even know if I could get that thing back in the same position or understand where it got to.

Right. So. It was fun. It was really fun for me to watch. And I think the other thing that I noticed that I had no idea was, was the amount of preciseness, right? Like, how precise everything needs to be to get the best cut and to get the best look of, of the turf. And I don't think I had any idea. I thought close was good enough.

You know, if you're close enough, it should be good, but I can't, I, I had such a, a under appreciation for how precise. All the machining and the hundreds of an inch. And you know, and that's not just on one reel. That's for a fairly more, that's three reels. And for, you know, your fleet of 15, I mean, that's every day.

You've got, I don't know how many reels. You gotta keep that precise to keep the, the, the turf looking great. But that was something that I just had no real appreciation for until spending about four or five hours with you in the shop.

Trent Manning: Yeah, [00:36:00] no, that, and it's, it's rewarding to me, you know, to help you experience that, you know, or so you, so you can see that, and then you can share it with your friends too. And hopefully everybody gets a little better understanding of what happens behind the scenes. And golf course maintenance. We're not just down there smoking joints like like they, like they do in caddy Shack, you know? Like Caddy Shack. Yeah, we, we, we do not yeah, that's a, a thing of the past, but I mean, yeah, there's a lot that goes into what we do. Yeah. Just

Alex Gaddy: It's, it's pretty remarkable.

Trent Manning: What, what about the back lap? So one afternoon I come over and try to give you a demonstration of how we back lap and how, how has it been since then?[00:37:00] 

What, what did you

Alex Gaddy: It's been,

Trent Manning: in that process?

Alex Gaddy: well, I mean, I couldn't even figure how to get it into backlog mode. Remember? I was like, yeah, I didn't, didn't know where, I mean, I had done enough like YouTubing and I've got a version of a 25. That version of that 2,500 was so old, like user manual didn't mean anything. Like I couldn't find where to do it.

So you were like, oh, you pop this open, you flip this and make sure you got the real engaged, but you gotta have the parking brake on and then flip it in. And I'm like. Oh, those six steps in that order. Got it.

Trent Manning: Well, I don't, I mean, I've done it a couple times, you know,

Alex Gaddy: Exactly. So I think that's the thing is like a homeowner, you're like, I, you know, it's not like a simple process of process of elimination. And I think the other thing that you do, I, I, I have a you know, a really, really clear understanding for now is just the troubleshooting, right? Like, even when I think this new, the new triplex that we, that I've got now.

You know, I knew that, that you know, the ba the bulb needed to come out to set it into back lap mode and it wouldn't turn on and I'm, I'm out in the front yard for 30 minutes trying to be like, [00:38:00] why is this thing not running backwards? Like, I should be able to run this in back lap. I've looked at it a hundred times and I remember I sent you a text and you go, oh, the, the, you go, the switch is probably bad, is bringing in, I'll flip you again.

Like you don't even have to be there. Right. You were like, you were just like, oh, bring the, bring this in and then we'll flip that out. That's probably all it's, and I'm like, I've been in there out there for 45 minutes racking my brain. I'm like, did I do this right? Was the process right? All that kinda stuff.

So the troubleshooting thing, like you've just seen so much of that. So I think that's for me, something that only can really come with time and experience and institutional knowledge. But back lapping when you came over I was, I I just think I realized like one, we did the cut without it. We ran over there and we looked at it, you could look at the, you could look at the turf.

Like it was visibly, visibly different between, you know, just shredding it, shredding it on that. And then the next time we went past it, after we had gone through the back lapping, like, so one, the turf difference side by side was, was meaningfully different. But two, I think that it's, it is a bit of an art, right?

Like we would [00:39:00] you put, put that back put on there and you're like, well actually I'd like to hold the brush here and I wanna make sure that I get full coverage. You don't actually have to use a ton more back lapping. Compound. You just pull it forward a little bit so you don't wanna do that. Make sure you don't leave it on there for any period of time.

So make sure you rinse it off. Make sure you grind the bur off the bed knife. After you've done that, make sure you're, that, you know, you got a flat edge on the front. So it's all these little things, I think only you would ever get with reps. You're never gonna read in some manual, right? I just don't think that that exists the same way.

So, it was great for me to watch you, but I was doing the same thing in my head. I was like, slow down. I just go back three steps and talk me through why you did it that way versus, you know, what did you see there that made you think about it? 'cause that, that's what I'm trying to figure out when I do these things is like, you know, that process of elimination, what works, what doesn't, what gets the best result?

Trent Manning: No, that's, yeah, that's really good. And I'm getting ready to I'm gonna do some, you know, with the YouTube channel, I'm gonna do some homeowner videos on like true cuts [00:40:00] and how to back lap and how to adjust chains and. So we're, we're gearing up for that. I'm waiting on the, the true cut mower to show up from Kent.

You mentioned Kent,

Alex Gaddy: Oh yeah, Kent. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Trent Manning: it was kind of his idea of doing some of these videos and I think it'll be great for the homeowners, but yeah. What all is involved in back. And yeah, it's a lot more than just putting back lapping, spin the reel backwards and throwing L compound on there. And I do think that's one of the biggest things, or one of the biggest misunderstandings about back lapping is turn the real backwards throw on L compound.

'cause when I back lap a reel, I dip my brush in the back laughing compound, and I start on one side. Usually the leading edge. On the left hand side, if you're facing the reel and I move it to the right, then I flip the brush over and I go from the right to the left. [00:41:00] Not that it matters, but that's the amount of lapping compound I put on the reel.

And then I'll just move, hold the brush and go back and forth, back and forth. Not reapplying Lapin compound. We're just redistributing the Lapin compound. 'cause if you put the Lapin compound on. And you wait, whatever, 30 seconds or a minute, the it starts, the sound gets

Alex Gaddy: it goes away. Yeah.

Trent Manning: goes away. So when that sound goes away, you're not doing anything at that point or not much.

So that's why you take the brush and redistribute it across there, and then you'll hear it, it gets louder and it starts working again. So it's, it's much quicker. And you use less lapping compound if you just keep the brush going back and forth. Yeah.

Alex Gaddy: Right. Yep.

Trent Manning: you were saying, definitely getting it washed off.

Because any, if you leave any lapping compound on there, you're doing the exact opposite of what you want [00:42:00] to do and you're dulling the re the other thing that I think homeowners don't think about is they'll have their, you know, whoever's grinding their real mowers, they'll have the real mower ground.

And while the real mower is off of the shop getting ground, they have their yard top dressed. So as soon as the real mower comes back, the first thing they're doing is mowing sand with it. And that's about backwards of what you want to do. Yeah.

Alex Gaddy: We, I remember you talking to you. Yeah, I remember you talking about this 'cause I was like, I was top dressing and I just, I think I had just, we had just put the new reel on the 180 and you were like, just be careful. And I said, well, how do you know? And you go, well look in the basket, right? If you got a bunch of sand in there, you're probably not cutting any grass, right?

So like, if you're just push put, you know, turning a bunch of sand into the basket. You know, you're really not cutting grass. You're really just, you know, pulling sand through the reel. And I think I even, you know, I, I was attested it just after, you know, cutting [00:43:00] after a pretty good top dress and sure enough, it's, you know, back to having a pretty good gap, not cutting paper in again.

Like it's amazing how fast that happens, right. So, you know, that's, that's the, you know what, do you hear that, or do you look down and see that? Or do you, you know, that's what I started to try to play with. 'cause you know, you don't always, I don't always walk out there every morning and throw a piece of paper in there to see if it is, but you can start to see it, you know, pretty quickly.

You can be like. The, the grass doesn't look like it's picking up everywhere. But I asked you, I think when I was doing it, I was like, how I'll you backlog? And he was like, well, our guys do it pretty much every time they bring the mower in and they clean it. It's like, those are the two things we do is we make sure we backlog, make sure we clean it.

And I was like, wow. Okay. So if you really want to keep it great all the time, I mean, again, the amount of maintenance that no Member Country Club member will ever see is those guys going over there and back flopping and make sure the equipment's ready to go for the next guy the next day or the next cut.

Right.

Trent Manning: Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Me members don't, don't see that. Yeah, they're, they're playing golf

Alex Gaddy: That's right.

Trent Manning: and I mean, honestly. [00:44:00] We don't want them to see that. We do wanna be behind the scenes. We want them to be able to enjoy their round and us be outta sight out of the mind and have a good round of golf.

So I, I mean, I get it. That's, that's what it's about. But it is nice to have some of 'em appreciate us a little bit more when they do see us out and about. And you know, just members when you drive by and they say, oh, the course looks great. You know, I mean, it's really nice to, to hear that because I mean, we're a, a lot of us, especially the old school people like Courtney, I mean, we've devoted our lives to these places, you know, and I mean, it is kind of sad, but I mean, it's the truth too.

I mean, you think like Courtney and the years he has there and how many hours he's spent there, and I mean, how many, you know. Not now, but back in the day how many times he missed a kid's ball [00:45:00] game or

Alex Gaddy: Of course. Yeah.

Trent Manning: you know, wilt watching greens. 'cause he's afraid his greens are gonna die and he is gonna get fired.

I mean, you know, that's, that was the reality in the nineties and early two thousands. So luckily, I mean, that is changing some in the industry and guys are getting better work life balance and, and that kind of thing. But it was not that way for a long time.

Alex Gaddy: no, I, I totally get it. I think, it's great to get an understanding. 'cause I mean, I think I take a different look at the golf course every time I walk out there and sometimes I get caught. I catch myself looking at the turf more than I care about the golf sometimes. And I'm looking and turning around, you know, which is funny.

And my, or our buddy, my buddy Brent, he's like, he's always giving me a hard time. 'cause he is like, he's like, what are you looking at over there? Like, oh, I'm just looking at, you know, if we drop the height of cut on these mowers yet, or if it's the same height.

Trent Manning: Yep. Oh,

Alex Gaddy: So, but it does, it makes you appreciate it, it makes you understand it and makes you ask some good questions. So I, I think [00:46:00] it's only, you know, strengthened and made my love of the game and love of golf and love with turf that much better, right? All those things come together. I think they they fit really well.

So, and I do, I think, you know, I get a lot of buddies that know I do this and they ask me questions about it. So I try to be. As much of an educator as I can. And also to your point, right, like when the golf course looks great, you know, say something, point it out. 'cause man, it, there's a lot of, a lot of things that gotta go right.

You know, both luck and hard work to get it to, to look that way. A lot more hard work most of the time. But it's great. I think we're very fortunate too, between you and Courtney and the, and the staff that we have at sat down. I mean, it's, it's a it's a wonderful place. So I'm, I'm very happy to be there.

It's great.

Trent Manning: Yeah. No, it's, it's, it is been fun. I mean, the last this is my second tour there. The last. 15 years is my second tour. But yeah, we've had, we've had a lot of fun there too and, you know, learned a lot of stuff and had good people come through there over the years. And I mean that's, you know, [00:47:00] and where I'm at in my career is the young people I have working for me in the shop.

I mean, that's what really drives me now.

Alex Gaddy: Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning: training them up and, you know, getting to see them have small wins and, you know, I can't wait till they go on to their, their next thing and, you know, and, and see them do well. You know, there's, there's a lot more to it than just that turf equipment and the mower that we're working on.

And the, so all the relationships that wind up. You know, just like, I mean, honestly, mine, mine and your relationship. I, you know, I, I appreciate that too. You know, and long long as you don't text me on the weekend, the, the greens mower's off or something like that we'll, we'll stay friends.

Alex Gaddy: That's right. Well, that's what I told my wife when I, she goes, why do you need another mower? And I was like, you gotta have a backup. Like one break. See, whatcha you gonna do? You gotta cut the grass, right? Don't, it doesn't, it [00:48:00] doesn't stop growing. Right. You gotta go. So that's funny.

Trent Manning: Well, I don't, yeah, so I think it's the latest YouTube video that dropped. It's an aluminum pulley that I ended up making that goes on our vacuum and it was damaged. It was, it was an aluminum pulley, you know, so it's supposed to be round, it was an octagon. When I got to it, it had, the bearing had seized up and it kept

Alex Gaddy: Wow.

Trent Manning: and anyway, it was bad.

So I called the dealer. And they say three to four weeks. I'm like, we can't do without the vacuum in November for three to four weeks. I mean, the leaves are falling right now. They're not gonna stop. So I was able to take the welder and build it up with weld and put it in the lathe and turned it back down and make it work again.

Got a new bearing for it. Yeah. So two days is down and. Or actually I think it was like 24 hours. It was

Alex Gaddy: Yeah. Yeah, [00:49:00] I think that's, I think I can't, every time I see your videos, I always think like, like is there ever a problem that you haven't been able to solve? You're like, you know what? We're just gonna have to wait on the part, because I feel like you have MacGyver your way through every fix in the book and probably have seen just about everything.

So.

Trent Manning: well, I appreciate you saying that and. I don't know. It doesn't feel that way. I mean, from my side of the table, but the, the guy that taught me a lot of what I know and was my mentor when I started working there in the nineties, Larry Freeman, that was kind his mentality is like, we're gonna figure this out and we're gonna get this machine back up.

It don't matter. You know what we gotta do? We're gonna get this thing back up and running. And I remember one time it was a pulley, I don't even remember what piece of equipment, but it was a pulley on an alternator had come loose [00:50:00] and you know, the nut had come off and the threads were messed up. So he welded the pulley onto the alternator.

And I mean, it worked, you know, I mean, it was not, it was not pretty, you know, it was not the ideal repair, but it got that piece of equipment going. And I, this was, you know, I don't know how long after that the alternator was bad and we had I mean it was a few months or whatever, and there was a local guy and Marietta that we took all our starters and alternators to, and he would rebuild them, remanufacture 'em.

So I take it to him and he said, who the hell did this? I said that that was, and Larry knew him really well. I said, that was Larry, we were in a pinch to, he's like, I don't know what I'm gonna do with this. It's like, this is a paperweight. I don't know if I could fix

Alex Gaddy: That one might

Trent Manning: you know, but [00:51:00] I mean, you know, and he's the, the same way though.

He is like, eh, gimme a couple days. And, you know, and he gets it fixed. I mean, I definitely think, you know, when I was. And maybe before me, but while I was coming up through the ranks, a lot more people had that mentality than they do today. And I think I've talked about it on the podcast before. I mean, we're in, in a time now where it's easier, I guess, just to throw it away and get a new one.

Yeah, this doesn't work. Throw it in the trash. Buy a new one. And I mean, I remember like Larry, the guy I'm talking about I asked him one time, I said, what's the strangest thing you've ever worked on, Larry? And I mean, this is in the nineties. He says, my neighbor's electric toothbrush, you know, and I don't, I don't know what, what's wrong with it or whatever, but I mean, that was just [00:52:00] kinda the way it was.

We'd work on anything. It didn't matter what it was. And you know, the, the mechanic in me. If there's something broke, I really wanna fix it.

Alex Gaddy: Fix it. Make it right. Yeah.

Trent Manning: When, so back to the club thing, that's one of the really good things about the club that I work at is we have the resources to repair stuff and I have, you know, friends in the industry and they'll get shut off in November and can't order a part till January.

And it's like, that's not a good way. Not a good place to work, you know? 'cause you want to be able to fix stuff in your downtime in the winter and you got all these things to do. But I don't have any money to buy parts, like, you know, and I don't know what the reasons are, budget and whatever it is. But there's a lot of clubs that, that are like that.

Alex Gaddy: I mean, there's probably, you know, there's points where you need to do it and there's points when you don't, right. So it's probably, you know, to your [00:53:00] point, a lot more convenient to just buy the new part. But man, if you got the, you got the part or you got the resources, and it's a one day fix versus going to spend a few hundred bucks. Right. I mean, that knowhow is pretty intense. I mean, I don't, I don't, I don't know how many people exist with that ability to do that, but I've, I've been I've been very impressed 'cause every time it's like, no, we can just pull this apart and we'll figure it out and we'll put it back together and see if it works and try something different.

And it's, you know, I feel, I feel like you kind of have to have that mentality 'cause. Man, I don't think I would do well with watching guys come in and be like, what happened with this? And I was like, oh, ran over. This wasn't looking, you know, as a a mechanic, I feel like you've just gotta have this really nice.

Okay, well let's try not to do that again, but lemme see what I can do.

Trent Manning: Why don't, I am not gonna say, I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm not always that guy.

Alex Gaddy: Yeah.

Trent Manning: I'm, I'm rarely that guy. I mean, it really gets under my skin. And, and I do understand, you know, some, yeah. Accidents happen. I, I do get that. But when the accident [00:54:00] happened, because the employees on their phone not paying attention to what they're doing, is that really an accident?

Alex Gaddy: Right, right.

Trent Manning: You know, and then you get to kind of know your employees and the ones that end up having, you know, more accidents than the other employees, and you think maybe there is a reason that they're having more accidents than the others. But yeah, back to you know, the fixing stuff. A couple small wins just in the last week on a John Deere sprayer.

A single pole, single throw switch from John Deere. So this is like a little switch, right To turn, or actually it was to make the booms go up and down, you

Alex Gaddy: This is a green.

Trent Manning: the boom Yeah. The, you know, the, the gr Yeah.

Alex Gaddy: go down. Yeah.

Trent Manning: bone booms that go up and down. Right? So it's the switch that controls that from John Deere $320

Alex Gaddy: [00:55:00] Wow.

Trent Manning: for this switch.

And I found the exact same switch, same manufacturer online for $15.

Alex Gaddy: Are you kidding?

Trent Manning: No, I mean that's, I don't, you know, some people call it the golf tax, you know, whatever you want to call it. It's

Alex Gaddy: That's wild. Wow.

Trent Manning: yeah, I mean, it's just, it is crazy

Alex Gaddy: That is crazy.

Trent Manning: they mark stuff up that much because John Deere. You know, and I, I'm just talking about them, but I ain't trying to pick on them.

I mean, it's all these manufacturers they don't make switches. They buy that switch from someone. Right. And, but John Deere does a really good job of hiding who they get it from a lot of

Alex Gaddy: Yeah.

Trent Manning: and

Alex Gaddy: the original OEM.

Trent Manning: Right. And they'll get stuff that's proprietary. So they'll call up Kawasaki. Well, actually the 2,500 E you had [00:56:00] had a Kawasaki engine in it, and that Kawasaki engine you could only buy parts from, from a John Deere distributor because yeah, John Deere calls up Kawasaki and says, we want this engine and you're only gonna sell it to us.

You know, it's like, really?

Alex Gaddy: yeah,

Trent Manning: but you know, I mean, that's, they're good at what they do.

Alex Gaddy: they are.

Trent Manning: You know, and they, and they make good equipment. Well, I don't wanna keep you all night long. Is there anything else you wanna add or talk about? I mean, this has been fun. I mean, this is always my favorite part of the podcasting anyway, is the interview and talking.

Alex Gaddy: No, it's been great to get to spend time with you. I think I appreciate your friendship and your all your, your, your knowledge and ability to come down there and poke my head in. Ask you really stupid questions and be like, Hey man, is this supposed this supposed to happen? You're like, no, but bring it by.

We'll look at it. So,

Trent Manning: No, that's [00:57:00] good.

Alex Gaddy: But no, it's been great and I love it. I mean, and my wife gives me a hard time, but it's, it's a, it's a great, you know, it's a great passion and I enjoy it. And I have a completely different level of appreciation, not only for. You know, the, the, the tooling and the mechanic side of it, but also the agro agronomy side of it and how well they have to go together.

Right? I think that's the other part too, like how well those two have to work together, makes such great golf course, great conditions. So, it's been great and I hope I I, I might need a bigger, bigger spot to put more, more more, more mowers if that ends up going that way. Because you keep telling me, you know, I need to get, I need to get a Toro and branch out, so maybe that's next on the list if I can convince my wife to let me do it.

Trent Manning: There you go. Yep. That'd be good stuff. Well, thank you again for being on, and we'll see you at the course.

Alex Gaddy: Thanks Trent.