IMG_5653

Flower Bed Prepping

Spring has gotten started a little late this year.  I can remember several years in the past where we have planted flowers long before May 15th.  It seems like when ...

IMG_5607

Building the New Ceremony Site

Last year, our ponds were dry.  As it turns out, you need rain to fill creek beds that keep ponds filled with water.  Go figure.  Rather than sit around and ...

IMG_5587

Smell-a-Site. If Only Computers Had Five Senses.

If you haven’t ever played golf in the spring, you need to make it a point to stop out sometime in the next week or so.  The smells and beautiful ...

What's Going on at Toad Valley?

IMG_5556

Tarpin’. Seedin’. Celebratin’.

If you recall, about a month ago, we reseeded number nine tee ...
IMG_5454

Range Balls the Credit Card Way

When I was a teenager, I worked behind the snack bar at ...
fred

A Tribute to Fred, My Mom

My mom, Freddi the Kitchen Guru, is one of the most hardworking ...
IMG_5276

Sunny Days. Sweeping the Clouds Away.

My maiden name is Brady.  Our family of Bradys have owned the farmland ...
IMG_5282

Weeds. What Are They Good For? Absolutely Nothing.

Spring.  I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I love to watch ...
IMG_5322

MaMas Are Gonna Likey

Yep.  It’s the day we get to celebrate all things mom.  It’s ...

Yep! There is even more. . .

IMG_5452

Pump It Up

Our miniature golf course features six ponds, two fountains and a 15 foot boulder waterfall.  The Iowa weather dictates for us to store the pumps inside in the winter to keep them safe from freezing.  In the spring, the ponds are cleaned and prepped for the installation of the pumps.  It is always amazing to see […]

Continue Reading
IMG_5227

Jason Gets Dirty

It’s kind of hard to believe when you look outside today at the beautiful green grass and bright blue sky, but we were covered in snow on Saturday.  When I was getting ready for the minigolf outing that we had that day, I noticed water pouring out of the side of our driving range hill. […]

Continue Reading
IMG_5399

Propping Trees

Last year, we had a severe drought.  Our golf course actually ran out of water.  It was the first time in our 40 years of business that all of the creek beds that feed our course’s ponds dried up.  By the end of the season, we looked pretty rough.  In order to keep the greens […]

Continue Reading
IMG_5259[1]

Goose Be Gone

Canada Geese can cause lots of damage to a golf course.  Because they don’t have teeth, they eat the greens to use the sand to grind up their food.  Golfers don’t like geese.  Golf course owners don’t like geese.  The DNR loves geese.  Yep.  They are protected.  If a skunk digs up the golf course, we […]

Continue Reading
IMG_5117

Turning Lemons into Lemonade

In case you live under a rock or outside of our great state of Iowa, we’ve had a pretty ugly spring.  So ugly, in fact, that it actually snowed.  In.  May.  Yeah.  Let me tell you that I have no doubt this will definitely be one of those springs you talk about for years.  As […]

Continue Reading
IMG_5010

Going a Little Shabby Chic

First of all.  Guy Alert.  This post is about Women’s Clothing and refinishing furniture.  If you’re interested, read on.  Otherwise, you can check out some man projects right here! We have tried all kinds of ways to attract women golfers to purchase our products.  Over the years, we’ve tried golf cook books, different styles of […]

Continue Reading
IMG_4908

Caught Ya!

On Wednesday, I was out taking some photos of the golf course when I noticed a familiar foursome.  Yep, that’s right.  Our outside crew was out playing a little golf after their morning of work. We thought that we might try to conquer the weather and our quest to get the items stained by bringing […]

Continue Reading
IMG_4866

Sysco Makes Our Brains and Stomachs Work

Our main food supplier is Sysco.  They are located up in Ankeny, however, they are a national corporation that serves the food industry.  We have worked with them for about the last five years and they have been very good to us.  For the most part, we do our ordering online and by-pass a relationship […]

Continue Reading
IMG_4634

A Little Tree Trimming

The trouble with having hundreds, probably thousands, of trees on your golf course is that they need care.  They are forever getting hit with a disease, lightening or wind.  When I was a kid, I would ride around the golf course with my dad and he would point out something that I believed to be […]

Continue Reading
IMG_4555

Tom the Trouble Maker

As mentioned here, my dad has planted basically every tree on the golf course.  He has had some help from the birds and squirrels who forget where they bury their winter meal.  Overall, however, they have all been planted by Tom and his tree spade. We ran into dad while we were filming our zombie […]

Continue Reading
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,437 other followers