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| Hole 5 basking in the sun |
The weather continues to be gorgeous on the Oregon Coast. If you are looking to play some golf any time soon, I would highly recommend playing Sandpines within the next week. It is a little colder this week, but the high temperatures are still getting into the 50's.
The precipitation total for January was 7.41 inches. The first 18 days of the month yielded 7.29 inches, while the last 13 days yielded only 0.12 inches.
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| Dean grinding a fairway mower reel |
Grinding fairway mower reels has been next on the agenda in the shop for about a month. After various other unexpected projects, the time has finally arrived. Dean has ground one set of fairway mower reels, and is currently working on the second set. We have two Toro Reelmaster 5210 fairway mowers. The reels and bedknives are made from harder steel compared to older models. They are supposed to last up to three times longer than traditional reels and bedknives. So far, I would say that is fairly accurate, as we were able to go more than twice as long before grinding. Dean has a few additional parts for the roller brushes, but the fairway mowers should be ready to go for the upcoming growing season by the end of the week.
One of the projects that postponed the fairway mower grinding was the break down of our Turfco LA-4 material handler. It is used for top dressing fairways, filling bunkers with sand, and supplying our smaller top dresser with sand during heavy sand applications. The five foot wide belt came apart at the lacing. A new belt would have cost more than $2000. With the exception of the spot were the belt ripped out at the lacing, the belt was in fair shape. We decided to attempt a repair on the existing belt for about $300. The repair required a special order lacing kit and a new section of belting. This was not an easy repair. It took quite a bit of time and effort to get the job done. Dean and Jerry did a great job working together to complete this project.
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| Jerry and Dean working on LA-4 belt repair |
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| LA-4 belt repair |
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| Jerry filling a bunker while testing out the LA-4 belt repair |
