Changing a Rain Bird Sprinkler head. . .

In this post I will describe how to change a Rain Bird 700 series sprinkler head on #17. The 700 indicates that it is a full circle head, meaning it rotates 360 degrees. This particular head was hit by the Verti-Drain:

As you can see the case and drive have been cracked. Although the head is not actively leaking, when we go to turn the head on water will shoot out of the side and the drive will not work properly. The first step in replacing a head is turning all the valves off that feed the fairway line. There are four fairway isolation valves on this hole:

Here is the valve located below the ground. We use this valve key which is about four feet long and has a square end on the bottom. After we have closed all the valves we have to discharge the pressure still remaining in the fairway line. We do this by looking for the quick coupler valve that is located in the lowest spot on the fairway. Then we place the quick coupler key in the valve and turn it on all the way, allowing all the water to flow from the pipe:

Depending on how much pipe there is on a particular hole, this process can take up to an hour. So while we are waiting for the water to drain out we can start to dig the head up:

We cut a square out of the turf surrounding the head so it can be easily replaced when we are finished. As you can see the fairway has a hard compacted soil, which the Verti-Drain and Verti-Quake are helping to relieve. We will continue digging until we can freely remove the solenoid:

I also remove the solenoid as quickly as possible, just so the wires are out of the way and there is less of a chance of hitting them with the shovel. Now we can continue digging until we reach the bottom of the head and we can visible see the swing joint:

Now let's remove the head.. .WAIT!! We should first check and make sure that the pressure in the pipe has been removed. Let's check on our quick coupler:

Look's like all the water has been removed from the pipe, it is now safe to remove the broken head:









This is what the swing joint should look like after we have taken the head off. There is no more water in the line so therefore, there is no water flowing out of the swing joint. All of the heads we have at Hidden Creek are ACME threaded. This means that we do not need teflon tape or liquid teflon to ensure a water tight seal. The little gasket you see on top of the swing joint makes a water tight seal when the head is tightened all the way BY HAND. You never want to tighten a head with a pipe wrench or channel locks because their is a great chance you will either crack the head or swing joint or both. Now we can put the replacement head on:

The head went on with no problems and we can start to backfill the hole. Don't forget to put the solenoid back on first. The last step after backfilling is to replace the top plate of the 700 drive with the yardage plate from the old drive. Then we can add the square piece of sod around the head and pack it down. This is what the finished head looks like:

Now we can remove the quick coupler and turn all of the valves back on. After that we should check and make sure the head is working and it's not leaking.







Comfort Stations on #6 and #18. . .

This year the club decided to build two permanent restrooms, or comfort stations as they are called here, on #6 and #18. The comfort stations have a male and female bathroom with a concrete porch that is covered. Here is the picture of the one on #6. . .

As you can see there is some seed coming up(Fine Fescue) and there is also a lot of open space there from construction. We used this John Deer skid steerer with a tree spade on it to plant some trees to fill in that space. Here is the machine:

It's a great machine and is a lot faster and easier to operate than the bigger tree spade. Here is Rufino adding a tree by the comfort station on #6:

The comfort station on #18:

The added trees on the comfort station on 18:

Cartpath entrance on #2. . .

Here is a shot of the cartpath entrance on the second hole. Most of the cartpath entrance's on the course take a beating based on the amount of cart traffic we get and also based on the fact that the rough is comprised of fine fescue. Fine fescue is an excellent shade grass but it does not like traffic or heat at all. When you put the two together, it doesn't take long to lose areas of the rough. We used the rodadairon to till the area up and then we seeded it with a bluegrass/periennial ryegrass mix. These two grasses are both traffic tolerant. The bluegrass is a lot more drought tolerant than ryegrass.

Here is what it looks like now from the opposite side:

As you can see(through my shadow) it has filled in quite nicely. Through the use of traffic blocks and signs, we will be able to keep it healthy in the Summer.

New Pro tee on #2 . . .

A new back tee was added to hole #2 in the winter of 2009/2010. It was then seeded and covered, and was ultimately lost to pink snow mold. This past Spring we sodded it with bentgrass and basically the seed never established itself and we lost the turf. We decided to redo it again and seed it this time, with a bentgrass mix consisting of A-1,A-4, and velvet bentgrass. Here is what it looked like 2 weeks after I seeded it:

When the new Superintendent took over he decided to give it a Lime and Gypsum application. The Lime we applied at 40 lbs./1000 ft.2, which helped get the pH to the level we wanted. The Gypsum we applied at 10 lbs./1000 ft.2. Gypsum is an excellent source of Calcium which is one of the major element's needed by bentgrass. Three months later it looks like this:

Once we put the Lime and Gypsum on it, the grass really filled in and it will definitely be ready for play in the Spring!



Sprayers. . .

With 5 acres of greens, 5 acres of tees, and 40 acres of Fairway. We need to have 3 functional sprayers.

Here is the Toro 300 gallon sprayer. We really only use this on the fairway's. It is a great sprayer and works really well. This machine is hydrastatic.

We have an old Toro 200 gallon sprayer we use on the fairways, greens, and tees. I remember using this sprayer when I first started working at Blue Heron Pines eleven years ago. We took it over to Hidden Creek when Blue Heron was sold. It is really worn and needs to be replaced.

Last is the 160 Gallon Sprayer. We use this on the tees and greens. This sprayer has no clutch but it does a real good job with spraying. It is ten years old and really is too small to be of much use.

Mowers. . .

As of right now we mow the Fairways with three Toro five-plexes, which are ten years old. These mower's are very worn and are very heavy. We have to replace the bearings and bedknives on a yearly basis, which is both money and time consuming. They also affect the quality of cut and the health of the turf.

We mow the greens with Toro Flex 21's. The big draw from this mower is that is has a "flexing" cutting unit. This is a must for courses that have undilulating greens. They are also ten years old and are very worn. We have eight of these:

We mow the tees and approaches by hand with the Toro 1600 walk behind mowers. These mowers are also ten years old. We have 4 of these:

We are in the process of getting new Fairway and greens mowers. Once we acquire them I will post pictures and describe each one.

Tractors. . .

We have 2 John Deere Tractors right now. The 4600(pictured below)is hydrostatic which simply means there is no clutch, there is a shifting lever to put it in either A(slow),B(moderate),C(fast). This tractor is good for boxblading, using the seeder, or for using the big blower.

The other tractor is the John Deere 5210(pictured below)which is much more powerful than the 4600. It has a clutch and two different shifters. One shifter is like the one on the 4600 with A,B,and C. The other shifter has 1,2,3,4 gears. So you can control the speed much better with this tractor than the 4600. It is really good for fertilizing with the Vicon, aerating, using the Verti-Drain, using the Verti-Quake.

Pictures of the Outside/Inside of Maintenance Shop. .

The Maintenance Shop

Inside of the Shop

Shop again

Bill's(Mechanic) Shop

The Break Room

Clark and Bill's Desk(Left)

My Desk