The Mixing Bucket

The mix for what the grass will grow on the tees and greens is a mix of sand and peat moss.

The Mix Recipe: Evenly split between sand screened from our quarry, and sand imported from a quarry 40 minutes away. Our sand and the imported sand is made up of 2mm particles but ours has a bit more fine material.

Mixing can be done in several ways. Through a power screen, by loaders, or tractor with a tiller. We've opted for another method, using a "mixing bucket".

The material is measured and placed in a big pile, like a mix of ingredients for a cake. Then the excavator stands atop it and begins the mixing process. The operator leaves a 30cm (1 foot) buffer of mix to prevent native unscreened material from contaminating the "cake mix".















Loading the dumper from atop a mixed pile. A pile requiring further mixing is in the foreground.















Mixing bucket is used during loading.


















A look at the back of the bucket's mixing wheels.

















The backside again.















Into the bucket.















Close up.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

Fuel Usage

About May 27, 2007 the diesel station below was delivered.

In the last 17-months 209,321 liters were used... from this machine.
This during a time when fuel prices skyrocketed.

That wasn't the total fuel used either.

We had a subcontractor with the same station service its two machines, a dumper and excavator for about 8 weeks, along with additional fuel supplied in barrels.

The fueling station worked perfectly during the entire project.































Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

Sand Valley on CNBC TV

The day the guys were supposed to shoot was sunny and warm.
Beautiful.

They CNBC crew couldn't make it in time to catch the great evening light, so we rescheduled for the next day.

Unfortunately it rained buckets the whole night... and the course was saturated.
Usually we would have had guys working, but it was simply too wet.

youtube.com/watch?v=8tnNqpUkuNc

Good times were had by all, and we were lucky to get the shoot in before it started raining again.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

Some Photos of Hole 1

Before and After
What the property looked like when I inherited it in April 2007... and...

Now... It's starting to look a little like a golf course!
























































Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

Due to Popular Demand... More Cartoons

We are busy doing finish work, installing the last of the irrigation... testing the system and seeding.
Same grind... different day.

This series comes from the European championship soccer game between Poland and Austria. Austria was awarded a penalty in the last seconds of extra time and scored... eliminating the Poles from the tournament and winning me 5-beer from Jin Ling and Martin (finger extended).

The joke was, if Poland could not beat a small village of Yodellers and goat farmers, they had no business qualifying for the second half of the tournament.

The natives were not impressed.















Jin Ling, who threw his phone after the tie (defeat... lost bet)... breaking the display... sees a long day of work ahead.















Martin... still with the "fighting spirit".

The beer tasted great!


Below is a cartoon of Josef... who did a little tinky-winky in the excavator.
It was worth a few days of cartoons.










































Josef walks his Porta-potty (in Europe either Toi Toi or Dixie) back to the yard.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

One of many cartoons during the project

The cartoons aren't quite a daily event, but almost.
They're a good way to poke fun at each other.

Below is a cartoon about Speedy.
He was talking when he should have been listening at the local disco on the weekend.
Hence the toon.





























Speedy, shiner and all.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

Photos from last month

The start of the short par-4, 5th.















A view from the left of the fairway; near the tees on Hole 2.















Looking back towards the tee from alongside the long bunker that runs along the right of the 2nd hole.















Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

Rootzone in...

...finish work on green 6 is finished and 16 is almost done.

Let the seeding begin guys... or as Petri likes to say... "seeeeeeeeeed.... seeeeeeeeed..."

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

More photos

1 and 2. A view from behind the Back Tee on 10.
3. Testing a sprinkler head on 9 green.
4 and 5. Tomek tracking in the seed on the surrounds of the 2nd green.
6. A cluster of fairway bunker down the right side of the landing are on the par-5, 4th.























Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

Photos from the last days

From the top down:
1. Jin Ling walking the front of the par-3 9th green.
2. Inspecting sprinkler head.
3. The Irritation Team; Jin Ling and Martin
4. Same guys posing for the camera.
5. Part of Team Tania. We have a number of the opposite sex raking out the features... and doing a good job.






















Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080

Rootzone on 6 and 16

The sixth and 16th greens are getting their rootzone.

The 6th is a long haul and a challenge to get to, whereas 16 is a breeze.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080