Sod Work

This week has the crew laying down sod at different spots throughout the course. Mostly, sod will go to finish off the tie ins from the cart path renovations started last fall (see "Week of May 23" posting for more info). This time we ordered some big roll sod which is 400 square feet per roll and is far quicker and easier to use if the location allows it. Two staff were able to transport and roll out 1600 square feet of sod in 3 hours; impressive sounding only if you've ever had to lay sod! Since the rolls weigh over 1000 pounds each we had to come up with a counter weight idea that would help the Bobcat keep all four wheels on the ground. The best ideas are the simplest and one of my guys came up with hanging a bag of sand off the back end. Driving with the bag hanging off the back end reminded me of seeing my kids when they had full pants when they were babies so we named it the "Bobcat diaper".

Bobcat with a full diaper unrolling sod

Since we had over 7000 square feet of big roll we had to unload all the big rolls in one spot and then use this area as a staging area. The Bobcat could carry a roll and a second roll could be loaded and hauled into back of one of the run around vehicles and unloaded when it was needed. The vehicle pictured below is a real work horse and has a payload of just under 1200 Kg (that's around 2500 pounds, that's over a ton!)

Workman carrying a big roll

Aside from tying in the cart path edges we will also use some of this sod in our nursery and use it on the course when needed throughout the year. It may seem like over kill to buy more sod than you need however one needs to consider firstly the cost of delivery which is the same if you order a full or partial truck and secondly the fact that the price per foot goes down as you order more. Sod is like buying toilet paper on sale....you might as well get as much as you can afford because you know you're going to need it one day.