Pictures from an athletic field contractor

[EddieWalker]

I'm still amazed that bricks are used at the mound and home plate. There is engineering everywhere!!!

 

[JethroB]

I'm still amazed that bricks are used at the mound and home plate. There is engineering everywhere!!!

Do the bricks eventually dissolve?

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Do the bricks eventually dissolve?

Not really dissolve, but they will get worn down from the players shoes. If you look in the pics, you can see some loose clay in bags and in the batter's box. This loose clay is similar to the bricks, and is used below and above the bricks. It is also used to patch, or fill in, holes made by the players.

The bricks will last several years though.

 

[sixdogs]

How did you get into this business?

 

[Complete Turf Care]

How did you get into this business?

I grew up on a rice and soybean farm. After college I did research at LSU then worked for a large farm supply company. About 22 years ago I went on my own doing lawn care and landscaping. As time passed, I was doing more athletic field work and enjoyed it more than lawn care and landscaping.
Eventually I sold off those parts of my business to my daughter and son in law.
For a few years, I was also dealer, selling some of the equipment I use.
Now, I only do the athletic field work and I’m happy.
When I graduated college, I really wanted to farm rice. That didn’t work out, and now this is my version of farming.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

There is a lot going on in this video. We got started laying sod on this field. We got 60 rolls done and have only 240 more to do.
There was a paving contractor removing the old track to prepare for a new one.
There was also another contractor removing the old goal post bases.
I also had to do a little dressing with my blade.

 

[Sportsman762]

Went work on some infields today. These fields are about 210 miles from my shop. And I have to go through Baton Rouge and New Orleans to get there. About 4 hours each way if the traffic is good.

First I mowed it down to the dirt.
View attachment 1906559

What brand is the mower? Progressive? What is the advantage of a roller style finish mower? I would think the front roller would push the grass down inhibiting a good cut.

That field looks entirely neglected.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

What brand is the mower? Progressive? What is the advantage of a roller style finish mower? I would think the front roller would push the grass down inhibiting a good cut.

That field looks entirely neglected.

The mower is a Trimax, which is similar to Progressive. The rollers allow the blades to follow the contours of the surface a little better. Although it does push the grass down a little, we use 'high lift' blades which will lift the grass for a better cut. The rollers also do a better job of striping the grass, which many people like to see.

 

[EddieWalker]

The fun thing about your posts is seeing things that I never knew existed. Round rolls of sod is one of those things. I've only seen pallets that are cut into 2x4 pieces and stacked on top of each other. It makes sense to have them as big as possible, I just never thought about it before.

 

[namsag]

The mower is a Trimax, which is similar to Progressive. The rollers allow the blades to follow the contours of the surface a little better. Although it does push the grass down a little, we use 'high lift' blades which will lift the grass for a better cut. The rollers also do a better job of striping the grass, which many people like to see.

Holy cow man that is quite an operation you got there. A lot of my old stomping grounds. Hello from north Mississippi, from an old Jennings boy!

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I've been trying to post pictures of this sod installation we finished a few days ago, but I could not get the pics to upload, so here is a youtube video of it. You can see the roller behind the Mule in the very beginning of the video. We used it to roll over the field several times to smooth any small bumps and the get the sod into good contact with the sand. There are a couple of areas we left out for another contractor to install the goal posts. We will finish those areas soon.

This video was taken a day after we finished laying the sod. It started raining just as we were finishing up and quit just before this video was taken. It rained about 1.5".

The video seems to be a lot clearer if you click 'watch on youtube'

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Starting off the new year laser grading another infield.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Finally got to do some field work today. We are removing grass from the skinned area to prepare for baseball season which starts in about a week. We did this on 2 softball and 1 baseball fields today

 

[EddieWalker]

I guess the treads from the tractor tires disappear after it's all compacted. Do you ever use slick tires?

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I guess the treads from the tractor tires disappear after it's all compacted. Do you ever use slick tires?

We will be back on these fields with another piece of equipment that will smooth it all out. This was just to remove the existing grass so that we can work it up and then smooth it out. It was just too wet for us to do anything more.

If the coaches had kept the grass off during the off season, none of this would be necessary. And it is a nice bit of work for me...

 

[EddieWalker]

Do you have some fields that you work on every year?

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Do you have some fields that you work on every year?

I don't have any fields that are on a contract for work every year, but, yes we do work on many fields every year.

In fact, 2 of the fields we did yesterday had major work done on them last year. If someone had maintained them during the off season, they would have been fine and not needed any work now.

I probably should approach the school board to offer more regular maintenance on some of these fields that no one takes care of.

 

[Lastkidpicked]

I guess the treads from the tractor tires disappear after it's all compacted. Do you ever use slick tires?

I like watching the golf course tractors with the wide slicks. Makes any tractor look cool!

I probably should approach the school board to offer more regular maintenance on some of these fields that no one takes care of

I respect the way you think. It could be a win-win for everyone.

 

[EddieWalker]

Those tires look cool. Probably worthless in most cases, but there is something that I like about the way they look.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

We were back on some of the fields we removed the grass from last week. I wish I had gotten a pic when I was done. All we have left to do on this field is install new bases.