Travels with Terry

Portable Sprinkler
Brad Twidwell has the distinction of being the general manager and superintendent at the Cape Girardeau (Mo.) Country Club. He designed and his staff built this unique portable sprinkler that has been used during recent drought conditions. An old 1989 Toro GM 3000 triplex greens mower frame was recycled and used as the base, where a 1970’s vintage Toro model 405 full-circle brass sprinkler head was attached to the frame where the steel reducer portion was welded to it. A 1-inch galvanized coupling is connected to the sprinkler head and to a 1-inch-diameter 90-degree elbow that has a male slip connection where the 1-inch-diameter hose is attached with hose clamps. Each 1-inch-diameter hose is 100 feet long that is attached to a quick coupler valve. It will not tip over and it covers approximately a 100-foot-diameter circle. It took about 45 minutes to assemble mostly from used parts and spray paint cans already in stock and extra irrigation parts cost about $20.

The Bazooka
Rob Foster, director of golf and park maintenance, at the Lake Bluff (Ill.) Park District, likes to be prepared well in advance for the annual blowing-out of the irrigation system at the Lake Bluff Golf Club. “The Bazooka” is an adapter for hooking-up two air compressors simultaneously to the pump station’s 12-inch-diameter discharge pipe that is “ready to go” every fall. It was designed and built by Foster and his staff. “The Bazooka” is made mostly of 2-inch-diameter galvanized pipes, with multiple shut-off valves, hook-ups for a 2-inch and two ¾-inch diameter hoses from the 210 and 375 CFM air compressors, respectively, set at about 550 total CFM, where the regulator is set at 55 PSI. The irrigation system is blown-out two complete times and it takes about 11⁄2 days to do a really good job. It took about two hours to assemble the parts that cost about $500 and it is stored in the pump house.