Episode 158: Jake Teeter

Today we’re talking with Jake Teeter, Equipment Manager at Winding Creek Golf Club in Thomasville, North Carolina. Winding Creek is an 18-hole municipal course, and Jake is the lone technician keeping the operation rolling. After starting his career in automotive repair, Jake found his way into the turf industry, where he’s spent the last 15 years learning the ins and outs of golf course equipment and adapting to the unique challenges that come with a one-tech shop.

Jake was recently named the TETAC Turf Tech of the Year, and he shares how continual learning, learning from mentors, and staying curious have shaped his approach to the job. We talk about what’s changed at Winding Creek over the years, what it takes to keep aging equipment reliable, and the realities of wearing every hat in the shop.

Looking ahead, Jake reflects on what’s next, including his excitement about traveling in retirement with his wife and visiting his daughter as she serves and explores the world in the U.S. Navy. Settle in for honest conversation about pride in your work, building a long career, and enjoying the road ahead.

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Transcript

Trent Manning 0:56

Welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we'll learn tips and tricks. I'm your host, Trent. Manning let's have some Welcome to the Real Turf Tech Podcast, episode 1 58. Today we're talking with Jake Teeter, equipment Manager at Winding Creek Golf Club in Thomasville, North Carolina. Winding Creek is an 18 hole municipal golf course. Jake's the Lone Tech and the shop. He also does quite a bit of work on the course. Let's talk to Jake. Welcome, Jake to the Real Turf Text podcast. Thanks for coming on.

Jake Teeter 1:43

Hey, thanks for having me, Trent. This sounds like it's gonna be fun.

Trent Manning 1:46

It will, it'll be, it'll be a good time. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Jake Teeter 1:51

I got real lucky. A friend of mine had switched from the water department at the city to the golf course, and the mechanic was about to retire, and he told me about the job and I'd done well in the automotive repair business, but it was time to take a step back and I got lucky and got hired.

Trent Manning 2:12

Okay awesome. That's a, a cool short story. What, tell me your background on mechanic, and you said work on cars, but you work at a dealership or just

Jake Teeter 2:23

No, I did not want to work at a dealership, work on the same thing every day, every day, every day. So I started out it's been about, I don't know, 82, 83, I guess. I started out working in the independent repair shop

Trent Manning 2:38

Okay.

Jake Teeter 2:39

and just went through the. School of hard knocks trying to learn as much as I could from a good mechanic who worked there.

Trent Manning 2:45

I got you. Yeah, I, I understand school of hard knocks. That's the way, that's the way a lot of us end up learning things for sure. So it was just a local mom and pop type place in your hometown or,

Jake Teeter 2:58

It was in Austin, Texas with my first job as a mechanic.

Trent Manning 3:02

okay.

Jake Teeter 3:04

And then and then I kept educating, getting, taking classes on computers and learning more about that stuff.'cause that's where the money's at is diagnosing. And and I just hung with it and got better and better and better every year. So

Trent Manning 3:19

cool. How'd you get to North Carolina from

Jake Teeter 3:22

threw a dart, we threw a dart.

Trent Manning 3:25

so this is where we want to be.

Jake Teeter 3:27

No, my wife's dad raised his family in New England and he worked for IBM and he worked all over the place. So he was retiring and was gonna settle in somewhere around North Carolina. He didn't know exactly where, and we thought, Hey, this sounds like a fresh start. We get to spend some time with your dad. Once in a while, I, I was tired of the Texas heat, but I didn't want to go above that rust belt. Working on a car. So

Trent Manning 3:57

right.

Jake Teeter 3:58

we settled on, he's heated up in Salisbury and ended up in Thomasville, which is about 30 minutes apart.

Trent Manning 4:03

Okay. That's awesome. Yeah, I don't, I love it up there where you and Justin are the kinda western North Carolina that's, yeah.

Jake Teeter 4:11

we're right in the middle of the mountains and the beach.

Trent Manning 4:14

It's it's a, a pretty nice place to be for sure. What's what's your least favorite part of the job? Working at a golf course.

Jake Teeter 4:25

Besides sand,

Trent Manning 4:26

Yeah. Yeah. Besides sand.

Jake Teeter 4:29

it is probably sand. I, I know it's a necessary evil, but it's gotta be done. And on the one man crew grinding reels, it's tough. So we gotta spend our, our our what am I thinking of here? Our, can't think of the word. We gotta spend our stuff wisely so that we don't wear our bed knives out all the time and have to replace'em all the time. So.

Trent Manning 4:56

Yeah. What do y'all do to help minimize that? Do y'all. Raise the height up or take off for a couple days after a top dress.

Jake Teeter 5:05

No, it's right back to the grind. Usually we will, when, when the blades are about worn out, is when we top dress,

Trent Manning 5:11

Okay?

Jake Teeter 5:12

know when it's coming and they're already pretty dull, so we'll just put up with it for a week, and it's usually pretty well. Buried back in by the end, and I'll have a fresh set of reels ready to go. I've got Jacobson, GK four mowers. We, we've got extra groomers, we got extra mo mowing units, we got extra brushes, we got all kinds of heads for'em. So I can always have set, I can always have a set ready to go

Trent Manning 5:36

Right, right. That's nice. And not only are you the mechanic there, but you also mow greens too, don't you, in the mornings or something.

Jake Teeter 5:45

Yeah, I get lucky I get to mow greens every morning and listen to podcasts

Trent Manning 5:49

Okay. Yeah.

Jake Teeter 5:50

for that.

Trent Manning 5:52

Okay. That's, yeah. That's a little different from some places, but I, I mean, I've run across a bunch of people that maybe they go out and mow the driving range tee or something like that. Or I wanna say even at Oakmont the two mechanics working in the shop, they were going out and mowing fairways

Jake Teeter 6:15

Whatever needs to be done. Yeah. When, when I was hired, excuse me, I got a little cough here. Alan wanted the mechanic to be able to do everything on the course, and in return he would. Everybody to help me out, especially during the winter time when it's time for servicing.

Trent Manning 6:34

Okay. Yeah,

Jake Teeter 6:36

Anyway, so yeah, I'm on fairways. I'm all rough, I'm all whatever.

Trent Manning 6:42

Okay.

Jake Teeter 6:42

I, I do. Except for irrigation. He doesn't make me do irrigation.

Trent Manning 6:45

That's good. Lucky you.

Jake Teeter 6:46

Yeah.

Trent Manning 6:47

Yeah, that's the, the worst part for sure.

Jake Teeter 6:50

Yeah.

Trent Manning 6:52

I remember I had the guy working for me and he was, I mean, mid forties or whatever. He was a couple years older than me at the time, and he, he said, why, why? We have such a hard time keeping an irrigation guy around? And I said just think about before you go work on anything, go dig a hole. You know, like before we could, you know, work on this mower, go dig a hole. And he's like, yeah, that's, that's not a whole lot of fun. Is it?

Jake Teeter 7:18

No, it is

Trent Manning 7:19

Yeah, always in the mud and yeah, not fun. What's your favorite tool?

Jake Teeter 7:27

These cordless tools that are coming out are awesome. I love them, but my trusty favorite tool is my good old pocket magnet.

Trent Manning 7:36

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Jake Teeter 7:38

This guy has saved my butt. Who knows how many times you're out there in the middle of a fairway working on a leak or, and you drop something and you're in grass and

Trent Manning 7:47

Hmm.

Jake Teeter 7:48

you can hear it go click

Trent Manning 7:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah.

Jake Teeter 7:51

or just work in the shop and you drop something. You don't have to stop, go grab a magnet or, or go find a flashlight. You can just trace your, trace your path down there, and you can usually find it within just in a minute or so.

Trent Manning 8:05

Yeah. Na.

Jake Teeter 8:05

favorite tool.

Trent Manning 8:07

That's definitely a good one. Yeah, I got a, a magnet similar to that hanging on my toolbox. I know right where it is. Yeah,

Jake Teeter 8:15

three or four of'em around. I got three or four of'em around the shop.

Trent Manning 8:18

Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot, lot to be said for a magnet.'cause Yeah. You drop something and Yeah. A lot of times you can't even see where it went, but you stick the magnet down there and like you're saying, you hear it clicked. There it is. It's good stuff. What do you do to relax or find your balance?

Jake Teeter 8:38

kinda like right now, a bourbon and a cigar is really good just about any time.

Trent Manning 8:44

Yep, yep, that's true.

Jake Teeter 8:45

but my wife and I like to, on the weekend mornings when we get up, we like to play a couple of games of cards, have a beer split a beer between us.

Trent Manning 8:55

Okay.

Jake Teeter 8:56

And and you know, that just really, that's really nice.

Trent Manning 8:59

Huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Any certain card game you like playing or

Jake Teeter 9:04

we play all kinds of games. We play a couple of versions of golf. We play cribbage,

Trent Manning 9:10

Huh

Jake Teeter 9:10

spades.

Trent Manning 9:11

Okay.

Jake Teeter 9:12

we like card games.

Trent Manning 9:14

All right. That's good. Good stuff. You'd fit right in with some of the members at the club that they come Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and they play cards. I don't even know if they play. No, I'm kidding. They play golf and when the weather's nice, but when the weather's not nice, they're playing cards. What's been one of your biggest challenges to date?

Jake Teeter 9:38

Trying to stay organized in the shop and trying to manage my time better is probably my two worst things.

Trent Manning 9:44

Yeah. What's the biggest struggle with that?

Jake Teeter 9:48

Trying to keep the shop straightened and cleaned, and it's half my own fault for not doing that, and it's half my boss's fault for not doing that, and it's half the crew's fault for not doing that. It's like every time I turn around there's, you know, there's three things in the back of a cart that somebody left or, or I just get the bench cleaned off and somebody's start a little project and, and using the bench, and then there it is all cluttered again. I wanna just throw all that crap in the ground.

Trent Manning 10:14

Yep.

Jake Teeter 10:14

But,

Trent Manning 10:16

Yeah, it's it's tough keeping things organized because yeah, if there's a flat surface, people want to set stuff down on it.

Jake Teeter 10:25

yeah, they do.

Trent Manning 10:26

No, no matter what it is I got a 48 inch fan that's set up kind of in the middle of the shop or kind of towards one end of the shop. And you know, for airflow in the summertime and all that kind of stuff, and every time you look over there, there's another cup. You know, I don't know. It's, it's like, it's growing cups. Uh, the

Jake Teeter 10:48

Oh yeah.

Trent Manning 10:49

but every time

Jake Teeter 10:51

Yeah, in the summertime, every time a cart comes in from somebody out doing something, there's a a drink cup or a coffee cup or wrappers from a snow cone or whatever.

Trent Manning 11:00

Yep. Always, always something for sure. What's one of the, the strangest things you've seen at, at work?

Jake Teeter 11:11

I've gotta throw myself under the bus on this one. I, I did a really well for a long time here. I've been here 15 years, and in the last year I've driven into a bunker, a green mower, into a bunker. Just misjudged my turn

Trent Manning 11:26

Yeah.

Jake Teeter 11:26

of a sudden I'm like, oh, no, no. man, I jumped scar, scratched my legs all up. But that was embarrassing. And then another thing that I did was

Trent Manning 11:37

hang on. Did, did you have to go pull yourself out?

Jake Teeter 11:41

now we actually were able to push it farther into the

Trent Manning 11:45

Okay. All right.

Jake Teeter 11:46

then just driving on out. We didn't, didn't hurt anything. Got lucky, didn't pop a hose, didn't do anything silly,

Trent Manning 11:50

Okay. That's good. That's good.

Jake Teeter 11:52

Yeah. And then the other thing I did was I was in the middle of grinding reels and I thought I was finished. I'd had one, one mower set, all the, everything was on there. It was ready to go. I took it out and test mowed. It was fine. took the second mower out to check it, and it was not long after effication, so there was still sand on on the nursery and it, when I turned the reels on, it was throwing sand everywhere. I'm like, what in the heck is what? Have I adjusted these things wrong? Did I forget to adjust'em? What? So I stopped it, got underneath and looked, and I hadn't put the bed bars on yet.

Trent Manning 12:26

Oh dang.

Jake Teeter 12:27

So I had reels on with no bed.

Trent Manning 12:30

Oh wow. Dang. That's crazy.

Jake Teeter 12:33

Oh. I was like, I cannot believe I just did this.

Trent Manning 12:36

Yeah. Yeah. That is nuts. Yeah, I don't know that I've had that happen before. That's a, that's a good one. That's really, really good. Do you have a, a mentor or anybody in the industry

Jake Teeter 12:50

Yeah, my boss has done a lot for me over the years. And Bill Ledford, you, you

Trent Manning 12:55

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jake Teeter 12:57

He lives about an hour from here in, in King. And he, he brought me a long ways, the first, my first year in when he could to help me and help me diagnose stuff. And just the kind of guy he is, just, just makes you wanna be more like him. Just, he's a, he's the, a great guy. I learned a lot from him.

Trent Manning 13:16

Yeah, he's definitely one of a kind, for sure. Yeah. Have you worked at that same course the whole time?

Jake Teeter 13:24

Yeah, I've been here at Winding Creek Golf Course for 15 years.

Trent Manning 13:27

Okay. Awesome. So that's the only golf course you've worked at? Yeah.

Jake Teeter 13:32

Yep.

Trent Manning 13:33

Okay. That's cool. You, you must like it there.

Jake Teeter 13:36

I do. I hope to retire in April, but yeah, I love it here.

Trent Manning 13:41

oh that's awesome. I didn't know you were I mean, don't take this the wrong way. I could tell by looking that you were probably getting close, but I had no idea.

Jake Teeter 13:50

I turned 65 in August and gonna get an assistant a. Come April and I told, unless we find a good mechanic between nine then that I would stay on until his assistant came into place and so he'd still have a full crew.

Trent Manning 14:07

Okay.

Jake Teeter 14:07

had, we've had guys leave over the years in the middle of summer and the way the city works, they won't hire anybody else until that person actually quits. Then you gotta go through a, a week or two or three hiring process before you can refill that position. You know? That's how it was when I started. Yeah.

Trent Manning 14:24

No, that's awesome though. I'm glad you're gonna hang around there and, and help him out. What's some of the things that you've learned from Alan?

Jake Teeter 14:33

From Alan,

Trent Manning 14:34

No, what, what'd you say his name was? I'm sorry, I'm messing this. No, not Bill Efford, but your superintendent

Jake Teeter 14:41

Alan. Yeah. Alan

Trent Manning 14:42

Allen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's some of the things you've learned, learned from him working on a golf course?

Jake Teeter 14:48

Sometimes he'll jump on me in, in frustration and, and we will hash it out, and I've learned, keep an even keel through that. Sometimes he'll let me learn on my own. He, he might know that the answer is, but he, he, he wants me to figure it out on my own. Just like, another thing, parking break. The parking break on golf carts, easy goes.

Trent Manning 15:11

Yeah.

Jake Teeter 15:12

All the carts were three to three and a half years old, and all the brakes were starting to get loose and they wouldn't, they wouldn't lock. And so I would

Trent Manning 15:20

right. Right, right.

Jake Teeter 15:22

I'd, I'd adjust the brakes at the, at the drum, and it would get marginally better. And he made me, it took me about a week to finally realize there's an adjustment in the cable underneath the, I never realized how easy that was, so I, I was out. Driving down the course. Hey, did you brake work? No, it doesn't work. All right. I just sliding under it and tighten up those two nuts. Just the cable up and,

Trent Manning 15:47

Yep.

Jake Teeter 15:48

and so he's taught me a, a lot.

Trent Manning 15:51

Okay. That's awesome.

Jake Teeter 15:52

did. He didn't teach me how to, how to fix it, but he made me learn how to do it on my own, which, which, you know, makes you, gives you a good feeling about yourself.

Trent Manning 16:00

Oh yeah, for sure. And. I mean, I do, I think that we, at least I'll speak for myself, I'll learn better that way if I just jump in there and start figuring it out.'cause if somebody shows me how to do something, you know, I may or may not remember it. But if I get in there and I'm doing it on my own, then I'm gonna remember

Jake Teeter 16:23

Yeah, exactly.

Trent Manning 16:25

Yeah. How how it works.

Jake Teeter 16:27

we had two. Five 70 Fairway mowers, jacobson's. And one of'em from day one that we got, it had an electrical issue. We thought it might have been a fuel issue. And it turned out it wasn't relay, a bad relay that was main relay was shutting down. But I, I, after about three months of trying to figure this out, I, I stopped and I went to the book and I went to the winery Ram and I went to everything and I was like, what could possibly be causing this particular issue? And after an hour or two laying there studying the, the books and the wiring diagrams, I'm like, let's try the made relay. I went, tapped on it, fixed it for a day or two, and then it started acting up again. So I'm like, all right, we know what the problem is now. So gotta stay persistent.

Trent Manning 17:13

Yeah, it's I mean, it is tough sometimes the, you know, especially intermittent electrical problems.

Jake Teeter 17:20

Yeah.

Trent Manning 17:21

It be so frustrating because if it doesn't stay broke, it's really hard to, to troubleshoot and figure out Yeah. What it is. But you're talking about tapping on it and it makes me think of the wiggle test, you know, and electrical problems, you know, you start wiggling wires around and so yeah, see, see where the problem is because who knows? Especially in a, in a wire loom and, you know, you can't see what's happening and, and all those things. Just go ahead.

Jake Teeter 17:54

they don't have, they don't have much suspension, so they ride pretty rough and they're pretty hard on connections and wiring harnesses.

Trent Manning 18:03

When I was doing the electrical class at Ttac this year where you were at, I saw you up there. I kind of run out of time and didn't get to really get into it, but I had a John Deere fairway mower, 7,500, and the wire loom was zip tied to the frame, and it was pulled so tight that, and this mower was what, four years old, I think at the time that the problem happened. The wire loom had actually dug into the wire and broke the wire into,

Jake Teeter 18:44

Wow.

Trent Manning 18:44

you know, I mean, it took four years for that to happen. but it, it finally did. And, but it was, it started like most electrical stuff, it was intermittent. So the guy would be out mowing and the machine would just turn off, just like you turn the key switch off

Jake Teeter 19:02

Yeah.

Trent Manning 19:03

and then it would start back up. Then you might mow for a while and it'll happen again. So finally it dies on the course. We can't get it to start back up. So we're out there, of course, you know, sweating to death, trying to figure out what's wrong with it. And I finally isolated. I knew that we wouldn't get in power from the fuse to the key switch, so I just run a jumper wire so I could get it back to the shop. And then we started taking the wire loo apart and yeah, found that problem. So like, this is crazy. And who knows how many other fairway mowers will end up having that same thing because you know, the zip tie was on there from the factory.

Jake Teeter 19:46

Yep.

Trent Manning 19:47

You

Jake Teeter 19:47

Yeah. Ledford and I, Ledford and I had a, one of the five sevens, we bought'em used with like a hundred hours or 200 hours on them. And one of'em, after just a couple of months started leaking fluid around where the two pumps pulled together. So he came by and we looked and looked and we took everything apart and the looked fine. We put it back together and didn't leak for another week, and then it started leaking again. So we got an O-ring for it, put a new O-ring in. It started back up. It leaked right off the bat. So he's on the phone with, with Jake and they send us two new pumps. So we put two new pumps on there, used all the original, everything else that was on the mower, still put it together, fired it up, and started leaking right away immediately.

Trent Manning 20:32

Hmm.

Jake Teeter 20:33

And Ledford was on the phone with Jake ing and hollering, and I never heard him talk like that. And I, I was thinking, here I am, back to my thought mode. What could possibly have these two things have the same thing? There's the two bolts that bolted to the, in the back of the engine. Or possibly, you know, too long. So I took one of the bolts out and sure enough the end of the bolt was shiny. Somebody had put too long a bolt in and it wasn't tightening down all the way.

Trent Manning 21:03

Oh.

Jake Teeter 21:04

we put, we put two shorter bolts in, tightened everything down. No more problems.

Trent Manning 21:09

Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, sometimes it's just that simple too. I don't, I've always been, you know, I mean the whole time I've been doing this and turning wrenches, if I take a bolt out, I want to put that same bolt back in and, I mean, try to keep up with all of it. But I've seen other, you know, mechanics that, you know, they just. Kinda willy-nilly and, oh, I, I lost all this hardware. I'll just put in whatever hardware and I mean, just like your story there, that can cause you a whole lot of trouble.

Jake Teeter 21:46

Yeah, there's I don't know if you remember the old Mustangs you ever worked on, any old six cylinder mustangs. If you put the two of the, if you mix up two of the water pump bolts, one's a little longer than the rest of them, and it goes in a certain spot if you put it at where it lines up with the front cylinder. It'll push a hole to the front cylinder.

Trent Manning 22:07

Oh really? Wow,

Jake Teeter 22:09

friend of mine learned the hard way on that one.

Trent Manning 22:12

man. That's crazy. Yeah, no, that's pretty nuts. Yeah, and that, I mean, that's the other thing. It's got me thinking about it when you disassemble something and you get ready to put it back on, so say, yeah, you're putting the water pump back on and you got some different length bolts. What I'll do, so say you got seven bolts. Put all seven bolts, just push'em in until they stop and see if you have about the same amount sticking out on all of them.

Jake Teeter 22:40

Right.

Trent Manning 22:41

if one's sticking out further than the other it's probably not in the right spot, you know, or one, you know, probably not.

Jake Teeter 22:48

Or look at all seven of'em and and see if they're all the same length. If one of'em is longer, this has gotta go. Yeah.

Trent Manning 22:56

Yeah. You gotta, you gotta find out where it goes and yeah, usually you can tell by the housing and that kind of stuff, but I've just seen people, you know, they just get in too big a hurry and. I don't know why, because you know, a lot of us get paid by the hour at the golf course, but everybody's always in a hurry. For, for whatever reason it is, Stay ahead of the game with Task Tracker, the leading golf course maintenance software in the industry from real time updates to efficient resource management. Task Tracker streamlines your operation and supports a sustainable course strategy. Empower your team with the tools they need to succeed. Visit club essentials.com today. Let's get back to the episode. what would be your dream job?

Jake Teeter 23:45

Oh, I'm in it.

Trent Manning 23:46

You're in it, you're in your dream job. Okay. That's awesome.

Jake Teeter 23:50

I got into it as a retirement job so that I could retire with some kind of a pension after and after 15 years, you know, I've got a little pension

Trent Manning 23:56

Okay. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Super cool.

Jake Teeter 23:59

you know, Alan's a great guy to work for. We've seen him, we've had our differences over the years, but he's a great guy to work for the crew. It's been several years since, since we've had that guy.

Trent Manning 24:12

Oh, nice.

Jake Teeter 24:13

Yeah. So.

Trent Manning 24:14

Yeah. That's really good too.

Jake Teeter 24:16

We've been really lucky with the crew. They're all, they, they're not afraid of work, Not a bunch of slackers. Some of'em like their cell phones too much, but

Trent Manning 24:24

Yeah.

Jake Teeter 24:25

around

Trent Manning 24:27

That happens a good bit. Yeah, I don't, it's, it's hard to find a, a good crew. So yeah, consider yourself lucky, for sure.

Jake Teeter 24:35

I.

Trent Manning 24:35

Yeah. What technician would you like to work with for a day? And don't say Chad Kinzer.

Jake Teeter 24:41

Why not

Trent Manning 24:42

No, not Chad. I'm kidding. Matt. I don't, yeah. Speaking of Chad, did you go work. When he had his tournament or are you going This coming year?

Jake Teeter 24:52

I think it's he's, he keeps reminding me. I told him I'd come down for two weeks in May.

Trent Manning 24:56

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You're gonna be retired, so Yeah. You won't have any excuse. You can

Jake Teeter 25:01

I'll be retired unless my wife are out traveling somewhere.

Trent Manning 25:04

I got you. You got any big traveling plans that you're thinking about?

Jake Teeter 25:10

Yeah, one big one is my daughter is in the Navy and she's stationed in Jakarta, Indonesia right now,

Trent Manning 25:15

Oh wow.

Jake Teeter 25:17

which is halfway around the world. And so we're either gonna meet her and she's working for the embassy and she's set up in this beautiful, huge apartment that's holding up big enough for six people. So whether you're gonna go visit her there or we're gonna meet her in France or Belgium.

Trent Manning 25:37

That would be so cool.

Jake Teeter 25:38

There's a lot of breweries in Belgium I'd love to visit,

Trent Manning 25:41

There you go.

Jake Teeter 25:43

but yeah, we're gonna, so hopefully sometime in May or June we get to go visit with her.

Trent Manning 25:47

Okay. Very cool. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Do you, you have a technician other than Chad you'd like to work with for a day?

Jake Teeter 25:56

I guess Justin.

Trent Manning 25:57

Okay. Yeah. He's right down the road from you, right?

Jake Teeter 26:00

He is man. He has got his pick and span shop.

Trent Manning 26:03

Oh yeah.

Jake Teeter 26:05

I mean, I know it's new, but it's still, it's pick and span. But the other thing about Justin is he's teaching a class at a local community college on small engine repair. And the room that he inherited for this is a shop. It's got a lift, it's got, they got mowers, they got parts, and it was a complete disaster. And in two weeks he turned that thing around into what almost looks like his shop.

Trent Manning 26:28

Really? That's so cool.

Jake Teeter 26:30

That is cool. He's such a.

Trent Manning 26:32

awesome.

Jake Teeter 26:33

Such a great guy.

Trent Manning 26:34

Yeah. No, he is, he's a really good one. Yeah, he talked to me when we were up there in the Carolinas about maybe coming up in the spring or something and talking to the class one day.

Jake Teeter 26:45

Oh yeah.

Trent Manning 26:46

yeah, so I'm excited about that. That would be be a lot of fun. Hope that works out.

Jake Teeter 26:52

I hope so too. I got to jump into his class last week.

Trent Manning 26:56

Okay.

Jake Teeter 26:57

I surprised him. One of the kids that works with me full time. He was actually taking his, the turf management class at, at the community college

Trent Manning 27:05

Oh, okay.

Jake Teeter 27:06

he's actually in Justin's class right now. So he told me, he told me I how to get there and I got me snuck into the room.

Trent Manning 27:13

Very

Jake Teeter 27:13

Justin was like, what are you doing here?

Trent Manning 27:16

That's funny. Yep. Yeah. Now it's really, I mean, I'm. Happy that Justin's doing that. You know, I mean there's, it's so hard finding other people to get in the industry and where do you learn and you know,'cause if you don't come from an automotive background or, you know, I mean, whatever it is. Um, and I mean, even if you did, I mean just like you come from an automotive background, but how much did it help the superintendent and. Lead buddy and everybody else that helped you out along the way while you're learning reels and all those things, that's a pretty big learning curve, so it's great that Justin's doing that.

Jake Teeter 28:01

Yeah, it is.

Trent Manning 28:02

If you had that person on your crew, how would you deal with that person?

Jake Teeter 28:07

I've had that person on my crew and I give'em a few chances before I just completely pretty much I'll start to just ignore'em. I just, I'm just fed up with it, tired of it. I've talked to you nicely before I try to be firm about it, and at this point. You don't seem to care, so you don't, you don't have my attention anymore and I just stay away from'em.

Trent Manning 28:29

Yeah. I mean, you got gotta look out for you too.

Jake Teeter 28:33

Yeah. Yeah. I don't wanna drive, I don't wanna give myself a heart attack yelling about something that,

Trent Manning 28:38

right. Yeah, yeah,

Jake Teeter 28:40

yeah. So,

Trent Manning 28:42

Not very true. Get ready for tips and tricks What kinda tips and tricks you wanna share with us?

Jake Teeter 28:50

All right, let's, let's preface this. I Greens mower, and I was taught this way at the course I'm at, is to line up, it's easiest to line up on the right hand side of the greens mower and the flag on the way by.

Trent Manning 29:04

Okay.

Jake Teeter 29:05

Pull it out, make your turn, put it back in the ground on the other way.

Trent Manning 29:10

Okay.

Jake Teeter 29:10

I wasn't, I wasn't taught to stop and pull the flag and then go mow it and then go put it back.

Trent Manning 29:15

Mm-hmm.

Jake Teeter 29:16

But in the mornings, early in the mornings when it's dark, it's difficult to see that hole to put that flag back in. So I mounted a, a, a brake light or a turn signal, no a license plate light, And just wired in with the headlight mounted it where I could see the hole. Behind that front tire and I could, it makes it easy to put that flag back in.

Trent Manning 29:35

Ah, okay.

Jake Teeter 29:36

fix. Simple fix.

Trent Manning 29:38

Yeah. Yeah.

Jake Teeter 29:39

And then another one I guess is the, because we're not a country club, we buy the little red, white, blue and gold balls for T markers

Trent Manning 29:49

Mm-hmm.

Jake Teeter 29:50

plastic with the stick. You know, a little peg on'em. And after a couple of seasons they tarnish, they get faded. And I mounted one in a drill press one day and took some scotch right to it and clear coded it and it looked brand new.

Trent Manning 30:03

Oh yeah. That's cool.

Jake Teeter 30:06

Yeah. So instead of having to buy'em on, now when the guys hit'em with the rough mowers, sometimes we have to replace'em.

Trent Manning 30:11

Right.

Jake Teeter 30:13

Or the golfers have a few beers and they throw'em in the pond or Whatever. You know, we have to replace'em. But for the most part, we, we get a lot longer life outta'em that way.

Trent Manning 30:22

No, that's super cool. Yeah. Yeah. I like that one. That's a good one. Yeah. And I don't know if we can retell this story, if I can remember it. If you remember it. I wanna say it was the first year at Ttac the, my first year coming up there to the beach at Myrtle Beach. And I remember we were sitting at the table with Mike Rollins and I'm pretty sure Chad was there and why can't I think of his name? Um,

Jake Teeter 30:54

Joe,

Trent Manning 30:55

yeah, Joe was there, but the guy I'm thinking of from Long Boat Key,

Jake Teeter 31:01

I don't think I was at the very first one you guys did. I think I

Trent Manning 31:05

No, I know, I know you were there though, because you're the, the punchline of the story because they're talking about mowing greens or something. Yeah. And you, you said, oh yeah, I just drive right up and pull the flag out. Everybody's like, no, no, no. You can't be doing that.

Jake Teeter 31:24

Yeah. Right.

Trent Manning 31:26

No, that was it was so funny, we laughed. It's driving me crazy. I can't remember his name. I'm gonna have to look it up. But yeah, we laughed so hard at that because I mean, that's the way Yeah. I was taught is I was like a big no no, for sure. Um.

Jake Teeter 31:45

We had one guy and he still with us. He an older guy. Sometimes he mows green, sometimes he doesn't, and he is left-handed, so he likes to go by the left side instead of the right side, which is where the hoses are. And

Trent Manning 32:00

Oh, okay. Yep.

Jake Teeter 32:01

he keeps, he can't stripe a straight line. He can't, he's gotta get off the mower, go pick up the flagstick, and then he'll drag it back to the mower. Trying to make a straight line to give himself a guide to like,

Trent Manning 32:16

funny.

Jake Teeter 32:17

dude.

Trent Manning 32:18

That's pretty funny. Dang it, I had his name and then I done forgot this. Hell getting old man.

Jake Teeter 32:24

Oh, it is

Trent Manning 32:25

Yeah. John Riley. John Riley. Long Boat Key.

Jake Teeter 32:28

okay.

Trent Manning 32:29

Awesome guy, but I, I don't think I've seen him at Ttac since he's superintendent. Anyway. Yeah. Good dude. But that was just so funny all sitting there talking and like, oh, I just drive up and pull it out. It was like perfect timing. Good stuff. Let's talk about something that's very special. You just happened to win. What, what do they call it? What does Ttac call it? The most valuable technician, turf Tech of the year. That's it. I couldn't remember the official title there, but yeah. Turf Tech of the Year.

Jake Teeter 33:05

The Bill Ledford award.

Trent Manning 33:07

the Bill Letford award? Yes.

Jake Teeter 33:09

Yeah, bill got that. I think his last year or next to last year, he was awarded that. It was a Rex Floyd, I think before that.

Trent Manning 33:18

Okay.

Jake Teeter 33:19

And, and when Bill put 30 years in with, with TSP

Trent Manning 33:23

Mm-hmm.

Jake Teeter 33:23

and hung up his shoes, they renamed it and they sponsored every year so they can call it whatever they want to.

Trent Manning 33:28

Right, right. That's true. Yep.

Jake Teeter 33:31

Yeah, that's a special,

Trent Manning 33:34

that was

Jake Teeter 33:35

it was special, you know, it was,

Trent Manning 33:36

No, I

Jake Teeter 33:37

cried my eyes out. For

Trent Manning 33:38

I know, man. It was so cool. It was awesome. No, and I mean, I'm really happy for you, but yeah, tell. Tell the listeners what was it like about, or, I mean, what's even the nomination process.

Jake Teeter 33:52

the superintendents will have to nominate their mechanics. And write up a little, do a little write up on why they deserve the award. What extra what above and beyond do they do?

Trent Manning 34:01

Yeah. Yeah.

Jake Teeter 34:03

So Alan wrote up a nice little thing for me and submitted it. And he didn't even know until like either the day ever, the day before, whether I had, whether they had voted me in or not.

Trent Manning 34:12

Really. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Did he come over when you got the

Jake Teeter 34:16

he was hiding it. He was hiding in the back of the room.

Trent Manning 34:18

That's what I'd heard that he was gonna be over there hiding out, but That's awesome. That's so cool.

Jake Teeter 34:24

Yeah, I was in Florida. I'm like, what? Are you kidding me?

Trent Manning 34:28

Right, right, right. Yep. You didn't expect it. They've done a good job keeping, keeping it a secret.

Jake Teeter 34:33

they did.

Trent Manning 34:34

No that's super cool. That's so awesome. Very well deserved. And I mean, it's even better Yeah. That you're gonna retire and, you know, got it. Right before you retired and all those things. That's super cool.

Jake Teeter 34:46

That's probably the only reason I got, it's'cause I'm about to retire.

Trent Manning 34:48

No. It's not the only reason. Come on now. Yeah. That's awesome though. Yeah. Congratulations again. That

Jake Teeter 34:55

thank you very much. It's, yeah, that that's leading into one of your next questions. That's probably the thing I'm most proud of is.

Trent Manning 35:02

Ah, okay. Yeah. Yep. Don't get too far ahead of me.

Jake Teeter 35:05

No, I'm sorry.

Trent Manning 35:06

no, it's all good. Anything else you wanna talk about? Anything else on your mind? Equipment?

Jake Teeter 35:13

God, nothing comes to mind right now.

Trent Manning 35:15

What's one of the. Best things you learn from Bill Ledford.

Jake Teeter 35:20

Never give up. Somebody's gotta fix it. Might as well be you.

Trent Manning 35:23

that, that's a good one right there. And that sounds just like Bill Ledford too.

Jake Teeter 35:28

Yep,

Trent Manning 35:29

could definitely hear him saying that. Have you talked to him lately?

Jake Teeter 35:33

I did. Let's see, when did I talk to him? Probably been two, maybe three weeks ago. He's had a little issue with his knee, one of his knees,

Trent Manning 35:41

Okay.

Jake Teeter 35:42

and I think he's scheduled for January to have a, his either, I think his first knee replacement,

Trent Manning 35:47

Okay. I need

Jake Teeter 35:48

he had some cancer there for a couple years ago and I think he's probably 90, 95% over that.

Trent Manning 35:55

yeah.

Jake Teeter 35:56

So that's good news.

Trent Manning 35:57

Yeah. The last time I talked to him, he was he was doing much better, but it was so funny when he was taking his EMCP. The exams. He was calling me like every other week asking me a question about this or that, or whatever. I mean, it was good. I mean, I really got to know him, but he's one of those guys that I'd heard a lot about. And I wanna say I've only seen him in person maybe two times, but I feel like he's one of my best friends. He's just that type of person,

Jake Teeter 36:33

just latches onto you and pulls you under his wing almost,

Trent Manning 36:36

Yeah. I wanna say the first time I met him in person was at Eric Duncans son's

Jake Teeter 36:42

Oh

Trent Manning 36:43

funeral. And he gave me the biggest handshake and then he pulled me in for a hug. I mean, just like I'd known him my whole life. Yeah, just a really special guy that yes, for sure. Let's get to your your favorite part here. Rapid Fire.

Jake Teeter 37:06

Okay.

Trent Manning 37:07

What's your favorite movie?

Jake Teeter 37:08

All right. You're not gonna believe this. I have two.

Trent Manning 37:11

Okay.

Jake Teeter 37:13

One is the Phantom of the Opera

Trent Manning 37:15

That's surprising. Okay.

Jake Teeter 37:18

and the other one is V for vendetta.

Trent Manning 37:20

Okay. Yep. That's been forever, since I've seen that one, but yeah. All right.

Jake Teeter 37:25

love both. I love both of those. I mean, I like shoot'em ups as much as the next guy, but something about that musical,

Trent Manning 37:30

Uhhuh Phantom of the

Jake Teeter 37:31

just love it. And then you go, weaving is so good in Viper vendetta.

Trent Manning 37:36

Yeah. Yeah, that's good stuff. What would be your last meal?

Jake Teeter 37:40

I'm gonna say it. A homemade pizza.

Trent Manning 37:43

Okay. All right.

Jake Teeter 37:44

And I've learned in the last year to make pretty good pizza dough. Make it from scratch, do our own ingredients.

Trent Manning 37:52

Okay.

Jake Teeter 37:53

And for my 15 year award from the city, one of the things on the list was a solo pizza oven.

Trent Manning 37:58

Oh, nice.

Jake Teeter 38:00

I'm like this is perfect.

Trent Manning 38:01

Yeah.

Jake Teeter 38:02

I don't have to heat up the for an hour to get the oven to try to cook this thing.

Trent Manning 38:08

No, that's super cool.

Jake Teeter 38:10

Yeah, no kidding.

Trent Manning 38:11

So is it is it electric or what kind of

Jake Teeter 38:14

It's a propane runs off a propane

Trent Manning 38:16

Okay. All right. Yeah, that's super cool. What kind of toppings you put on this homemade dough?

Jake Teeter 38:24

oh, we do just about anything we, my wife grows tomatoes in the garden and I help her out some, but, so when in the, when we start harvesting tomatoes, we'll cut'em up and roast'em and slice up garlic and put'em in there olive oil and roast them. At first we were roasting'em in the oven and then I started smoking'em on the smoker,

Trent Manning 38:44

Oh, nice.

Jake Teeter 38:45

get more flavor in the tomato and then we'll freeze'em up some, we've got tomatoes for sauce all year, so we'd do our own dough. We do our own sauce, and then, you know, it might be pepperoni, it might be artichokes.

Trent Manning 38:58

Yeah.

Jake Teeter 38:58

Mushrooms, gotta have mushrooms on there.

Trent Manning 39:00

Okay. All right. I love it, man. That's good stuff. I was kind of thinking you might say Lexington Barbecue. It is pretty good. It is pretty good.

Jake Teeter 39:12

and that's one of the things that I do also is I got me a pit boss

Trent Manning 39:16

Okay. Yeah.

Jake Teeter 39:17

and you know, it probably doesn't get quite as much smoke as Aaron Franklin. Franklin's barbecue or the one area that you got in Lexington, but

Trent Manning 39:27

Yeah,

Jake Teeter 39:27

a little

Trent Manning 39:28

that Lexington barbecue, that's some good stuff. Every time I come up there, you know, towards you or Justin? I try to swing by Lexington Barbecue on my way home.

Jake Teeter 39:38

yeah. That there's somebody out there early in the morning every day getting those fires started, getting those shoulders on.

Trent Manning 39:45

Yep. That's good stuff. So here your favorite part. What are you most proud of besides your family?

Jake Teeter 39:54

it's gotta be that Bill Lifford award, the turf take of the year. That's, I mean, I still think about that. It's like, God, Jake, grow up.

Trent Manning 40:03

Oh man. No, that's so cool man. It is. That's super cool. Yeah, very. Very well deserved for sure. And congratulations again. That's awesome.

Jake Teeter 40:15

yeah.

Trent Manning 40:16

What'd your wife say about you winning?

Jake Teeter 40:19

Oh, she was excited for about a minute and a half.

Trent Manning 40:22

A minute and a half. Okay. You know, it only goes so far, right? Yep. That's good stuff. All right. Thank you very much for being on. I thoroughly enjoyed it like I always do.

Jake Teeter 40:35

Yeah. Thanks for having me, buddy. Appreciate it.

Trent Manning 40:37

yeah. Yeah.

Jake Teeter 40:38

you

Trent Manning 40:39

Say again?

Jake Teeter 40:40

Hopefully next time I call you, I won't be asking questions about what's wrong with my top dresser or my

Trent Manning 40:44

Air fire. No, it's all good, man. Yeah, and for anybody else that's got my number, you know, I like to help as much as I can, you know, so, I don't have all the answers, but I'll try. Just like, bill or anybody else. And I mean, honestly, that's what I love so much about this industry and our community that we have, you know, with the technicians especially, just everybody wants to help everybody, you know, any way we can and we all look out for each other and just like, all getting together at Ttac. I mean the education's great, but it's really about seeing all your old friends and you make new ones too, you know? Yeah. Very good. Thank you again and don't be a stranger.

Jake Teeter 41:31

Thanks Trent.

Trent Manning 41:37

thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf techs podcast. I hope you learned something today. Don't forget to subscribe. If you have any topics you'd like to discuss, or you'd like to be a guest, find us on Twitter at Reel turf techs.