maple’s.fortunes

So, today at work, well actually this week, I have had the wonderful opportunity to aerate greens again. It isn’t so much fun. We are doing it a better way this year though. Last year we did all three nines in one 12 hour day. It was a long day, especially with the aerators we have. They are the John Deere Aercore 800. When you are aerating, you walk in front of them backwards and ridiculously slowly. They are like a trike, having three wheels with the one by you steering. This works great when you’re aerating, but transporting them is awful. It is so easy to lose control. The slightest adjustment can really screw you over.

Anyway, this year we are only doing one nine per day. It takes less than four hours, and isn’t as hard on the feet/legs. Plus, we’re done by like 9, so it isn’t as hot either. The bugs are an issue though. We aren’t taking out cores (the stuff that was in the hole, can be seen in the pic below. All those brown things are the cores) this year, unlike last year. We’re just punching holes, which is good.

The reason I wear steel toed boots is you never know what might happen. Today, I was preparing to turn around to go to the next green and I couldn’t get it to shift gears. Sometimes it gets stuck in a gear if it is on a hill or something. I started to back up again, but it jerked. I had my foot in line with the rear tire and the next thing I know, this aerator is coming up my leg. It weights in at a whopping 620 kg (1367 lbs). That’s more than half a tonne (and half a ton). Once it reached the upper portions of my boot, it started to slide off and I had disengaged it. If I hadn’t been wearing my steel toed boots, I think I’d be typing out a different post right now.

This is what they look like. We don’t have that funny attachment though.