Mary preparing to take gardens down for winter

Mary preparing to take gardens down for winter

Soggy....that is the only way you can describe this week in Killington.

Classic twig season weather is setting up across the area. The leaves on the trees are falling at a rapid rate, leaving gray shoots reaching for the sky. To match the trees forlorn reach for the heavens, the sky is also matching the gray tableau by being overcast at best, with intermittent rain drops sprinkling the area. Add a cold breeze sweeping down from the mountain peaks, and there is no doubt that twig season is firmly established in Killington.

Twig season brings with it a sense of urgency to get the inn ready for winter. When the weather permits (read not r@!ning), we have been outside preparing the grounds for winter. Mary has been working the gardens, getting all of her dahlia bulbs up for winter storage. I have taken one afternoon with the brush cutter knocking down dead growth on the berm rising in the front of the inn from the Killington Road. (I have at least another day to go!) Of course the leaves are piling up, but as they are all soaking wet, raking them up just now would be problematical. Hopefully, it gets a little drier next week.

Inside the inn, we are also working to get things ready for the winter. To make the inn "Greener" we have been working with "Efficiency Vermont" to spec out some new lighting around the inn. Our electrician will be busy with that project some time in November.

I have also been working our telecommunications plan. Every guest arrives at the inn with a wireless device of some kind which uses network bandwidth over the inns WiFi system. At one point over the Columbus day weekend, we had 20 guests in the building and 22 guest WiFi devices connected to our network (Some people had both a laptop and a smart phone connected to the network at the same time.) A couple of Skype calls nearly brought the network to it's knees. That will be addressed before the arrival of winter guests.

Add on the basic maintenance like painting rooms, cleaning carpets, etc... Bill, Mary and chef Frizzy have a busy month planned. Don't fret though, we will be cramming this all in so we can get out on the mountain to ski as soon as snow arrives on the top of Killington.

Fall season is definitely winding down at Killington. We may be in twig season before the onset of winter, but Killington is still a great place for a relaxing getaway. We at the Birch Ridge Inn look forward to greeting you when you visit.