Summer in Killington can be deceptively busy.

During the winter months, when local activity focuses on the mountain, I usually find myself on a pair of skis 4 or 5 days a week. (7 if I am real lucky). Most of this is programmed into our lifestyle. We specifically decided to live and work less than 1 mile from the mountain so we could ski. We are on the hill about 3 hours each day, so in addition to being great recreation, skiing is also very efficient from a time standpoint. Another advantage of living so close to the mountain.

In the summer, it is a little harder. A round of golf runs 4 hours. Add commute time to the course and the requisite lunch after golf, and we find ourselves away from the inn for 6 hours at a time. Not that I am complaining about golf, mind you. It just establishes a different routine in the summer.

What is also interesting about running an inn in Killington is the amount of "office work" that takes place in the summer. One would think that being at a ski resort, one would be able to play all day in the "off season". Of course, there are 2 fallacies to that concept... First, Killington is not a uni-season resort. The inn is still busy (thank god) with guests. Second, and somewhat hidden from view, is that all of the new marketing activity for the coming fall and winter seasons gets done in the summer months. I easily spend whole days programming websites for our businesses, and other clients, during the summer months to promote Killington later in the year.

One of the projects I have been working on of late is the integration of video onto websites. Mary and I do joint marketing with several other properties in Killington under the banner Killington Country Inns. The website, www.killingtoncountryinns.com has been used for the last several years as a landing site with various search engine pay per click programs. Last fall, a group of us worked on a project with the Killington Chamber of Commerce and a Fox television station serving the Boston area to produce a 30 minute program about Killington. One of my summer projects was to take the video that was produced, chop it up, and create 30 second clips for the inns of Killington Country Inns.

At face value, it seemed like a pretty straight forward project, given the rise of video on the web. (They tell me Youtube is a popular website after all.) In reality, it is just a little more complicated than it all seems.

The process of starting with a video source on a DVD to creating a 30 second flash video clip for the web is not really documented in any one place. Google helps, but you still need to sort through the pieces, that is of course unless you want to spend thousands of dollars for various packaged video programs. But, I do all my development work on an Apple PowerMAC and here is where the MAC shines. Buried in the middle of Mac OS X is a very good implementation of the Unix Operating System. I was able to download 3 different open source programs to do all of the work. (One to convert the DVD to MP4 so I could do edits in IMovie; one to convert the edited MP4 to Flash Video, and one to add Flash Video Metadata.) Part of the result you see above in a video clip on Birch Ridge, built into this page by a feed from killingtoncountryinns.com.

I made four video's in total for this project. Feel free to browse over to www.killingtoncountryinns.com to see them all if you are interested.

With this project done, the queue has been filled with others. Later on, I will tell you about the work that is taking place on the Killington Economic Growth Initiative....but that is for another day.

Keep it in the fairway, and don't forget your sunscreen.

Over the last couple of weeks, Mary and I have partaken of the ritualistic exercise many people do from time to time: We went new car shopping. Mary's 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee was making dying noises. It was time.

After our experience driving a little car during our Irish vacation, Mary set 2 criteria for her new car...30 miles per gallon and under $20K. I did a quick search on Edmunds and came up with 105 different cars that met that criteria. And of course, in her best operational management style, Mary needed to drive all of them. We drove Jeeps, Toyotas, Hondas, Chevy's, Fords, Dodge; if they was a car dealership within 100 miles of the inn, we drove their cars.

Mary took delivery over the weekend of a new silver Dodge Caliper. It is a nice (on the small side) mid sized car which met Mary's goals. Front wheel drive, a responsive stick shift, and plenty of room inside for the ever present golf bags or skis.

Mary's Jeep lasted 13 years. How many the Dodge will last is anyones guess. So it goes.

Congratulations go our to Dick and Noel Gluck, all of the participants, and the sponsors of Team Killington. Dick and Noel announced yesterday afternoon at a barbecue at their home for this years VT NH "Race for the Cure" Team Killington "Runners" that this years efforts raised over $10,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Great Job!

Thank you Dick and Noel for organizing the Killington community to support the effort to fight breast cancer.

It has been a while since my last post. I have been pretty much in hiding for the last 10 days, victimized by a summer cold that turned into a nasty sinus infection. Yeck. But the good doctors at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover New Hampshire gave me some antibiotics and everything seems on the mend.

Last week I actually had 5 rounds of golf scheduled. I succeeded in only playing 2. It was that kind of week. Yesterday, I made it back down to Green Mountain National Golf Course for the Tuesday morning mens quota league. It was not a good day. The picture of my ball snuggled up to a tree on the 9th hole sums up the how the round went...so it goes.

But golf is one of those things, you take the bad with the good. The next shot offers the chance for improvement. The next hole offers a host of new opportunities. The next round is filled with promise and great expectations. And the antibiotics are working...and the sun is out..hmmm...I feel a round of golf coming on...

Keep it in the fairway, and don't forget your sunscreen.

Contribution made to "Team Killington" and the "Race for the Cure"

Innkeepers Bill Vines and Mary Furlong of the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington are proud to donate the proceeds from the first Birch Ridge Sunday Brunch of the 2007 summer season to "Team Killington" and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Each year, local residents Dick and Noel Gluck organize other Killington area residents and guests to form "Team Killington" to participate in the Vermont "Race for the Cure" to raise funds for the Komen foundation. Killington area businesses are enlisted to contribute to the effort by pledging support to the runners trekking down to Manchester for the "Race".

This year, the innkeepers at the Birch Ridge Inn, Bill and Mary, were happy to provided Dick and Noel with a check for $613.45 raised at the benefit brunch held on July 1st. The money will be donated in "Team Killington's" name to the Komen Foundation in conjunction with the 2007 Vermont/New Hampshire "Race for the Cure". This years race takes place in Manchester Vermont on July 29th.

The Killington Wine Festival kicked off yesterday for the 6th season with an industry tasting yesterday afternoon at the Killington peak and a gala wine dinner last evening at the Killington Grand Hotel.

The industry tasting was a preview of the "Grand Tasting at 4241", the centerpiece public event of the festival. Approximately 200 wines from all over the world will be tasted Saturday during the grand tasting at the top of Killington mountain, known for being 4241 feet above sea level. Tickets are available to the "Grand Tasting at 4241" for $40 per person which includes your gondola ride to the peak plus wine samples.

Last night saw a new event this year at the wine festival, a Gala Dinner with Dancing at the Killington Grand Hotel. Local chefs Peter Mittendorf of the Lookout Tavern, Claude Blais of Choices Restaurant, Brian Aspell of the Killingon Grand Resort Hotel, and Patrick Boandl of the Inn at Long Trail teamed up to create a tasting menu paired with old and new world wines. Music for the event was provided by the Vermont Jazz Ensemble. Killington does not have a lot of "dress up" events. Kudos go to the ladies of Killington for elevating the style of the evening. They did a beautiful job rising above the "sea of blue blazers" donned by the many of the gentlemen of Killington (myself included).

In addition to the "Grand Tasting at 4241", the Killington Wine Festival will also feature "The Crush", a jazz and wine bar at the Killington Grand Hotel on Friday Evening, a wine tasting dinner at the Birch Ridge Inn on Saturday Evening, and a Champagne Tasting Brunch at the Cortina Inn on Sunday.

Keep it in the fairway, and don't forget your sunscreen.

In addition to the activities associated with the management changes at the Killington Resort, town government has also started to take actions to address economic issues at Killington.

In response to a June 25th select board discussion on implementing a 1% local option tax in Killington, ostensibly to pay in part for an Economic Development Initiative previously discussed at Town Meeting in March, a group of concerned citizens attended last nights select board meeting to respond to the discussions. The group, who had been solicited to volunteer to study economic development in the town of Killington, requested that the Select Board defer from any conversations concerning raising taxes to pay for the as yet undefined initiative. The group felt that any funding discussion at this point, where the group has not yet been officially convened, was premature at best and polarizing at worst to the process of investigating alternatives to strengthen economic activity in Killington.

In response to the groups request, Dave Lewis, the Killington Town Manager, notified the group that the first official meeting on the economic development initiative had been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday July 18th at 7:00 PM at a place to be determined by the committee co-chairs, Bill Bauer of the Summit Lodge and Chris Karr of the Pickle Barrel Night Club. Stay tuned, as this will get more interesting as the summer progresses.

Wherever you may be on this very warm day in Killington, keep it in the fairway and don't forget you sunscreen.