Liberty Hill Inn
on Cape Cod in
Yarmouthport Massachusetts 

After a brief respite, we have reopened the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington for the 2006-2007 travel season. The inn's 10 rooms are currently available for lodging. The restaurant will resume serving evening dinner on Friday, June 23rd.

Last weekend, in the last gasp of our time off after the 2006 ski season, Killingtonblog.com went on a road trip to Massachusetts to visit with family on Cape Cod and in the Boston area. Being innkeepers, Mary and I naturally look for nice inns to stay at when we travel. While on Cape Cod, we stayed at a 9 room inn located in Yarmouthport named the Liberty Hill Inn.

The innkeepers at Liberty Hill, John and Kris, did a great job taking care of us on our visit. We stayed in the Carriage House in the Eldridge room with a queen sized canopy bed and a large bathroom with whirlpool tub. The room was beautiful, the inn was very clean (making Mary very happy), and the breakfasts Kris prepared and John served each morning were great. If you are traveling around New England this summer, after you have stayed with us in Killington Vermont at the Birch Ridge Inn of course, and your travels plans include Cape Cod, we heartily recommend the you include the Liberty Hill Inn in Yarmouthport Massachusetts on your itinerary.

Queen Room Air Conditioner 

Our spring hiatus is approaching an end. Other than the rain which devastated parts of New England this past week, we have had a really nice time off. We have got a lot done, mind you. The list includes removing downed trees from last Octobers snow storm, cleaning out all of the gardens, remodeling the restaurant kitchen, refinishing the restaurant slate floor, installing 3 air conditioners in guest rooms (bringing the total number of air conditioned rooms to 6 out of 10), redesigning the web site, cleaning all of the carpets in the inn, and ordering new carpet for the Great Room (to be installed in early June). But we have also had some time to play a little golf, visit with family and friends, and just hang out for a while.

We have another week to go before the inn reopens for lodging (Wednesday May 24th). After that, we get right into the Killington spring Golf Tournament cycle. Our friends have the Bombay Open scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend. The Killington Rotary tournament is on My 31st. The Grist Mill's Goombay Open is scheduled for June 9th. And the Jeff Hadley tournament for ALS is schedule for June 20th.

Until the next entry, if we don't see you around town, we will see you on the golf course!

Daffodils of Spring
May 7, 2006 

Thus far, it has been a beautiful spring at Killington.

For the first time in years, Mary has gotten to enjoy her daffodils. Usually this time of year, the daffodils are fighting with the last snow banks for access to the sun. By the time they come out, we are usually away on our spring vacation. But this year, the growing season at Killington seems to be at least 2 to 3 weeks ahead of schedule. The daffodils are up, tulips and other bulbs are awakening, and leaves are already coming out on the trees....something we usually don't see till the end of May.

Since we closed the inn for the winter, our life at Killington has been fairly quiet. We have been focusing on the usual spring maintenance tasks. Because of the good weather, we have done almost all of our outside prep work for the summer, something that is usually not done till the middle of June. Mary has undertaken a project to refinish the slate floor in the restaurant. She has been stripping off the old sealer from the slate for about 10 days or so. She does a little patch each day before heading outside. We have gotten some new air conditioning units for several of the guest rooms which will get installed next week. And we are just getting ready to re-carpet the Great Room.

For those of you scanning the internet, I have been busy redesigning our inn's web site: birchridge.com. Keeping websites up to date seems like a never ending job. Cosmetically, the changes I have made to the site are fairly subtle. But I have completely recoded the site's underlying architecture to simplify site maintenance while allowing it to be more dynamic. I have now started the process to re-optimize the site for search engines, which will take a few more weeks.

Of course, we have been out playing a few rounds of golf. And last night, we went to a great 'Kentucky Derby Party" at the house of a friend in North Sherburne. So it hasn't been all work and no play.

Our Inn will reopen for lodging on Wednesday May 24th. We currently plan on opening the restaurant to the public on Friday June 23nd. Of course, it is available for functions before then. Catch you later!

"Burn Pile"
April 26, 2006 

The spring transitional season has arrived.

As reported, 10 days ago, Mary and I closed the inn for the 2005/2006 winter season. However, it's not vacation time yet. While we have played a couple of rounds of golf (one at Proctor Pittsford, one at Green Mountain National... Both courses are in great shape by the way!), the majority of our time has been spent working in and around the inn to prepare for the summer season.

We have just finished completely refurbishing the inn's kitchen. Each year we take everything out of it, repair any damage, wash everything (twice!), and repaint. It takes about a week, but everything looks great after it is done. Right now, Mary is working on refinishing the slate floor in the restaurants dining room. For those of you who know the dining room, the slate floor is covered with a sealer to keep it looking nice. Mary is stripping all of the sealer off the floor this year, before putting down a new coat. It has been a couple of years since she has done this, so, needless to say it is a lot of work.

Outside, we have been cleaning up all kinds of debris from the winter. While we did not have a lot of snow last season, we did have some particularly nasty events which caused a lot of tree damage. The heavy snow storm last October did considerable damage to a number of both large and small trees. I have been out in the forest around the property for the last two days with our chef cutting down dead and damage trees, and hauling it all out for disposal. No we did not go camping, today's picture is not a camp fire, but remains of a large dead tree that fell near the driveway last fall being burned for disposal.

In between all of this, Mary and I are planning to get away for a few days, and I am reworking our inn's website. My posting rate will probably be down for the next month of so, as we work around the inn, but I will try to get back to the blog every week or so to give you an update on what is going on.

Happy Easter 

Happy Easter from Killington Vermont.

We officially closed the inn for the 2005/2006 season this morning, when the last 3 guests checked out around 11:00 AM. The inn will be closed for maintenance and staff vacations for about a month, opening back up to kick off the 2006/2007 season in late May. The restaurant will be closed a little longer, reopening for the summer season on Friday June 23nd.

Today, to celebrate Easter, we went to The Castle in Ludlow Vermont for Easter brunch with 19 of our local friends. This was the last get together of the group for a couple of months, as many are leaving this week for points south. The few of us who will still be here for the next couple of weeks used the opportunity to plan several golf excursions to local courses in the coming days. The Castle put on a really nice brunch buffet to celebrate Easter. We also were able to get reacquainted with an old friend from our ski house days who is now the general manager of the establishment. It is a beautiful building, the food was good, we had a great time.

On the golf front, from local reports, Rutland Country Club, and Neshobe Golf Course are both currently open. Proctor Pittsford will be opening soon. Green Mountain is due to open next weekend (front nine only), and the Killington Golf Course is due to open on May 5th. Local courses have been reported to be in good shape with little winter kill. All I can say is that in between yard work, painting, and general repairs, Mary and I intend to chase the little white ball around the countryside over the next couple of weeks to get our games in shape for the summer. I will post some pictures from our excursions and report on the conditions of the courses for those of you planning to visit in the early summer. Happy Easter!

Killington and Superstar
in the late afternoon
April 11, 2006, 6:15 PM 

If you are interested in making a few turns on the mountain before the end of the 2005-2006 ski season, I suggest that you do it soon. Temperatures in Killington this week are in the 50's and 60's, creating spring skiing conditions on the mountain.

The resort significantly reduced operations this week. According to the ski report we receive each day, the mountain is operating only 4 lifts during the week. They include Super Star, K1 Gondola, North Ridge Triple (aka Glades), and Snow Shed Quad. It is uncertain what lifts they plan to run this weekend, but the resort's website is projecting 3 lifts on 35 trails (my guess is that they will close Show Shed). Killington has not yet announced a closing date for the season. A newspaper report today in the Rutland Herald again said that they planned to operate into May. The operative words on this report are "planned" and "into May". Previous articles quoted Killington officials saying that the resort would stay open for skiing and riding through May 15th.

Guests at our inn are reporting that snow coverage on the mountain is good, all things considered. Snow surfaces have been freezing overnight and softening up by mid morning, in usual spring fashion.

Killington and Superstar from
Second Green at Killington Golf Course
April 9, 2006, 12:15 PM 

Lots of things to contemplate today. Is this this last snow stake of the season? Do I go out on the mountain again for a few more turns? Will Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, or Tiger Woods win the Masters? Or will a relative unknown, Chad Campbell, do what needs to be done? Life is full of conundrums.

Today is a beautiful spring day at Killington. Temperatures are in the low 50's around the inn with a gentle breeze. The snow from last week's storm has basically melted away around the inn. I would guess that we may have seen the last snow stake of the season is one believes Accuweather, as they are predicting that temperatures will be in the high 50's and low 60's for Killington for the next 15 days. But given how wacky the winter was, anything could still happen.

Skiing on the mountain is still going strong. Reports from yesterday were unenthusiastic at best. Yesterday stayed cold on the mountain all day, so conditions were very firm and icy. People I have spoken with today about the mountain are much more upbeat. With the bright sunshine, surfaces have soften up and spring skiing and riding has returned. The Resort over the next few days will be consolidating operations. Bear Mountain will be closing this weekend. Snow Shed and Rams Head are not far behind, if the do not close today. We will see what tomorrows trail report has to offer to be sure.

Of course, this afternoon, if you play golf, it's all about the Masters in Augusta Georgia. Mary and I have been trying to arrange our work today so we can sit and watch what should prove to be an exciting final round. It is all just a precursor to getting out on the course ourselves over the next couple of weeks to start chasing the little white ball. Soon...