Jeff Hadley
PGA Golf professional 

It is with sadness that I must report that former Green Mountain National head professional, Jeff Hadley, passed away yesterday after battling ALS.

ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ), also know as Lou Gehrigs's disease, is a progressive neuromuscular disease that weakens and eventually destroys motor neurons which connect the brain with skeletal muscles, eventually causing complete loss of muscle control.

The original headline I wrote for this posting was that Jeff had lost his battle with ALS. But the more I though about it, nothing could be further from the truth. Jeff LIVED with ALS for some time. Outwardly, he always seemed upbeat and positive about dealing with his affliction. In the last 18 months, as the disease progressed, he spent much of his time involved in various benevolent activities to raise funding for ALS research.

If you are in Killington over this Memorial Day weekend, Jeff's wife, Alice, and family, will be hosting a memorial celebration of Jeff's life at Green Mountain National Golf Course at 4:00 PM on Sunday afternoon, May 28. Jeff Hadley day, a previously scheduled golf tournament to raise funds for ALS research, will be held as planned on June 20th, also at Green Mountain National. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Jeff Hadley ALS Foundation c/o Green Mountain National Golf Course, PO Box 429, Killington VT 05751.

Mary and her baby!
a 1973 Ford Mustang
in mint condition 

Today marked another indication that the summer season of 2006 has arrived. Baby made an appearance!

Baby, in this case, is a 1973 gold Ford Mustang in mint condition. Mary is the original owner, purchasing the pony in 73, and she has kept it looking great ever since.

We retrieved Baby this afternoon from it's winter hiding place in Liecester Vermont. Mary dutifully took the top down for the ride back to Killington, enjoying a beautiful afternoon of cruising through the Green Mountains.

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!