Bill wrapping the flag pole in front of the Birch Ridge Inn with lights for the winter.

Bill wrapping the flag pole in front of the Birch Ridge Inn with lights for the winter.

As at the Resort, around the Birch Ridge Inn we have been working straight out to get the inn fully prepared for the winter season. We are just about done!

Yesterday I finished putting all of the outside lights in place for the winter. It is an annual ritual. We have a lighting company, "Christmas Decor", who put the lights on the restaurant and Great Room buildings. (They have all the right ladders and a team to do the work...they make it look so simple!) Mary and I take responsibility for the rest. Some years it is freezing cold and you wish you did the work in shorts in August. Other years, like this one, it has been quite pleasant to work outside making the job actually enjoyable in a John Cleese/Monty Python "and now for something completely different" sort of way.

Today Mary makes her annual foray into the farms of West Rutland looking for the inn's Christmas Tree. The Monday after Thanksgiving (is it really next Monday?) is Christmas Tree Monday at the inn. The team is already assembled to go out and get the inn's Christmas tree. Pick up trucks are identified, chain saws are sharpened. But it would be all for naught if we cannot find the perfect tree. Hence, Mary is out in the woods today. She likes to go out ahead of time before the team for reconnaissance; to scope out the landscape so to speak; to find just the right tree...

Rumor has it that tomorrow is a ski day for us. The Resort continues to make snow ahead of the Thanksgiving Holiday. Today they have started to make snow on Skye Peak at the top of Superstar. Snow making operations are also continuing in the North Ridge area all the way down to the K1 Base Lodge. Chef Frizzie was out for a couple of hours this morning. In his usual brief and to the point fashion, he said "It was kinda fun skiing through the guns"! I know myself that I am ready to get back on skis and out on the mountain. It's time!

Let it snow!!!