Happy New Year 2010!!!

While 2009 started out just fine, it seems that I couldn't wait until I saw it end. With the economy, war, terrorism, freaky weather and everything else its hard to remember the good things about 2009, or if there were any good things at all. But let's see what happened.

Up here in Vermont, we again had one of the wettest years on record. The rain started in April and went all summer, all the way through September and into October. The good thing about the rain was we had an awesome Leaf Season with color lasting almost 6 weeks, and temperatures in the 60's almost to Halloween. We had a true Indian Summer for once.

The rain also was great for some vegetables. We harvested over 200 lbs of zucchini and about 100 lbs of summer squash in our little garden out back. Peppers did well, as did all the herbs and the quince bushes. But the wet was bad for the Rye and hay crops. And for tomatoes. We had 4 beautiful patches of tomatoes in the beginning of summer and lost 2 of them to the blight. I saw with my own eyes proof that the blight was wind born. 2 of the patches were in the open and they were totally decimated by the blight in a mere 24 hours. 2 other patches were shielded from the wind and did not get the blight at all and we got lovely, huge all natural tomatoes out of both patches.

Looking back at my gardening notebook, I'm amazed we had a garden at all. June 1, 2009 gave us a killing frost at 22 degrees F. We lost everything we had planted and had to start all over. Luckily my niece and I had planted 2 batches of seedlings 3 weeks apart so we had plants to go in, but many people were not that lucky.

We also experienced first hand the bee problem. Our corn grew to a wonderful height of over 7 feet tall, but did not get pollinated so the ears never developed. So, this year we will either borrow a beehive or learn how to pollinate corn ourselves.

The best part of 2009 was hosting wonderful people at the Inn. We are very lucky and have many guests who return year after year and we are very thankful and appreciative. We also met many new and wonderful people and their families and hope to see many back again.

We also hosted couples and families from Switzerland, Sweden, England, France, Norway, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, China, Japan, India, and Jamaica. Thank you to all of out International guests for sharing traditions, stories, and spending part of your vacation with us.

On the Nature front here at the Inn, we had 3 pairs of hummingbirds this summer. Sitting around the pool you could watch them dart in and out of the lilies and bees balm, and one of the Ruby-Throated males even would come down and hover by guests, as if he was introducing himself. Watching them zip and zing all over was wonderful fun. Other birds identified this year include the Pileated Woodpecker, the Red Eyed Vireo, Ruffed Grouse, Golden Eagle, Wild Turkey, and although I never saw it I found tail feathers from a pheasant in the field.

There is a young moose who lives in the neighborhood and he made his way through the yard every morning all spring. I saw him twice in 2009, and saw his tracks and scat every week. We also have a family of White Tail Deer in the area, and the fawns last spring were adorable. Daddy White Tail Deer has learned which garden sections are his and which are mine, thanks to a strategic walking path I take with our Australian Shepherd.

This year we will continue work on the walking paths through the field. We are also moving a few large rocks to make an outdoor sitting area by the apple tree grove for relaxing and picnics. My quest to identify all the wildflowers here at the Inn continues. I never knew there were so many different species of goldenrod!

So, I guess 2009 wasn't all that bad overall. We've managed to reduce costs by replacing almost all the bulbs with compact florescent bulbs, increased our recycling, increased our composting to include applicable paper waste to enhance the soil in the garden. We also discovered an old garden area in spring 2009 when lots of iris started poking up out of a rubble pile in the back area. Spring 2010 will see that area either restored or the plants relocated to a better area for everyone to enjoy.

We are still working diligently on restoring this wonderful old Inn properly, which takes time, sunny weather and lots of hard work. The clapboards were all made in the 1800's by Silas Griffith's lumber mill, as they are stamped on the back with his business stamp. This means hand scraping and painting when they are totally dry so the paint doesn't peel right off due to moisture buildup in the wood. So, section by section we will paint. We also found several more original storm windows in the barn and repainted, re-caulked, repaired and reinstalled them in their proper places. Each of those windows was individually made and only fit 1 window. I felt like I was doing the world's largest 3-d jigsaw puzzle at times, but we found their proper places finally.

So, thank you everyone! Your comments in the books in the rooms have been uplifting and helpful. Thank you to those of you who reviewed us. We appreciate the time you took and are truly grateful for your comments and criticisms. We've learned alot this past year and look forward to applying our knowledge to the years ahead.

Happy New Year!