Our Covid Life, getting ready for you to ski. Safely.

A new groomer. You may have mistakenly thought we have a new garage table, used for our garage Thanksgiving. But, really we have a new Ginzu groomer. That may not mean much to a lot of you, it means the world to Ian and Jonathan, the groomers. It is a smaller version of the Ginzu groomer Ian pulls behind the Ranger. The Smaller version can be pulled with the snow machine. If all these names of equipment do not mean much to you, know it all means a lot to Ian. It means more options and better skiing!

And right onto the next project. The Covid Shed. Ian and Chuck are working on the site prep.  We received a grant from the State of Vermont to build a Covid Shed. It is a large shed with 3 open bays. We will be putting some benches in the shed. It will be one more option of socially distanced space to put on your boots or get yourself organized. If your car isn’t cutting it for you this space will be open, dry and airy. Out of the wind but not heated.

This was day 3 of site prep. Ian, this time working for/as Rugg Valley Landscaping, and crew put in 3 longs days and we are ready to build. Andy is running the compactor. The base is amazing. And compacting the base was as satisfying as vacuuming a really dirty floor when you have bare feet.

The Covid Shed location required a little trail moving. This at the bottom of the Peregrine behind the barn, coming down into the field. We took some trees out at the corner and removed years of piled rocks. (Piled there to get them out of the way of  different projects of the years.) Ian widened the culvert giving us more room at the bottom of the hill. The trail will then either go right into the field, and back toward the parking lot. Or left to head around the Peregrine again, or maybe the Chickadee.

This is the site at the end of Sunday, day 3. Grass seed thrown on the soil around the edge. Hay on top of the dirt and grass seed.

Now onto the building. We bought an “Equipment Shed” from Jamaica Cottage Shop. Ian will pick it up on December 8th is South Londonderry. The folks at Jamaica Cottage Shop went above and beyond to get the kit together with very short notice. We found out we received the grant on Monday, November 23rd.

The building will come in 3 bundles, with pages of building plans. We have help to build it, and we rented a telescoping fork lift to help make the project go faster and be safer. Especially now that there will be snow on the ground.

And talking about snow on the ground. If we get skiable snow this weekend, we will open. It doesn’t sound like enough snow to make the skiing really good. But this year, we all need to be outside, fresh air and exercise, the cure for almost everything.