The Team
“The moles are after us.”
“It’s because we took their babies.” -Adam (said upon discovering how many mole tunnels we actually had in our garden.)
“If pulling white chocolate chips out of white flour doesn’t prove how much I love my job, I don’t know what will.” -Hillary
“I was down the stairs and just heard the screaming.” -Kate (said in reference to the day Donna tried to restore order to the sheet closet. For a while, the sheets were winning.)
“Ok guys, honestly I can barely lift the maple syrup to the top shelf.” -Stella, in response to why she might not be the best person to split wood for the pizza oven. (a gallon of maple syrup after all does weigh 8.35 pounds when full.)
“Chris, I have no eyebrows. Over.” -Tiff (said into radio to Chris after stoking the oven for wood fired pizzas.)
“Can someone touch my bug bite and tell me if it’s too hard?” -Stella (said while repetitively and obsessively touching her bug bite wondering if it was too hard and why it was all red and swollen.)
“I’m not getting in the middle of this.” -Everyone in reference to when Chris and I disagree on just about how everything should or shouldn’t be done – particularly what looks best or not with powered sugar sprinkled on it.
And also…
Reasons why people have claimed to be late to work:
“I dropped my phone in orange juice, so I didn’t have an alarm this morning to wake me up on time. But don’t worry, I’ve ordered another phone and it’s getting mailed here, so can you let me know when it comes please? “
“I got stuck behind a parade and there’s only one road.”
“I am house sitting for my sister and I had to feed her chickens.”
As the stories have been adding up and what started out as our quote page has turned into a mini book, our life as Inn Keepers never ceases to entertain. Our life is consumed right now with running this Inn. Luckily we have an amazing team of people committed to the same goal. Collectively we cook, clean, upkeep the grounds, maintain two garden plots, host weddings and events for up to 150 people, compost and recycle every bit we can and handle screaming guests that feel they were attacked by a leech.
This past week we had a team sleepover, BBQ and extended members of the team, our bosses who make it all happen from afar, came over to teach us all how to fly fish. Like any job, any life, any group of people, there are highs and lows, days when everything feels out of control and breaking at the same time and days of bliss when we know we knocked it out of the park with over the top customer service. We’ve all had some mistakes happen, moments of frustration, and accidents that if we could know the future, they never would have happened but at the end of the day, what I hear from the team is, “Hey, you’ve been doing dishes a long time, can I switch with you? Ok, it’s really hot today, who would like me to make them an ice coffee? What else has to be done?”
Running a park and Inn is like running a mini city that never stops moving. Thankfully we have a crew that is ready to keep pace. In the big scheme, Vermont State Parks has people in all departments that share the same vision and help us do our job. Please allow me to introduce you to the team most directly here at Seyon and some insight into our life and our mini park family.
Here’s Adam, also known as little Adam, also known as Rabbit.
How do you get the nick name Rabbit? Simple. When someone asks you how it went rabbit proofing the garden fence, just daze out for a moment, have your eyes stare straight ahead and robotic-ally answer, “Rabbit.”
Here’s Stella on the deer. Stella has had more one liners than any one else. We pretty much grab the quote book when we see her walking toward the door.
Despite that smile, she try’s to be intimidating, like when monitoring the buffet table with Ranger Brader.
Cutting a few onions is not a big deal, cutting onions for veggie kabobs for 75 people is a different story. Even with a mask and trying to hold my breath, it took me over an hour to cut all the onions because I needed the time to let my eyes dry out.
Here’s Donna making some beautiful spinach, orange and chevre cheese salads. Donna makes beautiful salads when she’s not throwing the sheets out of the closet.
Here’s Lil’ Adam and Big Adam. Big Adam has been an Inn Keeper on and off and
in various forms at Seyon for years. In the spring Chris, myself and Big Adam worked together as a team of three. Big Adam told us every thing he knew about running the lodge in a very humble way and we would not have near the degree of success we’ve have his summer without his help early on in the season.
Here’s Hillary and Kate. Kate is too polite to straight up tell me not to take her picture and it’s not a coincidence she’s standing behind Hillary, but I think she’s actually warmed up to the idea of getting her photo taken a little bit as the season has gone on. Her and Adam threw the towel in having their photo taken because as Lil’ Adam said, “It’s no good saying no, Tiff just get’s more excited and says smile anyway while taking your photo.” Kate takes great photos and I’m glad she doesn’t hide as much as she used to in the start of the season.
Here’s Hillary. She loves to make bread, talk, fill things, talk, clean things, talk, fold napkins, talk and organize things. Hillary is great because she almost never walks in the door and just says, “Hello.” It is almost always something like, “Ok, I have a question and feel free to say no,’; ‘I’ve been thinking about something…’; ‘You know that thing none of us could remember last night, well, when I was trying to fall asleep, after watching a movie, after I made chicken and I collected Tristin’s and mine 23 park work-shirts, did I tell you together we have 23 park shirts, I know because I counted them last night, well, that thing none of us could remember was that you wanted to remind us to bring our towels to bingo! Did anyone forget a towel, I brought extras if you did. So what are we going to do today…is there any coffee….I am so tired because… “
Speaking of bingo, here’s us at the famous Elmore Town Hall Bingo. When Chris and I were the Park Rangers at Elmore, we went to bingo every week it happened over the summer. We’ve traveled all over the world telling people about Elmore Bingo and sure enough, we got (almost) our entire team to go to Bingo. We all car pooled over and had a pot luck dinner with the Elmore Crew and a bunch of us won prizes at Bingo. Hillary won the grand prize of a gift certificate to the Elmore General Store and bought Kate a t-shirt because that’s just how we roll.
Chris was showing the different ways to get a bingo.
Aside from Bingo, we also had a team sleep over and had a fly fishing lesson. On the left is one of our supervisors, Sue. Her and Mary run a non-profit called Hope on the Rise which offers fly fishing retreats at no cost to women who have survived cancer. Sue and Mary graciously volunteered their time to come and give us all a fly fishing lesson.
And out for the evening came Nick, our boss, to enjoy a night of fly fishing. Nick had a great night of fly fishing, despite realizing at the very end of the evening he lost the fly off the end of his line which is why he probably never caught any fish.
Us all walking down to the water to practice fly fishing.
We lucked out on getting such a beautiful sunny day.
Looking like pros at Seyon.
Heading out on the pond in the evening twilight.
And lastly, two people who are instrumental in keeping our park running is Mayo and Jack. They come over at the drop of a hat if something serious is going on in our park. Between all our alarm systems, fire systems, phone, water, leaks, buildings, equipment there is always something to check in with them about. We call them at home in all hours of the night when we think something might be off and aside from keeping all the other parks running, they happily help us and try to fix any issues when they are here.
I asked them if they would mind if I took a photo of them for this week’s post. They didn’t bluntly say no, so I took that for a yes and then proceeded to snap about ten pictures of them. They then asked me where I learned to count.
Running a park is a crazy cycle in which the illusion of calmness floats in the air like a distant star – within sight, yet out of reach. I find a mix of pleasant chaos interspersed with more intense anxiety when all operating systems feel like they’re failing. Regardless whether alarms go off for no good reason or water systems freak out, it’s the commitment and shared goal of teamwork and excellence that has enable this season to be so fulfilling. The attitude we bring to life is the attitude we get back. As Thomas Jefferson said,
“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”
I am so thankful I am surrounded by a group of people with a positive attitude.
Attitude really does make all the difference.
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ANY group would be MORE than proud to have a team like this on thier side! Some FINE ‘bananas’ you’ve got in that bunch…
Oh, you don’t even know how many bananas we have. We make a lot of banana bread.
Sounds like quite a crew up there! I can’t wait to go and meet everyone and I really can’t wait to eat some of that really yummy looking food!!
Oh yummy, yummy, yummy. There is lots of great food and good times.
Also we have lil Adam who owns a Banana suit so we do have lots of nanners in this crew. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And we have plans for that banana suit. 🙂