The Budweiser Clydesdales will be in the Killington area for Martin Luther King weekend.

Come and see them.

Stay with us at the Birdhouse Inn and enjoy the wonder and beauty of these amazing animals.

Make your reservations at reservations@birdhouseinnvt.com

"Uncle" Walt Soder visited us this past couple of days. We had his inspection of the insulation of our attic and crawl spaces to conserve heat and energy.

For breakfast we went to the Wooden Soldier in Fair Haven and had eggs & sausages for Karen, eggs and hash for Walt, plus a breakfast sandwich for me!

Later we took a trip to Middlebury visiting Frog Hollow's VT Art Center. Of course, we went to Otter Creek Brewery, took a tour of the plant with Becca, and tasted many Otter Creek offerings. We left with some beers, of course. A quick trip to the Vermont Soapworks finished our Middlebury visit before returning to Poultney.

Walt left with a case of Otter Creek beer, a case of Vermont Sweetwater soda, and a promise to return to the Birdhouse Inn in the near future.

Name the people in this picture. Post your message and win a prize! Be sure to leave you mailing address.

Now is a good time to come to the Birdhouse Inn B&B...relax after the holidays in beautiful Poultney. There is wonderful Vermont snow for downhill skiing at Killington, Pico or Okemo, snowshoeing, or cross-country skiing.

Make a reservation via : reservations@birdhouseinnvt.com and get a 10% discount.

Hope to see you soon!

Josh and Valerie are off, back to Olympia, Washington.

They got up early to catch a plane in Manchester, NH!

I prepared breakfast burritos, juice, coffee, and scones.

They had a great time here.

What did Trish Duffy leave behind at the Birdhouse Inn?

Answer corectly and win a prize.

Check out Shig Sakai's blog about the Birdhouse Inn B&B at: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/home_town_2005/17009778.html

It's got great pictures!

New Year's Day Breakfast:

Mimosas, of course,

Maple Oat Scones,

French Toast Casserole,

Tortilla Omelet, Spanis-style with potato, spinach, cheese,

Sasauges, patties and links,

Hazlenuit Cream coffee

We were a bit tired after all tthe Cranium playing, but we made a pretty good breakfast!

After the reception, we headed back ot the Birdhouse Inn. Simone and Company were already at the house playing Cranium, a game which uses all parts of your brain, the left side and the right side! They had a successful day of shopping in Manchester. Especially neat was Lisa's purchase of a penguin pajama set. After watching Dick Clark on TV and the ball falling down on Times Square and the masses, we all celebrated with some champagne toasts. Josh and Valerie joined us a bit later.

Then we played Cranium until about 3 AM! This was our first time playing, Karen and myself, but somehow we managed to win! On one round I had to draw a "salmon" with my eyes closed, while Karen had to guess what I was drawing! Talk about being able to read between the lines, I was trying to draw some sort of stick figure with bones, and Karen guessed "fish...tuna...salmon"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! was that good or what? It sure wasn't my Leonardo-style of drawing, that's for sure! The game went on with all kinds of questions, activites, singing, many diffferent ways to experss yourself and to your partner to move ahead to the final goal.

We highly recommend this game for everyone!

Exhausted, we made it to bed and got ready for the next breakfast.

Karen and I worked at Orlando Craig's reception at the Castleton American Legion Hall. The place was a very spacious site to have awedding recepton. We helped in the kitchen with Bonnie and Keith Crossman, Kathie Bosco on New Year's eve. Julie Craig, the mother of the groom, prepared all these foods: 3 types of chicken wings, spring rolls, all types of mini sandwiches, cheeses, many different dips with chips and veggies, summer sausages, veggie and fruit platters, Swedish meatballs, Italian meatballs, and Orlando, Sr's BBQ ribs! A yummy time!

The new bride, Anita, is from the Cook Islands. She is so beautiful and gracious. Her native dance in native costume was a most beautiful sight to behold.

Josh, our guest, was a member of the wedding party and dressed in his military blues as was Orlando, Jr.

We'll add pictures later.

Who are these people?

Answer correctly and win a prize.

Please include your mailing address on your comment.

New Year's Eve Breakfast with Simone and family friends...along with Josh and Valerie Sturgill from Olympia, Washington...they are here for Orlando Craig's wedding.

Menu:

Omelets with cheese, mushroom, broccoli, avacado

Apple Pancakes with maple syrup,

Turkey Bacon,
Karen's Pricsilla's Scones,
Cranberry Almond Coffee Cake,
OJ and Coffee

Who are these folks?

Answer correctly and win a prize.

Be sure to send us your mailing address.

Love,
B&K

You can now make comments to our blog! I finally figured out how to make the correct setting for your comments. What do you think? The Birdhouse Inn B&B is going forward into new horizons!!!

Simone Minichino-Garofolo, husband Mike, and sister-in-law Lisa amd her husband Skip Jaques stayed with us over New Years "vacation". What a fun group! We had a great time with them on New Years Eve playing the game CRANIUM. We give it a "Thumbs Up", ***** Rating. Has anyone out there played it?

Why did Jim Melling have to go to the hardware store?

Answer correctly and win a "prize"!

Breakfast II Trish D and family...

Cheese poached eggs on a potato pancake,
Muffin french toast with maple syrup.
Link sausages.
Cranberry scones,
Fruit cup,
OJ and coffee

They said it was yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

plus they got to get in some of the sights of Vermont later...like Queechee.

Happy New Year, it's 2006!
Love,
B&K

Who are those crazy kids?

Skiers Breakfast, Day Two:

Apple Pancakes,
Spanish Tortilla, with potato, of course, mushrooms and spinach with mozzarella chese
Turkey Bacon,
Fruit Cups,
Karen's Almond Cranberry Scones and
Morning Glory Muffins,
Cinnamon Buns,
OJ,
Coffee

Yummy!

Skiers Breakfast, Day One: MENU

Baked French Toast with Hazlenuts and Green's Maple Syrup, made in Poultney, of course,
Scrambled Eggs and Sausage,
Karen's Morning Glory Muffins,
Cranberry Almond Coffee Cake,
OJ and Autumn Blend Juices,
Lots of deep, dark rich Green Mountain Coffee

Everyone was satisfied and pleased, ready for a day on the mountains of Pico and Killington.

The skiers from Connecticut arrived in East Poultney yesterday...Joe Binkoski and Phyllis Liu with daughter Charlotte and friend Cliff. Plus Trish Duffy and Jim Melling with son Dan and cousin Katherine.

Some interesting 'facts":
Joe is a pal and colleague from my "old" school, High School in the Community, New Haven. His specialty is Asian and World History.
Trish is a Media Specialist in the Branford Public Schools and loves to read.
Phyllis is is an ocular specialist and is a Master Gardener.
Jim's works with lights and trade show presentations.
Dan is a student of Joe's at HSC and loves his iPod.
Cliff dives a truck and goes to Amity HS.
Charlotte is captian of the Amity HS ski team and would like to go to college in the Boston area.
Katherine is 12 years old, on a travelling softball team in Branford and pitches a softball at over 50 mph.

Great guests!

Some holiday cheer from us to you!

MaryJo Teeter's sisters, Chris and Kathy with spouses Brad and Nat, and parents, Grant and JoAnne Peacock, stayed with us over the Christmas holiday. All enjoyed sumptuous breakfasts, rich dark coffee and good consversation!

Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas all of yu in blogger land. We are posting from the home of Helen of Fair Haven Vermont, Irish capital of Vermont. We are here trying to teach an old dog new tricks!!!
She's taught us quite a few Ha Ha!

"Lots of things grow better with age, I'm just one of them," says Helen (the old person).

Merry Christmas from Karen and Brian Festa. We wish you the very best, with much peace and love.

Steve and Diane Seebart stayed at the Birdhouse Inn last week. What a coincidence, they were from Sunnyvale, CA, the town that I grew up in!! They even know where we lived, South Pastoria Ave. But the houses, gardens, orchards and trees are all gone...now, all those low-rise, clean, high tech little businesses and factories churning out all likes of tekkie-stuff...that's Silicon Valley!

Here is a samping of what we served during the week for our breakfasts: (not all at once!)

BHI Bakery: Karen's lemon scones, muffins, lemon cakes and other biscuits plus many baked goodies.

Eggs: fried, poached, scrambled
Potatoes: home fries, potato pancakes, diced, shredded
Meats: Turkey bacon, regular bacon, sausage patties, local organic bacon
Specials: portobello/spinach/cheddar omelets, individual breakfast bread puddings, hazleneut pancakes, waffles
Fruit cups, cantalope slices
Orange juice and other juices
Green Mountain Fair Trade Coffee

Anything else we forgot?

They were well pleased, satisfied and happy each morning.
And so were we.

If you have any suggestions, please let us know.
Merry Christmas,
Love,
B&K

It's winter in Vermont. Snow is everywhere. The driveway is plowed and awaits your visit to the Birdhouse Inn.

This was my first time on a snowmobile! Karen declined a ride!

Let it snow.
Upon returning to Poultney after our closing and sale of Kenwood Lane we have lots of snow here, nice fluffy snow. It's great for snowshoeing and XC skiing as well as the downhill stuff.

Take advantage of our midweek specials, Tues, Wed, Thurs, at the Birdhouse Inn B&B.

Call 802.287.2405

e-mail: reservations@BirdhouseinnVt.com

Winter in Poultney for the mechanically minded.

We're back in Poultney! Business is open.
Our closing went well, 82 Kenwood Lane is now in the hands of a young, energetic couple who love the house, yard and town. The memories and great times we had there will always be in our hearts and minds. Thanks to all our friends who helped with making our Branford lives so wonderful... We love you all.

But now you can come up to see us in Poultney for an even better time with a great place to stay, the Birdhouse Inn B&B!!!!!!

Call or e-mail us.

POD is coming to Kenwood Lane.
We are awaiting the POD carrier to stuff most of our things for VT and Hamre Lane, Branford. the house is a mess but we are getting there. The accumulation of "stuff" is almost overwhelming. Looking forward to those long snowy days and nights in East Poultney when we can go through and separate our "stuff".

Talk to you soon.

Packing up in Branford...we are closing on our Branford house next Friday. There is a lot of work to do, but things will get done. This was a great place to live, so many great memories.....but now we move on to our full time, new careers as your hosts at the Birdhouse Inn B&B in the great town of East Poultney.

Call ahead or e-mail us for reservations.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Oh how beautiful they look. Dark green Shutters on the White house. Sweet! Whew one more down. Painting 50 shutters is a lot of work . We love it here. Happy Thanksgiving!! karen & brian

Our breakfast for Lil and Shigeo Sakai was wonderfully presented with great flavors.

The Menu:
Sliced apple pancakes with Green's Maple Syrup (locally produced in Poultney)
Poached eggs with Tillamook cheese and shitake mushrooms (garnished with Daves's Salsa from the Gut-Rutland produced, chopped chives and mint)
Turkey bacon (for those who need to watch their fat intake)
Slice of cantalope

Karen's New but still delicious cream scones made with whole wheat flour
locally produced jams from Clark's Farms, Well, VT

Orange juice, hazel nut coffee

Served with love and lots of smiles

Hi, Shig has created this site for us and everyone who is interested in our B&B in Poultney.

Please visit us anytime.

Brian and Karen, your hosts

Lil and Shig visited our B&B on Nov 19 2005.
Shig created our BLOG site, and today is the first day of this Blog site "Birdhouse Inn B&B".

Brian will update Diary, Breakfast Menu, Music, Friends, Wine, and fun thing.