Transition Time is Here

Here we are just past the middle of August.  The annual Iowa State Fair is behind us........(great to see so many of our Seven Oaks friends at the booth in the Varied Industries Building, as well as having the opportunity to meet so many new people and introduce them to Seven Oaks).........with the recent rains and cooler days the grass is finally getting green again meaning we are back to mowing more often.......Steve is well into running the weed trimmer around everything on the ski trails that can't be reached with the large tractor and mower when we mow the hills in a few weeks..........full service river floats are continuing, but we are admittedly more concerned about the river flow now than we have been all summer...........the cooler temps have more groups booking and playing paintball - last Sunday a group of 41 military played and this Saturday there are three groups booked to have some fun........Ken, Joel and Rick had a detailed conversation yesterday regarding buying more rental ski boots, buying more rental ski poles, again increasing the upper pond size to gain more water holding capacity which will allow us more continuous hours of snowmaking when the time is right, finalizing the fall service on the two snow cats, installing a new electrical line to the snowmaking pump to free up capacity for more snow guns running simultaneously on the existing electrical line, adding a VFD to the snowmaking pump to improve the efficiency and consistency of the water pressure delivered to the system, picking up the snowmaking pump motor that was serviced by 3E in Des Moines, increasing the size and shape of the east side of the Riblet (Valley View) chairlift unload, changing the approach to Abby's Alley from the CTEC chairlift, building new unload ramps at both chairlifts, researching the purchase of more tables for the lodge for this winter, improving the lights in the original lodge building, Kris' status of servicing all the snow making guns, doing the annual service and inspection of the chairlift grips, taking oil samples from both chairlift drive systems for lab analysis, and even had a few comments regarding the October 21 Season Pass Sale........ .....WOW it was quite the meeting......and...........Brandie is busy meeting with couples that are using the lodge yet this summer and fall for their wedding receptions - yesterday she met for a couple hours with a couple having their reception in June 2013.............next week we will finalize the winter rates, hours and specials so we can update the website and brochure...............tomorrow we are at the ISU Welcomefest in Ames..............this Saturday is our first Mud Volleyball tournament........pits are dug........ready to fill with water......AND we still have room for more last minute teams..........so if you are interested, get your team assembled and register tomorrow........next Tuesday we are getting ready for about 400 coming for a Farm Progress Show customer appreciation in the lodge.......and we still have the 6/12/24 Hour Mt Bike Race on September 8............so basically it is too early to put the summer stuff away and too early to get all the winter stuff out.........but it is definitely transition time.............

........I would say that in 90 more calendar days we will be making snow.........lets see how close I come to that prediction............November 21.............and you can remind me !

........I should add that we had two scout troops camping here last weekend that gave our camphost Ian a big compliment before they left..........thanks for doing that and thanks to Ian for being a good Seven oaks amabassador.......
Happy Birthday to grand daughter Bella!