Ride Delaware ?

We don’t know how they financed it. The previous company is privately held, so they may have offered to hold the debt on it with a modest down payment. If Peaks defaults they get the deposit plus the resorts back.

Redundant thread after mine maybe? Just a guess. Their balance sheet is in shambles. They have to be buying almost solely with debt...

I feel like there had to be better mountains they could have bought for $76 million, but I guess you can only buy what’s on the market...

https://www.peakresorts.com/news-updates/snowtime/ For what it is worth. They picked up more smaller mountains in PA to combine with JFBB and Hunter in NY. Guess it makes it easier for people who frequent those mountains to head to Mount Snow for a real vacation.

That’s why I think Elk could give JFBB a run for its money when it comes to cold. It’s already a solid 5 degrees colder than Blue (if not colder) due to latitude, so add in the elevation change, and it’s significantly colder.

Fortunately/Unfortunately, nothing has changed. Still the same lifts, lodge, and trails. Still the same great snow.

You got it one year before the Stairway to Heaven, right? It was t2b? Did you go back for the Stairway in a following year?

I hardly take my laptop with me anywhere, so I have to type it up on my phone half the time. It saves me time on uploading pictures, but it takes more time to write. Sometimes the task seems daunting, so I keep putting it off until a month later when I’m back around my computer.

Will do. I keep forgetting Tapatalk has that feature. It’s been years since I’ve used it. Hopefully a notification pops up.

I don’t disappear on purpose. Just get busy and stop checking in on the message boards. I still try to write TRs from time to time. Especially when they are different mountains, early season, or epic snow conditions.

Whatever happened to that guy? Is he still around?

I usually keep my gear in VT unless I know I’m coming down that way with a chance to ride. If I remember to bring down my gear, then I’ll definitely give it a shot. It’s been like 10 years since I last rode with PASRs. I had a random day with Root, Justo, and Rose at Hunter maybe 7-8 years ago, and that was it...

I used to be the biggest Elk groupie. I still enjoy the place and get there once every other year or so, but I do believe that Blue has better overall terrain. Only downside is that Blue’s runout is actually more boring/flatter than Elk’s. Sorry TP4, but I could never agree to CB being better than Elk. They have better snowmaking and lifts, but I actually think Elk has them beat with terrain. Elk shines because the conditions are usually better due to colder temps and less traffic. I bet Elk and JFBB have similar temps, but they have less vertical and a higher starting elevation. Plus their snowmaking is probably 8 times more powerful for the terrain they have.

Service industry is growing like crazy down here. New landscape companies opening daily it seems, and they all have work. They are building 2,500 homes in our county annually. It’s ridiculous really. It’s good for the real estate companies though. In terms of opening days, it all depends on the cold fronts. Especially at the lower elevations. Killington is one of the only mountains that has the elevation to make an earlier start without those cold spurts. November is normal up north, but it’s still a crapshoot that early.

Plus the guy has a bunch of car dealerships, right? Watching the trees grow is kind of crazy. I remember when they planted the trees on the corner at the top of Delaware. Those trees are fully grown now. I don’t know where all 600 go, but they definitely plant plenty.

Mowing the lawn is a tricky scenario for me. The majority of the grass I cut isn’t my own lawn. While we contract out the two business properties, we have a weekly beach rental I cut. There’s also 3 other lots on that same street I cut. It doesn’t really generate enough revenue to contract it out, so I do it. We also have the new business property that I cut, but that is only the ROW since the site itself is under construction. We will contract that out when it’s done as well. Then we have a couple other residential lots with no homes, our maintenance garage, and an old barn. Since I have a zero turn and a trailer, I do all that and then do my own home. My house is a third of an acre, but I also cut the two open lots next door for my neighbor. My ultimate goal is to eventually contract everything out but my house. I edge in with weed killer, so it doesn’t require much weed whacking. Once I build a garage I’ll get a small zero turn and make my money back by cutting the neighbor’s lawns. I’m home almost all summer, so that’s easy to do. I’d rather cut grass than maintain my landscaping, but I still do that twice a year. Takes me a couple weeks because I only do a bush here or there, but it eventually gets done.

Remnants of Gordon are starting to drop some impressive thunderstorms down on us tonight. Looks like Florence is going to join in the party this week. Luckily our new building is under roof. They should still be able to work this week regardless. I’m looking forward to fall/winter.

Which model are you rocking? I bought a 2011 SS5000 before they made them their official low end zero turn model. I run my mower hard (cut 6-7 acres of grass/weeds and partially wooded stuff (stumps/branches)) and it held up great. I can’t say enough about the Kawasaki motor. I had to replace the brake module (plastic finally wore out) and the spindle assembly, but otherwise, the only thing I had to swap out were tires (thorns in the front tires that don’t have tubes) and belts. My dad needed an upgrade, so we fixed the broken parts and now he’s got a great zero turn with a solid engine. Hopefully it lasts him another 7 years. When I went to get a new mower, I went back to the SS5000 since it fits on my mowing trailer (I even have a sweet weed whacker rack). Little did I know, but Toro actually started as an engine company. They downgraded the SS5000 (and lowered the price $350), but went to their in-house Toro branded engine. I had such great success with my previous Kawasaki, that I upgraded to the MX5000. It was a $600 swing, but the quality is a step up. Seat has better padding (whatever), there are armrests (whatever), has larger back tires (useful for some of my more uneven terrain), and it has a welded steel deck instead of a pressed deck (incredibly useful since I’m always hitting shit I can’t see). Overall, I’ve been impressed with it over the first two cutting days I’ve used it on. One of the other nice features of Toro is that they have a well stocked parts department. It’s still easy to get all the replacement parts I need, even for the 2011.

According to my friend’s, the grass cutting aspect is the most mindless part, but also the least profitable. You have to cut a large amount of lawns in a small geographic area during a short period of time to make any money. They basically keep the grass cutting side of things because it leads to the customer also wanting their landscaping done, which is a much higher profit margin business. Huge markups on the plants, labor, and design, all wrapped into one price.

It’s incredibly high profit if it’s done right. One friend started his company at 30, is on track to retire at 45, and he only runs two crews. One grass cutting crew and one landscaping crew. He holds about 150 lawns and does some one off jobs here and there.

Still doing landscaping? I have several friends in the business who say that getting/keeping good help is the toughest part. High profit margins/profit though. It is hard labor. It’s a young mans game.

I’ve been lurking their thread on AZ. They made a smart call to not get rid of Black before the new lift was installed. At least they will be able to run it at the reduced capacity this season if they need to. I’m less concerned about their lift capacity for this season than I am for parking. The place has two relatively small parking lots. They need to figure out how to make it easier for non hardcore Magic followers to enjoy the mountain to help pay for these upgrades.

I don’t think you’re complacent. I try to tell people, that sometimes you just have what you want and what you need. I’m not a greedy man. Once I get to a point where I’m making what I want, have the house upgrades I want, and can snowboard where I want, then I won’t need to make anymore money. Right now I do these new projects because A. The buildings are at the end of their lifespans, B. My grandfather did no site design when he built them, and C. I need something to do, because it’s super boring when we don’t have a project. The projects are only once a decade, so it’s not overwhelming. These upgrades should take me well into the latter years of my life. I shouldn’t have to do it again.

I feel like it is like any job. There are some benefits and some detractions. It also depends to some degree on how well you can compartmentalize. GSS is pretty gifted at that. Regardless of the ups and downs of business, he is able to leave it at the office when he walks through the door. Unfortunately, I have not been given that gift, especially during times of change. When things are going well, it is easy to leave things at the door. However, right now we have a couple vacancies of our own doing, trying to come up with a long term re-development plan, and we are also working on building another small new shopping center. There’s always brainstorming. It is more mentally taxing than anything. Once the new shopping center is built, filled, and the bills being paid, I’ll be much closer to being able to leave my worries at the office at night and on weekends. Overall, I wouldn’t change it. There are certain perks such as a company car and cell phone. The most important to me is virtually unlimited vacation time within reason and being able to make my own hours. The stress is tough right now, but it will get better as we wrap up these projects.

All of my research has found that if new people can put up with GSS for a week, we are likely to retain them for at least two years...