Distraction

Earlier this week the members of The Wisconsin Bed and Breakfast Association met at The Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for their annual meeting and conference.  The conference began with a special day of presentations for Aspiring Innkeepers.  Sixteen future innkeepers learned about the profession from experts in business, financing, and insurance and received lots of advice from practicing innkeepers about marketing, policies, record keeping and websites.  Tours of local B&B’s were enjoyed by many of the conference attendees.  The keynote presentation was delived on Monday morning by Jay Karen of PAII.  His message encouraged innkeepers to reach out to the next generation of guests by listening to their needs and desires.  The rest of Monday and Tuesday were filled with interesting workshops, a trade show, and probably most importantly, time for the members of WBBA to share time with old friends and welcome some new ones into this family of innkeepers.

What does happen when innkeepers get together?  Do they tell horror stories about bad guests?  No, well maybe a little bit but innkeepers are really a positive group sharing the feeling that B&B guests are a very special group of people who make a conscious choice to be a guest at a B&B.  So innkeepers time together is a time to share best practices, tidbits of vendor information, and recipes and breakfast menu plans.  It really is a time to recharge and then go back to their B&B’s with a long, long list of ideas, projects, and concepts to explore during the slightly quieter months ahead.

So, a new year begins now before January even rolls around.  There is blogging to do, facebook to do better, pictures to take (especially food pictures), rooms to refurbish or redecorate, a cookbook to create, new marketing techniques to master, and time management issues to resolve.  You can share my journey on facebook, if you care to.  It promises to be interesting.

Crab Trees at The Speckled Hen Inn

The Speckled Hen Inn is delighted and proud to be named one of Wisconsin’s Top Ten Eco-Elegant Inns by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.  We take our participation in Wisconsin’s Travel Green certification program very seriously and want travelers to know that “traveling green” doesn’t mean having to forgo some of the very nice things in life.  It often means making the best choice available and that choice is often delicious, delightful, and downright fun.

Here is what they had to say about us:

This room will allow The Speckled Hen Inn to now accept children under the age of 12 and the room is also pet-friendly.  The Madison Lakes Room is on the lower level of the Inn and has its own private entrance.

 This has been a fun project to design and construct.  We did the majority of the work ourselves over the winter.

 The room has a more contemporary feel than the other four guest rooms in the Inn.   Upon walking in through double French doors off the lower deck, the bedroom is sunken 12” below the tiled entry foyer/breakfast area.  The King-sized bed is recessed slightly into one wall.  There is a separate seating area with two swivel chairs.  The room also has a gas fireplace with a 37” HDTV/DirecTV above the mantle, viewable from the bed and the seating area.  The fireplace is nestled between a built-in bookcase and seating/luggage bench.  The room is decorated with textured fabrics in shades of chocolate brown, bronze and pear green with a few sunset colors as accents.

There is also a wet bar and freezer/refrigerator in the room.  For business travelers, there is a desk area built into the wall next to the fireplace. Free wireless internet access is provided.  Breakfast will be served in the dining room of the Inn, or if you prefer, in the room at your private dining table.

 The room also features an attached private spa-like bathroom.   The Spa Room is elevated 6” above the main room.  The shower is 4×6 feet in size with an all glass front.  There is a two person bench built into the shower where you can enjoy a normal wall shower, an overhead rain shower and last but not least, a steam shower!  The room also features a 2-person champagne-bubble air-jet tub.   The Spa Room is fully tiled giving it a warm, luxurious feeling.  There is an all glass vessel sink next to the tub bench, matching the glass tile insert in the wall tile pattern.  There is a separate enclosed toilet room.

The art work in the room depicts scenes of Madison from the Lakes, and hence, the “Madison Lakes” room-name.

Soon there will be a small outdoor courtyard for guests of the Madison Lakes Room to enjoy and we hope to have pictures available very soon.

A telemarketer phoned while I was cleaning up after breakfast today.  I’m sure that he had, what he thought, was an original line.  It went something like this, ” If I could give you information that would allow you earn enough money to stop doing what you are doing now, would you take a minute to write down a web address?”  My immediate response, without even thinking about it was, “NO”.  He wished me “good luck” and hung up. 

I was thinking about his pitch while I was drying the crystal and reflecting on the life of an innkeeper.  This really is a great job.  We meet the nicest people as our guests, from near and far, far away.  We get to do the things we like to do such as cooking and gardening and decorating.  We get to show off this great city that we live in.  We are constantly learning new things whether it is how to install tile or write a blog.  When we need a break we can take one.  Guests sometimes ask if we are uncomfortable with having “strangers” in our home.  The answer is a very resounding NO.  Our guests validate what we do.  If we had done all this work and put so much effort into creating The Speckled Hen Inn and did not share it with our guests, we surely wouldn’t enjoy it as much.

So, I wasn’t just  giving the brush to the telemarketer this morning.  I wouldn’t want to stop doing what I am doing right now.  We hope that our passion shows.  I’m sure that it does.

The Japanese Garden in Early Spring

Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the Speckled Hen is just 7.5 miles from the Capitol Square and the campus of the University of Wisconsin. The B&B is the perfect place for a romantic retreat, reunions, celebrations, business travelers, or family visiting students at the university.     

The Inn has four spacious guest rooms, each with a private bath. Guests also enjoy the large gathering room with piano and wood-burning stove, a home theater, library and candle-lit dining room.

Llamas, Green Pastures, and Flowering Crabs

The 50–acre property features pastures with sheep and llamas, wetland and grassland areas, streams, pine and spruce plantations, orchards, walking trails and gardens. Breakfast includes local ingredients, many from the Inn’s property.

Spring Chicks find a Home at The Speckled Hen Inn

The Speckled Hen Inn is a proud member of the Travel Green Wisconsin Certification program and is committed to sustaining not only the ecosystem of which it is a part, but also the economy, the culture, and the sense of place that guests enjoy in south-central Wisconsin.

Each year in April we renew our certification in the Travel Green Wisconsin program.  It is the perfect opportunity to take stock of what we have accomplished and look forward to what will come in the year ahead.  Going “green” is a journey.  Let’s take a look at what we have done, are doing, and hope to do soon.

The easiest and obvious things came first.  Compact fluorescent bulbs replace incandescent light bulbs as they burn out.  Motion sensors that turn lights on for a short period of time are used in many areas both inside the Inn and along the outdoor walkways.  As appliances wear out they are replaced with EnergyStar rated appliances.  Refrigerators, freezers, washers and clothes dryers have been some recent examples.  Each guest room has an additional waste can just for items to be recycled.  Information about what can be recycled by our refuse pick-up company is posted for guests to read.  We also recycle batteries, print cartridges, and many other items.  Nothing just automatically goes in the trash bin.  A linen re-use program is in effect and bath liquids are offered in dispensers rather than little plastic bottles.

Water conservation is a major concern at our Inn.  We do have our own well that provides us with beautiful clear, clean water.  We eliminated bottled water from our “amenities offered” list more than a year ago and guests seem to enjoy our natural water supply.  It does, however take electricity to pump that water out of the ground so we are constantly looking for ways to reduce our water usage.  We have installed low-flow shower heads and water conserving toilets. Our laundry is equipped with high efficiency washers and we sweep rather than hosing off the decks, porches and walkways.  New garden beds have drip irrigation systems and are mulched to retain moisture.  Rain barrels to use for watering the decorative landscape planters are in the plans for this season.

Crab apple trees along the pasture fence

The Inn’s 50-acre property is home to may species of birds, deer, wild turkey, and other woodland and wetland creatures.  The spring-fed creeks on the property supply them with an open source of water year-round.  We hope that our guests will enjoy and respect the natural habitat while they are here.  Many guests express their joy at having a place to reconnect with the land.

It has long been an ideal, goal, dream, whatever you want to call it, of ours to live off our land.  Our favorite bookshelf has always contained books outlining the various ways that one might accomplish that.  While being completely self-sufficient is still a distant dream, we have made some major efforts toward that goal.  Our vegetable garden and orchards continue to expand.  It is a joy to prepare and offer our guests breakfast items that feature the bounty of our land.  We have also developed great relationships with other local growers and suppliers whose goods also grace our table and additionally give our guests a destination for their exploration of the area.

I want to close this post by saying a few words about the final word in our slogan – Style.  We strongly feel that embracing sustainability and being environmentally conscious is not tied to “doing without” but rather to finding better, more earth friendly, ways of doing the things that you want to do.  It is about embracing what you can create with whatever is available and sharing it with those you care about.  Our decorating “Style” reflects the roads we have traveled and what we find that offers us comfort.  Our food “Style” reflects our passion for fresh, local, and lovely.  And our hospitality “Style” reflects our willingness to share what we have created with our guests.  We hope that they enjoy as much as we do. 

Bob and I are both natives of Missouri.  We met in college in the late 60’s and were married in 1973.  We moved to Madison in 1978 and purchased the 50-acre parcel where The Speckled Hen Inn is located in 1984 and began construction and landscaping in 1986.  We completed the building of our home in 1990 and raised our two children in the house that is now the Inn.  In 2000, I opened the Speckled Hen Inn.  Bob retired from his “day job” of 32 years in 2005 and became the full-time assistant innkeeper .

Bob and Happy take a break.

Over the years, we have developed our interests in entertaining, cooking, gardening and wine appreciation.  They tell me that I have the creative genes that are best reflected in the decor of the Inn and interesting gourmet breakfasts served at the Inn.  The Inn is known for its breakfasts, warm ambiance and genuine hospitality.  Many of the breakfast entrées use ingredients produced at the Inn by the Innkeepers.   Bob is the assistant chef, head gardner and is responsible for the upkeep of the 50 acre estate.   The Inn is proud to be a member of Travel Green Wisconsin.

Come share our 25+ year labor of love and be prepared to be pampered and, of course,  well fed.

Pat with one of the lambs.