Still Closed

We have been closed at the Spruceton Inn for 8 MONTHS now trying to keep our community, our guests, our staff, and our family as safe as possible.

The parts of life I show online here and on Instagram are mostly idyllic— sunrises and rainbows and running around the property with children. And I feel so lucky and grateful every day that ANY part of my life can feel idyllic during this pandemic and election etc.

But it is REALLY HARD in other ways (duh!) and it is SO FRUSTRATING that we know how to stop this virus and yet we as a country are worse off now than ever.

So please, please, pleeeeeeeeease keep doing your part to keep yourself and others as safe as you possibly can! Wear a mask, keep your distance, ask yourself if your family reeeeally has to travel this Thanksgiving. Don’t bend the rules because you’re tired of them, because you miss your friends and family, because you think you can somehow bend them “safely”. Now is the time to think of each other— every last one of us!— and to do everything in our power to keep each other safe.

Changing Seasons

This fall has been beautiful, hard, strange, delightful, discouraging, fun, tedious, and ultimately hopeful. We’ve had a full variety of weather to go with the full variety of feelings, haha.

The gratitude I feel grows every day. So does my sense of responsibility. But again, like so many people, I’m feeling more hopeful this week than I have in a long, long time. After hearing Biden and Harris won we danced like we haven’t danced in months and and I ugly-cried so many tears of joy.

Here’s to hoping you’re feeling some joy right now too wherever you are!

Breathe In, Breathe Out

Just a reminder to un-hunch your shoulders and take a deep breath in and a deep breath out.

Summer

Still strange. Still grateful. Still so damn beautiful out here.

Speaking of gratitude— are you feeling lucky too and financially able to give a little? We’ve recently donated to the LGBTQ Freedom Fund and the Transgender Law Center, maybe you want to too?

Lately

Feeling stupendously grateful to be out here right now.

And while I’m not the voice anyone needs to listen to when it comes to the Black Lives Matter movement, I just wanted to note here (because silence feels complicit) that Steven and I are trying to do our part to fight the horrific systemic racism in this country by listening, learning, unlearning, voting, signing petitions, sending emails, making calls, amplifying black voices, having the tough conversations, and donating again and again again. I encourage you to as well.

I’ve been reposting loads of resources in my Instagram stories. I am really appreciating Rachel Cargle and The Conscious Kid especially these days.

This is going to be a long fight, so don’t lose heart, don’t lose steam. It’s all connected— racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, climate criss, COVID-19, more! It’s time to reimagine what’s possible. That’s the thought I keep coming back to right now. None of us should be rushing back to the old “normal”. That shit was broken. We can all do so much better.

Nope, Not Open Yet

People have been asking us at the Inn: ARE YOU OPEN?

No, we are NOT open. And no, we do NOT think you should visit the area. Yet.

WHY ARE YOU NOT REOPENING RIGHT NOW? LOADS OF OTHER PLACES ARE!

Because scientists and health experts (and Governor Cuomo!) warn that allowing people to travel widely could trigger a second outbreak and we do not want to have a hand in those hospitalizations and deaths. There is still not enough testing, there is still no vaccine.

WHAT IF I PROMISE I'LL BE REEEEEEEALLY GOOD ABOUT SOCIAL DISTANCING?

I'm sure you would be! And I'm sure we could be too! Our Inn is super well situated for social distancing. But it's not about that right now. It's about having tens of thousands of "you" coming up from the hotbed of the infection to an area that's underserved in the best of times. (There is literally no hospital here in Greene County!) It's a numbers game; some of "you" will be infected, some of "you" will be silent carriers, some of "you" will accidentally transmit it. And that could all contribute to a second spike.

THIS IS ALL EASY FOR YOU TO SAY. YOU'RE NOT STUCK IN THIS TINY APARTMENT IN NYC.

I know. And I'm sorry staying at home has sucked so much for so many of you! I fully acknowledge that I am very lucky to have all this space. I wish I could safely share it with all of you!

FINE, I'LL JUST STAY SOMEWHERE ELSE NEARBY INSTEAD. YOU'RE BEING OVERLY CAUTIOUS.

Maybe I am. But if we open the Inn this summer, we could personally bring up almost 2,000 people from NYC in the next few months. Until we can be more confident that bringing tourists to the area will not significantly spread the disease, we don't want to reopen.

YOU SOUND REALLY SAD AND ANGRY.

Because I am. This is scary! It was scary tending bar at our tiny front desk the last weekend before the Pause when no one knew what was going on. It was scary wearing gloves and masks to sanitize the hell out of the rooms and roll up possibly infected laundry. It was scary coming home to my two babies and running off to change before I held them. It's scary watching the bank account balance go down, down, down. I'm sad we had to let go of our staff. I'm sad and angry that our government's response has been such a mixed bag. I'm sad and angry that I've spent years working so hard to get people to come up to the Catskills and now I'm telling them to stay away. And I'm REALLY sad and angry that people are dying from this disease when they don't have to.

BUT YOU WILL REOPEN AGAIN ONE DAY, RIGHT?

Yes! A resounding yes. And we cannot wait to have you back! Once we feel it's safe and responsible for us to do so. It might be a matter of just a few weeks. But it might be a matter of months.

HOW WILL I KNOW WHEN THAT IS?

We'll make an announcement on our website, our mailing list , and our Instagram the moment we've decided something new, so stay in touch!

THIS IS ALL GOOD TO KNOW, BUT YOU STILL HAVEN'T ANSWERED MY SPECIFIC QUESTION.

Email us at info@sprucetoninn.com or call us at 518-989-6404. 

We cannot wait to have you up for some Catskills fun when we're all on the other side of this. Stay healthy out there!

Casey / Head Innkeeper

Strange Times

I feel lucky, tired, anxious, enraged, afraid, grateful, uncertain, overwhelmed, sad, lonely, stunned, helpless, and cautiously optimistic.

I don’t know what reopening looks like, and I don’t know when anything of the sort will happen. There are parts of running a 24/7 business in my own backyard that I don’t miss a bit, and plenty more that I do.

These are weird f*cking times my friends. I hope you all are staying healthy out there. I hope we get through this to other side better than we all were before.

Paused

With the New York Pause officially in effect, we are on pause.

In fact we closed the Inn last week because we decided that would be best for public health at large— for our staff, our guests, the entire neighborhood, and beyond. And while I am in no way to be happy to be closed, I am relieved that the Governor has made this choice for everyone.

It is surreal.

In some ways, Steven’s and my daily rhythms have barely changed. He’s still making books, we still have both kids at home like we always do. We live in a cycle of naps and nursing and reading books and baking bread and taking walks. But today is the first day neither of our other Innkeepers are here and it’s hitting me harder than I expected.

I’ve been posting on Instagram Stories more than here obviously, if you want to follow along. There are lots of soothing nature pics:

And kid stuff, like Amina’s wacky outfits and my one big tip for hanging out with them at home:

It’s also where I’ve explained our thought process that led us to closing before the Pause and where I’ll be adding updates on reopening etc as things continue.

Stay home. Stay healthy out there.

Welcoming 2020 With Sunshine

The holidays were madness at the Inn. Mostly the good kind. But madness nonetheless! So we hightailed it to the Bahamas for a quick three nights which, lets’s get real, was two days of travel and two days of vacation BUT WHATEVER LOOK AT THIS GLORIOUS BEACH WHERE WE LIVED FOR THOSE TWO DAYS:

When we arrived at the little cottage we booked I took off my shoes and literally never put shoes back on again until we had to return to the airport for our flight home. Alllll we did was swim and lounge and read and stroll and nap and swim and snack and swim and stroll some more. And apply sunscreen. There was A LOT of sunscreen.

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We returned home to some single digit weather, but with sunshine in our bones… and one very sandy bear.

Bookshelf: Reading With A Newborn Again

So I just did that girl-in-a-movie thing where I wrote a long blog post, it never autosaved (because that’s apparently no longer a Squarespace thing??), and my computer inexplicably crashed so I lost it all. It’s not exactly a high stakes problem but it still sucks. Especially because moments to write can feel few and far between with two kids, a business, a partner under lots of deadlines etc.

I refuse to surrender completely to the computer crash by giving up on the post entirely but I also just CANNOT dive into it all again so here’s the Cliff’s Notes version:

Reading with a baby around was alternately luxurious (Felix fast asleep in my arms as we lounged on the back patio, devouring hundreds of pages) and tedious (rereading the same page and half every night before bed for a week because sleeping less than three hours in a row for months on end really gets to your brain after a while). Here are some of my favorites from the past 6 months through it all:

The Other’s Gold by Elizabeth Ames. Sent as an Advanced Ready copy to me by a hotel guest in the industry which made me feel extra special and happy, I ate up this book in maybe a day and half right after we brought Felix home. Four girlfriends through college, early careers, starting families. Lots of drama, page turning.

How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell is WONDERFUL. So many good thoughts public space, our scattered attention. Timely, smart, and just the right amount of strange. Not TED Talk-y, and I mean that as a compliment.

I read Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino right after it was almost too much the-Internet-will-ruin-us-all back to back but ultimately an enjoyable pairing because the voices are so different. Odell’s is academic, Tolentino’s is more chatty, but this book is by no means a shallow dive. I read with a pencil and underlined entire passages on virtue signaling, the Internet’s insistence on imposing our identity onto everything, the “hustle” and “girl bosses”.. Both these books gave me the vocabulary to talk about otherwise amorphous things that had been bumming me out about modern life.

First I must confess that I paid probably twice as much to get the UK versions of Rachel Cusk’s Transit, Outline, and Kudos BUT THESE COVERS AMIRIGHT?? And the insides are just as beautiful! I didn’t read them all in a row— I think the lack of plot and unique voice would numb you if you did— but I loved them. So odd, so smart. She’s obviously been watching and listening to people closely for years.

Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson is a funny, quick memoir published in 1948 about moving her young family from NYC to rural Vermont. (Why would I ever like that, right?) I love that she’s now famous for her psychological horror (did you all read “The Lottery” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” in English class too?) but during her lifetime was known for her more “fluffy”, family-centric magazine writing. She’s got a keen eye for domestic and neighborly interactions and it serves her well in both genres.

Tell Me How It Ends by Valeria Luiselli is absolutely as heartbreaking as I thought it would be given the subject matter (the deportation of kids, essentially) but also more beautifully and delicately rendered than I thought it would be. I think I cried twenty times and read barely ten pages before I donated to a nonprofit working to improve conditions on the border. It’s slim but powerful. Run, don’t walk. Then read her novel Story of My Teeth because that’s also amazing in a completely different way.

Inland by Tea Obrecht is a moody Western with a magical edge and… camels! In the wrong temperament, it can feel slow and overwritten and claustrophobic despite the literal expanse of what she’s describing. But like with her first book, once I surrendered, I found it beautiful and strange and haunting.

I am one of many who decided to reread Little Women by Louisa May Alcott before watching Gretta Gerwig’s latest film version of it and OMG IT IS SO LONG. Honestly, I don’t think I actually read the whole thing before. I probably started it back in 1994 before that movie version came out and jumped ship for more Nancy Drew instead. Sometimes it felt stiff, preachy, and predictable (oh Jo, you free sprit you!), other times it felt cozy and satisfying, and occasionally there’d be a lightning bolt of modernity— say, some astute observation about gender dynamics that still rings true today. Maybe one day I’ll actually watch the Gretta Gerwig film. Because as hard as it can be to find time to write, it’s even harder right now to find time to actually go to the movies.

Backyard Tree Farm

Picked out an xmas tree from the backyard yesterday.

We put a few ornaments on it and some wrapped presents below it and have thoroughly mystified Amina.

Just wait til someone tells her about Santa. Or Jesus Christ. Or the pagan equinox.

Winter Math

In the past 14 days, Steven was on tour for 7 of them, we had visitors for 8, hosted a 13 person Thanksgiving in the middle, did 2 weekend bar shifts, and had 2 snow storms.

Aaaand there’s 10 more inches of snow coming to top the 8” already sitting there!

Winter's On Its Way

It’s still the season of snow one day, rain the next but you can definitely feel that winter’s on its way…

Working With A Baby In Your Lap Is...

… so easy!

Especially when your tasks are tedious and/or require concentration!

I’m kidding of course.

And yet somehow I did manage to get our Spruceton Inn online shop up and running yesterday:

This past week has been a lot of computer chores like that. Including today when I found myself in a clusterf*ck of third party merchant services because my reservation system suddenly stopped supporting the one we’d been using for years without freaking warning us. In simpler terms: all of sudden we couldn’t process anyone’s credit cards. UGH. I fixed it, but seriously, UGH.

The week before was a little more analog in our tasks. We built an entirely new back bar at the Inn with no notice because our 3-part sink was giving us trouble and the new one we ordered was a liiiiittle bigger than the online measurements had said and next thing you know we’re cannibalizing workshop tables from the barn—

Hammock chairs are good for briefly containing toddlers so you can take care of things with both hands (with the baby strapped to you).

…and turning them into back-bar tops with the plumbers—

… because they were there that day to winterize the barn and damn if we weren’t gonna get it all finished before the next guest checked in. All of which required me to take literally EVERYTHING out from behind the bar (that picture on the right isn’t even a quarter of it)—

… which meant a deep clean and paint touch ups and re-organizing it all to put it back but I DID it! Just in time.

Meanwhile Steven has been working away on the third book of his Astronut series, plus the final art for his other middle grade book about being a middle kid, and another book project about which I’m not allowed to say much quite yet but you get the picture; HE’S REALLY FUCKING BUSY TOO.

Not to mention Felix was going through a classic four-month old sleep regression and getting up—no exaggeration—every two hours, so in addition to all this work madness we decided to move her into her own room, trade her basinet for a crib, and swap her swaddle for a sleep sac all while we attempted to teach her to self-soothe (via The Little Ones program we loved so much for Amina).

I know.

Is it any surprise to hear that I’ve left the valley exactly twice in the past month?

It’s nutty. It’s nutty! But there’s still time for tender fun like playing piano with Amina and painting her toes for the first time (she chose two different blues) and getting outside all together even when it’s barely twenty degrees and it takes just as long to get everyone bundled as we spend out there.

Congrats to our 2020 Spruceton Inn Artist Residents!

Here they are! Our 2020 Spruceton Inn Artist Residents:

Ariel Aberg-Riger, visual storyteller / D. Arthur, writer / Sage Brown, photographer / Rachael Cole, author & illustrator / Meg Day, poet / Micheal Foulk, writer & performer / Shanita Hubbard, writer & performer / Heather Jones, writer & designer / Alexandra Marvar, writer / Glynnis MacNicol, writer / Jovanna Tosello, animator

HOLY CRAP was it hard to choose this year! We got about 300 applicants and Steven and I read through every. single. one. And yes, our eyes felt like they were going to fall out by the end of it, and yes, it is so emotionally overwhelming to digest so many artists’ work and hopes, but yes we are sooooo excited about the 11 folks we chose to come this year.

Real Talk with Domino Mag

A writer from Domino reached out the other week with a handful of questions for a piece she was working on about running a bed & breakfast.

Since only a portion of my answers actually ran in the article, I thought I’d include ‘em all here for those of you curious about what it’s actually like to run your own small Inn.

When did you start thinking about opening an inn? Was it a longtime dream or something that came about more recently?

I was living in Morocco back in 2009 and started daydreaming about renovating an abandoned riad on my block and turning it into a small hotel. I didn't move on the idea of opening a spot in earnest until a few years later once I'd relocated back to Brooklyn where I grew up. I wound up opening my inn upstate in the Catskills, but I still fantasize about opening a place back in Morocco!

What was the driving inspiration behind your idea to open an inn?

After years of freelance writing and design work, I really wanted to build something tangible of my own. A small hotel like ours is the crossroads of so many of my personal and professional interests: travel, interior design, hosting, graphic design, art, good beer...

How do you intend for your inn to foster a sense of community?

Our inn is specifically designed so that you can interact with the staff and other guests as little or as much as you'd like. Some folks come to simply get away from it all. If you want quiet and solitude, we got you-- we're set on eight acres in the middle of the Catskills Park, five miles down a seven mile dead end road with no cell service! Other folks check-in and post up at out itty-bitty bar and make fast friends. Next thing you know they're all grilling dinner together and sharing their s'mores supplies at a bonfire late into the night, swapping phone numbers at check-out. Our bar is also open to the public on weekends, so locals will stop by for a bourbon and a chat. I love to see neighbors and guests laughing it up together.

Why do you think community is so important when it comes to inns/B&Bs?

Big, road-side hospitality brands used to offer you the same thing no matter where in the country you were as part of their appeal. Lots of travelers now want a taste of local life. Community is a part of that-- chatting with the owners and the staff about their lives, getting recommendations from other guests who have been there for a few days already, meeting locals who drop in. There is plenty of anonymity in daily life these days; becoming a part of a small community for a weekend can feel like a treat.

How did you feel when your first guest checked in?

Fifty percent like I was eight years old and playing hotel, fifty percent like I was the badass business owner I'd worked so hard over the previous few years to become.

What surprises you the most about running an inn? Unexpected challenges? Unexpected benefits?

I worked at a hotel to gain experience before opening my own, so luckily most of the surprises and unexpected challenges were less about the business and more about the realities of life in such a rural area with such extreme variations in weather. (Think 80F and sunny in the summer and negative 20F with five feet of snow in the winter!) As for unexpected benefits, I had no idea just how much I would come to adore our regulars. Some people come three or four times a year. I see their names in our reservation calendar and it literally makes me smile. Some have even become friends of ours outside of the Inn-- we've gone out to dinner together, gone to their weddings. I even hired a regular to cover me for my maternity leave when I had my first baby!

What inspired you to make your inn a "bed and bar" as opposed to a "bed and breakfast"?

I don't eat breakfast. Seriously! I wanted to build a place that I would go to. I'm way more interested in wine than waffles. It's best to play to your own strengths and interests in a business this small-- your enthusiasm (or lack thereof) is contagious. Don't worry though-- we do serve very delicious, complimentary Café Grumpy in the mornings... with a flask of bourbon next to the milk of course.

Anything else you'd like to add?

I cannot count many times people have told me, "You're living the dream!" And most of the time it really does feel like it. But to all you aspiring innkeepers out there: the dream includes a LOT of work. Like, 24/7 work if you're not careful about setting up systems and boundaries! It's the truth about most small businesses really. So do yourself a favor, don't approach it like it'll be a little extra laundry and some chit-chat on the side. Approach it like it's the dreamy, occasionally grueling, oh so rewarding business that it is.

A New Groove

I’m officially back at work! But we still have our two amaaazing full-time employees Lexi and Hannah so being “back at work” no longer means 15 hour Fridays to kick off the work week like it used to back when we first opened. (Omg how, HOW DID I DO IT??)

Instead I’m catching up on emails, doing longterm development etc in my home office, and popping into Room One to say hi to guests during coffee and bar service. I did cover for Lexi the Saturday before last with Felix who was hilariously chill about the whole thing. I’m not going to pretend like it’s ideal to bar tend with a baby strapped to you, but it’s absolutely possible at an operation like ours.

*yawn*

Steven’s been going pedal to the metal on a few projects as well, but even with his deadlines and me back at work, we’re super lucky that we can just pass the babes back and forth all day since his studio is at home and mine is down the hall or in the backyard. Every once in a while we talk about trying to find a babysitter…

…and then they do something hilarious and sweet or we all decide to jump in the car and head to the trail in the middle of the day just for fun and so we’re like, Eff it let’s just all hang out together ALL THE TIME.

It’s also been beautiful out lately.

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So ask me about that babysitter again once winter sets in.

End of Summer

The end of summer has been a bit of a blur. Like most people probably, at the turn of September I found myself asking, What the hell, already??

With three workshops, a party, and three weddings this season on top of our usual summertime busyness at the Inn, I found myself slipping out of maternity leave and into work even more than I had with Amina.

Hosting a little party for some of our Artist Residents aka totally nailing a no-work maternity leave. *slaps forehead* (It was super sweet and fun though.)

I felt guilty and annoyed and did some beating myself up over it then reassessed, recommitted, and have all but submarined entirely into family and writing life and will continue to do so until the end of the month. (So many high-fives to our Innkeepers Lexi and Hannah!)

Don’t get me wrong— it has absolutely been snuggly and special and fun, my could-have-been-better work boundaries and all!

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And the big September thing we’ve actually all been looking forward to:

A huuuuuge congrats to Steven and my dad on the launch of AstroNuts!

Meet book one of the three part AstroNuts series which just came out this week! 200 pages of full color, craaaazy illustrations that combine Steven’s digital drawings with old paintings, engravings, and more from the @rijksmuseum all telling the wacky tale of four mutant animal astronauts in search of a new, Goldilocks planet because humans have ruined this one with our climate crisis. It’s real science! And completely, wonderfully ridiculous and hilarious too. (Pick one up for the 7-12ish year old readers in your life wherever books are sold. Like here!)

And one more shout out to Steven and my parents, without whom this maternity leave with Felix wouldn’t have been nearly as a) possible and b) fun! It takes a f*cking village guys.

Hiring! Artist Residency! Workshops!

SO MUCH good stuff going on at the Spruceton Inn this fall:

Ain't no Sunday Scaries here. Not when you're behind this Front Desk & Bar hanging out with the coolest, nicest guests around! SO COME BE AN INNKEEPER WITH US! 30-40 hours per week. No hospitality experience necessary.  Ideal start date is mid-November but if you're worth it we'll wait. More details about the position and online application here.

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Applications open September 1st-30th for our 6th annual Artist Residency! We're awarding about 7 artists a free room for a week this winter, no strings attached. Learn more about the program and how to apply here.

Aaaaand registration is open for our two fall workshops!

Btw, workshop teacher Chloe Caldwell (who was also a 2018 Artist Resident!) just published the most beautiful piece on being a stepmother in the Times. I 100% cried when I read it.

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See you for some of this fun soon?

Don't Touch The Art, But Definitely Talk To It

We popped over to North Adams to meet up with our pals Noah, Rebecca, and little Mina. They live in Egypt but were visiting family in the States so we planned a quick night halfway between us. I was also super excited to stay at Tourists Welcome and visit Mass MoCA for the first time!

We went to the museum upon arrival and oh my goodness, everyone should go to a contemporary art museum with a toddler. Like with so many activities with kids, experiencing art with one makes you slow down, become more curious, less judgmental, less self-conscious about whether you’re “getting it”…

First thing we saw when we walked in was a video piece featuring a bulldozer. Amina was like, Yes, art is AMAZING.

It also cracked me up when we told Amina we couldn’t touch the art and she tucked her arms up like this for the entire Trenton Doyle Hancock exhibit:

And while I loved the Sol LeWitt show for many reasons entirely unrelated to children, it was pretty damn cute to watch Amina spot her pals Circle, Square, and Triangle from her beloved books about them.

Back at the hotel we reunited with our real-life pals and hung out in the main lounge with them as it drizzled outside, catching up as our rooms were readied. The space is very trendy, very cute.

Same with the rooms, though oh my goodness the guy who checked us in accidentally cracked me up so hard—

He was pointing out that the TV is hidden with a drop cloth sleeve, a design choice I completely understand as my least favorite part about having a TV in the house is how it looks like an ugly black box when it’s turned off. And in describing this he said, “The hotel puts a burlap sac on the TV because they want to keep the room bland.”

BLAND!

Orrr what design snobs might call “minimal”?

I really had to stifle my laughter.

I don’t know, maybe it’s not as funny to you, but people talk to me alllll the time about how our Inn is so “minimal” and how much they love it for that reason and how that’s so chic etc. This moment was just such a great reminder (much like the whole museum with Amina) that one person’s “minimalist design” is another person’s “bland”. That sometimes we all take ourselves waaaay too seriously.

Anyway! It cleared up in the afternoon so we were able to get in some pool time and grounds exploring too and the next morning was beautiful as well.

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It was quick trip, but totally delightful nonetheless.

Hot tip if you head out there yourself: when you buy admission to Mass MoCA you can go the next day too at no additional cost. You better believe we went back in the morning so we could see Amina’s I'm-not-touching-the-art-arms in full effect again:

We even got the bonus experience of watching her make bird noises at this sculpture in a room full of very serious art appreciators.

Oh the unexpected joys of parenthood.