More Volunteer Training for Norris

Norris has just completed two weeks of training in vehicle extrication and rescue techniques. The training was provided by Asheville City Fire Dept, primarily for their own firefighters, but a few students also attended from other departments in Buncombe County. Asheville Fire also provided one of their rescue trucks for use during the hands-on parts of the training. The purpose of the class was to teach methods for dealing with victims trapped in wrecked cars, trucks, buses, and farm machinery. The white van on the left is about to undergo some extreme modifications.

For starters, the van was rolled over on its side to simulate an unstable rollover with victims trapped inside. The first step was stabilizing the van with large jacks to make it safe to work on.

Next, air chisels were used to make roof openings to remove victims.

The van was then rolled back onto its wheels to simulate a different kind of scenario, where the victims could only be removed by cutting back the roof. Here a hydraulic cutter has been used to cut the corner posts and to cut notches in each side of the roof. The roof was then folder back in one piece to create a large opening to remove the victims.

The doors were removed as part of this exercise as well, including the two side doors. The van is now very well ventilated.

Then it was time to simulate a crash where the victim is pinned under the dash. Here the cutter is being used to make a large cut in the wheel well of the van to start the process of lifting the dash.

After the cut was made, a hydraulic spreader is inserted between the door corner and the dash to push the dash about a foot above its normal position.

After the van had been pretty well worn out, the class moved on to practice a technique that can be used to enter the passenger compartment on a car that has rolled and the top has been crushed down (although our practice car's roof was still in tact). In this case, the rescuers use hydraulics tool to quickly remove the trunk, then cut the steel supports behind the rear seat so that rescue personnel can crawl from the trunk into the back seat to begin removing victims.

This unfortunate red pickup was used to simulate a case where a car has rolled on its side up against an embankment and the only means of access if through the floor on the vehicle. Here you can see the driveshaft and exhaust pipe have been removed and cutting tools have been used to create a hole in the floor (the gray color that you see is the headliner of the cab). The truck is now suitable for use by Fred Flinstone.

In this photo, a technique is being used to quickly remove both side doors as a single unit using the hydraulic spreaders and cutters.

This large opening was created in less than 5 minutes.

In all, seven different vehicles were pretty much cut to bits during the 4 day hands-on portion of the class. Under normal conditions, tearing cars apart in training is good clean fun, but when its over 90 degrees out and you're wearing your heavy "sweat suit" it doesn't seem like so much fun.

New Topics

Thick pork chops were on sale at a local grocery store, and with the current heat wave, we preferred to grill them. We found a Food Network recipe for Butterflied Cuban Style Pork Chops. Norris did such an excellent job cooking them, using the fish basket to preserve the cheese filling, we thought we'd save a photograph so we'll remember to make this again -
Norris doesn't like dill pickles, so we left them out but it was still a delicious dish. The recipe includes a great sauce made with fresh squeezed lime and orange juice. We split one 8 oz chop like this between us.

Cheryl is back to being able to wear shoes and can walk the neighborhood again. It has been so hot she's been going much earlier than usual. Yesterday she was treated with this view and, noting the time, returned to the spot today for some attempts to photograph the moment -



Have to work on exposures but it was fun to try. That spot is along the heavily treed part of the main development road, just down the slope from our house.

Next, our house, half an hour later, showing the line of the sun. Due to our situation on the slope, the sunlight won't hit the house for another two hours.


The line where the road cut turns green is our property - the dirt in the foreground our neighbor's.

We've noted a bumper crop of bunnies this year after not having seen any for the last two. They are always out and about along the road but this one was in one of the few grassy yards in the neighborhood.


And last, Norris walked with Cheryl in the evening on Saturday and we saw this vine on a tree in a vacant lot.




Hummingbirds traditionally like these trumpet flowers, but we are back to refilling three feeders more than daily. The few who returned for the season must have had a nice crop of babies.

Today's Color is Yellow

Last fall, our neighbor Barbara, a passionate gardener, was cleaning up her beds and gave Cheryl some day lilies as she passed her on a walk. We had no plan for our garden, but some flowers near the dry stream bed seemed like a good idea.

Her plants started to reward us for the minor effort it took to plant them today.



The St. John's Wort in the beds by the front door started out as insignificant plants two years ago. They have really filled in and will be more impressive in a few days.



Turning to the wildflower meadow, these plants are awash with yellow and red blooms, making up for their scraggly nature in numbers in some areas.



Tall hollyhocks don't create the same kind of mass of color, but perhaps as these continue to flower, they will be prettier. Notice there are still coreopsis in the background, but nothing is making the show they did a couple of weeks ago.





The center of these daisies, also in the wildflower meadow, fit the theme of the day. They create little sparkles of white, particularly as the sun disappears behind Chestnut Knob across the cove from us.

Penguin Placemats, Leaves in Progress

Cheryl has just completed a set of placemats for Norris' sister Marla. Isn't that nice? Well, she's had the fabric for about ten years now, so it's about time!


And here are two blocks that will make an artsy quilt for the bedroom wall. The photo is taken from too close, but there were objects next to them that need to remain a secret from some blog readers.

Oak Leaf Hydrangea

It was the hottest weekend of the year here in the mountains for Norris' family's visit. We didn't get pictures of the people, but our Oak Leaf Hydrangea near the satellite receiver looks cool and pretty in the bright afternoon sun.



In this view, nearly the full set of stairs to the logging road is visible in the background -


...but only the turkeys, finches and doves came around to entertain our visitors. It took over a week for the squirrels to figure out there would be no more sunflower seeds. This is a rodent-control measure, since only the above listed birds were coming to the feeder lately, and the finches are happy with the nyger.

Backyard scenes

Norris saw a turtle in the front yard once last year, but it disappeared in the long grass before Cheryl could look out over the deck. This little one on the other hand, hung around for a closeup yesterday -


Our flame azalea may be at its peak for this year

A quilt for a dollar

Cheryl has just finished her part of the Quilters Unlimited of NVA's 2011 raffle quilt. It still needs to be bound and have a label and hanging sleeve attached to ready it for the next 11 months.

The whole quilt, front and back - wafting in a very slight breeze - (all of these pictures were loaded a bit larger than usual so you may be able to see the quilting if you click on them)





The quilt was designed and made by a committee of members of the Reston Chapter of the guild. Cheryl's friend Dorry headed the effort to come up with a design and get the top constructed. The quilt was designed by Ann Weber, who has her own pattern company. We've shown pictures of her beautiful quilts here in the past.

Some closeups -


The center of the quilt is appliqued on top of pieced Churn Dash blocks, the same as those that are more visible in the tan and brown fabrics. From a distance the two pale green fabrics blend to the point that you could not notice the piecing. Quilting behind applique normally is done so that the applique stands out in relief. Cheryl densely quilted the blocks so that they live in the background, but the piecing of the blocks is still noticeable.



The quilting shows up better on the plain backing -

When no one is paying for the quilting, the quilter goes all out. Cheryl's part took two weeks and we don't know how many hours were spent by the guild members who did all the piecing and applique work - let alone the time the committee spent just coming up with the guidelines for Ann and choosing all the fabrics. And there's still a bit to go to ready this quilt for the next phase. But, starting in July, the quilt will tour the chapter meetings and show up at events where the guild will sell tickets for a dollar a chance, 6 for $5.00. The drawing is held at the QU show, usually the first weekend in June. Let's hope they sell out of tickets!

Hiking at Max Patch

Today, in honor of Cheryl's birthday (yesterday), we went hiking at Max Patch, a 400 acre clearing at the top of a 4600 ft mountain to the west of us near the Tennessee border. The area was cleared by settlers for livestock grazing in the 1800s, but is now maintained as a park by the U.S. Forest Service. The peak provides a clear 360-degree view of mountains on all sides.

Looking from the peak down into the clearing. The clearing is loaded with wildflowers, some of which you can see at the bottom of the picture.

Another view of the neighboring mountains from the peak.

There are also many wild Mountain Laurels in bloom there...

and lots of Flame Azaleas too.

Visiting the wild rhododendrons while hiking at Craggy gardens

Today Norris and Cheryl went up the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike while the wild Catawba Rhododendrons are blooming in the area around Craggy Gardens. There are many acres of rhodos like these in bloom, although its appears the bloom peak might still be a week or more away. This area is about 6000 ft in elevation, so the bloom season comes late to these plants.

This clearing (known as a bald in the mountains) provides a nice view of the blooms and the surrounding peaks, although it was a little hazy today.

Some parts of the trail are really tunnels through thickets of Rhodos. This is what it looks like hiking through the understory of the Rhododendron trunks.

There are also many, many wild ferns thriving in the understory as well.

This view from the top of Craggy Pinnacle captures a nice view of the rolling Blue Ridge Mountains.

Flame Azalea

After we had more of the area beyond the meadow cleared of the invasive Multiflora Rose this spring, we were able to enjoy a native Flame Azalea blooming on the far side. The one we had planted is just now in bloom, weeks later.


Click here to see what we showed last year - one of just three clusters of blooms.

Norris is disappointed in its diminutive size, but Cheryl thinks there is a promise of a lot more blossoms -


Visible in the background left in the second picture are two of the three walnut logs Norris got from the Fire Station clearing project. They are making an addition to the station to house larger vehicles.

Asian Puzzle

This is a quilt Cheryl started collecting fabrics for shortly after she started quilting in the mid 90's. A couple of the fabrics were purchased on her last fabric shopping expedition with her Mom, who taught her to sew. Mom didn't quilt, but she knew how to teach.


The design was a pattern, but the designer's original quilt was about half this size, made for a wall hanging. It was tricky to expand the pattern due to the way those white and beige squares fall, and it was not the simplest quilt to piece. Cheryl made the quilt big enough to serve as a lap quilt or hang on a wall.
The quilting is a very simple pantograph called "Square Spiral."



This kind of overall quilting, which Cheryl does not do very often, lets the fabrics speak for themselves and do all the design work in the quilt. The black and green squares featured above lower left are two of the ones Cheryl bought 15 years ago or so.

The quilt is shown laying against the slope of weeping love grass in the front yard. This is the back of the quilt. It uses two fabrics that had birds in the prints that were larger than the 7 inch squares of the front.

Buncombe County Volunteer Firefighter of the Year

Norris was honored to have been nominated by the Reems Creek Fire Department as their Firefighter of the Year. Today was the Buncombe County Firefighters Association meeting at which they announced the County-wide award winners.


The county includes 23 Fire Departments, and the City of Asheville. There were two awards given, one for the paid professional and one for the volunteer Firefighter of the Year.