At the Quarterly Meeting of the Reems Creek Fire Department ...

As a volunteer, Norris attends weekly meetings and training sessions of the RCFD on Monday nights.  Once a quarter, there's a "Corporation Meeting" to which the public is invited. The Corporation Meeting on Monday was pretty routine, until the Chief announced he had an item of new business, and presented Norris with this:

It is a tricky subject to photograph, but I think you can read the inscription. The basis of the award was the hundreds of volunteer hours Norris put into the procurement of radios to operate on the county's new communications system, attending meetings, drawing up and conducting test plans of competing products, then evaluating the results and compiling matrices of the various radio models features and prices for the local fire departments to select from. That work is never finished it seems - even after the award writeup was completed last year, Norris helped program the radios and trained users, and he spends time on follow-up missions every week - in fact, that's where he is right now.

New Monument in Asheville

When we arrived at Shindig last night, we saw this granite monument, at the top of a flight of stairs between the city and county buildings on Pack Square.

Cheryl had just read The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle a few weeks ago, so she was familiar with the scene portrayed on the monument. In a stop at his Asheville home during the crew's cross-country bond selling tour, Colonel Morgan accepted a dare to fly his B-17 between the buildings where the monument is now located.  Here they are, seen from the other side.during the show. It seems to us like a daring thing to do.

 

Our Shindig announcer mentioned there was another B-17 veteran in the audience - and it happened he was sitting just two chairs over from us, so Cheryl went to meet him during a pause in the performance.  He is 89 years old and flew 33 missions in Europe, arriving there after D-Day. Our photo of him didn't turn out so here's a closeup of the inscription on the monument to Col. Morgan instead - 

 

And unrelated, but not meriting a post of their own, we took a few photos of our "wildflower meadow" this morning after we walked. We chose all yellow flowers for our reseeding - Zinnias, Cosmos, and Plains Coreopsis (which does have a maroon center.)

As of today, we have only one zinnia blossom, but there are a lot of zinnia plants out there. We got this seed out so late we didn't know if we'd have any flowers at all this season.

Baby Ducks

On the last of our four laps around Lake Louise on Friday, there was a family of people admiring this mother and her babies -

The admirers seemed to be at least two or three generations who were happy to tell us they'd been watching this particular duck all season.  They said she is the only remaining muscovy duck on the lake (the other two disappeared).  Here's a cropped view of her and her brood.

The ducklings appear very small - since this family have been keeping an eye on her, I'm guessing they were just hatched.  We wondered if she might be getting ready to take them in the water.  I have   just read that wild ducks born with their mother will start swimming the first day.  Photos of muscovy ducks at various stages of development can be seen in this wikipedia entry in the paragraph on reproduction.

If you look closely in this photo after clicking on it, you can see them, to the left and under the tree at the edge of the water where we were just admiring them. 

We didn't stay around to bother them, but we might have to stop at the lake in another day or two to see if we can spot them again.

Dad's 90th Birthday Celebrated with Lots of Love and Good Food!

Cheryl's father turned 90 in late July. On Saturday, August 2nd, Sister Joyce hosted a family gathering in her backyard.  She told the guests we would provide beverages, the main dish and dessert, and asked them to bring sides and salads. We asked Norris' sister Marla and her husband Marvin if they would consider bringing their smoker to the Chicago area (from Georgia, no less) and they did!

Norris and Cheryl, Marvin and Marvin met up two nights before the party in Lafayette, Indiana. We needed to arrive by noon on Friday to set up and get the fire started so that the meat could be smoked the requisite 24 hours.  Here we are on Saturday morning. I think Don and Norris are contemplating a tail light-electrical connection.  The trip from Fort Oglethorpe to Cary was over 650 miles and a lot of bumps.  Don made a repair and Norris suggested an upgrade to give the connections some protection for the future.

Marvin hauled the wood with him and had stayed up all night making sure he had the right temperature in the smoker - somewhat complicated by some late evening and overnight thundershowers. Marvin cheerfully went outside using Don's new umbrella for protection.

Marla had to spend time in the kitchen. Since the guests were bringing dishes, I asked her and Marvin just to do the meat, but she said she couldn't serve southern barbecue without baked beans and cole slaw, so she made sure we had them.

 A week or two earlier, Cheryl started to feel bad - Joyce was throwing the party and making the birthday cake, Marvin and Marla were doing the serious cooking, what was she doing??  So being a quilter, she made 19 little quilts, visible inside the tent looking toward the serving area.

She asked Dad and Brother Jeff to look through Dad's photo collection and made up this display from what they found and what was in other family albums.

You may have noticed that one of the items Dad brought out to display was not a photo at all, but these tiny shoes!  (We like the box almost as much as the shoes.)

Here's what the Main Event looked like sometime after the chicken quarters went on - there are three pork butts, a beef brisket, and 40 chicken quarters.

When the pork pulling and beef slicing and chicken chopping activity started, Marvin wore the apron I made for him out of KU fabric. At least one of the guests had never seen a smoker like this before - you can see the smoke pouring out the stacks.

When it was time to eat, Marla stood behind the chafing dishes doing the catering job.  We think we'll always remember Dad's 90th Birthday party as the one with the delicious barbecue.

We took a series of family photos seated on the steps to Joyce's deck which provide a nice way to get everyone's face in the photos. This one includes the children and grandchildren and their spouses.  And let's not forget Dad's great-grandson, Josh (and his little brother-to-be still waiting to make his appearance.)

Marvin and Marla did so much for the party, we had to get a special souvenir photo of them. 

 

 Cheryl was channeling her mother when she suggested to Brother Roger he bring his guitar for a song. He led us in the traditional "Happy Birthday" then "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - which came out in 1939, while Dad would have been in high school.

 

No, we did not eat all the meat that day - there were not that many of us under the tent!  We sent most of the guests home with a lot of it, and had more for dinner the next day.  

Here's to Dad and his next 90 years!