Mary’s Japanese Eggplant

Rabbits be damned! You can take our parsley, murder our cucumber plants, but you’ll never get our Japanese eggplant. First we had to put up a fence to keep out the rabbits and groundhogs. It worked, for a while. Then, a couple days ago Mary came back in the house from tending the garden and announced “breach of security, breach of security” like Gomer Pyle from an old rerun I remember. So, I fortified the garden fence and we’re now running at maximum security. We ate these eggplant for dinner. All thanks to Mary.

Building Big Homes in Asheville

My friend Chris Brock is a custom home builder in Asheville, NC. I recently put a web site together for his company, Brock Builders, Inc. They are working on a monster of a house in Biltmore Forest. It’s over 11K square feet with tons of details. I got some pics at the job site this afternoon. The gothic-revival-revival styling may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think anyone can appreciate the art of the framing in this domed ceiling. Or should it be called a vault?

Asheville Skateboard Camp 2008

Skateboard camp. Where boys become men. Old, broken, scarred men. But the pain is worth the thrill. The feeling of movement on a skateboard is magical. My son Mars just finished a week at skate camp here in Asheville, NC and according to him it was worth every penny. Of course, these weren’t his pennies on the line, but no matter. It’s about progression, at any age, and Mars met his goal for the week by dropping for the first time at the park. I owe that boy a t-shirt.

Kenpo Joe Comes to Asheville

My son Mars and I got to work out with Master Joe Rebelo a couple weeks ago. He has more than a dozen black belts in various degrees and disciplines, and he also the official historian for Kenpo and our art, TAI. Our instructor Derek Croley, Croley’s Martial Arts Center, does a great job getting martial arts big shots to visit and put on seminars. Master Rebelo is a pretty entertaining guy and high-energy to say the least. Mars liked it so much he got “Kenpo Joe” to sign his belt. And we did get schooled, but not as much as the black belts in the class. Near the end of the seminar Rebelo called me up to demonstrate something, on me that is. Mercifully, he changed his mind before I got there, told me to sit down, and called on a young black belt instead. Then, he proceeded to twist and contort the guy’s arms, said “you don’t scream much do you?”, and performed another move that elicited a hilarious squeal.

“Everybody’s wearing a cup, right?!”

KenpoJoe.com

Kevin Shelton’s Skateboard Collection at The Push Gallery

This one if for my main man Bennie. He was the first guy I knew to have a “serious” skateboard. It was a Kryptonics Krypstick with gnarly see-through pizza deck grip tape, Tracker trucks, and some sweet green Kryptonic wheels. He was cool enough to let me use it to commute to summer school one year in junior high. It was slower than riding my bike but I really wanted to show off that board, even though it belonged to Bennie.

Asheville’s Kevin Shelton has quite a collection of cool boards too. And he’s not just a collector; he once was pro and road for Walker skateboards. Thanks to Push Skateshop Kevin’s collection is on display in their gallery. The gallery, which is probably bigger than the skateshop, regularly has art exhibited, paintings, sculptures etc., but this collection really combines the twin forces of art and skating like nothing else. I didn’t even know about it until I started talking to Rob, the owner, when he was helping out at my son’s skateboard camp last week. He helped Mars learn some new things. Maybe I can get him to coach me.

I took a ton a pics of this collection and had a difficult time picking these few. Shelton also has quite a collection of vintage snowboards and land luges on display, but the skateboards are what do it for me. Here are some of my favorites.

Asheville Living — Horseback Riding at the Biltmore Estate

We finished a major renovation project on the house this week. So, we took a break and my daughter Paris and I rode the horses around the yard for a while. From the back the house looks a lot like the Biltmore estate.

Paris’s horse was named Dusty and my trusty steed was called Cowboy. I decided to change my name to Horse for the day just to keep things weird. Our guide told me that Cowboy was a little slow and that I would have to kick him pretty often to keep him moving. Then, she said “I’m not exaggerating.” And she wasn’t. Homeboy, I mean Cowboy, was lazy. It took about 20 minutes until we came to an understanding of who was the real cowboy. After that we’re were trucking along just fine. It’s good to be back in the saddle. Yee haw!

Art Deco — Detail from Asheville Music School

Asheville has more than its share of Art Deco architecture, a good thing. There are a number of reasons for this. I would guess that the main reason is that the town was blossoming into a popular mountain resort in roughly the same period the Art Deco style was developing. That probably attracted architects like Douglas Ellington to come do their thing, or things.

This pic is from the corner of the Asheville Music School. It’s right down the street from my house and my kids take guitar lessons there. The building is not that exciting, but these pilasters are definitely handsome. There are a half dozen or so spread across the façade. The center strip appears to be bronze and terminates at the top with a light fixture. Those blue lights are a nice little surprise in the evening.

Asheville Living — Dupont State Forest Waterfalls Part 2

That’s right. This is the sequel starring my friend, and amateur stuntman, Robert Brokamp. While on point Robert discovered how slippery wet rocks can be and inadvertently added new meaning to “waterfall.” These falls are larger than they appear in this pic. Look at the third pic with Robert drip-drying to the right of that large rock for a better sense of the scale. Water + wool sweater = wet dog smell. A quick trip to the town Mall Wart for dry duds and all was well again.

Asheville Living — Dupont State Forest Waterfalls

This weekend the Sigler households joined forces and went a-hiking out at Dupont Forest. It’s less than an hour away and there are a bunch of waterfalls. The trip took us on increasingly rural looking roads with few cars in sight until we arrived at a parking lot jam-packed with tourists and a lot of out of state license plates. But there’s enough forest and waterfalls for everyone. Everyone that’s up for some serious uphill hiking that is. And we were. I decided I wanted to get close to one fall to feel its most awesome powah. I went barefoot and let me tell you it was cold man, cold!

There’s more about Dupont Forest at this unofficial site.

Rinnai Tankless Water Heater, $2,700 Installed

This one’s for Buck. We replaced our typical water heater with a Rinnai Tankless unit. We also moved it to be closer to the kitchen and bathrooms. It’s great that these products are much greener than the old stuff, but it’s also a major plus that the hot water never runs out, ever. So, all the family members or guests staying with you don’t have to stagger shower taking, or worry about running out after doing laundry or whatever.

Our local gas company, which also sells various gas products, did the install for about $2,700, which includes the unit. I got some other bids, and looked around online and this is about what you can expect to pay. This assumes there is already a gas line nearby, and that you have enough pressure or large enough line. When it’s on, it’s on, and if there isn’t enough pressure the performance of your heat system, stove and everything using gas will suffer. Mounting it on an exterior wall also keeps the cost down. That way the intake/exhaust pipe can run straight out the wall. There are outdoor units, but I’d rather not have my gear out in the elements.

One feature that’s really cool is the thermostat. We have it next to the unit for now while we renovate this house. Some people like to put it in or near a bathroom. You can adjust the thermostat when small kids take baths, or set it wherever you like it when you take a shower and just turn on the hot water, and ignore the cold. When you effectively bypass the mixer this way the water will always be the right temperature even if someone flushes a toilet, or the water pressure just drops.

There is a lot more I could say about tankless water heaters, but the bottom line is we are completely happy with ours. You can read more them about at the Rinnai site.

The pics here (clockwise from left) show the installed unit with water lines and the natural gas line in place, exterior intake and exhaust, the thermostat, and the Energy Guide card. Click it for a larger image.