A GO Trainee weatherizes a home in Asheville

Whether it is winter or summer, it takes a lot of energy, and therefore money, to heat and cool homes in Asheville. That is why city of Asheville residential building inspectors and Office of Sustainability staff will team up with the WNC Green Building Council and Asheville GO (Green Opportunities) to put on a home energy audit and weatherization workshop on August 11.  The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) training the inspectors will use to lead the workshop and the energy auditing equipment that will be demonstrated were made possible through stimulus funding.

The workshop will begin with Home Energy Economics 101, an interactive lesson teaching the financial importance of energy efficiency and weatherization at home. Participants will then be guided through a real life energy audit, where demonstrators will teach the use of infrared cameras, blower door tests, duct blasters, and more! Finally, participants will get hands on experience installing some quick, affordable fixes for home weatherization that can amount to big savings.

Homeowners and renters alike are invited to attend the workshop, which is free and open to the public. The event will take place at the Reid Memorial Recreation Center at 133 Livingston Street on August 11 at 6 p.m. Space is limited.  Please register by sending an email to ksmithson@ashevillenc.gov or calling (828) 251-4057.

Learn more about the City of Asheville Office of Sustainability.

Outdoor Cinema

Starts at dusk, bring your lawn chair.

Kyte’s Catering serves up seafood and BBQ.

Saturday

Bark For Life
(Registration 4:30pm-5:30pm, Welcome 5:30pm, Parade of Dogs 5:45pm, Dog Party 6:15pm)
The American Cancer Society Bark For Life is a noncompetitive walk event for dogs and their owners to raise funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society’s fight against cancer.

Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov in Eating Raoul (1982)

Outdoor Cinema

Anne Watkins, the producer of Eating Raoul and Asheville resident, is showing her out-take reel of the film.  She will tell stories of the making of the film in Los Angeles in the early 80s.  Movie starts at dusk.  Bring your lawn chair.

Sunday

Vollie and Hank on the Patio starting around 5 p.m.

Photo by Jonathan Welch, Mountain Xpress

Good Eats Wednesdays and Weekends at the Wedge

Kyte’s Catering brings in shrimp, crab cakes and BBQ from 5:30 p.m.-? on Friday night.

Bandido’s Burritos cooks up some amazing (and inexpensive) tamales, burritos, homemade ice cream and other surprises on Wednesdays and Saturdays starting about 5 p.m. at the Wedge.

Bouchon Street Food is our new crepe vendor serving up homemade crepes on Sundays starting around 5 p.m.

Just a toddler, the Wedge certainly has some advanced brewing skills for its age!

The brewery is located in the basement of Wedge Studios, which was the project and passion of the late artist and mentor John Payne (also honored with the Wedge’s popular Paynes Pale Ale).

To Celebrate this weekend, here’s the happs:

Friday, 7/16/2010

On Site Food: Kyte’s Catering (seafood and BBQ)

Outdoor Cinema: Rocking Roll High School

Saturday, July 17, 2010 Wedge 2nd Anniversary

On-Site Food: Burritos and Tamales, YUM!!

7:00-8:30 p.m. Pre-Outdoor Cinema Band: Hick ‘n Roll, Hony Tonk/Rock ‘a Billy dance music

Duskish/9:00 p.m. ish Outdoor Cinema: Thunder Road filmed in Asheville’s River Arts District (sit on the set for this one folks!)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

On Site Food: Crepes and Spring Rolls

Vollie and Hank play old time on the patio around 5 p.m. ish

First off, Community Porter is back on tap AND Vollie and Hank are releasing a “Songs from the Wedge” CD on Sunday evening.  More information below.

And, the Wedge Brewery has a new website!  It’s in progress, so be patient.  Take a look!

Friday Night

Outdoor Cinema, The Original Pink Panther, starts at dusk.  Bring a chair and enjoy seafood and BBQ from Kyte’s Catering.  Movie this Friday night:

Saturday Night

Outdoor Cinema: Steel Yard Blues, starts at dusk.  Bring a chair and enjoy a NEW CATERER: Burritos and Tamales with a Vegetarian Option

Sunday Night

Another NEW CATERER: Crepes and Spring Rolls!!!

Vollie and Hank CD Release: Songs from the Wedge at 5 p.m.

What do sunsets, train whistles and good music have in common?

People in Asheville , NC , will say it’s the Wedge Brewery, where the ‘Lead-Foot Vipers‘ (Hank Bones and Vollie McKenzie) play every Sunday evening.   Here the duo offers up a sampling of favorites from their Wedge patio playlist:

12th Street Rag
Jitterbug Waltz
Train of Life
Deep Purple
Rhythm of the Rain
She’s a Woman
Misirlou
I’ll See You in My Dreams
Maria Elena
Lady Madonna
The Gypsy
Sleep Walk
The Melody Lingers On
Love
Sermonette

and NEW CATERER Crepes

Photo by Brent Fluery, Verve Magazine

Jess McCuan, editor of Verve Magazine, features Cindy Weeks this month.  Cindy is the Community Rental Investments Manager at non-profit Mountain Housing Opportunities.

Cindy Weeks knows her clients well. Probably because she was once one of them. Today, Weeks, 56, is the picture of the polished white-collar professional—well dressed, well educated, pulling up to her North Asheville home in a Subaru. But her life didn’t always look like this. In her mid-20s, Weeks was a single mother with two toddlers, waitressing at an upscale club near a racetrack in urban Pittsburgh. Her four-year marriage had fallen apart, and she was nearly evicted from her home. It was sometime during this rocky period that she realized waitressing simply wouldn’t cut it. She couldn’t survive, much less support her children well. “There is this other world out there,” she recalls thinking. “I need to set my life up so that it works better than this.”

Read More…

Courtesy of FLS Energy

The Glen Rock Depot is 65% completed and will have 60 workforce apartments and 9,000 square feet of commercial space in the historic River Arts District. It may be the first LEED-certified mixed use building in Asheville. Green features include: solar hot water, pervious pavers, rainwater collection, low VOC paints, Energy Star appliances, and a master recycling system. The location is also biking and walking friendly and is within 1.5 miles of Asheville Middle and Asheville High Schools, the YWCA, Mission Hospitals, A-B Tech Community College and downtown Asheville.

FLS Energy has just completed the installation of 60 hot water solar panels at the Glen Rock. Each panel system includes one solar hot water panel and a 40 to 50 gallon solar storage tank. FLS Energy owns the solar hot water systems and sells the energy needed to heat the water back to MHO at a rate less than the current prices for fossil fuels typically used to heat water. Estimates are that all 60 panels combined will create 588 billion BTUs per year.

The combined environmental benefits of using solar hot water panels include:
- 36 tons of carbon emissions saved each year
- The equivalent of planting 109 trees per year
- 9 cars off the road per year
- Annual equivalent of energy needs for 13 homes
-Dramatic decrease in energy bills
- Solar hot water is an abundant energy source and is locally available, reducing the dependence on foreign sources of fuel.
- Solar energy is free and silent. It doesn’t contribute to air pollution or global warming.