The Brushy Mountains of North Carolina
The Brushy Mountains are a mountain range located in northwestern North Carolina. They are an isolated "spur" of the much larger Blue Ridge Mountains, separated from them by the Yadkin River valley. A deeply eroded range, they move from the southwest to the northeast, and cross five counties in North Carolina: Caldwell, Alexander, Wilkes, Iredell, and Yadkin.
The Brushies are primarily known for their abundance of apple orchards, and the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival is held in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina each year to celebrate the harvest. The region was also once known as a hotbed of "moonshining", or the production of illegal homemade liquor. Several of the earliest stars of stock-car racing in the 1940s and 1950's got their start in the moonshining business in the Brushy Mountains.
The Brushy Mountains divide, for much of their courses, the waters of the Yadkin River and the Catawba River, two of central North Carolina's largest rivers. The range is approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, but only 4-8 miles wide. The highest point in the chain is Pores Knob (2,680 feet, 817 meters), in Wilkes County. Among the other notable peaks in the range are Hibriten Mountain in Caldwell County, which marks the western end of the Brushy Mountain range and is a prominent landmark in the city of Lenoir, North Carolina; Hickory Knob, which is the highest point in Alexander County, North Carolina; and Fox Mountain, which is the highest point in Iredell County, North Carolina. The "Brushies", as they are often called by locals, usually rise from 300 to 800 feet (240 m) above the surrounding countryside, with few peaks rising more than a thousand feet above their base.
Garage Doors
A garage door is a large door on a garage that can either be opened manually or by a garage door opener. Although of many designs, most garage doors are sectional, upward-acting, and self-storing. Garage doors are necessarily large to allow passage of automobiles and/or trucks.
Garage doors can be made out of many materials, but steel, aluminum, wood, and vinyl (polyethylene) are the most popular materials.
A typical overhead garage door consists of several panels hinged together that rolls along a system of tracks guided by rollers. The weight of the door is balanced by either a torsion spring system or a pair of extension springs.
A common material for a new garage door is roll formed steel sheet to look like a raised panel wooden door. A design mimicking carriage house doors has become quite popular since about 2002, and many manufacturers clad the exterior of a steel door with composite or vinyl boards to give it the appearance of wood. A more economical alternative for garage doors is steel stamped construction.
A garage door is the largest moving object in a home. An improperly adjusted garage door can pose serious danger when opening and closing. Therefore, one should never stand or walk under a moving garage door. The springs used to counterbalance the weight of the door are always under extreme tension and can cause serious injury if handled improperly.
Garage doors with torsion springs do not need a safety restraint cable since the torsion shaft running through the springs restrains the spring if it breaks.