If you see two people wearing green shirts and carrying a gasoline can walking along Highway 11 next week, it won’t mean their vehicle has run out of fuel.

It takes a lot of stuff to make a TV show. Even one that uses a single set. Maybe especially one that uses a single set when it’s a stage where musicians perform and the look and sound have to be just right for both the audience and the viewers at home.

The Virginia Highlands Festival has more than its share of celebrants. Just look at the crowds that swarm the Martha Washington Inn lawn and Barter Green.
But it has another group that isn’t quite so excited to see its annual arrival. 

Have you been by the market recently and noticed Dana Hollifield’s booth, Custom Chainsaw Creations?  Dana has an amazing talent in making beautiful pieces of art out of ordinary logs.  He has been selling at the market only a few short months and has already sold numerous pieces of his work to local folks.  This week, Dana has offered to show us how he creates such beautiful art pieces.  He will be demonstrating his craft at the market from 9 am until noon this Saturday.  Come by and check out this artist in action! 

A public meeting about a study of water quality in the Middle Fork of the Holston River is set for Aug. 7.

It’s 10 years the county’s library has worked to raise the money to expand the Damascus branch.
On Monday, all the planning began to pay off. Library Director Charlotte Parsons announced that, after a $582,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Transportation, the library has the funding needed to move forward with construction.

“You have to go to Florida; you’re good luck.”
Taylor Doss kneeled beside Dale Orfield on the grass.
“If I was ever to go (to Florida ) this would be it, but I can’t go,” Orfield said. “I’m too old. I’m 78.”

High speeds and tons of metal can be a bad mix. For proof, just look at the July 21 wreck that stopped traffic on Interstate 81 and brought in three hydraulic cutting unites and a MedFlight helicopter.
For the 19-year-old caught up in the mess, however, it was proof that someone was watching over him. 

“Dem bones gonna rise again,” Boy Scouts sing about the Garden of Eden, and paleontologists could chant a similar refrain over the bluish clay in the Saltville Valley that yielded more Ice Age osteological fruits this week.

Whitetop resident Bryan Hayes may be one of the luckiest people on the planet.
On Monday, Hayes ran his Dodge Durango under the rear end of a tractor-trailer rig on Interstate 81. The rig then dragged him, in his car, about a hundred yards, according to witnesses. Next he spent an hour trapped in the wreck while lifesaving crews cut him out. Free, he was flown to Bristol Regional Medical Center for treatment.