It's WINDSday | October 4, 2023

Celebrating the Power of Wind, Clean Energy and a Green Environment

Ever had to change a tire? Was it tough to deal with the lug nuts?

Well there’s a science to loosening and tightening bolts. Just ask Chris Burford, one of the self-proclaimed “Nut Busters” at Hytorc in Yorktown. The company is based in NJ. Chris, a native of Keatchie, LA, and today a resident of Mathews County, has the territory for the entire state of Virginia.

“We handle the equipment that manufacturers, the military, transportation and others need to make industrial bolting safe and simple,” says Burford, whose two sons, Kristian and Caleb, work with him in the Kiln Creek Center off Route 17. That roster includes Dominion Energy at its Surry nuclear facility and hopefully the 176 wind turbines coming to the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia Beach. “Those will have lots of nuts and bolts,” he says. “We would like to provide, repair and calibrate the bolting equipment.”

The amount of torque needed to work with those bolts is based on “foot pounds,” which Chris’ tools set precisely. The former Marine and Desert Storm vet grew up on a dairy farm and sold Coca Cola for 18 years before signing on with Hytorc in Indiana in 2013. Two years later he came to the Peninsula and is happy to call our region his home. “I get a lot of work from the shipyards in Hampton Roads and even from companies in Richmond like DuPont that called recently because they had some six-inch nuts to break loose and tighten. We can do that.”

All in a day’s work for our new WINDSday friends, the Nut Busters at Hytorc.

Chris Burford with sons, Kristian and Caleb

Mike and Jane Cullipher with their son, Jeb

Mike and Jane Cullipher grow sweet corn, blueberries, strawberries, pumpkins, peaches, grapes and apples on 250 acres they own on Princess Anne Road deep in rural Virginia Beach. And every piece is picked by us. “We got out of the wholesale market years ago,” says Mike, who bought the farm from distant relatives in the late 90’s. “Actually, ancestors of mine have owned the land since the 1740’s.” 

Fortunately there is a next generation of Cullipher on the payroll. 26-year-old Jeb graduated from Norfolk Academy, then spent two years at NC State before deciding to come home and learn agriculture firsthand from his parents. The operation is in good hands.

Today there are fruit and vegetable lovers on the property throughout the spring, summer and fall. Apples are available until the end of October as are pumpkins and sunflowers (bring your own shears). “We’re open every day but Monday,” says Mike, who was happy to pose (along with Jane and Caleb) with our signature fans and ask where they could get a windmill to power the retail operation.  

Now that would make them a primo WINDSday partner. 

Many couples consider chucking the 9-5 urban rat race to run a B&B in a quiet rural area. 

Paul and Amy Demetry thought about it for several years, consulted with relatives in the business, took a course in inn-keeping and scouted opportunities south of hectic DC where Amy was tiring of metroing each day from Maryland to her federal job.

The Marl Inn, marl being a hard clay building material, beckoned. 

“It’s just five rooms, but it’s in the middle of Yorktown, where Cornwallis surrendered to end the Revolution, and was affordable,” says Amy. The history doesn’t stop there. Before the Demetrys purchased it in 2015, the 45-year-old house was owned by York County native Thomas Nelson.

“Yes, he’s a direct descendant of the signer of the Declaration of Independence,” says Paul. Such a patriot was the original Nelson that during the siege of Yorktown in 1781, he asked General Washington to fire at his own home, which the British were occupying.

Because her first husband was also named Demetry, Amy didn’t have to change her name when she married Paul (real name Apostolos) in 2004 and readily accepted his desire to place the flag of his native Greece beside an American one in the Marl’s spacious backyard.

There is some angst in Yorktown today over a plan by Princess Cruise Lines to bring a cruise ship into the deep, adjacent river 3-5 times a year, starting in 2024, for passenger daytrips. Many will board buses to Jamestown and Williamsburg, others will walk about Yorktown, overwhelming the small town according to some residents.   

Most days though, there will be no Princess anchored in the York, leaving lovely attractions like the Marl Inn, and its WINDSday friendly proprietors, available for events or weekend stays. Start your visit at www.marlinnbandb.com.

Before the Summer of '23 is completely in the rearview, we're spotlighting a Wind

Song from the legendary and Hampton Roads favorite, Jimmy Buffett, who passed

away on September 1st. His song, “Banana Wind”, is actually an instrumental and

the title cut of his 20th studio album. According to Jimmy's own notes, a banana

wind is an island term, a wind not as dangerous as a hurricane but strong enough

to blow bananas off trees.

From Associated Press

Banana Wind is full of vintage Buffett songs including "Jamaica Mistaica” about a 1996 incident off that island. Local authorities mistook Buffett's seaplane, the Hemisphere Dancer, for a smuggling operation. They fired at it, shortly before Buffett, U2's Bono, and Island Records producer Chris Blackwell came aboard. No one was injured. The plane itself is now on display at Universal CityWalk, across from Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant.

Check out this verse:

Come back, come back to Jamaica

Don't chu know we made a big mistaica

We'd be so sad if you told us good-bye

And we promise not to shoot you out of the sky

Our friends at the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce love to connect their members, and others, to business opportunities, including in offshore wind. That’s why they will hold their 9th Annual ProcureCon on October 12th at VDOT’s Hampton Roads District Headquarters, 7511 Burbage Drive, in Suffolk, 8:30am-3pm. Among the presenters will be former VB Councilman and Delegate Glenn Davis who now heads Virginia’s Department of Energy.  

Lunch is included. CLICK HERE to register.

Our friends at Harbor Park went above and beyond this season.

The Norfolk Tides won the International League championship (best of three over Durham) and then captured the national AAA title beating Pacific Coast League champ Oklahoma City Saturday night in Las Vegas 7-6.

The parent Orioles are in the AL Playoffs, starting Saturday at Camden Yards.

Courtesy Norfolk Tides

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