🗞️ The state has a rabies warning about a petting zoo that travels

🗞️ Piedmont is swapping gas meters, and someone has to be home

🗞️ A hundred and fifty kids, Lovefeast buns and a band petting zoo

🗞️ Körner's Folly is about to have a very busy fall

☀️ Mostly Sunny | High: 92°F | Low: 72°F

Monday is the front edge of a hot stretch, and the stretch does not break all week. Look for mostly sunny skies and a high near 92, with a west wind around 5 miles an hour and a rain chance of 5 percent. Overnight goes partly cloudy with a low around 72. From there the numbers only climb: sunny and 94 on Tuesday, sunny and 96 on Wednesday, sunny and 97 on Thursday. September arrives Tuesday and clearly has not been told. If you have outdoor work, early morning is the window, and it is worth checking on neighbors who do not have good air conditioning.

If your family petted a baby goat somewhere this past month, the state would like you to make a phone call.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed rabies in baby goats belonging to Farm Adventures, a mobile petting zoo based in Harmony, in Iredell County. The state lab confirmed the virus in three goats on Aug. 28. A fourth was not tested but is presumed to have been infected.

The window that matters is July 28 through Aug. 27. Anyone who had contact with the goats during that stretch, either at the farm itself or at an off-site event, should call their local health department to find out whether preventive medication is needed. Investigators believe the goats were exposed by a skunk that got into their pen in late July.

Here is the part specific to us, and we want to be careful with it. The state's list of confirmed exposure sites does not include Forsyth County. The counties named so far are Iredell, Mecklenburg, Davidson, Watauga, Burke, Davie and Durham. So this is not a notice that something happened in Kernersville.

It is worth passing along anyway, because a mobile petting zoo goes wherever it is booked, and the investigation is still open. If you were at a fair, a festival, a school event or a birthday party with baby goats in the past five weeks, the phone call costs nothing.

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If a technician turns up in your driveway asking about the gas meter, this is what that is.

Piedmont Natural Gas is replacing customer meters with smart meters that add safety features and allow remote monitoring. There is no charge to customers, said Jason Wheatly, the company's lead communications manager, and customers are notified ahead of time with instructions on how to schedule.

The detail that trips people up is the one about being home. An adult 18 or older has to be there, because technicians need interior access to relight pilot lights. If nobody is home, the visit does not happen.

One more thing worth knowing before you turn someone away. Honeywell Technologies is handling some of the installations on Piedmont's behalf, so the truck in your driveway may not have Piedmont on the side of it.

The scheduling line is 855-671-2467.

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There were buns to shape, stars to paint, and a trombone you were actually allowed to pick up.

Kernersville Moravian Church hosted the Moravian Church Southern Province Children's Festival earlier this month, drawing more than 150 children, according to Unified Board Vice Chair Kathy Atkins.

The children moved through two hours of stations. They made Lovefeast buns. They made and painted wooden Moravian Stars. And at what organizers called a Moravian Band petting zoo, they got to handle the instruments rather than just sit and listen to them, which is a distinction any nine-year-old will tell you matters. Körner's Folly set up a booth on town history.

The children also assembled shower kits for a local nonprofit that gives people a place to wash up and clean their clothes. Atkins said the goal was to hand out 125 of them.

The day closed with a 4 p.m. Lovefeast, though a modified one. In place of the usual buns and coffee, the children were served Moravian cookies cut in the shape of musical notes, with juice boxes and water.

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If you have been meaning to finally go inside, the next three months are going to make it easy.

It starts Saturday. Taste of History: Revolution in the Piedmont runs 10 to 11:30 a.m. Sept. 5 in the Community Room of the John and Bobbie Wolfe Visitor Center next to the house, with archaeologist and historian CJ Idol on the local events that shaped the outcome of the American Revolution. Admission is free and there is no pre-registration. It is also part one of two, with the second installment covering George Washington's 1791 Southern Tour and its swing through this area.

A week later the lawn fills up. The Fall Vintage Market, presented by OutWest Steakhouse, runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 12 with more than 45 area dealers selling handmade wares, vintage clothing and jewelry, retro items, curated antiques, original and upcycled artwork, homemade sweets and artisan goods, plus food trucks and coffee. No pets except service animals, and no smoking. The rain date is Sunday, Sept. 13.

Then it keeps going. Homeschool Day: Fun with Fiber on Sept. 21, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with last house entry at 1 p.m. The 16th annual Kernersville Oktoberfest on Oct. 3, ages 21 and up. Mystery After Dark, a mystery tour through the house, on Oct. 24. The Spirited Halloween Ball at the end of October, with the date not yet confirmed on the Folly's site. And on Dec. 8, the Piedmont Wind Symphony playing Moravian Holiday Brass.

That is seven things between now and Christmas, at a house most of us have driven past a thousand times on the way to somewhere else.

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