Matt Verke inched the scoop of his 20,000-pound backhoe closer to the fluorescent yellow tennis ball atop the orange cone, then gave the cone the slightest nudge. The ball obligingly dropped into the scoop; Verke pivoted the backhoe and tipped the ball into a blue plastic bucket.
"Have I ever done this before? No," said Verke, a foreman with Team Ghilotti in Petaluma. Verke was in the Heavy Equipment Challenge ring at Saturday's Marin Home & Garden Expo at the Marin Center Fairgrounds, rehearsing for the challenge coming up at 2 p.m. Sunday.
"Several teams will compete in the challenge Sunday. It also includes pouring water into a Mason jar and firing a soccer ball," said Herb Moran, a board member of the Marin Builders Association, the group that put on the expo. The two-day Marin Home & Garden Expo at the Marin Center Fairgrounds includes "all that is new, cool and sustainable."
Along with Verke's brand new, spotless yellow backhoe and its pinpoint-precision machinations, an interactive Smart House, lectures on rainwater storage and low-energy lighting, exhibits, music and more were on tap at the conservation-oriented event Saturday.
Around the corner, hopping, jumping and mock-firing under the watchful eye of his dad Alvin Kan of Alameda, 5-year-old Ryan Kan was having a killer time in the Smart House. He was standing in front of a screen playing Kinect for Xbox 360, in which sensors pick up kids' actions and duplicate them in the videogame playing on the screen.
"It gets kids out of their chairs. It mimics what you do," said Jennifer Biggs, who came to the event with Gordon Doherty and long-haired Chihuahua Moggi. Biggs said, "I was playing for ten minutes and I was sweating."
The two also enjoyed other features of the interactive house such as "the home animation, where you can be on your way home in the car and use your smartphone or iPad to have music playing, raise the temperature and have things the way you want by the time you get home," Doherty said.
Smart homes also include motorized curtains that can be opened or closed anytime from such devices or programmed to automatically raise or lower depending on the time of day.
Cynthia Kerson of San Anselmo was stylin' in a straw hat from Africa she picked up at one of the booths. She also was intrigued by an infrared dry sauna on display at the event. "You can take it apart and put it back together again," Kerson said.
Jenny Rynders was sitting barefoot on the grass enjoying a band, Matt Jaffe & the Distractions. "They're great. They're high school seniors and they are so talented," said Rynders.
The Kentfield resident is thinking of getting a retractable screen door and checked them out at an exhibit. "Plus, I heard a good talk about gardening with native plants," Rynders said.
Events like the expo "support their (the builder's association) membership and present their services to the greater community," said Steve Bajor of Pacific Expositions, the event's producer.
"Have I ever done this before? No," said Verke, a foreman with Team Ghilotti in Petaluma. Verke was in the Heavy Equipment Challenge ring at Saturday's Marin Home & Garden Expo at the Marin Center Fairgrounds, rehearsing for the challenge coming up at 2 p.m. Sunday.
"Several teams will compete in the challenge Sunday. It also includes pouring water into a Mason jar and firing a soccer ball," said Herb Moran, a board member of the Marin Builders Association, the group that put on the expo. The two-day Marin Home & Garden Expo at the Marin Center Fairgrounds includes "all that is new, cool and sustainable."
Along with Verke's brand new, spotless yellow backhoe and its pinpoint-precision machinations, an interactive Smart House, lectures on rainwater storage and low-energy lighting, exhibits, music and more were on tap at the conservation-oriented event Saturday.
Around the corner, hopping, jumping and mock-firing under the watchful eye of his dad Alvin Kan of Alameda, 5-year-old Ryan Kan was having a killer time in the Smart House. He was standing in front of a screen playing Kinect for Xbox 360, in which sensors pick up kids' actions and duplicate them in the videogame playing on the screen.
"It gets kids out of their chairs. It mimics what you do," said Jennifer Biggs, who came to the event with Gordon Doherty and long-haired Chihuahua Moggi. Biggs said, "I was playing for ten minutes and I was sweating."
The two also enjoyed other features of the interactive house such as "the home animation, where you can be on your way home in the car and use your smartphone or iPad to have music playing, raise the temperature and have things the way you want by the time you get home," Doherty said.
Smart homes also include motorized curtains that can be opened or closed anytime from such devices or programmed to automatically raise or lower depending on the time of day.
Cynthia Kerson of San Anselmo was stylin' in a straw hat from Africa she picked up at one of the booths. She also was intrigued by an infrared dry sauna on display at the event. "You can take it apart and put it back together again," Kerson said.
Jenny Rynders was sitting barefoot on the grass enjoying a band, Matt Jaffe & the Distractions. "They're great. They're high school seniors and they are so talented," said Rynders.
The Kentfield resident is thinking of getting a retractable screen door and checked them out at an exhibit. "Plus, I heard a good talk about gardening with native plants," Rynders said.
Events like the expo "support their (the builder's association) membership and present their services to the greater community," said Steve Bajor of Pacific Expositions, the event's producer.
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