New Jersey Baby Boomer

This past weekend we had incredible amounts of rain only two weeks after a blizzard that dumped over 2 feet of snow in many places local to us here in our part of Northern New Jersey.  We are up in elevation a bit, and had more than some, and those even higher had even more.

But back to the flooding…our flooding.  We were having a fairly quiet Saturday at home, but I was nervous, because there was a LOT of snow on the mountain across the street from us, and a LOT of rain falling.  My husband set up something to divert water down the side of our house should the torrent come toward us that I told him about…he hasn’t been home for the two other times we’ve had this experience.  As evening came, I noticed the first signs that we may be in trouble, water was no longer being held back in the low spot in the woods, but was beginning to stream across the property across the street, we ate dinner, and suddenly my husband said “water is coming in under the door”, out he dashed with my son  and they spent the next approximately 6 hours keeping drains cleared and diverting water.  I have other pictures for this post, but did show some night shots of water up against our house at http://weedsandseedswap.com. Amazingly, we were able to keep it at bay, but not without a lot of stress and exhaustion, and with the help of the town DPW that was overwhelmed with problems throughout the Township. Things have cleaned up nicely, I was able to throw bedding and towels up against the inside of the door to hold water out, and as of today, all is clean and dry inside, I have no concern about mold because I’ve worked hard to do the things to prevent it…a friend did a nice post about this that you may find helpful at this link.

Sunday after we had done all the cleaning we could, we went “flood hunting”, I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked to, but these ones were just down the hill from us in Bloomingdale, you see the river raging past houses, some houses were partly immersed as we passed, others just up to the edge of the home…even as I stood taking the pictures, the water that you see overlapping onto the parking lot spread more and more, we left quickly, not wanting to wait and see how much area it finally covered. Only a couple of blocks away roads were completely closed due to flooding.

Here are the pictures, and my hope that all of you that have received far more damage than we have will receive the help you need.

If you use these pictures for any reason, kindly give credit to newjerseybabyboomer.com, it would be appreciated!

This week I went through our stack of mail, and came across a nice guide to water conservation with many tips on ways that you can conserve water.  It also included information about kits that you can purchase at greatly reduced prices to help conserve water in the home and while caring for your lawns and gardens.

I purchased the deluxe water-saving kit for $15 and the outdoor landscape kit for $7, a total of $22 and expect that with the savings on water usage and energy, the kits will pay for themselves.  They contained water conserving massage shower heads, sink nozzles, things to put in the toilet tank to reduce water qantity, kit to test to make sure your toilet isn’t leaking, water-conserving garden sprayer, parts to mend hose leaks, water rainfall measure, something to test the level of moisture in the soil, and more…quite a nice deal!

I don’t know how long this is available, and there are a few other States included, visit waterconservationproducts.com and see for yourself, and remember to conserve water.  I shared some tips at another blog, “Baby Boomer Penny Pincher“.

My husband spent the weekend working around the house, including building a new enclosed area for our trash cans.  We haven’t had any trouble with bears in our trash all summer, but wouldn’t you know, last evening after supper, only a day after his finishing this project, we had a visitor.  I guess he likes the new design   My pictures are a little blurry because I was SO excited, but here’s a few shots off the side of my deck, he/she dragged a bag of trash from the can he knocked over and carried it into our neighbors yard.  I quietly called my husband as I snapped these, and the bear ran, leaving a nice mess for us to clean up.

(Blurry zoom-in, shaky hands, just too excited )

Every year, one county to the west of us, the New Jersey State Fair takes place. It’s also known as the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show. This brings out for all to see the “Country” part of our State, highlighting the farming industry that still exists in many parts of the Garden State.  This includes our agriculture, (what better corn is there than Jersey Corn, and Jersey tomatoes are great as well) and farm animals. There are 4H Club exhibits with farm animals, horse shows, concerts, carnivals, lots of vendors, and so much more. It’s a great thing to do with your family. This has been going on annually for years, I remember taking my own children.

I’d suggest you take a look at the calendar of events (starts August 1st) as it develops over the coming weeks, there’s already a lot posted, and plan your day around the events you want to see. During times when there are no events, there are plenty of vendors, and if you and your children like rides, there’s the carnival. It’s a busy place, so chose your times to visit to suit your likes and dislikes. You can find out more by visiting the official website for the New Jersey State Fair.

Comment if you’ve ever been to the fair and let us know what your favorite attraction was.

Yesterday was a nice day, not as sunny as it has been here in New Jersey for the past couple weeks, and not quite as warm, but with everything turning green, it is still beautiful. It was a busy day, but we took a little time between stops to unwind at the Ecology Center in Wyckoff which is now called the James A. McFaul Environmental Center. We have visited there during many occasions in our life, when we were dating we had pictures taken there; when our children were young we took them to see the animals and walk the trails; now that they are grown, we just go to walk, remember and enjoy the peaceful environment. Here are a few pictures for you:

These turkeys were so much fun to watch, they couldn’t get enough of strutting their stuff, and the closer we got to the cage, the more they strutted, what a pair!

The Peacocks never did display their tail feathers for us, there were two of them, but looking closely at the tail feathers, you could imagine what it would have looked like. It was amazing to see them run around with their long, beautiful “train” behind them.

Yes, that’s me, and I’ll do my usual female thing of saying it was at the end of a long day, I didn’t have time to fix myself up, I forgot to take of my glasses, yadayadayada, but that’s the real me, no escaping it! Isn’t the tree beautiful?

When it was time to leave, two handsome geese lead the way, a fine end to a beautiful day!

(I just had to come back and take a closer look at this picture, my husband just told me that if you look closely to the left of the goose furthest away, there are two little goslings, I think that’s how you spell it? Can you see them? They are SO tiny right now. We saw another mother goose on her nest quickly pull her little ones under her…you couldn’t see them, but could hear their little “peeps” from under her.)