Archive for NJ Ecology

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.)