Superstorm Sandy

Before I start in on the storm itself, just a note about generators:  if you are using one, please, please, make sure that it is OUTSIDE and that the exhaust is pointed away from your home.  Outside does not include in a garage or basement.  Please also make sure that you have battery operated carbon monoxide detectors and that you heed them if/when they sound an alert.  We are starting to see deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning and houses burning down as a result of improper generator use.

Things here in New Jersey were already pretty crazy, then Sandy hit.  We were very fortunate as were our families and most of our friends.  We were all fortunate in that we are dealing with things like property damage and gas shortages rather than loss of life.

During the storm itself, my parents stayed with us after being evacuated from the shore town they live in.  My in laws live in the next town over, they were evacuated as well, they headed up to my brother-in-law's house about 45 minutes north of us.  They were all able to return to their homes on Wednesday, and there was little to no property damage for either.  Sandy shifted north before making landfall, putting their homes on the southern and less severe side of the storm.  We actually got hit harder here in Central NJ than their towns did.  

Just a quick note about evacuation, and then I promise, I am done on my soapbox.  If you live somewhere that is under a mandatory evacuation for a storm, please heed it and head to a family member, friend or emergency shelter.  Staying can put our first responders in serious danger and for the most part these are volunteers who are away from their families to help others in need.  Taking unnecessary risks endangers everyone involved and at the end of the day, property can be repaired or replaced.  Our loved ones can't.

I found the anticipation leading to the storm to be a challenge.  Probably in part because of the anxiety it brought out in my almost 3 year old.  She kept asking if the big storm was here yet.  For that reason, we did our best to keep the tv news and storm reports off.  The first thing she asked each morning was, "Is the storm coming?" Closely followed by the statement, "I don't want the storm to come."  Strangely, last Tuesday she kept telling me she wanted to go to the beach.  When I told her we couldn't go to the beach, she told me we needed to go to the beach right then and build sandcastles.  This was out of the ordinary for her, though she does love the beach.  After all of the anticipation of the storm, she ended up falling asleep a few hours before the worst of it hit us, about two hours earlier than she normally goes to bed.  

Our power went out about two hours before the brunt of the storm hit us, so it was nice to have my parents for company in the dark.  I'm usually on my own with my daughter during severe storms of any kind because my husband is always either working at the hospital or out and about with our volunteer fire company and ems.  The number of calls during events like these tends to be quite high, due to live wires being knocked down, transformers catching fire, people becoming stranded in their homes or on the road, and other issues too numerous to list here.  For us, the wind was the biggest issue.  We live near a river that floods and across the street from a lake, but we are high enough to avoid flooding.

We had six trees come down in the storm, and they did take out our fence.  The fence is less than three months old, and we saved for quite a while to put it up, but it's just a fence, it can be fixed.  The big old trees that fell somehow avoided seriously damaging anything other than the fence and our little lawnmower shed.  My dad and I watch that literally disintegrate as the roots of a tree came out of the ground hoisted it out of the ground. One did fall toward a neighbors house, but it landed on his roof without going through at all.  It's just resting on his roof.  I've never seen anything like it.  

The aftermath of this storm continues to wreak havoc in our area.  We were among the lucky ones to have power restored the day after the storm.  I am thankful for this, but almost feel guilty about it as well.  We have a wood stove insert in our fireplace and a gas stove with two burners that can be used even when the power is out, and we have camping lanterns and a solar hot water heater (though that is only available if it has been sunny).  We filled both cars up with gas before the storm hit, so we haven't had a need to sit in any of the hours long lines hoping to be able to get gas.  

I am saddened to see the devastation this storm wreaked on the Jersey shore.  I have spent many summer days on beaches and boardwalks that are now gone, swept into the ocean.  I can't even wrap my head around it.  The photos and footage don't seem real to me, even though I know they are.  I love living in New Jersey - I don't know of anywhere else where you can live within one hour of major cities, the ocean, forest, and mountains.  I don't always like the way New Jersey is portrayed on reality tv, as that is not my NJ.  The real New Jersey is what I have described above, plus much more.  Those truly from New Jersey are resilient, hard working, knowledgeable people with high expectations of themselves and those around them.  There are also those who are tough talking, but most have an internal toughness and a willingness to reach out to help others that is valuable in times like this.  There are those that say that the shore should not be rebuilt, especially the barrier islands.  I disagree.  The shore will be rebuilt, and improved.  The boardwalks a beaches will be reopened.  I look forward to being part of it and spending time on them with my daughter like my parents and grandparents did with me.  

Until then, I will help in any way I can.  Right now, that means having friends over who still don't have power and staying out of the way until the roads and wires are cleared. It also mean sharing my husband with those in need while he goes on fire and ems calls and works at the state shelters that are open nearby.  It doesn't seem like much right now, especially when there are people who have lost everything.  

Worm Food

I have been delinquent in posting this month!  I got caught up in summer fun...we had our back yard fenced in, bought a canopy/umbrella and a picnic table and so have been spending most of our non-work time outdoors.  This past week we were on vacation down the shore, which was the place to be in the record breaking heat!  We were fortunate that we were not in the path of the derecho either at home or down the shore - it passed between the two.  Our home is far enough north and my parents' home down the shore was far enough south that we were very fortunate. 

We've spent this week getting back into the swing of things, unpacking, cleaning up, checking out how the garden did in the extreme heat while we were away.  My plants all survived the heat just fine, but something is eating all of my bean, squash and zucchini plants!  To the point that I don't think many of them are going to make it.  There are times when I wish I had a security camera pointed at the garden so that I can see which critters are responsible.  It's hard to formulate a defense without know what is getting in...through the ten foot fence!

The week before we left for vacation, we bought a Worm Factory and set it up.  We have been there done that with traditional compost piles and we have a compost tumbler.  Both worked fine, but I was really looking for an option that would allow us to compost our kitchen scraps year round.  I prefer to keep as much as possible out of the landfills, and composting is so easy.  I had been thinking about giving vermicomposting a try for quite some time, but it took me a while to get past my hang ups about having worms in the house.  I am so happy I did get over it, because it's actually fun to vermicompost.  My daughter is especially enjoying it.  She loves checking on the worms to see if they are eating and loves to watch us feed the worms.  I was a little nervous initially that she would be inclined to relocate the worms, but she understands that they live in their composter and are very happy there. 

So when we bought the Worm Factory, I was thinking that we would put it in the garage, because I didn't really want worms inside the actual house.  When it arrived, we were experiencing such extreme temperatures that the only option was to set it up inside the house so our worms didn't get cooked.  It's in the kitchen, and I am really impressed that there is no smell whatsoever to this unit.  The worms settled right in and made no attempt to make a run for it.  I must admit, the first few mornings, I half expected to walk into the kitchen and see worms everywhere, trying to get away!  I made the obvious rookie mistake and overfed the worms, but it worked out to be perfect timing for our vacation.  A week and a half of benign neglect solved that particular problem, and now that we are back, we are well on our way to some really nice looking compost and we and the worms are ready to start the next feeding tray! 

My next challenge will be learning to pressure can.  Everything I have read seems to be designed to scare people away from pressure canning with warnings about how you can easily kill your whole family.  I am refusing to be frightened off, though.  I live near a large state university, which has a large agricultural school with a food science department.  I am hoping I can find some kind of resource there.  Many of the warnings I have read tell you never ever to can your own recipes, that they must be tested thoroughly by food scientists before it is okay to pressure can them.  I'm wondering if there is somewhere that I can submit a couple of recipes to have them tested out by pros.