14 Days in the Pine Barrens

Since we bought our house on August 15th, there has been an earthquake and a hurricane. What next? Locust?

We have been having a real fun time sitting out in the backyard watching our bird feeders. Over the past few days we have purchased 8 new ones and placed them all around the yard. Then on Saturday morning, we took everything into the garage to make way for Hurricane Irene. Yesterday we started to put things back.

I have been taking photos of the activity around the feeders.

We started with one lone hummer, then there were 3 fighting over the feeder. So we bought 2 more feeders. I make the sugar water for them. The recipe is really easy, 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. Stir into boiling water till clear, let cool.

This was the view from my bedroom window this morning.

A Goldfinch (or as they are called in Crestwood, a yellow Canary) and a House Finch.

We went to Lowes this afternoon, bought a new kitchen faucet, a new air gap for the dishwasher and then more stuff for the birds! Suet, a baffle to deter squirrels from the big feeder, and more bird seed!

A Real Housewife from New Jersey or Proud to be a Piney, from my nose to my hiney!

The storage room is empty, the garage is full.

The painters are about 50% done.

The new dishwasher will be installed on Monday.

The Cable, Internet and phone are all connected.

The floors are ordered.

We got our dump sticker and the welcome kit from the community.

Met our neighbors, Jerry, Dwight, Sue, Virginia, Jerry, Jane and Mrs. K (watch out for her

she's the crazy one!).

Learned how to use an automatic water sprinkler...

Does that fulfill the suburbanite prerequisite?

Welcome to Village 5!

Every time water runs in the house, the meter ticks.

Every tick is another item input into the cash register at...

Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond, Petsmart, Costco, Lowe's, Home Depot, Super Foodtown (not so Super), Shoprite, Amazon.com, Avalon Carpet, Rabbit Movers, A Brush of Class and Whiting Auto Center (a lonsman in the Pine Barren-Nu? who would have thunk it!)

We are finding stuff we forgot we had. I found Yvette Moo-Moo, the cow windsock I had hanging up in the bathroom of the old house. There's a microwave I forgot about. Larry found an antique wash stand.

The yellow vanity top in the bathroom actually is mildly tolerable because the walls surrounding it are painted purple. The green and purple paint in the kitchen look great.

Next major job will be the floors.

After that new windows!

more to come

stay tuned.

Walk on the Wild(life management) Side...

LEAVING BROOKLYN!

You know how our esteemed Borough President feels about that!

Larry and I are trading in the wildlife in NYC for the wildlife of Whiting, NJ.

*** 35 B Sunset Rd

Whiting, NJ

My new backyard will be a 1200 acre WMA.

The actual transfer of ownership is on Monday the 15th, but the fun has already begun.

I have been packing, unpacking, repacking and

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping!!!!!

I might as well just sign my paycheck over to Ikea.

Larry might be feeling a bit insecure about moving.

But when the path to the 1200 Acre WMA area is just outside the kitchen door...

View of the kitchen door and side of house.

It's really hard to have reservations about trading in 678 sq. feet on the 3rd floor of a walk up for 1200 acre backyard.

But in the meantime,

the apartment is beginning to look like a warehouse. There are boxes everywhere.

I brought a lot of boxes to the storage room for the movers to move next week,

I never know what I am going to find in there when I go!

Don't Larry!

I'll get Dwight Goodbear from the car and everything will be all right.

Whew! that was a close call, got there just in a nick of time.

Blast from the past!

For the past 5 years most of my stuff and some of Larry's has been sitting in a storage room in Staten Island. When the movers asked me what was in the room, I forgot. I just knew I had boxes and boxes of stuff.

Good-bye stuff see you next week in NJ!

One of Larry's biggest complaints about me is that I don't know right from left and I have no sense of direction. The last time we went for a walk in the WMA behind the house, we missed the path to go back to the car. All the trails look the same

I was determined to find a way so that I wouldn't need search parties to find me in the woods.

Thanks to Costco I will always be able to find my way out of the woods.

Where's the car???

I don't know, let me check?

I feel much better now.

One of the things I know I am going to like about Whiting, NJ is the pick your own vegetable farms. I bought fresh fruit and vegetables from the farm stand last week.

$16.74 for 4 shopping bags of just picked produce.

unknown variety of winter squash

some of the fresh vegetables from the farm stand.

Monday, all the pieces should start falling into place...

Let the good times roll!

to be con't....