Post Hurricane Blog

So like many other East Coast Bloggers here is my Hurricane Sandy post. As one can see I survived, only lost a few roof shingles and a mid-sized tree. My house sits right at the edge of the flood plain for the South River. With the surge I actually had water up to my second front step, only 3 days with no power, cell or internet. I was horrible!  Anyway here are some pics of the aftermath.

Before the storm

After the flood

I think I had one of these as a kid

Floated into the street from a block away

Across the street from the trailer

Flood Line

Trash

More trash

Downed Pole

Two days later

Flat Roof Gone

Thursday Morning

Apparently one needs to be from a newspaper to take this photo

Local Lads cleaning up Main Street

Someone should of told Sandy

Miscellaneous

With running timelapses, scouting locations, searching for those last few insects, panoramas, finding old grave sites and collecting seeds, I have been like a chicken without a head these past few weeks. So lets get too it.
While scouting on Sundays for cool locations for timelapses, I also do panoramas. It is my dream to set up two or three cameras in sync, then stitch them together for a pano TL. Maybe one day even HDR, even though I hate HDR. Learn to meter properly & average all ready, will ya!
So here is a couple of panos for my travels, the first one is a small bit of flooding on the Causeway in South River.

Like Venice, only in New Jersey

This second one is from by the Veteran's Memorial Bridge also in South River. I cropped out the lovely Edgeboro Landfill on the left. On a warm Summers night you can really smell the Jersey Pride.
Anyway once you crop, its a pretty nice view.

Fall in The Garden State

Now I took a little trip into East Brunswick last Sunday to get some me time. I've just discovered this place Ireland Brook Conservation Area, also Know as "The Pig Farm" to some. It is not the whole park just an area off of Riva Ave in East Brunswick. Find this sign and you will be there.

IBCA has about one trail so far, there might be others but I haven't explored enough to tell you. What it does have is a old family grave plot. Only one of the stones was readable and it marked the grave of Jonathan Provost 1803-1839. Finding it was quite a suprise, while walking on the "Blue Trail" I ran across it after crossing a large clearing. It looked recently cleaned up, figured it was family but after some internet searching, found out the Nov 5th was Fall Trail Day in NJ. Must have been cleaned up not one day before my visit. There were also a few broken stones, so who knows how many people are buried there. Will be sending an email to the East Brunswick Historian to find out more, will keep you up dated. Anyway here are some pics, Provost headstone was taken on my Crackberry, because I forgot my normal lens in the car. My favorite is the second one, kinda weird!

 

A tough read, I know.

Hey wait, That ain't no 19th Century keepsake!

After the walk at Ireland Brook my travels took me to Davidson's Mill Park. You may have remembered that place from the last post. Fall was in full effect here, don't know if it was peak, but it was pretty sweet. The air was warm with a light wind and the trees were a whispering. That is the sound that they make when the wind blows. I strolled around looking at some storm damage from Snowtober and made my way to the back pond. Spotted a few Autumn Meadowhawks and some Muskrat damage to a tree or maybe it was a Beaver, I don't know but it was either of those two. While that is some natural damage and just part of life, I did find some human troubles.

The plight of a Beech Tree.

I can't say, I've never tagged a tree, but this is a little to much for me. The path to the pond was quite an enjoyable time, saw some extremely large Oaks and Maples as well as some huge Beech Trees. No wonder they get sightings of Pileated Woodpeckers around here. I don't know if the tree stands at this park are old growth but they look it. The canopy is pretty high and dense, must be nice and cool on a summers day. Anyway that is about it, so I leave you with some tree pics from the park. Thanks for reading!

Hurricane, Smurricane!

I woke around 5 a.m. and got ready for the 6 o'clock beating we were planned to take, but it was nothing more than a bad wind storm. Around 8, I ventured out of the house, nothing was blown over or missing from the yard.

Deciding to check out the town, I made my way to the Railroad Tressel which spans the river & connects Sayreville to South River. Usually the water level stays a foot or two below the bottom of the frame work but not today.

That's some big water!

Making my way down the street I reached downtown, it was some what of a mess. A lot of people standing around, some even took a water tour of the area. To be young and own a Kayak!

I then made my way to Main Street, there again were a lot of people standing round. The big show for this area was this Daredevil who tried to make it across a flooded road. Don't worry he was safe, a flat boat Captain & his dog oversaw his retrieval of personal paperwork from the truck.

I wonder if Maritime Law applied in this situation?

I worked my way back up the street and checked out my bank. In the lot next door some local canines got some exercise and a sweet stick. The only one with brains was that Great Dane that stayed on dry land.

At this point I was getting a little tired so I head home, while stopping to take some pictures.

Local youths enjoy a river tour.

So that's about it, until the next flood.