Chicken-Scratch-Saturday: Long Beach Island and Sandy

We all watched in fear and waited with baited breath when Sandy came in.

She was fierce.

She was powerful.

I was addicted to the coverage as we sat in our pajamas, all cozy in our home, for two days solid.

We were fine.

My sister and her family were fine (though they lost power).
My Mom was fine (though she lost power).
My husband's family, though (you guessed it) they all lost power - were fine.

But my old home did not fare so well.

I'm not talking about a brick and mortar building.
I'm talking about the place I called home from the time I was nine years old till the time I left for college: Long Beach Island.

LBI has been decimated by Sandy.

Everyone was evacuated, with refugees taken to my old high school on the mainland.

No one has been allowed back since the storm struck nearly a week ago.


Many parts are still under water deep enough to drive a boat in.

Where the water has receded, sand remains. Inches - even feet - deep of sand that was once on the bottom of the ocean, or guarding the houses along the shore.

Gas and oil are mixed with the water in the streets, in people's homes and businesses.

Boats, ripped from their moorings, lie together in piles in the streets, in front yards, on highways.

I am addicted still.  No longer to the news coverage, but to Facebook, where old high school - even elementary school - friends that still live in the area keep me updated on what's going on.  I feel like a parent whose child is in the hospital, but she can't get there to hold her hand.  I know there's not much I could do even if I were there, but it hurts to watch from so far away.

I know everything is being done that can be done to clean up, and get people back home, and open my beloved LBI back up for people to enjoy once again,
but it's going to take a lonnnng time. 

If you would like to help, you can donate to the Red Cross, which is helping with the refugees at Southern Regional High School. They are in need of any donated supplies such as diapers, formula, gift cards to WalMart for food and basic supplies. Also, this link will take you to the NJ volunteer organization which is coordinating a lot of the volunteer efforts.

Please keep Long Beach Island, and all its residents, in your hearts and in your prayers.








Images courtesy: msnbc.com, thestate.com, star-telegram.com, lbirecovery.tumblr.com, cnn.com


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Thanks!


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In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop, Natural Living Mamma's Natural Living Mondays, The Chicken Chick's Clever Chicks, A Cat-Like Curiosity's Monday Mantras, Ponder Wonder's Soul Food Monday and @ Home Take 2's Mom's Monday Mingle
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday, Crafty Garden Mama's Tuesday Greens, and The Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny, Tilly's Nest's Down Home, and Crafty Spices Wordless Wednesday
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop, and Two In Diapers' Mommy Brain Mixer
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday, Fresh Eggs Daily's FarmGirl Friday, Little Becky Homecky's Fantabulous Friday, @Home Take 2's Weekend Blog Walk, and Oh So Amelia's Friday Chaos
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop, and Tutus and Tea Parties' Pinteresting Party.


Since today is Saturday, that means I'm linking up my post "Farm Friday: Sandy" with Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop, and Country Momma Cooks Saturday Link-Up; and "Egg-Separating Magic Trick" with Tutus and Tea Parties' Pinteresting Party.


Come join the fun!


****************

Rudeness disclaimer:

I love all your comments,
I read every one!
But I can't hit 'reply',
I've no time for fun.
Please don't judge me,
Please don't hate.
If you have a question that just can't wait,
Send me an email at farmbeachgal@yahoo.com,
And I'll answer right back because I'm, you know, the Mom.

Farm Friday: Sandy

So Hurricane Sandy came through last Monday and Tuesday.

Although we were smack-dab in her direct path, we were far enough inland that we didn't have any real problems.

We never lost power, although if we had, we would have been OK with our hard-wired generator.

We had several inches of rain, but with our house's elevation, never got any household flooding.

Lots of mature trees around us, but all the wind knocked down was smaller branches and leaves.

The only real problem was the barn. Our barn always gets flooded whenever we get a heavy rain, and Sandy was a bit more than a heavy rain.

While SOME of our dogs were hard at work keeping our barn free of rats (ha),
others were riding out the storm all cozied up on the couch.

Tuesday morning, we found a lot of water still in the barn, though a good bit of it had receded.



We found a Romeo and Juliet rat pair that had lost their lives in the water.

Why does this make me so sad?





And sadly, we found one of our meat chicks had drowned, as well. Not in the water rushing through the barn, but in a bucket I had placed to catch a bad drip.

I couldn't bring myself to take that picture.

Rest in peace little chickie, rest in peace. Your brethren will be following you into the afterlife shortly.

got drama?



Anyway, I hope you all fared well in the storm.  Please chime in and let me know how you did!







************

Read it. Like it? Follow it. Please? Thanks.
(Follow my blog by adding yourself as a follower with Google Friends Connect in my sidebar!)


***************************


Don't forget, I will love you forever if you throw me a vote on Top Mommy Blogs. You know the drill by now, don't you? Just click the juggling chick and you've voted. You can vote every day till like, forever.



Thanks!



***************

In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop, Natural Living Mamma's Natural Living Mondays, The Chicken Chick's Clever Chicks, A Cat-Like Curiosity's Monday Mantras, Ponder Wonder's Soul Food Monday and @ Home Take 2's Mom's Monday Mingle
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday, Crafty Garden Mama's Tuesday Greens, and The Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny, Tilly's Nest's Down Home, and Crafty Spices Wordless Wednesday
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop, and Two In Diapers' Mommy Brain Mixer
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday, Fresh Eggs Daily's FarmGirl Friday, Little Becky Homecky's Fantabulous Friday, @Home Take 2's Weekend Blog Walk, and Oh So Amelia's Friday Chaos
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop, and Tutus and Tea Parties' Pinteresting Party.

Since today is Friday, that means I'm linking up today's post with Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday, and Fresh Eggs Daily's FarmGirl Friday;  "Edible Bowls" with Little Becky Homecky's Fantabulous Friday; and "Thursday Afternoon Play-by-Play" with @Home Take 2's Weekend Blog Walk, and Oh So Amelia's Friday Chaos.

Come join the fun!




****************

Rudeness disclaimer:

I love all your comments,
I read every one!
But I can't hit 'reply',
I've no time for fun.
Please don't judge me,
Please don't hate.
If you have a question that just can't wait,
Send me an email at farmbeachgal@yahoo.com,
And I'll answer right back because I'm, you know, the Mom.

Wordless Wednesday: Punkin Pickin'

Punkin pickin' over the weekend...

And a couple pics of local Sandy flooding....

************

Read it. Like it? Follow it. Please? Thanks.
(Follow my blog by adding yourself as a follower with Google Friends Connect in my sidebar!)


***************************


Don't forget, I will love you forever if you throw me a vote on Top Mommy Blogs. You know the drill by now, don't you? Just click the juggling chick and you've voted. You can vote every day till like, forever.



Thanks!



***************

In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop, Natural Living Mamma's Natural Living Mondays, The Chicken Chick's Clever Chicks, A Cat-Like Curiosity's Monday Mantras, Ponder Wonder's Soul Food Monday and @ Home Take 2's Mom's Monday Mingle
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday, Crafty Garden Mama's Tuesday Greens, and The Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny, Tilly's Nest's Down Home, and Crafty Spices Wordless Wednesday
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop, and Two In Diapers' Mommy Brain Mixer
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday, Fresh Eggs Daily's FarmGirl Friday, Little Becky Homecky's Fantabulous Friday, @Home Take 2's Weekend Blog Walk, and Oh So Amelia's Friday Chaos
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop, and Tutus and Tea Parties' Pinteresting Party.


Since today is Wednesday, that means I'm linking up today's post with Crafty Spices Wordless Wednesday; "Stress Relief" with Tilly's Nest's Down Home;and "Thursday Afternoon Play-by-Play" with My Life and Kids Finding the Funny.

Come join the fun!



****************

Rudeness disclaimer:

I love all your comments,
I read every one!
But I can't hit 'reply',
I've no time for fun.
Please don't judge me,
Please don't hate.
If you have a question that just can't wait,
Send me an email at farmbeachgal@yahoo.com,
And I'll answer right back because I'm, you know, the Mom.

TALU Tuesday (and Sandy)

First of all, we made it through hurricane Sandy just fine, though we were in her direct path. Lots of rain and wind, and a flooded barn, but no household damage or flooding or power loss. The pond filled to the point of overflowing its banks, and the barn got flooded, but more on that Friday.

But today it's Tuesday, so....

It's that time again!

Time for TALU Tuesday.

That's right, the Tuesday Archive Link-Up.

Time to pull your treasured old posts out of those cobwebby archives, dust them off, and give them new life where they will be seen and enjoyed by untold millions OK, thousands of viewers.

See, this link-up is hosted by several people, who, all together have thousands upon thousands of followers. So when you link your post up with this party? Your post will show up on all their blogs, to all of their followers.

All you've got to do is:

1) link up your post using the linky tool below.

2) visit the hosts and leave a comment to say hi.

3) and try to visit three or more of the blogs linked up and leave a comment. They'll all be doing the same, so it's like a giant hippie love fest. Bring your own flowers.







Oh and when you comment? Put in the secret code "TALU" (Tuesday Archive Link-Up) and then give a little wink so we'll all know what you're talking about.

Have fun!






Now here are your TALU hosts, wonderful gals every one....



Jennifer, author of I Am Not Superwoman

Jessica, author of Sugar In My Grits

Anne, author of Life On The Funny Farm

Angelica, author of My Daily Pages

Debbie, author of Wrinkled Mommy














************

Read it. Like it? Follow it. Please? Thanks.
(Follow my blog by adding yourself as a follower with Google Friends Connect in my sidebar!)


***************************


Don't forget, I will love you forever if you throw me a vote on Top Mommy Blogs. You know the drill by now, don't you? Just click the juggling chick and you've voted. You can vote every day till like, forever.



Thanks!



***************

In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop, Natural Living Mamma's Natural Living Mondays, The Chicken Chick's Clever Chicks, A Cat-Like Curiosity's Monday Mantras, Ponder Wonder's Soul Food Monday and @ Home Take 2's Mom's Monday Mingle
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday, Crafty Garden Mama's Tuesday Greens, and The Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny, Tilly's Nest's Down Home, and Crafty Spices Wordless Wednesday
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop, and Two In Diapers' Mommy Brain Mixer
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday, Fresh Eggs Daily's FarmGirl Friday, Little Becky Homecky's Fantabulous Friday, @Home Take 2's Weekend Blog Walk, and Oh So Amelia's Friday Chaos
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop, and Tutus and Tea Parties' Pinteresting Party.

Since today is Tuesday, that means I'm linking up my post "Stress Relief" with Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday; "Thursday Afternoon Play-by-Play" with The Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up; and "Stress Relief" with Crafty Garden Mama's Tuesday Greens.

Come join the fun!




****************

Rudeness disclaimer:

I love all your comments,
I read every one!
But I can't hit 'reply',
I've no time for fun.
Please don't judge me,
Please don't hate.
If you have a question that just can't wait,
Send me an email at farmbeachgal@yahoo.com,
And I'll answer right back because I'm, you know, the Mom.