My town, located in the top, northeast corner of Bergen County, New Jersey is a quiet, sleepy sort of place.
On weekends you can work in the garden or just lounge around in your yard and besides the occassional sound of lawnmowers or weedwhackers, it's silent. I can sit in the garden pulling weeds and hear the branches of the pine trees that surround our property rustling. Cars do not even go by It is the perfect place to meditate.
We garden. Recently, we relandscaped. You should have seen my 80 year old Mom and Dad and I out there moving 13 truckloads of to soil. I never want to see another pile of dirt again.
We've downsized to one medium sized vegy garden and now have decided that the only thing we want to grow are tomatoes and asparagus and maybe some zucchini and possibly acorn squash. It's cheaper and easier to buy the other things at the farm or store. And, Fresh Tomatoes and Fresh Asparagus are the mouth-watering gifts from God.
We have two strawberry patches which we're lucky if we get to before the critters. (or if they don't get lost under the weeds - you know, the weeds always win). We've got the special section we let the zucchini just go, and go, and go.
The rest we've been turning into perennial and bulb gardens. We've got tulip and crocus bulbs all along the entire street edge from one corner to the next. On the corners themselves, we've got flower gardens. I've made a raised hill garden along one section of the street with one of those truckloads of dirt.
We have a well. It's inside of a stone well house. There is this large electric pump. The pipes go down and hit water at about 90 feet. The bottom is believed to be about 200 feet down.There appears to be a "cavern" under us. The water is crystal clear and clean and maintains a 56 degree temperature. A pipe comes up from the ground, makes a turn and goes out through the wall of the building where we fill bottles and bring in.If you look close, you can see that pipe.
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Oh, we've got this big pine tree with long hanging branches in the center of the backyard. That tree must now be about 85 feet tall.
Under that tree grows mostly pacasandra. There is one section closer to the house, which has been nicknamed "The Terrace". We dump all our leaves and rakings there. "The Terrace" is growing! Look at all the leaves below and you'll see why the Terrace is growing.
The center of our town, just 2 blocks from my house, has a duck pond with Weeping willow trees, and a Gazebo, and an old Railroad Station House now converted to a Senior Citizens Meeting House.
We've got our small strip of stores, you know, the bank and a bagel shop and the local deli and liquor store. Of course, the police and fire station are there too. But, mostly that's it. I actually remember the main street before they put the stores in. There was a wooden raised sidewalk and on the corner where the bank now is, there was an old fashioned candy/all purpose store. You could hear your footsteps walking into that store. Too bad it's all gone.
The house I live in was the Caretakers House for the Estate that used to be here. That too is gone and has been replaced by development homes. To think, it was only 1958 when this town was still the old way. Not that long ago and forever ago.
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Starting Point- Hot Site.
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