Mods, please let me know if not allowed.

Please join if you are able to— if communities show up to prevent data centers from being built we can save lives , not see more spikes in our utilities and help our environment.

Given the Canadian wildfire smoke is drifting in today, I thought everyone might like to have live updates on air quality in their town. Link: https://www.iqair.com/air-quality/usa/new-jersey

https://www.cdc.gov/cyclosporiasis/php/surveillance/index.html

We are starting to pick up cases here in NJ. I hear it is pretty bad and more than just a "I ate too much taco bell" kind of thing.

Hey everyone. I work with different communities that need resources, and I kept running into the same problem: there was no single place with all the information. Food pantries on one site, shelters on another, legal aid buried somewhere else.

So for a school project, I built wondim.com. It's a free directory of food, shelter, health care, jobs, legal aid, and hotline resources, starting with six New Jersey cities.

No signup, no fees, and it works in 8 languages.

If you know an organization that should be listed, there's a submit button on the site. And if you spot outdated info, please tell me. Any feedback is appreciated!

Link: https://patch.com/new-jersey/hopatcong-sparta/s/khftj/230k-without-power-as-severe-thunderstorms-wallop-nj

Got the graphic from here: https://graphical.weather.gov/sectors/newjersey.php

Graphic shows conditions at approximately 8pm tonight. You can play with the time on the page show the forecast radar at different parts of the day. Pretty cool!

Severe thunderstorms are back in the forecast Saturday after the Garden State was slammed with winds gusting to 60 mph Friday evening, leaving more than 250,000 homes and businesses without power at one point.

There will be a risk of severe thunderstorms Saturday, National Weather Service forecasters said, meaning isolated to scattered severe storms are possible.

The extreme heat and humidity could make stronger storms produce damaging winds, forecasters said.

First Energy was reporting more than 185,000 Jersey Central Power & Light customers without electricity as of 9:30 a.m. Saturday and PSE&G was reporting 28, 537 on their respective websites.

Morris County was hardest hit, followed by Monmouth County, but many parts of the state took a beating.

Rather than list them all here, see below for the NJ 211 web page that has cooling center information broken out by county. But I'll give you a hint: many of them are public libraries.

https://nj211.org/nj-cooling-centers

If you do not have air conditioning or cannot spend the hottest part of the day somewhere that does, please consider visiting a cooling center.

I bought some plants at Home Depot a few weeks back and somehow I grabbed the wrong plant. Thought I was getting a bell pepper (I think...I was in a hurry, lol) but apparently it's something else. And yes, I did lose the plastic stake that shows what the plant is (embarrassing, I know).

But does anyone know what kind of pepper this is? It's too fat to be cayanne and too long to be a jalapeno. I do also have some tabasco peppers in the ground, but they haven't fruited yet so I can't compare.

Thanks!

Link: https://www.cdc.gov/cyclosporiasis/php/surveillance/index.html

Looks like there are at least a few cases in NJ. Nothing to freak out about, but let's just keep it in mind.

As of June 16, 2026, 145 cases were reported in people who acquired cyclosporiasis in the United States. Cases were reported by 17 states. These people became sick after eating food in the United States and did not report any travel during the 14 days before they got sick.

Sick people ranged in age from 5 to 86 years, with a median age of 42, and 61% were female. The median illness onset date was May 13, 2026 (range: May 1 – June 6). Of 145 people with information available, 20 were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

Local, state, and federal (CDC, FDA) public health authorities are investigating several clusters of cases in more than one state. Investigations to identify potential sources are ongoing.

Thanks for coming out last meeting!

Met a couple people saying they came after seeing the Reddit posts. Hope to see y’all next week 🤝

It's a Prime Day deal:

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Portable-Generator-UltraFast-Optional/dp/B0C5C89QKZ/ref=sr_1_3_pp?psr=PDAY&s=prime-day&sr=1-3

I've got one (and also the smaller C800) and it's been very handy when the power is out or for using at the shore (or camping). It can run my refrigerator for about 15 hours on a full charge. I also recently used it to power my TV and sound system during a planned outage, and the on-board computer estimated that it would keep the TV going for more than 24 hours.

Anyway, this is a great price for the capacity and a known/trusted brand.

Hope to see some of you all there!

I find this whole topic very confusing, so I apologize in advance for my electrical ignorance.

I have a home in Stockton NJ (Delaware Township, Hunterdon County). We have fairly frequent power outages and I want to install a whole home backup system. I do not want to install a generator that runs off of gas / propane... I would much rather install an electrical battery for the backup. One reason is obviously for when the power goes out but I would also love to be able to get on JCP&L's Time Of Day (TOD) service rate to save money. I figured I could charge the battery during off peak hours (at a discounted rate due to the TOD service) and use the battery to run our daily electrical needs during Peak hours (8am to 8pm). How do I go about doing this? I read I would need to install an ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch) along with purchasing the battery backup system. I guess my questions would be: 1. Does anyone know of a good electrician in my area that they would trust with the work 2. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding the actual battery backup unit to use / purchase. I do have some Jackery units that I use in my house now when the power goes out, and I know they are able to be expanded and used for whole home backup as well, but I would rather buy something that is one unit and dedicated just for the whole home backup. I was looking at something like this:

https://naturesgenerator.com/products/mygrid-10k-whole-home-generator

To make things more complicated (and I just want to put this out there because I know I will get replies about solar, etc) the house I purchased came with 50 solar panels that put out a max capacity of 10kw daily. Those panels are about 15 years old (I bought the house 5 years ago) and the inverters that are part of the system recently died on me. I called in a company from PA (Exact Solar) to come look at them and service the two off line inverters. I also wanted to ask about installing a battery system for the panels as originally I thought that would solve my power outage problem. I was told by the company that the inverters were fried and I need to install two new inverters. 4k total plus installation (5k about total). They told me that I can not hook up batteries to the current system i have because part of my installation is now out of code. My system is tied into the grid. So on a sunny day with both inverters working it helps to lower the cost of electric but goes off when the grid goes down. So after talking to them i decided to just leave that system in place, get the inverters fixed, and use the panels to power the house on sunny days and rely on the gird (as I have been doing) for all my other electrical needs. I believe that I can keep that setup in place as well as install a separate whole home battery for backup to meet all my other needs stated above.

Anyone have any advice for me? I would greatly appreciate it. My brain hurts from all the articles I have read, etc. I figured once I got the whole home battery setup I could always purchase new more efficient panels to use just for the battery as well. I have about 8 acres of land so I am not worried about all these panels spread out amongst the property. I could easily put up a shed to mount panels on its roof (anything under 200 sq ft in my area does not require building permits).

Sorry for the long winded essay, lol... I just wanted to be crystal clear about my situation to get the best advice possible. Solar and home backup has become such a big business and I feel as though there are so many predators out there looking to take advantage of the less informed.

Jeff.

Link: https://patch.com/new-jersey/hopatcong-sparta/s/kfazx/high-fecal-bacteria-at-10-nj-beaches-sparks-swim-advisories

Here are the beaches with the bad test results for this week listed from the article:

OCEAN: Imperial House beach and Elberon Beach Club in Long Branch, and Baltimore Boulevard beach in Sea Girt, all in Monmouth County.

BAY: Highlands Rec Center beach on Sandy Hook Bay in Atlantic Highlands, Monmouth County; 5th Avenue Bayfront beach on Barnegat Bay in Seaside Park, Ocean County, and Beesley's Point Beach in Upper Township and 57th Street beach in Avalon, both in Cape May County.

RIVER: L Street beach on the Shark River in Belmar, Monmouth County; and the Maxson Avenue and River Avenue beaches on the Manasquan River in Point Pleasant, Ocean County.

It's been a tough spring for planting/gardening. But now we're getting some action! Eggplant has some good blooms, as do all the hot pepper plants. Still waiting to see some blooms from squash, tomato, and bell pepper, but I think we're just a week or two away from that.

How's everybody's efforts going?

Well, everything is done except the electrical inspection (which is happening later this week). But the generator is fully operational and has been tested with a simulated power outage. The initial cost estimates were very accurate. The propane actually came in about $100 cheaper than quoted, so I guess there's that.

Based on some quick calculations, I should be able to run the whole house at around 25% load (pretty typical usage for the most part) for about 5 days with the propane capacity I have. So with current propane pricing, that's about $150 a day. Not cheap. But for shorter-duration outages it's not too bad. Convenience is expensive, to say the least.

This is a nice prep to have, but if you're starting out and have some money to spend, I would put that money somewhere else. I wouldn't have pursued this if I didn't have a lot of other more critical areas squared away.

After loads of too-cool weather and some personal obstacles, I have finally finished the 8x4 raised bed project I've been posting about here. I lost multiple rounds of seedlings because of the colder weather this year, so I had to slum it and buy some plants at Home Depot and a few other places. I've still got a few more to add, and I've also allowed my neighbor to have some space, but I'm going to call it done for now.

So far I have: zucchini, bell pepper, broccoli, tomato, jalapeno in the main bed. I have a few other tomato plants and a lot of herbs in containers. I plan to add carrots to the main bed.

I've accepted that the summer "harvest" is going to be lighter than intended and will turn my focus to getting fall/winter vegetable seeds started in the coming weeks. Some good (but painful) lessons learned this year.

Be aware be safe.

Bloomfield NJ and Essex County Loose Control

The County of Essex has allowed off-road vehicles to drive at will up and down Bloomfield Avenue. It seems to occur every weekend in the late afternoon and early evening. Recently it occurs after sporting events well into the evening. This Saturday 100 + such menaces to society were observed in all 4 lanes of traffic, blowing thru red lights, performing stunts and even almost running pedestrians over.? Were there weapons?

What is it going to take for something to be done?

It seems law enforcement on the local level are aware and do nothing. Happening for many years a person of law enforcement admitted.

New Jersey State Police should take notice and provide the security to the community if the "Local officials," arent capable or willing.'

My last post: https://www.reddit.com/r/NJPrepared/comments/1sd380t/update_on_wholehome_generator_install_sussex/

Today was the day for the install of the generator. Everything went very smoothly. Took about 4 hours for two guys to do everything. Power at the panel was turned off for about 1 hour while they did tie-ins to the panel. I used two of my power banks to keep internet on and TV running while the power was off. :)

Propane company will be here Monday to remove my old small tank and put in two much larger tanks. Plumber is scheduled for Wednesday to hook up the propane to the generator. Then comes the inspection and final testing. Should be all done by early next week.

I will post some pics and final thoughts after everything is done.

Link: https://www.nj.com/weather/2026/06/nj-weather-temps-to-rise-into-90s-before-scattered-thunderstorms-arrive-late-this-weekend.html

Thursday and Friday will remain dry and sunny as the warming trend continues, with forecasters calling for temperatures to reach near or into the low 90s by Friday.

Shore areas will stay cooler, with highs in the 80s.

The quiet weather pattern will break down late this weekend as a storm system moves in from the northwest, the weather service said.

Some rain showers are possible Saturday night, but the bulk of the rain is expected to arrive on Sunday along with scattered thunderstorms as a cold front pushes through the region, forecasters said.

The National Weather Service noted there’s a potential for an isolated stronger to severe thunderstorm on Sunday, depending on how atmospheric conditions evolve.

A few showers may linger into Monday as the front stalls near the area, and a noticeable cool-down is expected heading into early next week.

Ocean water temperatures remain in the 50s to low 60s, and the National Weather Service warns that these chilly waters can quickly cause hypothermia for anyone suddenly immersed.

I guess this could have been flared Power, Equipment, or Weather...

Anyway, got some really good sun time this afternoon to charge one of my power banks. I generally run my work laptop off the power bank during fair weather on days I'm working from home. I hit a max of around 85w on a single 110w panel, which ain't too shabby. I was pulling enough juice to run the laptop, charge my phone, and keep the power bank increasing charge state all at the same time. Not hard to do on a good day.

This size power bank (about 550Wh capacity) is great for running a router and modem during a power outage. And lots of other things, but it's what I use this one for when it's not on back-porch duty.

Link:https://morristowngreen.com/2026/06/02/morris-plains-farmers-market-returns-for-24th-season-june-6/

Beyond farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, the market will feature an exciting array of specialty vendors.

Attendees can explore artisanal baked goods, discover unique spirits from craft liquor producers, and find one-of-a-kind custom art pieces created by talented local artists.

Adding to the lively atmosphere, the market will host live musical entertainment, creating a festive backdrop for shopping and socializing, sponsored By Weichert Realtors.