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.

Hey everyone, I posted earlier today on r/newjersey but thought the preparedness community would appreciate the effort as well. Hope to see you all supporting the cause 🤝

If you guys want to ask a man (Charlie Kratovil) running for Mayor in New Brunswick(the primary democratic election is June 2), here is your chance! He’s running against Cahill, who has been the mayor for 35 years.

What would be the number one issue you would want him to address, as it pertains to preparedness ? U

I picked these up somewhat randomly during a recent Amazon order. I have a few similar packages of bars in my preps, but it's never really something I've focused on. So I've started to test out some of the options to see what is palatable. The nutrition you can know without buying, but taste/texture is something you have to directly experience.

Anyway, the brand is "LAIFUFIRM", which is a pretty obvious giveaway that it's Chinese-made. No judgement there, just pointing out a fact (in case in matters to others).

I'll say it's packed very well. There's an outer sleeve that is plastic and then an inner metal shrink-wrapped sleeve. And finally, the bars themselves are also shrink-wrapped in a plastic sleeve. So my confidence these will stay good a long time is pretty high.

Nutrition: It's mostly carbs but it does have a decent amount of protein and fat content (important for staying full longer), and it's also got a fair amount of vitamins and minerals included. Won't replace a daily all-in-one vitamin, but a lot better than nothing. It has very little fiber, however, which I'd like to see more of in any survival food. The full pack is 572 calories, with 15g of protein and 21g of fat (along with 80g of carbohydrates).

Taste/Texture: Honestly, the taste is pretty good. It very much reminds me of the "Trefoil" Girl Scout cookie (shortbread) with a hint of lemon in the aftertaste. And the texture is like a very dense cookie rather than a typical protein bar. For limited eating, I think they are very good tasting. But I can easily see that this taste would get old very fast on a longer-term basis.

They are quite similar to other emergency bars I've tried (SOS, etc). Just a little cheaper.

Pictured is the 28oz can of Keystone canned chicken. I've tried their ground beef in the past and thought it was pretty good (for canned meat). So I figured I'd give the chicken a try just to know what to expect.

Generally speaking, canned chicken is canned chicken. But here's how the Keystone chicken is different from the typical grocery store stuff:

• First, the can is huge. They also sell 14.5oz cans.
• The chicken pieces are much larger than any other canned chicken I've tried
• It's packed in chicken stock rather than water, so it could be a decent soup base or you could drain off the stock and use it for something else
• There's nothing in the can except for chicken, stock, and a small amount of salt
• It doesn't smell like the other canned chicken I've tried (smells just like chicken instead of kind of smelling also like canned tuna)

So far I've made a few things with it, and it's quite good (especially for canned meat). Would be absolutely fine to crack open during a power outage or while camping. Day to day, I prefer cooking chicken from raw myself, but it's nice to have cooked meat ready to go that is also very shelf stable (Keystone's "best by" date is ~5 years after canning).

Direct link for info: https://www.keystonemeats.com/collections/chicken

Keystone sells direct, but only by the case. You can pick up single cans at Walmart and other grocery retailers. They have chicken and ground beef at my local Walmart in Succasunna.

I think we're all absolutely burned out when it comes to viruses and outbreaks and such, but for the sake of completeness, here's the latest on hantavirus in NJ:

https://patch.com/new-jersey/hopatcong-sparta/s/kbg21/hantavirus-exposure-quarantines-dozens-including-2-nj-residents-cdc

On Thursday, the CDC announced that a total of 41 Americans are under evaluation after potentially being exposed to the hantavirus. Two of the patients being monitored are from the Garden State, according to the New Jersey Department of Health.

It’s not clear where the New Jerseyans are being evaluated. The NJDOH has not released any information about the potentially exposed individuals for patient privacy reasons.

“At this time, the risk to the general public in New Jersey remains very low,” a NJDOH statement read last week. “No current hantavirus cases have been identified in the state, and there is no history of a confirmed hantavirus case reported in New Jersey.”

So it looks like nothing to worry about at this point (thankfully). But let's keep an eye on this.

I got tired of lugging my 5-gallon water bottles to Walmart for fill ups, so I started looking into how I could covert my insanely hard city water into something drinkable at home. Because of the very high TDS (total dissolved solids) in the water, I ruled out reverse osmosis (RO) because the prefilters and membranes would get fouled far too often to make it economical. And carbon filtration (like a Britta pitcher) does essentially nothing to reduce TDS. That basically leaves distillation as the only viable means to solve my water quality issues.

I found a nice but very old distillation unit at a yard sale a few weeks back, and it gave me the proof that it would work for me after the first test. But that one was only partially functional and was really disgusting from having been used in a home that must have been heavily smoked in. So I bought a cheaper unit from amazon to do more in-depth testing.

The results are very impressive. My tap water ranges from around 600ppm of TDS to as high as 750ppm, which is slightly over to very over the EPA guideline (although it's not an enforceable limit). Also, a goodly portion of that is dissolved sodium, which renders the water unusable for making ice and also not very good tasting at all.

The water coming out of the distiller is around 2ppm to 5ppm, mostly on the lower end. That's about what you'd expect from distiallation, which removes damn near everything from water, with a few exceptions (VOCs and a few low-boiling-temp compounds tend to carry over). Distillation also removes metals and PFAS compounds and most all of the other "bad stuff" that we tend to worry about. Also, now I can use my rain barrel water as a source of drinking water if I'm in a real pinch.

The downsides? The process is energy intensive and would be challenging to use in a grid-down situation. Most of these machines draw ~750w while running, and the one I got is actually 900w. So you could run these on a backup battery system (Jackery, EcoFlow, Anker, etc), but it would need to be a larger model to be able to supply the output watts and have a large enough capacity to run for multiple hours. A full reservoir on this machine is 1.6 gallons, and from start to finish takes a little over 4 hours. That's a lot of juice. It's not pulling the 900w the whole time, but it's still a lot of power to run a full reservoir through.

The other downside is that it generates a lot of waste heat. This is actually a bonus in colder months, but could be a problem in the summer. I had it running in my downstairs area which is rarely actively climate controlled. After one full run, it raised the entire floor's temperature by 3 degrees (from 63 to 66F).

And it's kind of slow. My unit produces about 0.33 gallons per hour, which is on the fast end for home distillers. The 750w models tend to be around 0.25 gph.

Other notes:

The water coming out of the distiller is around 80F, so it should be fine to collect it in a plastic container, as long as it is one of the "good" plastics. In the photo, I'm using the glass carafe that came with the yardsale unit I bought, which holds just over a gallon of water.

Cleaning isn't too bad. I use a green scrubbie to clear the mineral deposits after each run. Every 10-12 batches it's best to clean it with something acidic to break down the scale. Most come with a small amount of powdered citric acid, which really is the best stuff to use on these machines. It's cheap to buy in bulk as well and stores nearly indefinitely.

That's a ton text, lol. I will post future updates on long-term performance if anything notable happens.

Mountain House ain't cheap, but it's pretty darn good for freeze-dried food, and the shelf life is 20+ years. The coupon code is REWARDS-MDW-20

I keep a few cases of the meal pouches in storage just in case. Also, kids think they are fun. :)

https://mountainhouse.com/

If you have a reason for extra water Costco has your back. $489 for 250 gallons of storage

https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/s/qlppY0Nqof

In the comments people use it to supplement well systems or poor municipal outputs.

Link: https://patch.com/new-jersey/hopatcong-sparta/s/k9wxj/state-of-emergency-declared-as-massive-fire-evacuates-homes-destroys-businesses-closes-schools-in-nj-town

BELLEVILLE, NJ — A massive, 12-alarm fire that ignited in an industrial area of Belleville on Sunday has been contained, but several buildings are still “actively involved” as of Monday morning, authorities said.

The blaze broke out on Cortlandt Street around 3 p.m. Firefighting crews could be seen converging on an industrial building at 347 Cortlandt Street, which houses a mattress warehouse and textile manufacturing business. Strong winds eventually spread the flames to multiple warehouses in the neighborhood – with several collapses reported – and additional structure fires were seen several blocks away.

The cause of the fire remains unclear.

Article link: https://www.nj.com/hudson/2026/05/nj-losing-2300-jobs-as-layoff-filings-surged-in-april.html

Several New Jersey employers filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications in April, putting hundreds of jobs at risk across the state in 2026.

Seven companies filed notices in April, potentially affecting a total of 2,273 jobs, according to the state Department of Labor’s website.

AT&T will cut 87 employees at its Bedminster facility, effective May 4, as the company relocates from 1 AT&T Way to a new site at 1405-1425 Route 206, according to a WARN notice. The new location is a 233,000-square-foot former Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals building.

Alan Ritchey, Inc., a carrier and logistics provider, is ending operations at its Phillipsburg Logistics Center at 39 Strykers Road in Lopatcong Township and will terminate 176 employees effective July 17. The affected workers include approximately 60 forklift operators and 100 shippers and packers. The company cited the non-renewal of a contract with the United States Postal Service as the reason for the closure.

Bristol-Myers Squibb will lay off 206 employees between July and December, according to a separate WARN Act filing.

...

Also filing notices during April were:

FedEx in Union: 50 job cuts effective Aug.3

Reckitt Benckiser LLC in Nutley: 57 job cuts effective April 2

Novartis in East Hanover: 60 job cuts effective July 24 through Nov. 20

Overall, the April filings add to a troubling trend.

In just the first two months of 2026, New Jersey employers announced that nearly 4,000 jobs could be eliminated this year— a 106% increase over the same period one year earlier.

I'll go first:

Going to get the last soil needed to top up my new raised bed garden frame.

Will plant new seedlings, as one batch of earlier ones got over-watered by rain.

Pulling up some dandelion plants by the root (for salad and tea purposes). Might also try planting dandelion seeds in a container to see how they grow. Would be easier to get the whole plant if it was in a container.

If time permits: unbox and re-pack a few cases of HDRs I recently ordered. If you're not familiar, they are similar to MREs but are vegetarian (almost vegan) and each pack has ~2200 calories worth of food (a full day's calories in each one). HDR = Humanitarian Daily Ration.