Chumley, Barn Cat

2012: A Year In Review

A baby deer who decided to live under one of our cars.

2012 will be remembered around Moggy Hollow as the year nature took revenge....   Specifically Hurricane Sandy.  Around 6:30pm as Lou was typing away in his basement office and the rest of the clan joked about how the storm might still be a "fizzle" there was a crack, crack, crack and CRASH as a massive ash tree fell over and took it's neighbor a black walnut with it on a ride into our house and deck. For some reason the tree targeted our second floor bathrooms, pushing a window out of it's opening in one and punching a softball size hole through the wall of another.  We were actually lucky as the damage was not that terrible (although it took over a month for State Farm to come and look at it).Take a look at an extensive gallery of the mess here.

The Morning After...

To top off the fun, we lost power for 12 days and internet service for 15 days. Thankfully we have a large generator (6000W) but it was beginning to sputter and stall after almost two weeks of generating power.

Making matters worse, just prior to the storm Lou's 93 year old mother had a bad fall, was hospitalized and ended up in rehabilitation for over a month.  We expect her to be out before Christmas and we're hoping she's more careful next time she goes jogging....

Rob, Lauren and Doug

Doug is a senior now at North Hunterdon High School - and well into the process of applying to colleges - in fact he has already been accepted into three schools at Rutgers. He's also considering Lehigh and Cornell. He has a part time job at BJ's and as a member of the 53% is now complaining about taxes. When not working or at school, Doug likes going to the movies with friends and playing computer games.

Rob is in 8th grade at Ethel Hoppock Middle School. In addition to his academic work he has become an avid collector of antique and historical bottles. When not with friends, he spends a lot of time at our new condo in Bradley Beach with Lauren and playing SimCity.  Check out his participation in the school play this past spring:

Rob in Fiddler on the Roof

Lauren continues to manage public sector sales support for the East and Canada for Oracle. She still travels frequently, racking up United points for Lou to splurge on camera equipment.  Lauren divides her leisure time between her small fleet of cars, her brood of cats and our place at the beach where she likes to unwind and check email.

Lou's company took on a number of new projects this year - mostly using the Joomla Open Source Content Management System. He has been extremely busy - too busy to update moggyhollow.com very often, but he frequently posts on Facebook. You can also check out his photography site here and his company site here. He still spends a lot of time in the basement with his trains - tearing things down as fast as he builds them because - well, perfectionists are just like that!

The pond from hell

Moggy Hollow itself is not so stately after it's brush with disaster. Plans are afoot for a new patio to replace the deck and a number of interior renovations in the bathrooms that were seriously damaged. A new feature is the goldfish pond in the center of the driveway circle. It has been something of a pain in the ass since the original plan to provide a solar pump turned out to be unworkable. Lou thinks it's deep enough for the goldfish to overwinter, but Lou "thinks" a lot of things that turn out to be completely incorrect.

Lou and his friend Claire

We wish you all a happy, safe and peaceful new year.  It's hard to be upbeat after the tragedy in Connecticut this past week, but let's hope some common sense prevails in this country and we do something about the twin problems of too many guns and too many crazy people.

Be sure to keep in touch and connect with us - Lou is an active Facebook user and Lauren is on LinkedIn.  Or just send us email!

XO,
L, L, D, R

Hummingbird First Test in HiDef and Slow Motion

Barn Cat Kittens!

Easter 2012

 Check out the photos here!

Where are the Mice?

Add caption

Pond Update

The saga of the koi pond continues. I decided to completely start all over this year with the following changes:

• Shallower (about 2 1/2 feet)
• Rounder
• Self trimming borders - in other words, the liner reaches over the first row of trimming rocks on the "shoreline"
• Aquatic plantings
• Use cheap feeder goldfish instead of $20.00 koi

Tradition!

Rob was part of the cast of Ethel Hoppock Middle School's production of "Fiddler on the Roof". It was a lot of hard work for everyone, but a really awesome show. I was able to attend an additional showing to photograph it - and the results were pretty good. Take a look here.

Welcome

Welcome to the new, new MoggyHollow.com, which is returning to BlogSpot, after a period of self hosting. The reason for the move is to make it easier to make updates and allow for better integration with louisjudice.com, which is our photo portfolio site.