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How AI and satellites are used to detect illegal manure spreading

After a fresh February snow, a satellite about the size of a shoebox, busy snapping photographs as it circuited the planet at 17,000 miles per hour, captured something dark in Wisconsin.

About 56 tons of livestock bedding and manure had been spread atop Mark Zinke’s frozen alfalfa field.

The image eventually appeared on the computers of Stanford University researchers, who relayed it to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Zinke, a Brownsville dairy farmer who cares for a herd of more than 1,300 cows, had forgotten about the whole thing until he later heard from the agency.

“Oh s—,” he recalled thinking at the time. “I guess we f—ed up. We gotta man up to it, right?”

Imagery collected by inexpensive satellites is ushering in an era of real-time monitoring. Some environmental advocates want the department to look down from the sky as it regulates livestock manure, a potential water contamination source.a

A first draft of what my dream home would look like

Simple, small and cozy, different from the large suburban homes of today. By no means a tiny home which is defined as under 500 square feet but probably in the ratio of what would be considered a small house - 900 or so square feet which is roughly 30 feet by feet. I'm teaching myself CAD to see if I can design something a bit better looking before actively seeking out architectural and design services and reading up to learn about all things on building your own house.

Taken on Saturday March 2, 2024 at Work.

Another busy day, though of a lot of it spent reading 📚

There is a lot to learn about becoming a first-time homeowner. But I have a bit of time as I’m early in the journey, but it’s something I am pretty determined to do this year. It makes sense from a financial perspective, and even more so from mental and physical health perspective. I need the security of a permanent home, not one at the whims of landlord or a dilapidated, moldy building while I’m the director of an important state government agency making good money. I loved my years living in the city and spending my weekends in the wilderness, but all good things must come to an end, to be birthed into new things.

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 34 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a west-southwest breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. There is a dusting of snow on the ground. ☃ Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 6 pm. ☃️

It’s an exciting time to be me, but also so scary. 🤯 I just keep looking around at things, knowing that it might not be tomorrow that it’s the last time I have a view, but much in my life that I once new and treasured will soon be gone. Like those final days in my office in Alfred E Smith Building when there was times I would just stare into my sunlight-filled corner office, that was increasingly packed up and empty, and out of the of windows at the sweeping views of the Hudson River and Downtown Albany. Knowing it would be gone when I moved to the suburban office in Menands. 😞

Getting out of this apartment will be good for me. 🏚 My licensed mental health counselor identified this as a major problem — and action I should be taking — three years ago. Maybe I should have kept going to see him, but it became a major expense in time and cost. 👩‍⚕️ It won’t happen tomorrow, and I’ll have to deal with new landlord until things are closed, which is likely many months away as I’m at the start of the journey. The guy has made it almost impossible to pay him except through his personal Venmo (or via human bank teller at a specific bank only during Monday through Friday, 9-4 PM), of him in a swimming pool and cigar in his mouth, which he uses in exchange to buy beer for his friends at the bar. 🍻 🚬 Sounds like fun, but certainly not respect. No phone number or address, just an email in case of emergencies. One that he doesn’t reply to emails. 📴 Yeah, that kind of landlord. When I own a home, I’ll miss the weekends in the wilderness, riding back and forth to work, and all the niceties of living in the city — walk to the library and park, but getting out of city will be good for me. But having a garden, livestock, a place for bonfires in backyard, and a wood stove it will be great. 🔥 🐐 🐔

Tonight will have a chance of snow showers, mainly before 3am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 23 degrees at 6am. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 5th. Southwest wind 9 to 13 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 23 degrees. The record low of -07 occurred back in 1878.

Today I rode out to Voorheesville 🚲 and then went down to the library. Filled out more mortgage applications, 📞 chatted with another mortgage broker for a while on the phone. Spent a lot of time reading about personal finance, home ownership, and the process of buying a home. I’m on my third full-length e-book on this topic since Friday night. 📚 I’ve been quite the bookworm lately. Did more reading about my legal rights as a renter, and how to protect myself from the new landlord. Maybe I shouldn’t be so scared of him, but he reminds me of so many of school yard bullies of years past. But I have the law on my side, though I don’t trust this guy, so I am going to be real careful paying him, make sure I get receipts for all payments. Had red lentil soup for dinner, and white beans with leftover chilly for lunch. I’ve been exhausted from all the stress of it all. 😟 I’ve not been sleeping well. Maybe I’ll need more mental help as I go through this process. Good things are going to happen.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon with 72% illuminated. At 4 PM, the moon was in the east (89°) at an altitude of 42° from the horizon, some 240,347 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by August 19^th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The Snow ❄ Moon is on Saturday, February 24. The darkest hour is at 12:10 am, followed by dawn at 6:21 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:50 am in the east-southeast (106°) and last for 3 minutes Sunrise is one minute and 26 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:29 am with sun in the east-southeast (112°). Tonight will have 13 hours and 13 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 44 seconds over last night.

Washington’s Birthday will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 31 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical Northwest wind 9 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 47 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1981. 11.4 inches of snow fell back in 1972.❄

Another chilly day tomorrow, 🌬 so maybe I didn’t miss out on much by choosing to stay in town. 🏕 It’s good to save money, big purchases ahead, lol. Really hoping to catch up with the landlord tomorrow and see if I can get answers to my questions I emailed him when he stops by. ✉️ Hard to say for sure, as I’m going to go grocery shopping in morning 🛒, then maybe for a hike mid-afternoon and then out to the folks house 👪 for Sunday dinner, a day late due to the holiday weekend.

In four weeks on March 17 the sun will be setting in the west (270°) at 7:06 pm (Daylight Savings Time),🌄 which is one hour, 34 minutes and 9 seconds later then today. In 2023 on that day, we had rain showers, cloudy and temperatures between 47 and 32 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 45 and 26 degrees. The record high of 75 degrees was set back in 1990.

Looking ahead, tommorow is Presidents Day 🧓, Daylight Savings Time 🌆 is in 3 weeks, St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 is in 4 weeks, 7:30 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 7 weeks, Cinco de Mayo 🤠 is in 11 weeks, Mothers Day 👩‍ is in 12 weeks, Fathers Day 👨 is in 16 weeks, Primary Day 🗳️ is in 4 months, National Nude Day 👱 is in 21 weeks, Average High 70 🎑 is in 28 weeks, September 🍎 is in 28 weeks, 7 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 7 months, Autumn 🍂 is in 31 weeks, December 🎄 is in 41 weeks, Bill of Rights Day 📜 is in 43 weeks, Bake Cookies Day 🍪 is in 10 months and Days are Getting Longer ☀️ is in 44 weeks.

Places I Camped in 2023

While this year was a rainy one, and it rained during many of my trips, I was able to get out for 53 nights in the wilderness — mostly fairly close to home but I also did a trip down to West Virginia in late October with several trips to the Adirondacks, Central New York and summer vacation in the Finger Lakes.

Martin Luther Kings Day – January 14-16 (2 nights)

To start out my camping adventures in 2023, I drove out to Charles Baker State Forest and Brookfield Horse Camp. There wasn’t a lot of snow — just a dusting but it was a fun weekend, topped off by a beautiful sun-full glittery hike up Tassell Hill after a hoar frost. Explored Lost Pond and several of the trails in the middle of state forest.

40th Birthday – January 27-29 (2 nights)

For my fortieth birthday, I took off the Friday leading up to my 40th birthday to cross country ski and winter camp at Rensselaerville State Forest. It was a beautiful weekend with lots of blue skies, sufficient snow for skiing but not so much that was a ton of snowmobiles out on the trails.

Presidents Day – February 17-19 (2 nights)

I decided for Presidents Day Weekend to do another trip out to Charles Baker State Forest and Brookfield Horse Camp. Slightly more snow then last time but again largely a snow-less winter, with some nice days for hikes through the various truck and horse trails. I hiked around much of state forest, especially the more southern part of the forest.

Easter Weekend – April 7-9 (2 nights)

On Good Friday through Easter I camped at at Rensselaerville State Forest. The snow was gone and it was fairly mild though at times it was a bit cool. Spent a fair amount of time walking around and exploring the new OSI Parcel that has been recently added to state forest and is still largely open fields with sweeping views of the Catskill Mountains.

Duck Pond Trip – May 5-7 (2 nights)

The first Friday in May I took a half day from work and headed out to Schoharie County to camp at Duck Pond at Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest. Originally the plan was to camp two nights at Duck Pond, hiking along the Long Path and exploring the state forest and then on Sunday hiking the Catskill Scenic Trail. That part of the trip changed when driving along Duck Pond Road the low tire pressure light came on I found a pallet nail in my truck tire. I was able to top off the truck tire and then change the tire when I got home and got the nail pulled and plugged. But it wasn’t the best way ever to end a trip early.

Overnight at Cole Hill – May 13-14 (1 night)

After visiting the folks on Mother’s Day Weekend, I decided to do a quick overnight hammock camp on Cole Hill State Forest in Berne. Nothing fancy or formal, it was as much a way to test out sleeping in my hammock with the bug screen. Kind of a chilly night, I took camp down fairly and headed home early in the morning.

Memorial Day Weekend at Cole Hill – May 20-22 (2 nights)

This year I decided to eschew the Adirondacks and Greene Mountains for Memorial Day Weekend due to the black flies, my desire to look at bicycles, and work I had to do on the Saturday morning leading up to the holiday weekend. I decided to hammock camp again Cole Hill State Forest in Berne. This was a three-day two night trip, so it it gave me a chance to bring more gear up the mountain, set up a more formal camp. Cooked on the fire, hiked around the forest. It was a warm weekend, but I enjoy the solitude, along with having good cell service for listening to podcasts and watching videos.

Juneteenth Weekend on Piseco-Powley – June 15-20 (4 nights)

To kick off summer, I did my usual Juneteenth weekend camping trip, tacking on some days on the Juneteenth Holiday Weekend. It was a bit of a cool and rainy weekend to kick off summer, one that would actually be followed by many cool and rainy weekends where I would stay home. Camped at House Pond for the first three nights, spending time down floating in the tube on East Branch while the final night I camped up at Powley Bridge site and kayaked along the East Branch. Really, like often is the case, the best weather was the day I took down camp.

Catskill Scenic Trail Trip – July 22-24 (3 nights)

After several months of researching and visiting various bike shops, I finally got a mountain bike. I decided it would be fun to do as much of the Catskill Scenic Trail as I could before my summer vacation got underway. Actually did quite a bit of riding and hiking that weekend — started out hiking Pratts Rock’s then riding from Grand George to Hobart. Sunday, I rode from Fultonham to Middleburgh on NY 30, doing a quick climb up Vromans Nose, then stopping at the farm market then going to Mine Kill State Park to swim. Monday I rode from Hobart down to Bloomville, getting caught in a major thunderstorm and downpour a few miles north of Bloomville with no shelter in sight. The trail became super boggy, then I went to Mine Kill State Park for one more swim, and then out to folks house for Sunday dinner a day later then usual.

Finger Lakes National Forest – July 28 – August 6 (9 nights)

Every year for nearly a decade and a half I’ve been doing summer vacation out in the Finger Lakes — camping in the National Forest and exploring as much as possible during my days there. The past few years I’ve been driving there on a Friday, to get a better campsite before they’re taken by the weekend campers. This year was no exception. With Blackie, my mountain bike, I did nearly all of the bike trails in the near vicinity, from the Black Diamond Trail to the Cayuta Valley Trail to Dresden – Penn Yan Canal Trail. Kayaked on both Cayuga and Scenic Lakes, swam many days at Watkins Glen State Park and Taughannock State Park, explored the Cornell Campus and Botanical Gardens on my bike. Got some good ice cream at the Spotted Duck, explored the Geneva Waterfront along with the Cayuga-Seneca Canalway. Some rain but compared to the wet summer that was, this was a pretty good week.

Piseco-Powley – House Pond Campsite – August 18-20 (3 nights)

The next few weeks for rainy and by the time I got away for one more long weekend, it promised to be fairly nice weekend but turned out to be fairly cool and cloudy with some rain. Back at the House Pond Campsite, did some swimming in East Branch, but with the mercury in the 60s most of the weekend, I didn’t spend a lot of time in the water. Hardly what I had dreamed when the I planned the weekend. Rode Blackie up to Goldmine Stream Falls and relaxed down by the falls for a bit, also sat down by the swimming hole off of the Old Edick Road Snowmobile Trail, watching the rain fall, bemoaning the wet and cold weather. Still it was good to get away for a bit, and I did do a fair amount of reading in hammock, under the protection of the bug net, as the bugs were bad after such a wet summer.

Labor Day at Perkins Clearing – September 1-4 (3 nights)

I took the Friday off before Labor Day to get a jump on the holiday season travel, and set up camp at the site I really enjoy up at Perkins Clearing overlooking the mountains. Did a fair amount of riding along the various dirt roads of Perkins Clearing, including over to Mason Lake and on Sunday rode most of the way to the Spruce Lake Trailhead, though didn’t make it there in time as I got a bit of a late start as I spent the balance of the day reading and swimming in the Jessup River Bridge swimming hole. Labor Day, I rode around the Spectulator Tree Farm, doing a large loop, through the tree farm, past the north end of Elm Lake, then down to Austin Falls and Old Route 8B. I had hoped to get ice cream, but by the time I got to the ice cream shop they were out of soft-ice cream, and there was a long line. Summer was dragging to a close.

September Trip to Rensselearville State Forest – September 15-17 (2 nights)

With time being fairly tight and the weather only so-so I decided to do a two night trip close to home out in Rennselearville to ride some of the gravel trails, explore the OSI Parcel further and just enjoy an early autumn weekend camping.

Columbus Day at Rensselearville State Forest – October 8-9 (1 night)

Columbus Day Weekend was cold and rainy for the first half of the weekend, but the Sunday heading into Columbus Day was nice, so I decided to head out to Rensselaerville for a quick overnight at the campsite on CCC Road. Leaves were late this year, so not a lot of color, but it still was nice to get away for a night and ride some of the trails around.

West Virginia Trip – October 21-29 (8 nights)

The banner trip of the year was my trip down to West Virigina. While it started and ended in rain, it was a very enjoyable trip with lots of new adventures this year. Camped the balance of the week — 6 nights in Canaan Heights — doing day trips from that area. Overnighted one night driving down at County Bridge Campground in Pennsylvania, and a on the way back camped overnight at Long Pond State Forest in New York. Adventures in West Virginia included hiking at Dolly Sods, mountain biking at night in the sods of Canaan Heights, riding up and hiking to Table Rock, exploring Blackwater Falls State Park on the mountain bike, MonPower Mountain Bike Park, Thomas Rail Grade and the Olson Firetower. Rode part of the Great Allegheny Trail through the Cumberland Passage, and the two sections of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canalway, including the Paw Paw Tunnel.

Stoney Pond – November 4-7 (3 nights)

A little over a week back from West Virginia, I headed out to Madison County to ride the Tassel Hill Mountain Bike Trails at Alfred Woodford, the Chenango Canal Trail in Hamilton and Erie Canalway from Chittenango to Green Lakes State Park and then to Canastota and Wampsville. The first night was cold at Stoney Pond but the subsequent nights were quite pleasant and mild.

Prospect Mountain – East Branch Sacanadaga – Buttermilk Falls/Hudson Special Management Area – November 24-28 (3 nights)

Strangely enough, I had never been up Prospect Mountain. So I decided the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) to hike up Prospect Mountain, and then spend the next two nights camping on East Branch of the Sacandaga River. The Saturday and Sunday was fairly cold, so I ended up spending the bulk of day hanging around camp, doing a bit of hiking around Fox Lair. Sunday, evening around 8 PM it started to sleet, then snow, then rain, Monday morning, it turned into a white globby snow, and I ended up taking down camp fairly early after discovering I was out of propane and then spent much of the day exploring the Hudson River Special Management Area – Buttermilk Falls.

Stoney Pond – Charles Baker – December 21-26 (5 nights)

On the days leading up to Christmas I decided to take a second trip to Madison County. I was originally planning to camp two nights at Stoney Pond then two nights at the Charles Baker Horse Camp but my family’s holiday plans were cancelled due to illness in my family, so I ended up staying an extra night at the horse camp, through the day after Christmas. On Friday, I rode the Erie Canalway from Canastota to East Verona, nearly to Rome. On Christmas Day I rode around many of truck trails at Charles Baker with my mountain bike, leaving my face splattered with mud. Many of the days were fairly cold and cloudy, but that’s too be expected in late December. Still it was a special way to spend Christmas.

Final Day of 2023

Made it to the end of year. Kind of a cloudy, gray, cool day to end out the year — certainly not the best day to be out doing outdoor activities, especially with the breeze and gray skies. Maybe it’s best that my planed camping trip didn’t work out after all.

I was originally planning to be out camping today, but when I got up to camp 🏕 the campsite was taken and everything up at Rensselaerville State Forest was a complete mosh pit, after all the rain we’ve had and above normal temperatures. I poked around the state forest for a while, thought about pitching a tent, but I would be setting up in the mud, and the other campsite — Campsite 3 was a mess because they’ve been logging off CCC Road. I think that red clay is as slick and muddy as I can remember due to it being such a mild, ice free winter. Maybe that black powder guy parked in the campsite did me a favor. I don’t think he was camping, though it seemed like he swapped off that site with another person, which makes me think maybe he had his stand up there and wanted to reserve the site. I’m not that heart broken 💔 about not camping this weekend. I might be back for Martin Luther King Day Weekend, ❄️ which believe it or not is only two weekend away this point. I’m hoping it will be cold enough at that point that I won’t be dealing with all that mud and slop. Some snow would be nice, and most of the big hunting seasons are done 🔫 though trapping is open and as small game.

Back to the table format on the weather, as my blog’s weather template always seems to break for the last day of the year. 🌆 There is a one-day-a-year bug which I should fix but it happens only once in 365 days. I didn’t blog yesterday, at least with a status update as I got a bit of a late start, and was planning to do it up by camp which didn’t happen. Instead, I came home, unpacked my gear 🎒 which didn’t take long as nothing was disorganized or dirty, made some lunch and spent the balance of the day reading and studying my machine learning course. 🤖 This morning I finished up the Udemy Neural Nwtworks for R course and started one on Support Vector Classification for R. 💭 I’ve been thinking I should also do some machine learning courses on Python so I get a full knowledge and various platforms. 👩‍💻 I’m not opposed to Python though I tend to use R more then Python.

Today for exercise 🚲 I think I’m going to ride out to Voorheesville 🚂 and maybe stop at Hannaford out there to get some baker’s vanilla which I like in my coffee and warm milk at the end of day, plus also some more apple cider vinger which I like in my glass of warm milk at the end of day.. That said, I’m still cringing after spending $200 at the grocery store on Friday, though fortunately I got paid early — I couldn’t believe I got my first 2024 pay check on Friday, when the official pay day is next Wednesday, January 3rd. Paychecks have been coming earlier and earlier, often on Monday mornings, and I know New Years Day or Monday is a holiday, but I just assumed the money would come in on Tuesday. 💵 It’s good though as I paid rent on Friday, 🏘 and I’ve been concerned about having the minimum in bank account.

I guess this sort of makes December, rather then January a three paycheck month, but as long as I keep things coming in and out consistently, I’m good. I just ended up buying a lot groceries, in part for camping but also there was a lot of things I wanted to keep my pantry stocked. That said, it should cut back on what I need in future weeks, as most of the more expensive things I stocked up are the kind of things that should last for a while. I don’t waste food, if things start to go bad, I cut off the bad parts and eat that first. 🍎 But I generally prefer frozen and vegatables, and aren’t afraid to use my freezer.

My parents have continued to be sick on and off 😣 so I’ve not been able to visit them in the few weeks 👪 and I’m not totally sure if we are going to do a get together for New Years Day, 🎆 though we’ve been talking about doing a holiday celebration 🎄 getting together next week for Mom’s birthday with my sister, niece and in-laws, assuming everybody is feeling better by then and the weather is good.

As you will note below, going to be a mild week to start out January, and we are definitely starting to pick up more daylight at end of each day.

This Afternoon. Feels like … December 18th.	Mostly cloudy. Northwest wind around 8 mph. and	37 degrees	,	4:33 sunset.
Tonight. Feels like … December 3rd.	A slight chance of snow showers between 10pm and 4am. Mostly cloudy. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. and	26 degrees	,	7:23 sunrise.
New Year’s Day. Feels like … December 22nd.	Mostly cloudy. North wind 3 to 6 mph. and	36 degrees	,	4:33 sunset.
Monday Night. Feels like … December 10th.	Mostly clear. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. and	24 degrees	,	7:23 sunrise.
Tuesday. Feels like … December 9th.	Sunny. West wind 5 to 9 mph. and	40 degrees	,	4:34 sunset.
Tuesday Night. Feels like … November 30th.	Partly cloudy. and	27 degrees	,	7:23 sunrise.
Wednesday. Feels like … December 6th.	Mostly cloudy. and	41 degrees	,	4:35 sunset.
Wednesday Night. Feels like … November 23rd.	Mostly cloudy. and	29 degrees	,	7:23 sunrise.
Thursday. Feels like … December 18th.	A chance of snow before 10am, then a chance of rain and snow between 10am and 4pm, then a chance of snow after 4pm. Mostly cloudy. Chance of precipitation is 30%. and	37 degrees	,	4:36 sunset.
Thursday Night. Feels like … December 21st.	Mostly cloudy. and	21 degrees	, 9 max wind chill,	7:23 sunrise.
Friday. Feels like … January 5th.	Mostly sunny. and	33 degrees	, 9 max wind chill,	4:37 sunset.
Friday Night. Feels like … December 17th.	Partly cloudy. and	22 degrees	, 11 max wind chill,	7:23 sunrise.
Saturday. Feels like … December 31st.	Partly sunny. and	34 degrees	, 11 max wind chill,	4:38 sunset.

Fifty days remain in 2023 🗓

Day by day. The fact that Thanksgiving Day Week is basically the week after next week shows how fast the year is coming to a close. While maybe it would have been nice to get out of town this weekend, I’m thinking today I’ll ride to Peebles Island and have some fun closer to home while trying to hold the line on expenses, though I’ll probably end up taking the 18 bus back home and will probably need to get to the grocery store and or Walmart this evening as I’m eating myself out of house and home again.

Good morning! Partly clear 🌅 and 41 degrees in Delmar, NY on this Veteran’s Day. 🏵 There is a northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 10 pm. ☃️ Not so cold for a mid-November morning, though it won’t warm up that much and it will be breezy.

Up a bit before six o’clock ⏰ though I was awake before then. Decided to do oatmeal-banana pancakes with chia seeds today, 🥞 topped with shredded apples 🍎 mixed with boiled apple cider, cinnamon, ginger and heated in the microwave. It was good. I have to admit I also had a bit more of that soup I made up last night — chicken soup I guess — 🍲 though it was more of a stew with rich earthy overtones with lots of cumin and ground chili spice. Also finally getting around to cooking some chickpeas, 👩‍🍳 might make hummus or just have them with various meals. Mom was suggesting putting them in soups. I also like them with fresh fruit, kind of like a trail mix without as much as fat as nuts, though they can certainly be good mixed in a handful of almonds, blueberries, and raspberries. 🥜

Today is Veterans Day, which will will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 46 degrees at 1pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 23rd. Northwest wind 6 to 11 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became rain by afternoon. It became somewhat humid as the day progressed. The high last year was 69 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 2002. 3.0 inches of snow fell back in 1906.❄

I am thinking about riding out to Peebles Island State Park in Cohoes. 🚲 It’s about 17 miles or an hour and a half ride each way. I am thinking I would likely ride up to the park, bring a lunch, walk around Peebles Island and maybe a little bit in Cohoes along the Canal. 📷 Going to be a nice sunny day with blue skies for pictures. Then ride back to Albany via the Empire Trail, and catch the 18 bus back home. 🚌 as I expect by then I’ll probably be running low on daylight and pretty tired as it’s a big trip. 🌆 Days are so short come mid-November. I am thinking my next out of town adventure will be in a little under two weeks — the day after Thanksgiving through the following Monday, probably Route 8 on East Branch. Some quiet time off the internet.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:40 am with sun having an altitude of 30° from the due south horizon (-40.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:57 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (240°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (247°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:38 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 10 seconds with dusk around 5:07 pm, which is one minute and 3 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:42 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 43 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 10 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 56 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 16 seconds over today.

Money is just kind of tight 💳 after vacation and renewing my blog contract and all the trips I’ve been taking. ⛽ I ended up transferring in $750 from savings to ensure I had enough money to pay my credit card bill and maintain adequate balance in my bank account through the money. It’s not a pay week but come Wednesday, $1,300 goes out to the credit card. Already earned $135 from blog advertising, though I won’t get paid until mid-December under the Google Ad Sense rules that require a $100 minimum unpaid balance at end of the month to get paid, and then they hold your check for three weeks to verify it and collect interest on it. 🏨 I know, it’s kind of obnoxious but I’ll probably earn at least another $30 or $40 bucks before the month is done to tack on the $135. Web advertising is a bit of a mystery, based on bidding — one day I earned like $11 in ad revenue which is crazy compared to a buck or two most days and when you multiply it out over the months, especially for a small little blog like this. It’s good I’m staying home this weekend.

Truth is I have a lot of money coming in, 🔀 but the thing is as soon as it comes in a lot goes out. I am continuing to invest heavily into my retirement accounts 👴 as now is the time to do it while I’m relatively young and making good money, 💵 and also into my investment accounts so they can continue to grow and own my own land eventually. While interest rates are up on my savings account — close to 5%, with inflation I figure it’s better to be going into the stock and bond market, especially over the long term. There will be a recession 📉 but eventually we’ll come out of it and things will grow. I am hopeful I can pay back my savings account in the next few months, especially as some of those short term expenses like vacation come and go, though soon I’ll have heating bills, though so far I’ve avoided using the heat, though yesterday ♨️ I finally put the screens in my window and patched the air leaks around the door, 🪟 as I know I’ll need the heat before long. I have the heated blanket ready to go but I haven’t put that on the bed yet, though I will be ready when those days come.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 26 degrees at 6am. Seven degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 3rd. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 49 degrees. The record low of 15 occurred back in 1976.

Yesterday, I rode out to Voorheesville 🚲 and spent a lot of time reading and watching video and reading material for yet another Udemy class that I get free from the library. 📱 Last week I finished a class called the Fundamentals of Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis, now I am a few hours into a class on Remote Sensing and QGIS. Basically it’s all about using data collected from satellites 📡 to learn about what is happening on the earth’s surface. 📚 I was going to go down to the library last night but I was tired and comfortable in my bed, after enjoying that soup that I made earlier int he day. 🛌 I figure this is the time of year to learn more, and Remote Sensing is only going to improve my GIS skills, especially combined with the use of raster math both in QGIS and R programming language.

As previously noted, next Saturday is Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 when the sun will be setting at 4:32 pm with dusk at 5:01 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy skies, snow showers and temperatures between 43 and 28 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 48 degrees. Opened this morning in Vermont. We hit a record high of 71 back in 1928.

Nostgolia on this Election Day 2023 ☕🙈🗳️

This year I’m glad I’m not involved in any elections or doing anything political. Just sipping my coffee watching the sun rise remembering the days gone by but glad I’m not at all rushed this morning.

Good morning! Happy Election Day 2023. Partly cloudy ⛅ and 51 degrees at the Stoney Pond State Forest. ☔ There is a west-southwest breeze at 15 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 47 degrees. I can smell the manure somebody’s spreading this morning 💩 it’s November in Madison County and the field work is soon to be done for the season. 🚜 They might have snow as soon as midweek.

Turned out to be a much nicer morning then expected. ☕ I knew it was going to be a great day when I awoke, saw the clear night skies 🌜and the moon. Had a nice hardy breakfast of eggs 🍳 with lots of vegetables and onions 🧅 that I got at Aldi’a yesterday in Cazenovia. While yesterday was cold, damp and gray at times it was still a good day with lots of riding 🚲 and making the most of my day off. A lot has changed in this world over the past few years but mornings are still quite beautiful and the coffee is good.

Glad I’m not involved in any elections this year 🗳 but there were many hard fought ones out of Bill Magees auction house 🗝️ 🍶🏺just down the road. Been half a decade now, I saw the bridge in Cazenovia they renamed after him. It was sad he lost five years ago, but during that general election cycle wasn’t my race. 🧑‍🌾 Truth is winning these rural districts is almost impossible with the democratic party becoming mostly an urban issues party with gun 🔫 control one of their top priorities. I can understand why people vote the way they do nowadays out in the country. 🚜 It’s not just Trump. Both parties have become more extreme but the Republicans have really locked up the rural areas nowadays. I have a feeling that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator John Tester of Montana are going to loose in 2024, especially if the GOP runs a stronger presidential candidate then felon Donald Trump. ⏳ Time moves on. Democrats though really have locked up the suburbs, especially the older ones and professional class. 🕴🏻

Today will have showers likely, mainly between 10am and 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 43 by 5pm. 🌦️ Breezy, with a west wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with sunny skies in the afternoon. The high last year was 69 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1938. 4.5 inches of snow fell back in 1886.❄

I’m not sure how long it will be nice, clouds are already pushing in. 🌥 I don’t want to deal with wet camping gear 🏕 so I’m slowly but surely taking things down. I don’t have solid plans for today but I think 🤔 I’ll just go for a walk 🚶 around Stoney Pond then head home and get unpacked. 👪 Planning to go see my family this afternoon it’s been three 3⃣ weeks as I’ve been out of town 🌲 on various trips. Despite yesterday being cold and dreary especially midday it was a great trip.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:47 am with sun having an altitude of 30.9° from the due south horizon (-39.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:08 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (241°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (249°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:50 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 8 seconds with dusk around 5:18 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:53 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 44 degrees. Breezy, 20 mph breeze ⛅ from the west-northwest with gusts up to 32mph. Today will have 10 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 26 seconds over yesterday.

Yesterday I rode the South Trail from outside of Cazenovia to New Woodstock. 🚵 Nice ride though best on a mountain bike as some parts of the trail are a bit rough with roots and gravel. Pungent with the cow poop and water slurry 🐮 💩 one of the dairies was applying to a nearby field but that’s to be expected this time of year.

Spent a little bit of time riding around New Woodstock yesterday after taking the South Trail from outside of Cazenovia to New Woodstock. 🚂 Neat little village with a Historical Museum just off the rail trail. They like in Cazenovia also have an old Black Diamond Caboose there. Cute little village.

Unfortunately my bike had developed a really annoying squeak on Sunday afternoon ⚙️ which I couldn’t figure out and started applying grease everywhere, including getting it all over my hands 👐 and jeans 👖 and started to drive me crazy thinking I might have a failing bearing or some problem that could leave me stranded. I thought it was just some stone dust from the Erie Canalway somewhere it shouldn’t be mixed with the grease. Kept stopping, applying grease trying to find the noise. 🔕 Finally, I figured it out, it was the left pedal got some stone dust in it and squeaking. A little spray lubricant, knock off WD 40 on the pedal after my south trail ride 🚲 returned my sanity.

Swung by Critz Farms hoping to get apples 🍏 but it looked like only the brewery was open 🍻 and I wasn’t looking for a drink. So I went to Cazenovia Lake Park. Kind of cold gray afternoon but the geeese didn’t seem to mind the cool gray day on Cazenovia Lake. 🦆

Then I went to the Lorenzo State Historic Site, never been there before. ⛲ Been by it a million times though. It was a Monday so all the buildings were shut up and no visitor services or as I needed a bathroom 🚽 but it was still nice to explore the grounds. Swung by the library 📚 in Cazenovia for a pee.

Then I Canastota – Cazenovia Trailway, it was starting to rain and was cold didn’t spend a lot of time, ☔ wanted get back to camp and start cooking soup plus by then I needed another bathroom 🚽 break. Too much coffee ☕ in the morning. 🌅 Also didn’t feel like carrying my mountain bike over several steps to cross Bingley Road. Visited Aldi’s in Cazenovia 🍏 🥦, such a delightful shopping experience. 🛒 Low prices, simple selection quick in and out and the cashier lines without them bagging is so quick. ☺

Got back to camp around 4 pm accidentally brushed a tree with one of my tires backing into the campsite ⛺ rushing having to pee but didn’t do any body damage to my truck 🛻 as the tires stick out beyond the body. Sun ☀ came out and ghe wind died down. Fried onions and mushrooms, boiled carrots, broccoli, spinach and whole wheat pasta, added some tuna fish 🐠 for an excellent dinner. Soup really warmed me up 🍲, I just wish I had some homemade bread 🍞 to dip in it but I eat all of that the previous three days. Had a nice fire 🔥 didn’t rain until 7:30 pm so it was a good evening at which point I retired to bed 🛏 in my truck for the evening.

Tonight will have a chance of rain and snow showers before 11pm, then a slight chance of snow showers between 11pm and 1am, then a chance of flurries after 1am. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 26 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 3rd. Northwest wind 14 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. In 2022, we had clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1971.

Cool but fairly decent now for Veterans Day Weekend, especially come Saturday. ☀ Friday, clouds then clearing, high may reach 43. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Sunday, going to be sunny and 39. Typical average high for the weekend is 51 degrees. Probably will stay 🏡 next weekend.

Looking ahead, next Tuesday is Average High is 50 🍂 when the sun will be setting at 4:42 pm with dusk at 5:11 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 42 and 27 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 50 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 1973.

Andy Arthur.org

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