Nutritional Yeast sounds interesting 🧀

|

I like cheese and I’m not a vegan.

But cheese is so calorie dense and loaded with saturated fats that you really should consume it in moderation. And I don’t like moderation.

I’m interested in experimenting with nutrional yeast as part of my diet. It’s just yeast that’s been deactivated and apparently has a cheesy – umami flavor. Good source of protein and fiber too.

I’m always interested in trying new ideas and foods – not wedded to any one orthodoxy. If it’s vegan or if it’s meat I don’t care. South Mall or Mediterranean? Doesn’t matter to me. But how healthy is it? How does it taste? How does it fit into the picture of who I am and want to become?

Vermont Covered Bridges

|

While as noted that New York State has a few remaining covered bridges, take a look at the many you can find driving around Vermont.

Vergennes, Vermont

|

Vergennes, Vermont, is a charming and historic city nestled in the western part of the state. Known as the "Little City," it holds the distinction of being Vermont's oldest and smallest incorporated city. With a population of around 2,500 residents, Vergennes exudes a cozy, small-town atmosphere that captivates visitors and locals alike.

Situated along the scenic Otter Creek and surrounded by the stunning Green Mountains, Vergennes offers breathtaking natural beauty year-round. Its picturesque downtown area boasts well-preserved 19th-century architecture, making it a delightful destination for history enthusiasts and architecture buffs. Visitors can explore the city's rich heritage by strolling along its quaint streets, where they'll discover unique shops, local restaurants, and friendly community gatherings.

Vergennes also holds the title of being the state's first official "green city," demonstrating a commitment to sustainability and eco-friendly practices. This environmentally conscious ethos is reflected in the city's efforts to preserve its natural surroundings and promote a healthy, outdoor lifestyle.

The Real Powers of R Statistical Language for Map Making

|

There are two major — and distinct ways that the R Statistical language is a powerful tool for map making — either paired with QGIS or without.

When you should use R Statistical Language with QGIS

If you are looking for a more complicated map, one of the best ways to process and wrangle map data, Shapefiles and other geographic data is within R Studio. Much of the prep work for making a map is best down in R as you can type commands quickly, pipe and mutate data, dissolve and buffer shapes easily with R and the sf package. No mouse clicks required. It’s easy to save repeated processes in an R script.

Then once the data is ready to be mapped, export it to a geopackage or shapefile, usually which I store in the /tmp directory, as I don’t need to save the data as I can quickly re-create it with the R script. From there, I can load it into QGIS, then make the map look pretty, manipulate the styling and labeling in QGIS.

When you should use R Statistical Language Alone

R with ggplot is good for simple maps, and those you want to run off frequently with updated data, and aren’t concerned with pretty labeling. Basic, clear thematic maps where labels aren’t needed or the automatic labeling of ggrepel can be tolerated due to relatively few label overlaps. In many cases, for basic maps, ggplot makes a cleaner output, lines things up better and produces better output out of the box then what you might quickly throw together in QGIS from exported data in R.

Why I don’t use R scripting in QGIS directly

While it’s possible to do R scripting in QGIS, I would rather work in RStudio with it’s preview windows, code completion and other tools rather the use QGIS. It’s just easier to do the data wrangling and manipulation of shapefiles in RStudio, and then export to a Geopackage and load the final data in QGIS.

Elk Lake To Dix Mountain Trail

|

Elk Lake To Dix Mountain Trail

Dix Mountain is located 5 1/2 miles back from Elk Lake via the Elk Lake - Dix Mountain and Beck-horn trails. There are two camping areas located roughly 1 and two miles north of Elk Lake, along with trails to Hough Peak, Macomb Mountain and Grace Peak.