Deciding to take a trip out to Madison County a week after West Virginia made me realize in how many ways the landscapes are similar, even while they are different. Less coal and more cows in Madison County, but many of rural homesteads and farms really aren’t that different. Hills are smaller and hollows less deep, but in many ways the people are all alike, trying to make a living out of a tough, rural landscape.
Modern American culture is much more standardized then one might want to admit. We all use and consume same products, the J.D. tractors in New York aren’t that different then West Virginia. Mobile homes and double-wides look much the same, the same breeds of goat and cattle are raised all over. People raise hogs and chickens all over, the make-shift shelters and pens really don’t look all that much different. The wood and coal smoke isn’t all that much different nor the pungent smell of farm country in the autumn after and during harvest time.
We are often told that West Virginia is somehow different then New York. But if anything, the accents aren’t much different or indeed in some parts of rural New York the accents might be even stronger. The thing is most things aren’t that different, as rural culture is both nationalized, as are products and services. And the land is the land, livestock husbandry that works in one part of nation works equally well in other parts of nation, using similar products. And people generally scrape by a living in much the same way, no matter which part of the rural country they reside in.
This is along the rail trail. Always a great, quiet hike down in the gorge, but especially in the autumn there is never enough time to fully explore it.
Vermin usually win. Seriously, they’re called vermin not only because they’re a pest, be it because they kill livestock like coyotes do, or chew holes in walls and into food like mice do, but because they’re damn hard to control and win a war against.
Yesterday was fun with that 46 mile bike ride up to Halfmoon. Lots of interesting history, learning about the Old Champlain Canal and GE Silicone as I rode over the old Waterford dump and the past the massive slag piles from GE Silicone. The Champlain Canal was very quiet though Peebles Island was packed so I didn’t dwell there.
Good morning! Happy Sunday. Up bright and early, ran to Stewart’s around 5:30 to get milk 🐮 for my coffee. ☕ Partly clear and 29 degrees in Delmar. 🌅 There is a northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Still a while until the sun rises, but at least things will start to thaw out at around 7 am. 🌡️ That said, not going to be a real warm day today.
Fried up two onions this morning 🍳 with lots of delicious turmeric, mushrooms, spinach, kidney beans and of course two eggs scrambled up and topped with Parmesan cheese and nutritional yeast and hot sauce. I am like yum and quite healthy to boot. With that banana I had for a side, 🍌 I should be good for a while. Which is good as my pantry is getting a bit bare, going to go shopping relatively early this morning to avoid the crowds — maybe around 9 AM. Probably go to Walmart but I’ll follow up with a visit to Price Chopper as I’ll want to get King Arthur Whole Wheat flour for baking bread this week — and maybe make flatbread wraps too. 🍞 I figure shower 🚿 and get a good early start today. 😴 I’ve been up since a little after 5 AM.
Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 43 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 30th. North wind around 6 mph. Kind of a cool day, it would have been even cooler if I had gone to Vermont. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 71 degrees. The record high of 68 was set in 1909. 7.3 inches of snow fell back in 1968.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:40 am with sun having an altitude of 29.7° from the due south horizon (-41.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:56 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (239°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (247°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 10 seconds with dusk around 5:06 pm, which is one minute and one second earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:41 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 40 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 53 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over today.
So yesterday was a fun day. 🚲 The ride to Peebles Island wasn’t bad, though I didn’t particularly enjoy the part through Green Island as that section is entirely on-road though the rest of the trail is segregated from highway traffic. It’s good, I’ll keep this in mind for future weekends, maybe explore some of Troy or Peebles Island when it’s hopefully less crowded. It was a good bit of exercise.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. 10 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 17th. Calm wind. Might have to even turn on the heat tonight. ♨️ In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 36 degrees. The record low of 13 occurred back in 1981.
Tomorrow going to start another 5-day work week, 🏢 working downtown in the office but I expect a relatively busy weekend, and it should go by quickly. Might be nice enough to ride to work several days next week, saving on bus fare and benefiting health 🚲 though obviously I’ll be busing it home at end of the day as it will be dark by a little after four. The following week is a 3-day week
Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until 7:15 AM Sunrise ⌛️ when the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm with dusk at 4:53 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 31 and 20 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 40 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1966.
