Big dairy farms, with state-of-the-art milking parlors, robots and other technologies are kind of neat, but when it comes down it, dairy farming is pretty much dairy farming, it's still cows, it's still cleaning and hooking milking machines up their teats, feeding them, hauling manure, cleaning bedding pack, etc. I am actually a bit surprised which such a big operation they don't use more milking robots.
This interactive map shows the tree cover on state lands in Schoharie County. This is helpful for hunters and wildlife enthusiasts to know where the various forests are located.
Data Source: NY DEC STANDS Mapping System. Available as a shapefile on http://gis.ny.gov
Reads the sign along NY 155 / New Karner Road in the Albany Pine Bush. What is all the more remarkable in my mind was that John Wolcott was NOT some kind of government worker – a politician, a government enforcer like a cop, trooper, soldier – somebody who drew a measly paycheck and was granted a sign as a way to make up for dangerous work conditions that lead to death.
John Wolcott was just a community activist, a persistent pest bringing up questions of conservation, history and deed paperwork to government agencies for good, an advocate for Albany’s History and the Albany Pine Bush. I can’t think of any other highway or public infrastructure that was named after such a person. It’s really good as too much of our official narrative revolves around elected officials and government workers and ignores all that civilians do every day.
Or is that the message promoted by the old K-Marts that were victims of Walmart and changing tastes? I don’t know.
I still am a big fan of shopping at Walmart for groceries and most other supplies, in part because it’s a one-shot shop, generally quite affordable compared to other grocery chains, and non pretentious. The colorful woke labels really don’t have a impact on health, my taste buds or the flames when the packaging is turned into carbon dioxide and water vapor.
Maybe if I eat more processed foods, then I would prefer the rich selection of processed foods with special artificial spices and ingredients that the supermarket chains sell. Instead, I buy basic ingredients, Walmart store brand is almost always fine – and same as well known brand labels. Not that you really need a label – rice, pinto beans, plain Greek yogurt, eggs – really are pretty much the same whether or not you pay extra for pretty packaging trash. No difference in generic versus label when you buy basic ingredients.
People say that Walmart is an orgy of consumerism. Maybe if you are swept up in a desire to buy things you don’t need but I have a general idea of the basics I want to buy without fancy labels of long ingredient lists. Most of the food I buy is only one ingredient, the magic happens when I get it home, mix and match it into good meals. If you’re not buying processed foods, I hardly see much of an advantage to going to a Market 32 or other woke grocery chain over getting the basics, in larger packages with less plastic at Walmart.
Some people will argue if you like Walmart, then you’ll like the even bigger boxes – the Costco and B. J.’s. Indeed, I regularly marketing materials from those corporations in the mail that soon enough get tossed in the fire. And maybe if I had a homestead, it would make sense, though often I think membership fees and the layout of such stores encourage over-purchasing and waste. A 5-lb bag of carrots is very useful and is unlikely to be wasted but a 50-lb bag of carrots isn’t so good unless you have a root cellar and maybe hogs to finish them off as they start to mold up. Or a very big family to feed. I usually get the biggest package of toilet paper from Walmart and biggest package of frozen fruit and vegetables but there are limits on how much I can store and use in a reasonable time before it becomes waste. Indeed, I did carefully eye over the 30-lb bag of onions at Shauls before settling on a 1/2 bushel.
It’s good to buy in bulk, as it means less garbage and cheaper prices, but not more then one can use in a reasonable time. And for me, that generally means the largest packages at Walmart, but maybe not quite the size of what they commonly sell at Costco or B.J.’s.
A quiet Sunday morning in middle to late November driving down through West Burlington, Penna along US Route 6. Just a small country town, with the smells of manure and wood smoke on the air.
