Good morning! Happy Sunday. ⛪

Another kind of cloudy day, cool. Not at all the nice weather they are getting out in Syracuse. But I’m sure at some point it will arrive to Albany. Winter can’t last forever with the strengthening sun angle. Indeed, that snow we got on Tuesday didn’t last for long in Albany and even the in the mountains is in quick decline. No eighty degree weather locally.

Mostly cloudy and 44 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a northeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The skies will clear around 2 pm.

Yesterday, I put the top coat of paint over the parts of Big Red 🛻 that I primed last weekend. It’s not perfect, and indeed I missed a spot but it beats that bare metal and corrosion and with some mud and dirt splattered over it all, your not going to notice that much. It’s not like my truck is ever that clean.

Spent some of the time working on some R Projects yesterday then walked out to Five Rivers. 🚶‍♀️ It did get dark pretty early with the cloudy skies but it was a nice walk and I got in 15,000 steps. 🐻 Just the usual wildlife — Ground Hog up by Meads Farm, some rapidly shedding cattle there, lots of does grazing at Five Rivers and that racoon looking down from the tree at me. Lots of red-wing blackbirds, and a pretty stunning male bluebird I saw walking out along Orchard Street.

I have to admit like most Saturdays lately I’ve not been really ambitious. 📕 Some because I like reading but also who can afford to drive anywhere these days with high gas prices? That said, I’ll probably be getting out more on Saturdays come the free electric bus service to Thacher Park from Five Rivers in June. It’s always fun to catch the bus to Thacher Park 🚌 and spend the day hiking around the park. 🏞

I am thinking about doing a hike down to the Normans Kill Falls in a bit. 🌲 I haven’t been down there and hopefully on a Sunday morning the rail trail won’t be so crowded, although now the sun is coming out, maybe that’s changing things a bit. I don’t like having to dodge bicyclist 🚴 and dog 🐶 walkers while observing nature. 🐦 Otherwise I could do a quick hike up Bennett Hill on my way out to the folks house. 🏘 My sister is feeling better, I guess the revised plan is to meet my sister and niece for dinner at Vince Anna’s, the old-fashioned Italian restaurant in Greenville. 🍕

It’s been a long time since I was last in the gorge 🏞 as I don’t like the crowds or the noise from the super highway above but I figure with the high gas prices it’s better to stay local and I like seeing the falls especially with a lot of water 💦 coming over them. Plus I kind of want to spy on the recycling ♻ facility from the rail trail 🚂and see what’s actually happening there. Sometimes you can see them loading various materials in the trucks fur recycling After spring turkey 🦃 I’ll have to do some hiking in Partridge Run then an overnight at Rennselearville State Forest.

I have this book 📙 from the library on forest management and have been watching a lot of videos 📺 about the topic on the phone 📱. It’s something I find quite fascinating especially as I think about being a forest owner in a few years and working to restore land in ways that make it both more productive for human use and wildlife and hopefully reduce the tick population. 🐜 Controlled burns to destroy invasives and ticks is an interesting opportunity. 🐽 Pigs and the ton or two of grain you run through them can do a lot to restore the soil too.