Signs of Spring
Ducks, spring peepers, crickets, all out at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center as a train passes in the distance.
Albany County
Quiet at the Albany Pine Bush Wetland
A quiet evening at the Albany Pine Bush vernal pond after dusk.
View from Long Path
Walking the Long Path along the escarpment overlooking the Switzkill Valley at Partridge Run,
Walking Along Lower Partridge Run Road
A pleasant January afternoon with not a lot of snow walking along Lower Partridge Run Road.
Hill Past Stantons Farm
Driving past the Old Homestead Stanton Farm in Westerlo, a few miles away from my parents house around dusk. The dairy cattle once milked in the barn have been replaced with a handful of beef cattle that graze on hay during these winter months. I remember years ago when I was in High School and the cows got loose and were blocking traffic on NY 32.
My favourite industrial connector (Ceeform).
For simple rugged power distribution it's hard to beat these rugged Ceeform connectors. They're available in a range of current and voltage ratings with suitable colour coding and keying. They're so common that they literally only cost a few pounds each in quantity for the basic blue/yellow 16A plugs/sockets.
They can be dropped from height, dragged across rubble and left out in arduous weather conditions without too many problems. The fact they're made of resilient plastic with long overlapping lips means that they can be handled relatively safely in wet conditions.
One thing I didn't mention was that the black bodied connector is specifically designed for the entertainment industry where it blends in better than coloured connectors.
I love these connectors. Easy to wire and super-rugged. The most common problems I have with them are broken wires or very rarely a welded contact on higher current connectors. They're cheap and common, so easy to keep spares in stock. Swap or reterminate and they're back in action.
I have seen these in the Empire Plaza and was wondering how they worked and the benefits of them for connecting and disconnecting high voltage, high current loads.
Snowing on the rail trail.
Last week out hiking along the rail trail as the snow really started to come down.