Autumn

November

They say that November is the greyest month of the year. It is the month that has the fewest sunny days of year, where clouds are the norm. November isn’t particularly rainy, but it sure feels cold at times. We might get some snow, but usually not much. What snow we do get usually disappears quickly.

Candian Geese

It’s a month of many holidays and special events. It’s when election day comes, sometimes a big deal nationally, and sometimes just a time more for local campaigns. The politicians and their volunteers try to round up their supporters, and get them out to vote. Then everybody takes a big breath when all the politicking is over.

Bonaparte\'s Cave State Forest

It’s the month that sees deer season, a big thing in our rural communities. Deer hunters look forward to the first day, when 47% of the take happens each year. It’s a time for communion in the woods and spending time out there hoping for the big bag.

Home for the weekend

Later in the month comes Thanksgiving, a time for family and food. Around that time the sometimes obnoxious Christmas seasons gets underway. Yet it’s an important time of tradition and reflecting on what has happened in past year and what we hope happens in the new one.

Snow Covered Mountain

The leaves may be off the trees. It might be getting cold out there. Yet, there still is much to look forward to in the upcoming months.

Columbus Day

Columbus Day occurs in the North-East around the peak of fall, when colors are at it’s finest. It’s a celebration of Christopher’s Discovery of North America, which would eventually lead to it’s mass colonisation by many Europeans seeking a new life and the seemingless inexhaustible new resources under-tapped and under-utilised by the native peoples.

TriMount from Jimmy Dolan Notch

Many different areas have different celebrations for Columbus Day. In New York State, it is a state holiday where most local and state agencies are closed, and there are big parades in major ciites, but in most other areas the holiday gets little special attention. Most private sector employers, and SUNY does not close for the holiday.

 Overlook Mountain Fire Tower

While the Christopher Columbus’s legacy is controversial due to his brutal tactics and those who followed him, he did forever change our world by his popularisation of the North America as a land of endless resources. Population growth and advanced technologies exploited many of these resources to capacity and beyond, and in doing so created a prosperous nation which forever would go on to change the world.

September

East Mountain

The month of September is when the summer season officially winds down. It’s also when it starts getting a bit cooler and clearer our, and when we start seeing the first hints of fall’s beauty.

Beauty

It’s the time of high-harvest and a closing out of summer. Kids go back to school this month, and young adults go back to college. Primary day comes and goes, political candidates focus on their general election.

Trees Along the Lake

Leaves start to fall. The humidity drops even faster. Some of the nicest weather of the entire year comes about. It promises to be a pleasurable time.

Be Thankful This Thanksgiving

Notes on the Re-Run for Thursday, November 24th.

Happy Thanksgiving! Make the most of it, enjoy your turkey and everything else.

— Andy

Many of your fellow neighboors are struggling to get by this thanksgiving. We are in one of the worst recessions in decades, with many parts of the market failing in ways that have not occurred since the thirties. Many people have lost their jobs and will not be having such a marry thanksgiving this year.

While some people will go in deep humility to the local food banks or be able to enjoy the holiday with family, knowing that one is without work and a victim of the current recessions must be painful. To know that one will likely be searching for a job for quite some time, and any job they get probably will pay less and not fully utilize their skills.

Others will have to work this thanksgiving and will not be home to be with their families. Those people while in many cases essential to our livelihood, won’t be able to enjoy the turkey at home this special day. Make sure when you pass them by not to forget to thank them too for their hard work and all they do for our society.

Eat your turkey. Have a good holiday. Just remember all those who aren’t having such a good one about now.

 Pleasant Valley Road

Halloween is for Kids, Community

Everybody knows Halloween is a fun holiday for kids, to get out, meet some of their neighbors and have a good time in the fall. Giving out candy when visiting neighbor’s houses inspires community and less of a fear of neighbors.

Too often today our society has become isolated from one individual to another. Halloween is one such chance to get back together, and spend sometime as a community talking to our neighbors. At least for one night a year, the people you live so closely to are not so isolated from your life.

I do not understand why the religious right is so anti-Halloween. It’s a fun holiday, one more about community then the worship of daemons or fears. It’s meant to peak one’s sweet tooth at least for one night, and enjoy some candy. Most kids do not know or understand why they dress up and knock on neighbor’s doors, but the sense of community it brings is invaluable.

colorrdturn

It is more concerning how some adults choose to partake of this holiday. Some older people now want to join kids in the celebration of the holiday. These big kids, often go tricker-treating or have parties. But shouldn’t adults have enough community experience, and know their neighbors well enough to not need to celebrate the holiday.

There also needs to be a de-commercialization of the holiday. Too often, it’s easy to get a Halloween costume for $20 or $30 dollars from a store, in about any commercially popular character that you want. All made out of toxins, proudly imported by China. Reinforcing commercial messages, encouraging children to excessively consume.

All in all, this high-fructose corn syrup holiday is a fun diversion from our everyday life. It’s a great chance for our young to meet our neighbors, and learn that they are not the scary people that the mass-media so often portrays them to be.

October is Here

I look around and take a step out in the brisk October weather. I never expected this month to come so soon.

Yellow Birches

It was so warm out. It felt like summer for most of the previous month. Certainly not early fall as many of us consider September to be. Yet, fall came and now we are well into it.

Twin Tree

The color is poping up. But it’s not as clean yellow, red, or orange as we normally would expect. It’s been too dry to get the beautiful colors this year, so we are seeing more brown. And that brown is spreading all over from crops to the fields.

NY 313 Batten Kill Valley

It was not an excessively dry September of August, as we had some bursts rains, and our early summer was wet. Yet, it still left many with smaller apples, less lush hay, and pumpkins that were not as big or attractive as they might have been other years. But that’s how it goes with farming.

Through a Field

We have to look forward to October and the beautiful weather it will bring. Leaves are still not at their peak and all the crops are still not in. Frost is still a few weeks away, particularly with our warm weather. But clear skies are on the way. So enjoy your October.

Route 357 Outside Danemora