While I can capture the colors of autumn and the contours of the land on my blog, it’s impossible to capture the intoxicatingly sweet smell of silage in the rural countryside in the fall.
Charles Baker State Forest
What Cows Can Teach Us About Zoom Calls : NPR
It comes from researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna and the Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria, who compared the vital signs of 28 cows as they were petted while listening to a live human voice, and those same cows being petted while they heard merely a recording. They published their findings in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
"Our study suggests that live talking is more relaxing for our animals than a recording of a human voice," said Annika Lange, an author on the study. "Heart rate variability was higher when cattle were spoken to directly, indicating they were enjoying themselves..."
And as other studies have confirmed, happy cows produce better milk.
October 17, 2020 Evening
Good evening! Clear and 34 degrees at the Cherry Ridge Camping Area. 🌌There is a south-southwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Cool but clear, I have a big ol roaring fire 🔥 tonight to stay warm.
While I was kind of hoping I’d have the whole camping area here to myself 👤 so I could listen to music 🎶 as loud as I wanted to, there are a few campers down the way and they seemed to have gone inside pretty early because of the cold. I know that I usually prefer to camp at a roadside site that is more spread out but there aren’t many options nearby.
It was a nice day, lots of blue skies and fall colors 🍂🌞 but as to be expected in higher elevations they had very much faded away. Spent the bulk of the day at Glimmerglass State Park 🏞 and then poked around Cooperstown for a while, which was really hoping but I didn’t want to spend too much time there with the pandemic. 👾 Of course, because I’ve been traveling my phone 📱 wants me to install the state’s COVID-19 tracking app but honestly that’s creepy and it’s not like I’ve been indoors or near anybody except for a brief stop at Hannaford on Daunesburg to pick up some groceries. 🏪
All day was kind of cold ❄ although part of it was I’m unwilling to accept winter is coming and I was just wearing a t shirt 👚 with my vest. The colors were really good down by the lake and up here by camp. ⛺
I really like the rough cut lands 🚜🏚️ of the backroads of Otsego and Madison County, the mud and manure, the run down farm houses and the earthy smell of livestock. 🐮 The junk cars and rusty tractors, the goats 🐐 staked down in front yard, the deer 🦌 hung from the tree, the pig pen 🐽 in the corner of the yard.
In a few years I plan to live in a place like that. 🏡🐐 🐖 I’m making good money at my job now 💵 but I’m really trying to save every penny I can, so I can eventually own land out in the country, live in small town. But not New York State – I don’t want to have to beg some judge for a pistol 🔫 permit and I want to be able to have burn barrels 🛢 and have fires to burn debris and brush whenever I want and not spend all my money on property taxes. In other words rural living minus the New York State part. Kind of like Pennsyltucky minus the high taxes although there is a lot to like about the state especially in the Pennsylvania Wild Region although many other parts of the state have wooded hills above the fertile valleys. 🌄
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 30 degrees at 3am. Seven degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 13th. South wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2019, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 41 degrees. The record low of 22 occurred back in 1978.
Tonight will have a New 🌚 Moon with 1% illuminated. At 7 PM, the moon was in the west-southwest (253°) at an altitude of 1° from the horizon, some 226,468 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 Lots of stars ✨ tonight. I got out star viewing app earlier. At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by April 7th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The Blue 🌝 Moon is on Halloween 🦇 Saturday, October 31. The darkest hour is at 12:47 am, followed by dawn at 6:50 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:18 am in the east-southeast (102°) and last for 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:57 am with sun in the east-southeast (109°). Tonight will have 13 hours and 3 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 48 seconds over last night. Always amazing how fast winter comes when it gets well underway. Nights are so long now and it seems like nine 9⃣ o’clock is the middle of the night now.
Tomorrow will have increasing clouds ☁, with a high of 56 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 25th. South wind 9 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became mostly sunny by afternoon. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 84 was set in 2016. There was a dusting of snow in 2015.❄
In four weeks on November 14 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (245°) at 4:39 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 36 minutes and 17 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had cold, partly cloudy and temperatures between 37 and 20 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 49 and 32 degrees. The record high of 70 degrees was set back in 1973.
Looking ahead, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 5 weeks, Small Business Saturday 🛍️ is in 6 weeks, Repeal of Prohibition Day 🍺 is in 7 weeks, Boxing Day 🥊 is in 10 weeks, Static Electric Shock Day 🧼 is in 12 weeks, National Cheese Lovers Day 🧀 is in 14 weeks, Save the Pine Bush Turns 43 🦋 is in 16 weeks, Presidents Day 👴 is in 4 months, 5:30 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 18 weeks, and Snow Moon 🌕 is in 19 weeks.
Morning’s Sun
Beaver Creek Horse Trail 60 Bridge
Claustrophobic?
Lost Pond Sign
