John Boyd Thacher State Park, is situated along the Helderberg Escarpment, one of the richest fossil-bearing formations in the world. Even as it safeguards six miles of limestone cliff-face, rock-strewn slopes, woodland and open fields, the park provides a marvelous panorama of the Hudson-Mohawk Valleys and the Adirondack and Green Mountains. The park has volleyball courts, playgrounds, ball fields and numerous picnic areas with nine reservable shelters. Interpretive programs are offered year-round, including guided tours of the famous Indian Ladder Trail. There are over 25 additional miles of trails for summer hiking and mountain biking, and winter cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and snowmobiling.
As somebody who rarely uses disposable items like paper plates or rarely eats out and uses burnablesfor starting fires I usually don’t think I make much trash – mostly broken appliances and scrap metal I promise myself I’ll eventually recycle or reuse for projects. But I was looking at the bin this morning, thinking about how full it and how the stuff sometimes burns black and stinks when it burns and it gave me pause. I could recycle a lot of the paper and plastic crap but it’s mostly a scam and I need things to start fires with. I the one who is currently reading a book aboutzero waste living. I guess burning it doesn’t count.
Busy you might describe my schedule. 📜It would take a scroll to get through all on my list – I always volunteer to do too much. I think I can handle it with a simple R script or a piece of code and often I can but that’s one task. 🖥 But first a nice bike 🚲 ride on this most beautiful of summer mornings. ☺
I was up at 5 o’clock eating carrot 🥕 pancakes with shredded frozen fruit. 🍓 🥞 Figured if I was up early I could shower 🚿 early and ride out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center 🐸 and later Voorheesville and the Rail Trail 🚂 before work – and get into work early. I have a stack of resumes to go through 📄 and discuss with the supervisors for the Word Processor data entry position in the office that I’m hiring for. I didn’t think many would apply 🤝🏻 for a $40k with state benefits data entry position but I was wrong. So many resumes! Supervising and approving lists and analysis for work. I got lists to run for the campaign committee, maps and analysis for Save the Pine Bush and a website I’m mitigating over to WordPress for a friend. And I have to pack ⛺ and get ready for camping over Independence day Weekend which starts tomorrow. 🇺🇸 And renew those books 📚 I’m reading on Libby.
And I want to get some cannabis to smoke 🚬 up at camp from the cannabis shop either today or at lunch time tomorrow. Kind of don’t want to get it today as I’m riding my bike and I don’t want to bring it into the office where it might smell. 👃 Shits kind of like silage, it stinks even if it’s wonderful. Not sure how skunky 🦨 it is until you smoke it but I want to wait until I get to camp ⛺ to find out. Hoping I can get that House Pond Campsite tomorrow but probably not it’s Independence Day Weekend. 🇺🇸
I am leaning towards Piseco-Powley 🏕 but I can’t stay at any one site more then 3 nights without a permit, but it’s not like the ice is going to last more then two or three days. 🧊 That means I’ll have to figure out where I want to spend the second half of the weekend. I am still leaning towards Stewart Landing and either kayak camping or at one of those sites there or Rockwood State Forest but I could be convinced to end my weekend in Spectulator. Not sure! ⭕ I just want to spend a lot of time floating in that tube, lighting off fireworks, stoned, studying the clouds and listening to Frank Zappa’s Waka Jawka.
NDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND BE LIKE …
“If the froggy come up-a with his satchel in his hand Then he reach in the front and dump a mile of sand Across the rug, along the hall, up to the umbrella stand That you’ve been watchin’ all the time Watchin’ all the time
And if a forest grows up from the dirt on the floor That the frog with the satchel had just dumped beside the door You just startin’ to get worried, you ain’t going out no more And it’s confusin’ to your mind – just consider this: You can be scared when it gets too real You can be scared when it gets too real
But you should be diggin’ it while it’s happening Yes! You should be diggin’ it while it’s happening ‘Cause it just might be a one-shot deal You can be lost and you can wanna be found But keep an eye on that frog whenever he jump around
Just keep a-watchin’ him You oughta be watchin’ him Just keep a-watchin’ him You wanna be watchin’ him And see if he has brought along a little bag for you Rant!”
That’s how they are pushing the property I was looking at the other day but passing on it. I guess the road noise and small, dilapidated house and homestead lot puts people off and that they want it as a cash deal as is with no info on the septic or electric. But who is going to build a business way out in the country, where folks don’t have much money? Greenville yes, but they’re mostly chain businesses.
So yes, I’m still ruminating over that property next to my parents house 🏚 that I wish would get sold so I could put it out of it’s misery in my mind. I’m not going to move out to country, I don’t really want to settle down and homestead, be feeding and dealing with sick goats and hogs. 🐷 🐐 I still want to travel and spend my weekends in the wilderness, 🔨 not mowing lawns or hammering boards. But at one level it does seem so perfect, not having to pay rent and have fresh veggies and healthy meats without all that plastic crap. But how much longer will New York be my home? It depends on how work goes, how the elections go, and if I’m truly certain on retiring in 13 1/2 years when I’m 55. I don’t know.
I was up and going fairly early this morning, 🌅 though around 6 AM it started to pour out but stopped in time for me to ride in. 🌧 I can’t say how truly enjoyabe I find it to bike to work, 🚲 it’s a really nice commute through the Normans Kill Gorge and then along the river. Riding through the Projects and under Interstate 787 isn’t quite so nice, but it’s part of the trip and beats driving or taking the bus. 🚌 Truth is probably if I didn’t get the damn bicycle and was more used to automobile commuting, I’d find myself in a totally different place with that homestead. Cool but cleared out today, weather got better as things went by. 👃 🚽 The sewage treatment plant next to the office today though is a bit stinky. That strong north wind should hel with the evening commute.
Really my thing now is to get out and spend as much time traveling and exploring 🏕 if I’m not going to be building that homestead right away. I want to be able to get out and see things while I’m still young. Maybe not Paris or Rome like in Europe, but maybe hick towns with similiar names. 🤠 I’ve been thinking about this fall going down to the Warren National Forest and maybe next summer heading out west for a week, especially if I get a new truck. 🛻 I figure this year though gas prices ⛽ are relatively low and I should maximize my use out of Big Red as much as possible, especially as he’s running good, despite the rust meaning things are falling off in big hunks now.
Wednesday I think I’m heading up to the Piseco-Powley again, ⭕ for three nights and the Independence holiday, and the forth night I’ll either camp somewhere else at a different site, maybe Stewart Landing, Rockwood State Forest or Spectulator. I’m undecided. I have options. I can only stay three nights in one campsite, 🏕 plus my e-Books on libby expire if I don’t have any cellphone 📱 service for more then two nights, plus data requests could come in for work. 💽
After the election is done, it’s pretty obvious how much both the Working Families and Democratic parties wanted him gone. His far-right ideology, criticizing criminal justice reforms — that clearly are working — served neither well and his positions were not that of most Democrats much less Working Families Party members.
That said, Soares positions were politically popular with the general electorate, and especially with police and prosecutors and the conservative party which wholeheartingly has backed rolling back criminal justice reforms, to a time when criminal defendants were kept in the dark about the evidence against them, when people charged with minor non-violent crimes often spent months if not years behind bars because of high bail levels levied against them.
Should have run as a conservative and maybe a Republican …
If Soares asked for it, he could have most certainly gotten the conservative line, as the police unions generally control that in Upstate New York. Even the Republicans would have wholeheartingly adopted him, as they would love to keep him in office as a leading proponent of rolling back criminal justice reform and serving as a symbol of Democrats being soft-on-crime. Better yet, if he had publically endorsed Donald Trump, it’s certain that both state GOP dollars and Trump’s campaign dollars would have come flowing in to bolster his campaign.
Donald Trump could have found much use in David Soares. He would instantly become one of the nations’ leading black prosecutors who changed parties in defense of the former President. Soares, if he chosen to go on television railing against the “fake charges” brought against Trump would have gotten national attention, especially as his peer is the Manhattan DA who brought such charges and successfully convicted Trump of dozens of non-violent felonies.
Could a Trump-backed DA won the mostly liberal Albany County?
Possibly with enough cash, the continued backing of a sizable part of the black and brown population in the city — some certainly fed up with crime and wanting a tough on crime perspective in the DA’s office. Plus, while in the minority, there are still a lot of conservatives and Republicans in the county especially in the more rural and suburban parts of the towns. Wealthy people fear crime too, especially stealing of the color televisions. That said, it it still would have been a tough row to hoe, as Albany County is pretty liberal, and probably not all embracing of liberal policies.
Last night I started to feel the humidity push in. Now I am really feeling it as things warmed up, and for a while was really sunny and hot — early on — before the thunderstorm came rolling through. Dew point is 73 degrees, which you barely have to move to start sweating this morning. It was hot last night too. I should get out a fan. Or better yet hop in my air coniditoned truck and start driving out to Rensselear County to ride and go to Walmart.
I was hoping to head out to Rensselear before the rain and thunderstorms came rolling through 🌩 but I’m not sure that’s going to happen as it looks like it’s already getting pretty stormy out. ⛈ I was thinking I would hop on the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail from US 4 Parking Lot 🅿️ in North Greenbush 🚲 to Nassau and go for a ride before shopping at Wally World on Third Street 🛒 both for groceries, but also I want to get some more sparklers 🎇 and maybe another set of shorts. 🩳 When I ride out to Nassau, there is an ice cream parlor right on the rail trail, 🍨 and I think by mid-morning they will likely be open. Didn’t go to Jim’s Tastefreeze on Friday as I was responsible so you know what’s on my mind. 💭
Yesterday morning I went out to Thacher Park for a while on the Nature Bus. 🚌 Didn’t stay a long time, caught the 1 PM back home because it was starting to rain out and didn’t want to get stuck at the park in the pouring rain, especially as it was kind of cool and breezy out and I only had a t-shirt on under the rain coat. Also didn’t ride home, though I certainly could have as the rain didn’t pick up until later on in the day.
As it was either raining or had a constant threat, 📚 I spent most of the afternoon at home. 🍵 Made a big container of rice with lentils and chickpeas for lunch and dinner. I was doing a deep dive into a book about modern javascript — I am trying to master promises, async and React. I’ve known Javascript for decades now 👨💻 but I struggle with the modern concepts. A lot has changed in recent years, mostly for the better, but some of the new concepts are non-obvious for me. 🤷♂️
My guide to using R Studio with the State Voter File kind of fell like a dead balloon 🎈 🗳 when I showed it off to the other directors. I am sure they didn’t love the fact I wrote it without asking permission first, or pitching the idea, but I didn’t know how to pitch it without putting it on paper first. 🖨 As one pointed out — what hell is this — it makes my head hurt. 🤯 Truth is programming is complicated, though R doesn’t seem that complicated but then again I use it every day, and what seems simple and logical to me, especially compared to C programming, isn’t really that simple for those unfamiliar. Even if I learned R in a hammock over Labor Day a few years back and it wasn’t hard — I’ve had decades of programming experience. 📃
It’s still good to have it documented, if only for my own use, as I’m sure I’ll be asked to do the common tasks like coalescing columns and householding addressesfor work and elsewheres. Some of it I had to learn or refine my skills while writing documentation. And if ultimately it gets no use at work, I’ll uses bits and pieces for blog posts, removing any specific references to work computers. 🍬 I bet people would like to know how to to household address lists using R or more examples of using coalescing with the Board of Elections files. They’re lost your gain. 🤣 At least I got an invite to the War Room in two weeks out of it so I can pitch it again in person. 💻 Maybe I got to sit people down in front of computers and show them why it’s superior to doing everything in Excel.
Been studying cannabis 🚬, trying to determine what I should buy. There is a dispensary up the road from where I work and while I haven’t smoked pot in years, I was thinking it would be fun over the forth of July holiday to get a bit stoned, preferably while floating in the tube ⭕ down the East Canada Creek or wherever I decide to go. I could go to Vermont, but I don’t think your supposed to bring pot across the state lines or even smoke it on federal lands. State lands in New York. Whatever. 🤣 I don’t want to make it habit but if could be a lot of fun for the long weekend, especially if I don’t have to drive anywhere and are just floating down the river looking at the clouds in the sky. 😎
Thinking Wednesday at 2 PM I’ll be heading up to Piseco-Powley. 🏊♀️ 🏕 I don’t have a camping permit for all four days, but maybe if I run into or can flag down a passing Forest Ranger I can ask for a permit, 🎫 or I could end my weekend up in Spectulator or maybe down at Stewart Landing – Lily Lake. Hammock kayak camping would be fun. 🛶 Another issue with Piseco-Powley is I’m going to have to leave mid-weekend at any rate, as the ice in that heat 🧊 certainly isn’t going to hold through Sunday if I leave on Wednesday, and pack that morning. I can probably get ice at the Stratford General Store but there is always a possibility I’ll have to go to Stewarts in Dolgeville, but then again that’s a not a bad thing as I can go to Green Acres 🍦 for Ice Cream.
Blog traffic was good this past month, 💵 it brought in $127 in revenue not including today, plus the $79.70 that I have from last month, so I should be getting a roughly $210 check from Google Ad Services about the time my summer vacation starts. I am happy about that. I still need to figure out when I will be taking my vacation 🏝, probably the second or last week of July and also get my truck serviced 👩🔧 before then. The exact week depends a bit on when I have staff coverage in my office, what lists I need to run, the weather and which weeks the Watkins Glen track will be open, as I want to avoid Watkins Glen on those weeks.
Truth is I ended up spending more time on my phone then doing all that much reading. 📗 Most of the e-books I got from the library are interesting but not that interesting in my mind. Maybe I need to get some more books, especially on Hoopla as the month is coming to a close. I think I want to get more books out about computer programming, as I often find them the most interesting and useful to read. Plus I need to start reading that book I got out from the library about fixing up old houses — as one option to research going forward — even if I’m passing up on that house down the street from my parents house.
I am sitting out back, the fire flies are out and the mosquitoes kind of biting, 🐝 but it’s been a pleasant day not too humid but warm. Sipping some nice cold lemonade that I freshly squeezed with some stevia. 🥤 Snacking on some pumpkin and ground oatmeal. 🥣 Didn’t get out at lunch time, because things were just too busy in the office and a project came in. It’s really been non-stop, but I’m always trying to step up, 📄 use my data science skills to move projects forward in the office and impress people with all the ways we can work with data. 🤖
I’ve been so busy the past few days, 👨💼although some of it is I am inviting additional work into my life right and left to keep extra busy. I think maybe it’s a coping mechanism from walking away from the fixer-up house that could of been mine, had I not mentally made a long list of all the reasons I should not buy it, or being too afraid of the risks — like the gap in fire insurance, the unknown situation with the water and electricity as both are currently turned off. 🔌 It was a nice property in many ways, but it also came up short in my mind in many ways — noisy next to the main highway, that weird inset in the property, the lack of forest land or a woodstove. 🌲 The reason I found out about the issue on getting fire insurance between the sale and moving in was actually calling the insurance agent to discuss the cost of adding a woodstove to the property. 🔥 Plus the whole issue of the eviction of one of the locals who previously lived there, and my werid relationship with the folks in the neighborhood.
And despite all my talk about moving back out to country, I really enjoy riding my bike to work, 🚴♀️traveling on the weekends and on extended vacations, not dealing with motoring except for fun. Maybe it’s fear driving my mind, or my lack of knowledge and experience in the situation, but ultimately I decided it’s not the right time or the right property. 👨🎓 I’ve studied a bit on buying property, land ownership and development and off-grid cabins, but nothing on fixer-upper properties. 🔨 I would want to have more book smart on such a topic before committing. While some people gave me advice on potential real estate lawyers, I don’t have a property surveyor or home inspector on speed dial, much less an assessor on dial. It’s a lot of money to pay all those people 💸but if you don’t want to get screwed, it’s best to pay up front and know all the facts.
Truth is if I want to live out in the country, 👨🌾 I really want to live out in the country, outside of a small town. Kind of like when I was out around Fort Plain and Canajahorie. Plus, let’s be honest, New York State sucks on many levels especially if you want to live rural. Simply living in a suburban subdivision that smells like cow shit 🐮really does nothing for me. Yet I’m also well aware that I’m only 13 1/2 short years away from age 55, and if I want to take early retirement from the state, that’s an income source plus tapping the 25% of my salary I’ve been saving now for years pre-tax in retirement. Won’t be a lot of money coming in especially with tapping my state pension at such a young age. 🏚 but if I tap my savings and investments, build a small, very rustic off-grid cabin in a low-cost state like a Missouri or South Dakota, raise a lot of my own food, maybe run a data or GIS business for a little spending cash, I could make ends meet. 🚜 And it would certainly be better then buying some house that I don’t really want with a long commute.
There are definitely housing options in the mean-time that are affordable, 🏘 even if none is as cheap as where I currently live. That said, so far I haven’t been evicted and I think my landlord is just happy with me being a paying tenant, now at a slightly higher rate. But alas inflation. Being able to bike or walk to work (and take transit in bad weather) is a big money saver. I may be able to eck a few more years out of Big Red, 🚘and certainly my next truck will last through the start of early retirement at age 55 if I continue to not use it for commuting. People say if you don’t follow your dreams now you’ll regret it but I always point out to them — you have no regrets once you are dead. The median age for taking over the family farm is people in their late 50s, probably if you look at people who build off-grid homesteads, it’s close to same age too. 🧓There is always some risk you’ll die before age 55, but if you take care of your body, eat well, the risk is relatively low. 💪
Weekend looks wet ⛈ so I’m not hopeful about getting out of town. 🚲 If it’s not too wet, I still might go to Thacher Park via the Nature Bus and ride home down the New Salem Hill — it’s so much fun. It all depends on how wet it is. I also want to get over to Rensselear County to pick up some sparklers and ground fireworks for Independence Day Weekend. Also want to get some cannabis to enjoy during the long holiday weekend — I haven’t smoked cannabis in years but it might be fun up at camp. 🚬
But then again, Thursday and Friday the following week I have off for Independence Day Weekend. 🇺🇸 🎆 I’ve thought about Piseco-Powley again, would like to do some time in the tube, but I’m also considering the Green Mountains especially Forest Road 71 Somerset Airfield now that it’s open to ride it and float in a tube in Deerfield River in that swimming hole next to the campground. ⭕ 🏕 The problem with New York State land is unless I get a camping permit I’m going to have to find a new campsite after 3 nights, plus who knows what will be taken if I leave work at 5 PM… although I’m hoping to sneak out closer to 2 PM but things sometimes get busy in the office.
I certainly did not expect that propane line to explode out due to the leak in the hose. Not a big deal, I got the propane tank off, and let the burner burn off, and it wasn’t a fire like when the base of lantern caught on fire last night due to a leaky connection.
The heat is certainly testing all my connections on my propane equipment. 😅 It’s not as warm up here as down in the city, but it’s still pretty hot and that propane tank is mostly full and was sitting in the truck all day. The next few days I am up in the Speculator-area, with plans to head down to the Potholers either tomorrow or Friday depending on the work load. Hopefully tomorrow, that is after I get ice 🧊 and take care of any work needs. 👨💻
Yesterday, got up to camp a little after 7 PM off the Old Route 8B, 🚲 and road along the river for a while past the Robbs Mill Creek and the Lower Bridge and sat down at the infamous Robert Garrow murder campsite until a while after dusk. 🚓 Came back to camp around 9:30 PM and there was still was some light. Had a big old fire, 🔥 though some of that shit burned a heck of lot blacker and stinker then I would have thought. I’ve been bad about seperating out the compost at home, and who knows what got tossed in the fire. If I do move to that homestead I’m looking at, going to have to be more careful what gets burnt, as I’m not up in the wilderness. 👨🚒 Also thinking of becoming a volunteer firefighter, because it’s good to make connections there. Stayed up until 11 PM or so listening to podcasts, but was annoyed I could not download any new issues because I lacked cell service. 📻 Morning was carrot pancakes, 🥞 the new small food processor worked fine off the inverter. Coffee was good, it got hot quickly, and I took down camp slowly as I’m thinking I’d prefer to camp somewhere tonight with service.
That homestead I was looking at ran into kind of a hitch when talking to my insurance agent. 📞 I can’t get homeowners insurance until I move in because the building is currently unoccupied and it would be a cash as is deal. Insurance companies want to see a mortage or at least that building is immediately occuped after tranfer. In theory I could move in right away after purchasing, though who knows what the home inspection would find. I am more then a little worried about jumping in too quickly, as I don’t want to get scammed. But on the other hand, I don’t exactly have a real estate lawyer on speed dial, much less a home inspector, a title searcher, and a survey crew. 👷♀️ I don’t think it needs all that much work from my initial inspection, though I’m concerned about the foundation which looks to be little more then loose field stone and rot in the building that I noticed under the vinyl siding, and the sagging floor in one spot. The buyer’s agent I toured it with kept downplaying my concerns, which I get she wants the sale, but I don’t want to get screwed. 😡 I need to talk to my friend who bought a fixer upper and how he dealt with it. I’d hate to spend all this money and then have it burn to ground without insurance five days before I move in.
On paper it seems like the perfect homestead for me, 🐐 assuming that’s ultimately what I want to do. The barns, the pasture, outdoor sink and overhang for processing meat are great. Price is great. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty, working on shit. And I don’t give a rats ass if things aren’t pretty. Even unpainted walls don’t bother me, or the floors that could use from sealing and stain don’t phase me or the musty old smell and all the other weridness of an abandoned old structure. 🏘 The sagging floor in one spot doesn’t bother me either, if I fall through it, I’d rip it up, take crap to backyard and burn it, 🔥 and fill it in with gravel, then insulation and concrete, as it’s a slab foundation — well actually I think it’s post and beam on field stone. You know old building shit. Not like your going to fall far. But if the walls are not well secured or their rotting out, that’s a bigger problem. Didn’t see much asbestos, I used to work in that industry. And I’m not a home inspector. But the challenge of the insurance gap is a red flag 🚩 though maybe I could get construction insurance to cover that period if renovations are being done before moving in. I guess I don’t feel that guilty sort of setting aside the process now — I wouldn’t have been signing no contract at this point regardless if I was in time.
Heading out paddling in a bit on the Sacandaga River and Kunjamunk. 🛶 Maybe I’ll also get some ice cream. 🍦 Not as sunny of a day as I would have like but hot. 😅 I’ll be happy the second half of the weekend when I’m at the Potholers and floating in the tube.
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