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.
Get your motor running, head out on the highway, looking for adventure and whatever comes my way.
Good morning! Happy Saturday. Going to be a beautiful start to the weekend for doing some driving around. Partly cloudy and 39 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ There is a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Monday around 2 am. ☃️ I do wish I could go out camping, but things are going to be muddy after the rain, plus I’m thinking a week from next Thursday of heading up to the Adirondacks for a three-day weekend, assuming they don’t get a shit ton of snow up north in the meantime or it’s pouring rain all Easter weekend. 🐇
Things are going better since I’ve been doing more research 🛖 on housing options, and realizing I have to be more flexible on my thinking — even if it means a longer commute then is ideal to live rural. 👨🌾Spending a lot of money on gas ⛽️ and burning through cars 🚗 every 8-10 years ain’t fun, but I may have to push closer to 35 mile commute rather then the less 30 mile commute I was going for. The thing is in 8 years from my next car purchase in 2025, I’ll have built up my solar system and there will be far more options for electric vehicles. 🔌 I really like some of the options for modular cabins, especially the smaller ones built to code for residential use at a factory and delivered to the site with full interior built. Right now I’m quite enthralled by the Zook Settler and similar style small-one floor code-compliant pre-built residential cabins. I am thinking one floor, no basement, smallest size for a smallest possible electrical and heating demand. I like the wood-walls, that won’t sure the dirt like drywall, and the metal roof for fire safety and insurance savings, lest an ember fall on the roof.
Then get an EPA-certified, efficient wood stove and a small heat pump and use one of the bedrooms as a mechanical room — for batteries, split-phase inverter, well pressure tank, and maybe eventually a washing machine and computer equipment. 🔋 If I get serious about the map making business, I might eventually get an used plotter. I am thinking the heat pump can be used when I’m not there to keep things from freezing in winter. ♨️ Wouldn’t run much though, as I’d keep the temperature low on the heat pump in the winter, 🌨️ and the thing is a cabin built to 2018 federal energy standards, as required by NY State, passing blower efficiency tests, 🌬️is going to have minimal heat loss. I am going to need a quality gasoline generator like a Honda, which will have remote start, which can be triggered off inverter on low battery, which can keep things from freezing up in winter if I’m away for an extended time. Plus as much as I personally loathe air conditioning, the climate is warming 🌎️ and it sure would be nice to come home to on that sultry summer nights, especially when the batteries are full and it makes sense to be keeping the cabin cold rather then wasting the solar energy. 🧊 Use a standard electric refrigerator and probably a gas stove converted to use propane — and in winter, sometimes use the wood stove to atop. If I’m only using propane for the stove, I can get away with 30 lb propane tanks, that I can throw in the pickup and get filled at any propane retailer rather then paying a big truck to come out there and be dependent on one supplier. That said, it’s going to be a lot of money, but I’ve saved for a long time, done well in the markets. What I’m building is far smaller then your typical suburban home and will consume far less energy, especially fossil energy.
Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 54 degrees at 5pm. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 5th. West wind 5 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 51 degrees. The record high of 82 was set in 1990. 13.4 inches of snow fell back in 1956.❄
At any rate, that’s all fun and games, 🕹️ though first I have to find land that I love ❤️🔥and is a good fit for me. The commute thing sucks, but I want to find a place that feels like and will be my home for the rest of my life. 🚗 I am exploring Rensselaer County today, not because that’s necessarily where I will move, as I’m biased towards the Hilltowns of Albany County, but as far as birds eye distance goes 🦜 there’s more remote country, closer to work then in the Hilltowns, being that work in Menands. 🐐 The roads kind of suck and traffic in Rensselaer County, (Hoosick Street and NY 7) but as a property owner, the conservative politics of land of Joe Bruno would suit me well. 😃 What’s good for my business, as I like to say, might not necessarily always be good for myself. Not only do I want to look at a list of parcels I’ve seen listed in Hoosick Falls, Petersburg and Grafton, I also want to explore some of Petersburg State Forest for mountain biking, hiking and camping 🏕️ 🥾 in the future. It’s fun to drive the back roads.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:05 pm with sun having an altitude of 45.9° from the due south horizon (-25° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:26 pm with the sun in the west (263°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (269°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:04 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 53 seconds with dusk around 7:31 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the southwest (215°) at an altitude of 73° from the horizon, 239,018 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:05 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 50 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Tomorrow will have 12 hours and 4 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over today.
For the Easter weekend, 🐰 as I was noting, I really want to get out of town to go to the Adirondacks. The burn ban doesn’t apply to small campfires, and I don’t think it’s going to be bone dry up north at that point based on the forecast. 🔥 Plus I really want a good fire to help myself sleep better 🛌 and burn up some of the accumulated papers. I have nothing but disdain for the burn ban, but I understand the fire risk this time of year, as I know how easy it can be set your yard on fire, and as a future property owner I don’t want that to happen. 😐️ You can say what you want about New York State, but it pays my bills and it’s my home. Building standards mean I will end up with a quality, energy efficient building even if I have my views on the gun laws and open burning restrictions. Happy March 16th.
Tonight will have showers, mainly after 2am. 🌧 Low of 41 degrees at 6am. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 22nd. Light southeast wind becoming south 6 to 11 mph in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2023, we had partly cloudy skies. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of -1 occurred back in 1916.
One month 📅 from now will be Average High is 60 🌷 when the sun will be setting at 7:40 pm with dusk at 8:08 pm.
Today there will be exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness in Albany. This is due to the way sunlight is bent in the earth’s atmosphere, coming 4 calender days before the first day of calender spring. Starting tomorrow until September 26th, every day will have more daylight then darkness.
Visiting a dentist hygienist this morning, I was once again reminded a truth about doctors — your health and well-being is not always aligned with their own agenda. Doctors want both to protect themselves from Medical Malpractice lawsuits, and earn extra revenue through additional fees. You really have to be buyer beware each time you visit the doctor, and listen to their advice like you would any other professional advice — seriously but note they have motivations contrary to your own, and always verify their claims.
My biggest issue is my emotions and raw fear. Getting good information has to be my priority, I can’t be scared off at this point. Good knowledge comes embedded into a irrelevant noise. Filtering the signal from the noise isn’t easy.
The truth is I don’t have any other option. I have to move forward, continuing to gather as much knowledge, even if some of it is painful and I don’t want to hear. Trade-offs aren’t always pretty, but I should only give up what I won’t regret too much.
And I shouldn’t worry so much about loss or missing out. It’s not too late, unless I give up. Things can and will be better, once I have the knowledge, and the confidence to make it happen. I have the power of statistical knowledge, databases, and GIS on my side, even if in many ways things are stacked against me. Plus I am having a lot of fun cruising the back roads, getting a lot of mud on my pickup.
When the time change first hit with that power outage on Monday things were quite dark. But we are gaining daylight quickly in the morning in part because the transit of the sun is shifting earlier due to earth wobble and because spring is approaching rapidly adding daylight to both ends of the day.
Good morning! Happy Thursday. Can you believe it? I can’t. Partly cloudy and 42 degrees at the land of the Delmaritian. 🌤️ Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Monday around 11 pm. ☃️ I can probably leave my windows open in the meantime though today was a bit chilly to start out.
Going to really enjoy that bike 🚲 ride in today. It was a cold start with the windows open but it’s warming up quickly with the sun out. 🐦 Those red winged black birds are loud this morning, along with the song sparrows. I got to get back into bird watching again like during the pandemic. I was up at around 4:30 AM but that’s not surprising as I was alseep before 8 PM last night. Got a good nights sleep 🛌 thanks to having the windows open. But I was dog tired before I went to bed. 🐶
Another really nice late winter day ahead. Not record breaking but still. Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 67 degrees at 3pm. 23 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 2nd. Light and variable wind becoming northwest 5 to 7 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning, which became heavy snow by afternoon. The high last year was 35 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1946. 17.0 inches of snow fell back in 2017.❄
Last night I cooked up a sweet potato in the microwave, 🍠 mixed in some turmeric and nutritional yeast, and had some more of the black beans 🍲 and tomatoes that I cooked up in the morning. It was going to be good meal before for a walk in the park, 🏃 but after dinner I was tired and decided to sit out back and read for a while until it get dark 🔖 and then I went straight to bed. I’ve been so tired lately in evening, because I wake up so early. That said, most mornings I’m not pissing away, but instead after eating breakfast I will read or listen to a podcast — or jot down my thoughts while I watch the sun rise. 🌅
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:05 pm with sun having an altitude of 45.1° from the due south horizon (-25.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:24 pm with the sun in the west (262°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (268°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:01 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:29 pm, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the west-southwest (249°) at an altitude of 53° from the horizon, 233,320 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:02 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 58 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Tomorrow will have 11 hours and 59 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over today.
Tonight will have showers, mainly after 9pm. 🌧 Low of 47 degrees at 5am. 20 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 8th. East wind 3 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2023, we had light snow in the evening. It got down to 29 degrees. The record low of 1 occurred back in 1993.
I am going to bring my laptop home tonight, 👩💻 and will walk down to the library 📚 and work down there. I want to research a few more properties, plan out my exploring property from the backroads trip for the weekend, and look more at what options are out there for cabin kits and plans. 🛖 I keep learning more things and discovering more things I don’t know much about.
Today in 1900, the Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard. 🪙 Did that lead to inflation after it ended in the seventies? Pundits have debated that for decades but with the growing world economy it proved to be unworkable. It kind of had to fade away.
Weekend looks nice for March. ☀ Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 56. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph. Sunday, showers likely, mainly between 8am and 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Typical average high for the weekend is 45 degrees. If Easter wasn’t two weeks away and were things not during the fire season I’d love to have a night or two in the wilderness. Maybe it will rain and snow for Easter Weekend 🐰 but that’s still my best hope for getting out of town with the Good Friday holiday ☦️.
Looking ahead to next week next Thursday is First Day of Spring 💮 when the sun will be setting at 7:10 pm with dusk at 7:37 pm. On that day in 2023, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 59 and 24 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 47 degrees. We hit a record high of 78 back in 1921. Still looking about a month to a month and a half until a shit ton of black flies 🐜 and tulips 🌷 around. We’re still in the month of the manure spreaders. 💩
The past few years, I’ve been buying a lot of frozen fruit when I go grocery shopping. I really like the bulk bags of frozen fruit you can get at a place like Walmart and some other groceries stores that have 2-4 pounds of frozen fruit in the bag. Not only is frozen fruit good on waffles and pancakes for breakfast, it makes an excellent snack, and is very economical compared to ice cream, chips, candy and cookies.
I saw an advertisement for some kind of bulk junk food supplier the other day on Facebook and had to cringe. Not only was it relatively to expensive to buy those big boxes of junk food, I just saw all the packaging and trash they entailed compared to a single lightweight plastic wrapper around the bulk frozen fruit. And I couldn’t imagine that they would last nearly as frozen fruit, which the only part that has ever gone to waste is the occasional blueberry or strawberry chip that I dropped on the floor and was stepped on or otherwise too disgusting to eat.
Fresh fruit might be slightly tastier then frozen, but it tends to be a lot more expensive and a lot more goes to waste due to spoilage. Frozen fruit never spoils. And fresh fruit tends to be a lot more packaged, meaning a lot more trash. Maybe if I lived out in the country and had hogs, chickens and acreage where I could feed or compost the waste and burn the packaging, I’d feel different, but I generally avoid fresh fruit unless I get it at a farm stand in the summer and it eat up in woods where frozen goods can’t be kept frozen.
Nebraska Bridge is behind the Tionesta Storm Control Reservoir. Built before the reservoir. When water levels are high like in the spring, the bridge is submerged. As there is little current there, as it’s behind the dam, the bridge just gets wet and covered with branches sometimes. Water level drops, bridge reopens. Happened hundreds of times since dam built in 1940. Bridge built in 1933.
Upper Lisle Bridge
There is a similar bridge on Whitney Point Reservoir in New York. Under water part of the year above water in the summer and dry spells. The Whitney Point submerged bridge dates back to the 1880s. With little current, the bridge is unharmed by the slow rise and fall of water around it.
