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.
You know I was thinking a bit about what I really crave — that small town feeling, the kind you get when you are in “deep rural” beyond the commuting distance of the nearest big city. Isolated, away from the problems of the big urban city. It’s possible to get “out in the country” and live in a rural area but until your past that 30 mile mark from downtown, it really doesn’t feel particularly special or unique.
The problem with the Albany metropolitan area is it’s an area of 1.1 million people. You have to get pretty far out before you’re not essentially in the suburb of Albany. While you have rural land not too far from the south-east or west, a lot of it is residential commuters back to city until you get pretty far out. It’s suburban housing between the farms and houses for much of the rural areas not far from the city.
I can travel to many of those small towns, and it’s fun to vacation there, but I do wish I could live in a place like one of those little towns. I just need to figure out how to get from where I am now to there, so I can have feeling every day.
Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans! Doesn’t have to taste bad – you just need to experiment with spices and cooking it appropriately. After a few months, eating things without much fiber becomes so bland and uninteresting as you grow to love food with texture and structure! Chewing is good.
The other day I had a piece of white bread – yuck when you’re not used to eating things like that. I want my food to have flavor and texture!
People talk about smoothies with all that added sugar being good. I guess in fifty years when I’m in the nursing home in my last few hours on a feeding tube they’ll be good but I’ll have an apple or carrot today while I still have teeth.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” ~ First Amendment of the United States Constitution
Just think of all that mud everywhere. When I was younger and more foolish that was a lot of fun in my little Ford Ranger and then my big jacked up truck. Now I’m more worried about getting said Big Jacked Up truck stuck in said mud. I don’t think I’ll be riding in on Monday but maybe Tuesday will be okay if I don’t blow away.
Yesterday was a stay home day, 🍞 baked bread and made black beans. That homemade bread did not last long though, it was pretty good. Beans I’m being a bit more careful on those I’ve cooked them up a couple of ways and I’ll probably freeze some this morning. Did some reading and watching of Youtube. I wanted to go to the library yesterday but it rained and then rained some more yesterday, usually pouring about the time I thought about going out.
Today I’m thinking about heading down to the library. Just to work on the laptop and then I’ll head out to folks house for Sunday dinner. Maybe next weekend I’ll finally get out of town, though it still like rain through next weekend. I swear every forecast for a future weekend the double the forecasted rain amount. Then it turns out not to be. Maybe I just got to suck it up, ignore the forecast and make sure to bring lots of tarps and sit by the heater int he rain.
It’s super nice, with a view of the mountains and nine acres of land. I am jealous because the parcel I grew up on was only 4.9 acres and the neighbors were a lot closer it seems. It also makes me kind of happy to think things like this still exist in the world, because $150,000 isn’t a lot of money in these inflationary times, and I could if I decided to sell of some stock go out and buy something similar, if I so wanted today.
To be sure it’s more of a large hunting cabin then a house, and it’s electrically heated and not far from the road. But it shows what kind of deals once can get if you out there and looking — he apparently snapped it up from the man that was selling the first day it went on the market. Plus Schoharie County has been bleeding population ever since Summit Shock Correctional closed — nearly one out ten people have left the county since then. But it’s a reminder of what’s out there if you are looking.
It really gives me hope that there is a tomorrow, and some day I will be able to afford my own land, preferably with cash and no borrowing costs. And that the only choice need not be suburbia with neighbors right next door, looking down on your redneckery. Seems like there is a bright future ahead, and if I want to leave way out in the sticks, there are eventually very affordable options out there if you know what your looking for. And if you keep it simple, and it’s paid with cash, rural living can be affordable and possible.
I am opposed to wilderness areas and public parks because I believe they overly restrict public use of public lands, banning many uses of public lands and restricting public access to the lands that were purchased for taxpayer dollars. Parks and wilderness areas are opposite sides of coin – intensively developed or preserved lands that limit public use and enjoyment. Many public uses are restricted in parks or require payment of fees, while other public uses are banned in wilderness areas. Wilderness areas and parks are de-funded lands, that provide no useful materials to mankind to cover the cost of their administration and maintenance (unless of course they charge user fees).
Opposition to wilderness and public parks does not mean opposition to public lands or public use of lands. Nor does mean that one is pro-development or primarily concerned with the extraction of timber or mineral resources. Wilderness and parks opposition in contrast stands in support of sustainable use of public lands, one that sees a role in the state actively managing the land for a wide variety of primitive, rustic uses of the land.
In opposition to wilderness and parks, I support multiple use of public lands as implemented in our National Forests and State Forests. As Gifford Pinchot would say, “the greatest good, for the greatest number of people, over the greatest amount of time.” Well-managed forests can not only provide timber in support of the wood products and paper industries, it can provide multi-successional growth to produce a diverse and healthy forest habitat. Cows can keep fields open and habitat for birds and wildlife. Oil and gas wells that are properly regulated can provide an immense amount of wealth to government land managers that can invest it back into the land, building things like trails, roads and bridges. Natural resources harvested from the land are much like advertisements on commercial television — necessary to keep the free service up and running.
Public lands should be free, wild and rustic in character. While public use should be encouraged, our forests should not become developed parks. Forest roads should be dirt, campsites should be spread out and lightly developed – no more then a fire ring, a picnic table, and a pit privy. Let users bring their own equipment and set it up as they like. If they want to shoot guns, play loud music, have bonfires, knock down some cold ones, all the more power to them – as long as they restore the land to how they found it when they got there. Trails should be lightly developed, maintained to limit mud and provide reasonable crossings across rivers, using bridges made out of wood or darkly painted steel. Signs should be limited and of rustic character. Boat launches should be gravel with no extensively developed features.
Forest infrastructure should be designed to discourage people from aggregating in any one particular area, even if certain vistas or natural features may be naturally attractive for people. Spreading out campsites and providing a variety of trail routes is one to keep farther apart to protect the wilderness character. Different roads can provide different places to explore and the people should be educated about different options to explore. At the same time, by limiting infrastructure to dirt roads, limiting signege and promotion of land, it can keep public use down to a sustainable level. By limiting infrastructure and implementing sustainable harvests of natural resources, public lands can remain funded and free for public use.
Read the sign at my elementary schools nurse. Chubby old Miss. Warga, bless her soul. It was one of those days I cursed and swore my day through though it was all stupid shit.
Just to work on the laptop and then I’ll head out to folks house for Sunday dinner. 
Maybe next weekend I’ll finally get out of town, though it still like rain through next weekend. I swear every forecast for a future weekend the double the forecasted rain amount. Then it turns out not to be. Maybe I just got to suck it up, ignore the forecast and make sure to bring lots of tarps and sit by the heater int he rain.
