Rattlesnake Hill WMA

The Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area is a 5,100 acre upland tract, situated approximately eight miles west of Dansville, New York. Roughly two-thirds of the area lies in southern Livingston County, while the remaining third lies in northern Allegany County. The tract was purchased in the 1930’s under the Federal Resettlement Administration and is one of several such areas turned over to DEC for development as a wildlife management area.

The area is appropriately named after the Timber Rattlesnake, which may be occasionally found in the more remote sections of the “Hill”.

The area offers an interesting blend of upland habitats such as mature woodland, overgrown fields, conifer plantations, old growth apple orchards and open meadows.

The area is inhabited by a variety of game species and is open to public hunting. The white-tailed deer, wild turkey, ruffed grouse, grey squirrel, cottontail rabbit and woodcock are found on the area. An occasional snowshoe hare may be observed adjacent to thick creek bottom brush or conifer plantation habitats.

A number of small marsh units have been developed and provide limited hunting for waterfowl. Some of the area’s furbearing species such as mink, beaver and raccoon may be occasionally viewed at these marsh units.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/24443.html

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Looks like we’re also going to miss this snow storm. 🌨

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Maybe they’ll be some snow. I’m going to try to ride in early this morning on my bike but it depends how slick the trail gets and how much snow comes down in the morning squall. The alternative I guess is to head in early and walk laps at the Empire State Plaza.

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Cloudy and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a north breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at around 8 am. 🌡️

Up at five o’clock, no I don’t use an alarm ⏰ clock. My body just naturally wakes up at that hour as I go to bed 🛏 early. Decided to do eggs 🥚 with broccoli 🥦 and spinach along with some leftover ham 🐽 that I had in my fridge. Plus some mango. 🍍 A bit of coffee ☕ but I’m cutting back as I had to pee 🚻 all day yesterday. Last night was salmon and broccoli. Went for the evening walk 🚶 and read 📖 more of Paved Paradise, How Parking has Defined the World on the Libby app. Trying to do more reading again.

Today will have a slight chance of snow between 7am and 11am. Cloudy 🌨, with a high of 39 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 25th. North wind 7 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 58 was set in 1900. 9.0 inches of snow fell back in 1893.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:11 pm with sun having an altitude of 33.9° from the due south horizon (-36.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:44 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (246°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (253°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:24 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 3 seconds with dusk around 5:52 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the southwest (232°) at an altitude of 43° from the horizon, 228,076 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:27 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 37 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 10 mph. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 34 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 40 seconds over today.

Tonight will have a chance of snow showers, mainly between midnight and 2am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 1st. West wind 7 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 30 degrees. The record low of -13 occurred back in 2016.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 32. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 34. Typical average high for the weekend is 36 degrees.

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until Last Day of Winter 🏂 when the sun will be setting at 7:08 pm with dusk at 7:35 pm (Daylight Savings Time). On that day in 2023, we had partly sunny, snow showers and temperatures between 33 and 22 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 46 degrees. We hit a record high of 78 back in 2012.

Sunny and cold

Libby is helping me rediscover my love of reading 📖

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Libby is a free application for your phone that allows you to borrow e-books and audio books from your local library. You install the app, enter in your library card number and it allows you to download the book to your phone for two weeks.

While not every book is available on it and some popular titles may be checked out, it is pretty amazing. The books are nicely formatted for your screen, it is portable and you don’t have to worry about the books getting wet or having to return them to the library. As the books are downloaded to the phone, you don’t need cell service to read them, they read just fine in camping the remote Adirondacks or in a deep hollow in Schoharie County.

I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading in part because it’s such a pain to lug a bunch of books around and you end up with a big stack of library books that end up sitting on the shelf. But your phone is small and you carry it everywhere, and not only does it provide the reading material it also has your music and apps.

Ask a Biden Supporter, Biden’s Going to Lose

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Lately I’ve been hearing from many Joe Biden supporters on how they profusely hate Donald Trump, at the same time seem to have adopted most of his views based on what they are hearing in the news. From supposed Joe Biden supporters , I hear about the illegals pouring over the border, how bail reform is ruining our state, crime is out of control, and how Joe Biden is too old, frail and elderly to be in the White House. But I’m told he’s somehow he’s better then his obnoxious, 96-count felon opponent, Donald Trump.

It’s a big problem for Democrats when the media has ground into the public’s mind that Joe Biden is a failure, an aloof old man who doesn’t get today’s concerns. People might not like Donald Trump’s style or some of his positions, but if your believing most of his rhetoric, then it’s hard to be an enthusiastic Joe Biden supporter. The media still digs Donald Trump and his narrative because it’s dramatic and sells a lot of newspaper and television advertising. For them, it’s not about policy, but just making a lot of profit.

I don’t know how we turn the tide on the anti-Joe Biden narrative that has come to overtake the political debate in recent weeks. It’s just so profitable for the corporations to tell a bad story about the nation. Not to mention, a lot of corporations want Donald Trump back in the White House, to cut regulation and taxes. Joe Biden, despite being the incumbent, in many ways is the underdog in his rematch with Donald Trump — despite all the legal challenges and problems the former President faces.

One more nice day before the snow 🌞

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Monday, Monday. Riding to work and enjoying it before the snow comes and takes over the land again during this mid-February Valentine’s Day Week. Then a three-day weekend, though it might be cool and snowy so who knows about Madison County come Friday.

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Cloudy and at the freezing point in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Going to warm up as the day progresses, with the skies clearing around noontime. Not a terrible day ahead, though the morning will be cloudier and tomorrow will snow.

Oatmeal pancakes with shredded orange 🥞 🍊 made for a delicious 😋 start to the morning today. Topped with lots of blueberries I will note. 🫐 I know I’m waiting for the inevitable blood sugar crash 📉 though I’m hopeful that the protein in the egg plus the mixture of oatmeal, shredded orange including the peel and whole 🌾 flour will help slow the crash. Didn’t use any maple 🍁 syrup today, the blueberries were plenty of sugar, lol. 😂

I figure today’s the day to ride to work if any day this week. 🚲 👉 🌨 Tomorrow is going to be quite snowy, so it will be back to busing it back and forth to work. 🚵‍♀️ And after the snow tomorrow, the rail trail will be likely impassable for several days, ⛄ and while I could take Corning’s Hill and South Pearl to work, it’s going to be cold plus the shoulder of the South Pearl near the Port is a muddy rough mess. Not to mention, Wednesday looks like it will be quite cold. ❄️ I do need to call the bike shop and ask about a tune up for the bike 👩‍🔧 and getting those gears really tight and working well before spring comes and appointments with the bike mechanic get really hard to get. As I ride my bike nearly every day, I want to keep it running in top condition.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 42 degrees at 2pm. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 6th. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 47 degrees. The record high of 55 was set in 1932. 13.5 inches of snow fell back in 1988.❄

On the way in, I got to stop at Hannaford ❤️ 🍬 and get some candy to hand out in the office for Valentines’ Day. As the director now, I have to make sure I have little trinkets to give away for holidays and special occasions to reward staff. 🎁 Nice little gestures. I know that’s what they did for years when I was just staff and deputy management, but being I’m now the big man in town, I got to make sure to plan to do such things going forward. 🎂 Also need to look up my staff’s birthdays and make sure to have cake or cookies for each of their birthdays. Figure I should budget about $20 a month for that. Even if I don’t eat cake and sweets anymore, I know a lot of people like that kind of thing. 🍪 It’s a nice gesture and important for a successful office.

Been exploring more of the free resources of the Bethlehem Public Library, 📚 namely E-Books borrowing using the Libby app that let’s you read 📖 and listen to audio books for free on your phone or Kindle if you have such technology. Mom was going to give me her old Kindle but I struggled to understand how the technology works 📲 and after cussing it out 🤬 I think it might be too old of a model. At any rate, I think it easier to read E-Books on my phone with the Libby app which saves them on the phone so I can use it offline in the remote Adirondack country. That said, I’ll probably use the audio books even more 📼 as I can listen while riding my bike 🚲 or by the campfire 🔥. I figure with my taxes so damn high, I best use every free government service out there – be it the state forests, free guided hikes, lectures, nature bus, bike trails etc.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:11 pm with sun having an altitude of 33.6° from the due south horizon (-37.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:43 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (245°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (252°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:23 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 3 seconds with dusk around 5:51 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-southwest (238°) at an altitude of 30° from the horizon, 226,878 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:25 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 31 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over today.

Groceries were another $120 this week, 🤯 which is more pain on the budget, but I did also buy some more loaf pans and knife sharpener. Eating all those fresh fruit and vegetables really adds up. 🍎 And it’s not like things are going to waste, 🚯 by the end of last week my freezer was mostly empty except for camping ice, but between inflation and everything else it adds up. Sunday night dinner was a really nice tomato 🍅 bean soup with the family 👪, I made some of my onion🧅 and carrot bread 🥕 to share. Took home leftovers, been slowly but surely eating up what’s in the freezer in an effort to cut my grocery costs. 🛒 Inflation sucks and I make good money 💵 these days but it doesn’t go very far anymore. Maybe it’s because I’m so committed to saving and investing in my future, 🔮 but I find it hard to make ends meet during these inflationary times.

I don’t even want to think about my $530 car insurance bill due the end of March or my taxes 🏦 which I haven’t started yet. I’ve been withholding extra out of each paycheck, 📂 which I’m hoping will help ensure I don’t owe a shit ton come April 15th. I got to figure out which service to use — I’ll probably use a Free-file site for my federal taxes, then copy that information onto a state tax form, and mail it in like I did last year. Hopefully not mess it up this time, and get a letter from State Tax Department. I hate filing taxes, especially when the government already knows how much money I make 🔍 as they get copies of my tax documents from my employers, banks, and vendors already. Thanks tax-vendor-software lobbyists and corporations. 🕴Life has gotten so damn expensive these days.

Tonight will have a chance of snow, mainly after 4am. Increasing clouds 🌨, with a low of 30 degrees at 5am. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 27th. North wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 24 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1875.

Yeah, I got to turn the heat back on tonight. ♨️ It’s been nice the few days with the heat off and the windows open. No electric blanket use either. I’ve been using the electric blanket a lot more this year, but not he past few nights. My electric bill has come down somewhat, 🔌 as I’ve not made as many soups and beans on the stove top, and have been making sure my oven is fully packed 🍞 when baking bread, to get as many meals as possible out of each time things are cooking in the oven. I like cooking 👨‍🍳 but it can get pricey at times buying those whole-food type ingredients, which really can be a lot more expensive when added up then the packaged processed crap I used to buy a lot more of when I was fat. 🤰

Hopefully now with that cable I bailed out from the post office 🔌 ⌨ I’ll be able to use that USB switch I bought two weeks ago, to switch between my laptop and work PC seemlessly when I get into the office. Otherwise I’m out $17 and a lot of aggravation, but it seems like the switch is working well when I tried it with the one cable it originally came with and the second cable I bailed out due to insufficient postage by the seller seems to be working fine. We’ll see when I get to the office this morning I guess. 🏢 That and tinkering with the gears ⚙ on my bike has been so much aggravation over the past two weeks. At least lately I’ve not been having problems with the smoke alarm 👩‍🚒 repeatably going off. The warm weather over the weekend has allowed me to have the windows open and clear out some of the cooking smoke and moisture from my dumpy apartment.

Cool with times of sun for President’s Day. ⛅ Saturday, a chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 32. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 34. President’s Day, partly cloudy, with a high near 42. Typical average high for the weekend is 36 degrees.

As previously noted, next Monday is Presidents Day 👴 when the sun will be setting at 5:33 pm with dusk at 6:00 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly cloudy and temperatures between 47 and 23 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 37 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1981.

I’d like to get out of town for President’s Day 🏕 but the weather doesn’t look great. I was thinking about taking a half day off on Friday to head out to Brookfield and Charles Baker Horse Camp 🐴 for the long weekend, but now it’s looking like lake effect snow on Friday, and there is now way in hell I’m going to do the hills around Brookfield in the snow. I’ve dealt with those roads in the past, and they’re not well plowed, as Madison County primarily uses just sand and not salt, and some of those hills can be quite icy. That said, things could change before the weekend, so I’ll keep it in mind.

Riverfront House

Federal infrastructure spending is very inflationary

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Politicians on the right are quick to point out how inflationary government hand outs are to people in need. While there may be some truth to that, in the sense it could promote immediate spending that would not otherwise spent, a bigger driver of inflation is hand-outs in the form of federal infrastructure spending.

During times of recession, a little bit of inflationary pressure can put people back to work. But when the economy is as strong as it currently is, additional federal infrastructure spending leads to inflation. Federal-funded projects enable cash-strapped states and municipalities to engage in projects they would not otherwise engage in, often with strings attached that cause projects to be built that would not otherwise be built — in ways that would not be built if the local government was in the driver seat.

The most anti-inflationary form of infrastructure spending is unrestricted aid to localities from states and federal government. But once you start tying conditions to projects, you start to encourage unnecessary and unwise projects. While politicians are unwilling to hand over money without strings attached in fear it will be wasted or spent in unintended ways, the most efficient way to allocate public resources to hand it out without restrictions.

However, ultimately the best way to ensure wise use of public dollars is for federal government to cut back on handouts to states and localities. Let local taxing authorities decide what projects are right for them, and make them pay the full cost of projects. This would shrink the amount of infrastructure being built, and lead to more right-sizing of government. When governments pay the full-cost of projects, they are far less likely to act in frivolous ways, even in a time like now when public coffers are flush.

It’s not to say there isn’t a time for stimulus during recession, and in some cases only the federal government has the resources to help relatively poor parts of the country, with the federal government’s broad tax base. But the federal government’s largess should be seen as mostly inflationary and distorting of local choices, by offering money for projects that would otherwise not be funded due to a lack of public demand or true public need.

All good things must come to an end 🌞

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I mean you can’t have that many days in early to mid February that are in the 60s. Tomorrow after work, I’ll have to turn the heat back on and probably start using the electric blanket again. I’m not sad, I’m just glad we had a break of spring weather. And it’s not like today or tomorrow is going to be real cold. Tuesday snow, but at this point it’s five weeks until calendar spring, and depending on how mild spring is, we could be as close as two months away from the green-up at least in the city. Maybe earlier if you are talking about the invasive, that is you, multi-flora rose that I’m talking about.

Good morning! Mostly cloudy and 40 degrees in the Delmar. ☁ There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. It was nice walking to the store to get moo juice this morning for the coffee. ☕ 🐮 Spring must be coming, I could smell that tangy smell of them spreading the shit 💩 while I was riding in on Friday as I was heading into the Normans Kill Gorge. Soon enough to become silage and hay, fed and become that juice that makes that coffee so awesome. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 11 pm. ☃️

Today will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 44 degrees at 2pm. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 12th. Northwest wind 9 to 11 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 38 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1981. 9.6 inches of snow fell back in 1933.❄

The big thing for Sunday is to get to the grocery store 🛒 and get stocked up for the week that is to be. One thing to consider is if I’ll be getting out of town for the upcoming President’s Day Weekend. 🏕 I have crazy thoughts 🤪 about taking a half day on Friday and heading out to Madison County for a three-day weekend. 🌨 It all depends on the weather and if we get a lot of snow, or at least if the fine folk of Mad Co. New Yak have too much snow for me to access the horse camp. 🐴 It’s not like I didn’t spend last year’s Presidents Day at the horse camp. It was fun. I know more money bleeding out of my budget 🔴 after shopping. But having apples and vegetables are so important to living the good life, 🍎 🥦 so I better get to the store before it’s picked over and packed like is the case most Sunday’s after a while.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:11 pm with sun having an altitude of 33.2° from the due south horizon (-37.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 9.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:42 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (245°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (252°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:22 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 5:50 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-southwest (243°) at an altitude of 17° from the horizon, 226,323 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:24 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 41 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 26 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 35 seconds over yesterday.

I am thinking about doing an afternoon hike up Bennett Hill 🏃 while the weather is still nice, and going out to see the family. 🍞 I baked bread, and we’re going to have soup 🍲. Should be a nice afternoon. Then it’s back to work tomorrow. I plan to ride to work tomorrow 🚲, getting one more day of riding before snow makes the bike trail impassible, 🌨 though I could always take South Pearl Street and Corning’s Hill, though I hate how rough South Pearl is by the Port of Albany with all that traffic. 🚚🚚🚚🚚

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 28 degrees at 3am. 11 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 21st. Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph. In 2023, we had clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 23 degrees. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1979.

Looking ahead, next Sunday is 6 PM Dusk 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 5:31 pm. Yeah! That means after that day, if the rail trail is free of snow I can ride home from work. 🚲 Of course, with the common late February and big March snow storms, that’s hardly a guarantee. But spring will come, or so I tell myself. 🌺 At least the multi-flora rose will pretend it’s spring, to crowd out all of the native species. 🤣 On that day in 2023, we had mostly sunny, snow showers and temperatures between 40 and 19 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 37 degrees. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1981.

Empire Plaza

The Unabomber’s mistake — being political

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Political leaders and change makers are held to such high regards in our society. People who don’t observe, but take action are considered to be our nation’s heroes. Yet not every problem needs to be solved by every person, and most people can’t solve most of the problems of the world. Indeed, most political advocates and leaders fail, their changes rejected or trivial — their messages, concerns and warnings lost in the static.

The truth is you don’t have to be out in front of every crisis facing our nation — or even your little town and community. You don’t have to be a hero. It’s safe to make note of a problem, quietly point out a serious concern, note the statistics and likely outcomes, without being out on the streets fighting against evil. You can accept a little evil, look the other way.

As I say much these days, “If you can’t save the world, at least save yourself.”

Too many political people become martyrs with too little to show for it. It’s rare to find people as successful as Nelson Mandela. Most people like him, with just as much conviction, fighting so hard for what is good and right, get rewarded only be a jail cell or the loss of their lives. When you know you have little chance of stopping evil in the world, it’s best to just look away, and do what you can in your little part of the world to avoid participating in evil.

It’s pretty clear that folks like Ted Kaczynski are really smart and have good ideas. But they ruined their life by fighting for those ideas. He would have been much better off if he had stayed in his Montana cabin, keenly observing what was going on in the world around him, while not participating in it to the greatest extent possible. He couldn’t — and would inevitably fail — at stopping so much of the evil of the modern world — but he could have taken care of himself, protected himself from the evil around him and withdrew from as much of the evil as possible.

It’s alarming how when you watch the news, you are constantly bombarded with supposed heroes like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, or a million different government workers like cops and politicians. The message is constantly reinforced that they went above and beyond, how they made the world a better place. Indeed they did, but at a high personal cost to themselves. Those changes needed to be made, but it came at an incredibly high cost to their own lives. I for one, don’t want to end up in a jail cell or with a bullet in my back, just because I believe something is right or wrong. I’m quiet happy to look the other way, and look inward, towards being a better person in my own life, while not saving the world.

Change needs to happen. But not every person needs to be a change agent, and unless you have a damn good strategy and a lot of luck, chances are you’re not going to be a successful agent of change. But maybe you shouldn’t be. Maybe you should instead focus on your own life, saving yourself and not your country.