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.
New office, new week, new position. I am rather excited but a bit nervous at the same time. Everybody says I’ll be a natural at it, data science is my kind of thing, and it’s not like I’m moving to a new company — just a new division out in suburbs. Catching the earlier bus in this morning, just because with the snow I don’t want to miss the transfer to the shuttle on my first day at the new position. Plus it gives me some time to walk in the Empire State Plaza.
Good morning! Happy Tuesday. While it wasn’t snowing earlier, the snow has started and there are 20 degrees at the Delmar, NY. ❄ Calm wind. So far there is a dusting of snow on the ground. ☃ In the mean time, we are in a bit of a cold spell, with things will start to thaw out next Monday around noontime. 🌡️ A decade or so ago, such weather was not uncommon in Albany, but in recent years periods below freezing for any length of time are quite unusual.
Today will snow. 🌨 High of 27 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees below normal. Light and variable wind becoming northeast around 6 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 34 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1995. 15.1 inches of snow fell back in 1945.❄
Just kind of a day with nuisance snow. ❄️ It’s what in years past you would expect from winter, but it’s become so rare, especially during this El Nino year. The flip side is that in like two weeks things on average start to warm, as the days start getting longer and the sun angle starts to rapidly increase. The flip side is that the past few years, we’ve actually had some of our coldest spells during early to mid-February, though when they end, there is usually a quick warm up. That said, it seems in recent years, while early winter is quite mild, February and March tend to roar more then you’d think they should from the historical statistics.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.4° from the due south horizon (-44.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:04 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (242°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:48 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 18 seconds with dusk around 5:18 pm, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (192°) at an altitude of 49° from the horizon, 227,437 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:54 pm. At sunset, look for snow 🌨 and temperatures around 26 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 7 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 30 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 42 seconds over today.
Yesterday, I went for a bike ride out to Voorheesville, 🚲 and while the rail trail had a dusting of snow and some ice, it really wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed the ride, though leaving the rail trail on exit ramp to the Kenwood Avenue, almost wiped out when my bike hit some black ice and I spun at least 90 degrees until I used the brakes to get to a controlled stop. Road around the village for a bit and then came home. Returned my library books. 📚 I’m sure I’ll get dinged and have to pay for the book that I damaged camping in early December, but I figure just bring them the $20 the next time I’m at the library. It happens some time.
Tonight will snow likely, mainly before 7pm. Mostly cloudy 🌨, with a low of 14 degrees at 5am. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical Maximum wind chill around 2 at 5am; Northwest wind 9 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than one 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 18 degrees. The record low of -23 occurred back in 1971.
Soup and fresh bread 🍲 🍞 have been baked for tonight after I get home. Bean soup with a lot of chili powder and cummin, so it’s basically a chilli like soup with carrots 🥕 and onions. Should be delicious. 😋
A cold weekend on tap. ⛅ 🌬 Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Blustery. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 25. Blustery. Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees.
Looking ahead, dairyman want you to know that, next Tuesday is National Cheese Lovers Day 🧀 when the sun will be setting at 4:58 pm with dusk at 5:27 pm. Cheese is wonderful but loaded with so much saturated fats, the omega-6 types, the less healthy stuff. But the calcium is good as is the taste. 😋 On that day in 2023, we had snow and temperatures between 34 and 30 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1906.
1) Making healthy eating a top priority, emphasing protein, fiber and essential vitamins by including fruits and vegetables in every meals while avoiding sugar and omega 6 fatty acids whenever possible
2) Going to bed every night at 9 pm and waking at 5 am and cooking breakfast and my meals for the day at 5 am
Really those are two of the most important things for mental health. Far more beneficial than any counseling I’ve ever done.
From time to time I like to share my thoughts about various states and whether or not I would consider living in them in the future. Iowa has been in the news a lot lately, and it’s one I’ve thought about but it’s not certainly on the top of my list, even though it has some things going for it.
Iowa is a rural state. The state is 19% larger then New York but has fewer then 3.2 million people, and most of them live in the cities. Many of the rural towns have only a few hundred people, with a majority of rural towns having fewer then 20 people per square mile. While certainly not a lot of people, there is a lot of hogs and cattle, to eat and turn all of the corn and soybeans produced into state into delicious meat and milk — and provide manure to fertilize the crops. The state produces over $27 billion in agriculture commodities yearly, far beyond the $5 billion that New York produces. It’s the leading producer of hogs, corn and other agriculture crops.
It’s a great state for wildlife and hunting, assuming you have land to hunt on — there isn’t a lot of public land in Iowa, much of the state’s land is privately owned. The state is home to some of the nation’s biggest bucks, best migratory bird hunting, great trapping opportunities along the lakes and woods. But at the same time, agriculture run-off and pollution is a growing concern, especially as federal conservation reserve program payments have lagged behind what can be gotten from commodity payments, and incentives are leaning increasingly towards tearing up fence lines, planting more, planting closer to waterway. Run-off causes algae blooms in creeks, it causes pesticides to run off, it causes soil erosion — and it’s an enormous problem facing the agriculture community — where people are just trying to make enough money to feed their families and pay back their land and equipment loans before the bank the takes the farm.
The lack of public lands in Iowa is probably one of the biggest downsides in my perspective. Even if I owned a fair bit of land, I think I would want to be able to visit public lands to hunt, fish, camp and explore. It’s good to have your piece of property and know it well and the wildlife that resides on it, but it’s also good to be able to travel to other public lands not that far from home. Change is good, and it kind of sucks to be wedded to one piece of land. Other mid-west states, like Missouri and Wisconsin which I have written about before offer much more public land, much of it federally owned and lightly regulated for public use and enjoyment.
Iowa certainly isn’t all flat, it’s hilly, but you won’t see the mountains there like you might see in the Adirondacks or the Appalachian mountains in West Virginia, or even the big Appalachian ridges in Pennsylvania. You probably don’t have to worry about sliding off a mountain road in the winter. But there certainly isn’t the wilderness areas to recreate or enjoy. That said, there is a lot of rural and remote country in Iowa, there are many towns that have only a few hundred people spread out over 36 square miles — population densities are outside of cities 20 persons per square mile or less.
I am sure as a rural state, taxes are pretty low and government is laid back. With many of the towns having a population fewer then 1,000 and many even far less, it’s a chance to know your neighbors and your community. Gun laws are probably superior to anything you’d fine back east, and you can do whatever you want with your property within reason. Outside of the cities in Iowa, out can shoot guns all day off your back porch, burn noxious smelling trash and debris (at least after dark), or do basically whatever you want in your backyard without bothering your neighbors or getting the cops called on you. Chances are outside of the cities, the code inspections aren’t vigorous, and probably there is a lot of opportunities to have a off-grid home in big parts of Iowa.
But I’m not sure what I would do for work if I were to move to Iowa. But I guess that’s true with many very desirable locations to live. They would be over-run with people if there were a lot of jobs. Also the lack of significant public lands is a big no for me, and the winters are still pretty cold and icy there. Ultimately, I am not really sure if it would be an improvement over living in New York.
If I lived in rural Iowa 🐄 and got a mailer from one of the democrats promoting gun control 🔫 I’d probably save it…
And use it to toss behind the cows in the barn for bedding and absorbing up the pee and poop to be later spread with the manure spreader, 🐮 ormaybe…
Toss it out in the hog barn, let the hogs root around in it, shredding it into the mud and muck, 🐷 ormaybe…
Tape it up to an old politician’s lawn signs, use it for patterning your shotgun or plinking with your 22, 🔫 and then maybe…
Save it for using to light the farm garbage pit. Dip it diesel or old motor oil, light it up, drop it in the pit. Let it burn! 🔥
Now that’s what I call recycling, ♻ although honestly most political mailers I get these days really don’t compost well 🥝 or even burn well 🚒 because they are glossy, coated with plastic and contain a lot of clay in the paper mix. 🤔Many urban paper programs take them for recycling but even then I doubt they’re very good for recovery.
Climate change, political unrest, random violence: modern society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls “a thin layer of ice on top of an ocean of chaos and darkness.” In the United States, polls indicate that many people believe law and order is the only thing protecting us from the savagery of our neighbors. This idea is often called “veneer theory.” But is it true?
How does America train its youth to hate African Americans?
Turn your color television and watch the local evening news. Count how many times they show a mug shot of an “accused” drug dealer, rapist or murder featuring a black man.
