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

Show Only ...
Maps - Photos - Videos

It’s going to get hot out later ☀

|

Those lazy, hazy crazy days of summer are here minus maybe the hot dogs, pretzels and beer. Time is marching on the world changes in your forties.

Good morning! Happy Hot Thursday. To be predicted, it’s the hottest time of the year. Mostly sunny 😎with fog 🌫 around and 69 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. The dew point is 67 degrees. The muggy weather ends Wednesday around 7 pm. 😓

Another hot summer day ahead 🏖 though I’ll be spending it my air conditioned office and usually it will be cooling down by evening when I get home. Out for the morning walk before it gets too hot out. 10 1/2 miles walked yesterday, climbed up and down 36 flights of stairs in the office as usual.

Red kidney are cooking down in the kitchen, 🍲 they will be good with maple 🍁 syrup in the evening when it’s hot out. I got fresh blueberries at the farmers market which where $7 which seems much too expensive but inflation. 🔵 I’m running low on food and supplies but I don’t know what I want to buy and eat with the heat. 🛒 Next time I go shopping, I do want to get some freezer bags, as they’re good for freezing rice and also things like black beans for compact carrying while camping. They can be reused a few times too.

This morning I’m thinking just black coffee ☕ cream of wheat with the fresh blueberries for breakfast 🥣. I do need to get milk 🥛 as what I have in the refrigerator has spoiled. But not this morning. I’m also out of cottage cheese and Greek yogurt and frozen fruit.

Yesterday’s meals where too bland. Too much kale and brown rice. 🍚 Easy and healthy but bleh. Makes it easy and healthy but not so easy to keep on the diet going forward. I was really into kale for a while eating multiple pounds of week, but I’m getting tired of it, much like the tofu. Today I am doing chicken, peas, corn, black beans and red peppers for lunch. Pre-cooked shrimp 🦐 are thawing in the fridge, I’m going to mix with the brown rice and tomatoes for dinner and have red kidney beans with maple syrup for dessert. I put chickpeas in the fridge for soaking, I’ll either roast them to toss in with fresh blueberries, strawberries and raspberries with walnuts with a snack. Walnuts are good but loaded with fat, though at least it has a decent ratio of Omega 3. I might also make hummus, which I’ll either need to get tahini or sesame seeds to cook up.

Today will be sunny and hot ☀ , with a high of 91 degrees at 2pm. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 71 at 9am. Heat index values as high as 95. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1886.

As I’m back on the Trek FX 2 bicycle as my choice, I might try to get up to the Downtube to talk to them about potentially buying that bicycle 🚲 and doing a test ride. I’m getting tired of studying the pros and cons of bicycles and want to commit sooner than later so I can take delivery of the bike and finally be on the road, both for commuting and getting around town. I want to break the bicycle in well before heading out to the Finger Lakes in three weeks. An additional expense I overlooked was a good quality U-lock that resists bolt cutters ✂️ which is going to add $75-100 go the cost, but I might be better off getting that on the internet rather than at the bike shop. I also want to get a rear luggage rack so I can tie a small milk crate style storage containers for keeping lunch and supplies on me when doing day trips on the bicycle 🚲 in the Finger Lakes. 💸 Looking at around or maybe slightly below $50 for that. Then another under $50 for the combination of buying a very basic digit speedometer / odometers and lights both for safety and do night riding in the National Forest after watching the sun set. 🌇

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.1° from the due south horizon (-0.7° vs. 6/21). The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:54 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (303°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 9:10 pm, which is 19 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:56 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 82 degrees. The dew point will be 69 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 14 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 57 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃 , with a low of 68 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 69 at 7pm. South wind 5 to 7 mph. Another sticky night sleeping 😴 with the fan roaring. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 58 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1979.

On this day in 1947, The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union. Even after almost seven decades, the model and its variants remain the most popular and widely used assault rifles in the world 🪖 because of their substantial reliability under harsh conditions, low production costs compared to contemporary Western weapons, availability in virtually every geographic region and ease of use. ⚔ I bet it would be fun to own one someday, in a freer state when I own my own land. Probably fun for ventilating a burn barrel, lol.

A hot summer weekend ahead. 🏖 Saturday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 69 at 9am. Sunday, a chance of showers, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Maximum dew point of 70 at 10am. Typical average high for the weekend is 84 degrees.

That said, maybe not the nicest weekend ever especially Sunday with the clouds. 🤷‍♂️ One more weekend to decide and acquire a bicycle 🚲 then hopefully get out camping 🏕 the following weekend after my dentist appointment 🦷 assuming that the weather is decent. I’m thinking Schoharie County, the Mine Kill Pool, the Catskill Scenic Trail from Grand Gorge to Stamford it maybe even beyond there. 🚲 Also maybe on the Saturday bike from Old Blenheim Bridge up and over Bear Ladder Road 🐻 then down to Fultonhsm by Shauls to get ice cream. 🍦 If I have the rack on the bicycle by then not only can I carry lunch but also get some veggies. If not both of these things are good for the following week or after summer vacation. 🏖 Pool closes Labor Day but the best bicycling and farm stand finds are certainly in September and October. 🎃

Summer vacation starts Friday July 29th 🏖 with plans to head straight out to the Finger Lakes National Forest and set up camp ⛺ by noon time. Then have all afternoon to unpack and do a nice bicycle 🚲 ride and enjoy the afternoon from the forest maybe with some fishing 🎣 and a sunset 🌇 to a start things off. Watkins Glen on Saturday to paddle and swim 🏊‍♂️, though I may want to get to the park 🏞 early to ensure parking 🅿.

Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Ugly Truck Day 🚚 when the sun will be setting at 8:29 pm with dusk at 9:01 pm. On that day in 2022, we had hot, humid, mostly sunny, thunderstorm and temperatures between 97 and 72 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 84 degrees. We hit a record high of 97 back in 1991.

Wildflowers Along Cascade Lake

A three day work week after the four day weekend 🎇

|

Most of the booms last night weren’t fireworks but the thunderstorms that came rolling through that got me a bit wet heading down Bennett Hill but wasn’t the terribly violent storms they predicted from the radar. Odd how they pushed south from the north.

Good morning! Mostly foggy 🌁 and 63 degrees in Delmar for the morning walk 🚶. Calm wind. It’s foggy a with a dew point of 63 degrees. The air quality is a moderate 55.

Normally we’d call today Hump Day 🐫 but it’s more of psudeo Monday as the work week is ahead. Should be a quiet three 3⃣ day week, the other director is on vacation but so is a lot of staff and the work load light. The past few days have been very hot and lazy at home, 🏡 it’s tough to get up and going. 18 flights of stairs await me to climb at my office 🏢. While I do worry having eggs this morning after a hamburger 🍔 on the forth means I’ll be over on the saturated fats, eggs 🍳 have loads of protein and it’s good as I will include about two cups of ground spinach, plus tomatoes 🍅, peppers and onions plus maybe mix in some cottage cheese for even more protein. Walked 🚶 7.8 miles yesterday.

Today will have fog before 7am. Otherwise, sunny and hot 🌞, with a high of 90 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 70 at 10am. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 7 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had rain in the morning, which became rain by afternoon. It became sticky as the day progressed. The high last year was 74 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1919.

Yesterday was fun, spent some time with the folks before climbing Bennett Hill and getting chased down it ⛈ when a sort of freak thunderstorm pushed down from the north, lighting the radar up with a dense red cell heading right towards me. I was hoping to watch the canceled Albany State Plaza fireworks 🎇 from the hill and all the unofficial ones people were lighting off in their backyards but not during a severe electrical storm with hail, torrential downpours, strong winds. 🍃 I stayed up top for a while but hearing thunder ⚡ and seeing lightening I rushed down the hill only getting a little wet 💧 by the time I reached my truck. It rained somewhat hard on my drive home and the underpass on 443 was fairly flooded but no hail and I made it home safely, spending the last 15 minutes of the storm watching it from my truck. 🛻

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.2° from the due south horizon (-0.6° vs. 6/21). The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:54 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (303°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 9:10 pm, which is 16 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:56 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 83 degrees. The dew point will be 68 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 15 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 53 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 68 degrees at 4am. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 69 at 9pm. Last night was pretty sticky, so will tonight be. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 63 degrees. The record low of 47 occurred back in 1962.

On this day in 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton imposes trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. ⚔ 25 years later and a few trillion spent not sure we have a lot to show for it besides bass boats for military contractors, a bunch of dead and injured Americans and Muslims rounded up in racist prosecution. It was pretty bad but then the American government doesn’t have that good reputation of treating Americans fairly, remember COINTELPRO and before that the Red Scare. Old J. Edgar Hoover might be long gone, but his agency sticks around.

Hot and summer like for the weekend. 😎 More clouds for Sunday then Saturday but that’s getting ahead of myself. Saturday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 87. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Maximum dew point of 67 at 8pm. Sunday, a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Maximum dew point of 68 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 84 degrees.

It truthfully would be a great weekend to spend out in Schoharie 🏕 at the Mine Kill Pool but I really want to figure out the bicycle thing this weekend. 🚲 I think I am really zeroing in the bicycle I want, a place where I can pay and take delivery potentially as soon as Saturday, so I could be back out on the road as soon as Saturday afternoon or maybe Sunday. I may end up having to drive down Hudson to take delivery of the bicycle but I could combine that with some beach time at Lake Taghkanic or ride some of the Albany Hudson Electric Trail. Or maybe some of both?

One month 📅 from now will be Work Like a Dog Day 🐩 when the sun will be setting at 8:12 pm with dusk at 8:42 pm. I bet, in August. Maybe more like nap like a dog day. 🐶

Bridge

I’m now looking a Trek bicycle 🚲

|

I’m tired of my clunker and the endless rebuild. One step forward and there’s always more to do. Been surveying bicycles I see actually being ridden in town and on the bike paths…

I’ve looked at a lot of different makes and models, increasingly thinking Trek Dual Sport 2 as I want somewhat beefer wheels and tires for riding gravel and dirt roads but also be reasonably good for commuting around town and bicycle paths.

I had looked at urban bikes like the Trek FX 2 and the comfort Jamis Citizen 2, though I found the Citizen to be super walllowy – more comfortable than my bed at home but mad heavy and I think I want thicker and more aggressive tires then what the FX has.

I just want something not for jumping tree trunks but is reasonably good on gravel and dirt without being too much of a pig for bike paths and urban commuting.

I’ll bitch about the price but it’s worthwhile to spend on quality and with inflation everything is dang expensive but I’m making good money at work these days.

Wye yes

|

Fun fact: In some large apartment buildings in America, kitchen stoves cook 14% percent slower than single family homes.

These buildings use 208 volt wye, which provide on each leg 120 volts to ground. Which is economical for wiring purposes but leaves 240 volt electric stoves with only 208 volts or 14% less heating ability. Not a big deal but slower boiling of a pot of water or more time bringing the oven up to temperature.

Now is the time to check how many fingers you have 🎇

|

For the first time in generations, there has not been a time when so many Americans have lawful access to consumer fireworks and sparklers and the ability to legally drive on highways a 70 mph or faster. More states are legalizing cannabis products and the Supreme Court seems to finally protect and enforce the second.

Good morning, America 🇺🇸 ! 247 years going strong, only three more before a quarter millennium has come and gone. Have fun with your fireworks and remember as the sign says, you are responsible for your own safety, not some government worker.

Cloudy and 68 degrees for the morning walk. ☁ Calm wind. The dew point is 67 degrees. The muggers and the sultry weather will be sticking around for a while. The skies will clear around 1 pm. Air quality is moderate around 55.

Already a rather muggy day and it will be hot by evening 😰 but it should be be a nice one for fireworks 🎇 and barbecues. 🍔 I’m out for my morning walk 🚶 a little later than normal but earlier than over the long weekend. I had my hard boiled egg 🥚 and black coffee ☕, I am thinking about having a those 🍌 banana oatmeal pancakes 🥞 I make in the food processor topped with strawberries. 🍓

Independence Day will have a slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Otherwise, partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 84 degrees at 5pm. One degree above normal. Maximum dew point of 71 at 11am. Calm wind becoming north around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 84 degrees. The record high of 104 was set in 1911.

Yesterday after spending too much time working on my old jalopy of a bicycle 🛠 🚲 I ended up going for a delightful walk 🚶 out to Bender Mellon Preserve. 🐦 🦋 Lots of birds and butterflies and flowers 🌼, I made sure to stay out of the poison ivy. Kind of a hot and humid day but the rail trail is quite shaded and I was back home before the thunderstorms ⛈ came rolling through. 8.8 miles walked 🚶 for the day.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:00 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.3° from the due south horizon (-0.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:55 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (303°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 9:11 pm, which is 14 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:57 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 79 degrees. The dew point will be 71 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 15 hours and 16 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 50 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 7pm. Partly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 65 degrees at 6am. Three degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 71 at 8pm. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 65 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1982.

On this day in 1776, The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress. 51 years later, slavery would be banned in New York State in 1821. Starting the day after Independence Day 1967, you would be able to FOIL the Federal Government, after U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into law on July 4, 1966. Then citizens could request information on how much the federal government spent on fireworks the night before.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a chance of showers between 8am and 2pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Maximum dew point of 67 at 10am. Sunday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Maximum dew point of 67 at 11am. Typical average high for the weekend is 84 degrees.

Wouldn’t be a bad weekend as it stands for heading out of town 🌲 but I have a feeling I won’t be as I’m kind of busy and really want to take delivery of a bicycle 🚲 next weekend. Saves money 💵 to stay home plus the following week is my dentist appointment 🦷 so it would make sense to head out after that.

Looking ahead, next Tuesday is World Population Day 👩‍👩‍👧‍👧 when the sun will be setting at 8:35 pm with dusk at 9:07 pm. The thunderstorms at least will be booming. On that day in 2022, we had hot weather, partly sunny and temperatures between 91 and 55 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 84 degrees. We hit a record high of 98 back in 1936.

Natural Rock Dam

Natural Gas is Fueling Our Economy

|

I just saw an ad that said “natural gas is fueling the economy”. ⛽ But so is heroin and cocaine, too. People make a lot money selling heroin and cocaine, creating good paying jobs, so it must be good for our country. 💉

Now we just need government to get out of the way, and make it easier to sell heroin and cocaine with fewer regulations, so the drug-dealing businessman re-invest and expand their businesses to create more good paying jobs.