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.
When traveling for work I can usually get reimbursed for one meal a day along with lodging. But I usually don’t get food because I’m not a real big fan of restaurant food.🍝 I don’t really find it pleasant to eat out, especially when I am traveling alone and I don’t like all the waste and packaging for take out. I also think fast food is just plain gross, 🍟it’s all grease and not very filling. It’s not something I’m used to eating at any rate.
But even at home I almost never eat out. Maybe because I’m single but it also just seems kind of weird trusting strangers to cook your food.🍳 I also am trying to save money wherever possible for my future off grid cabin.💰 Five or ten bucks doesn’t sound like much, but I’m trying to save money wherever possible. While I do often buy lightly packaged per-cooked food at home, and I’m no chef, I would rather do the cooking myself then rely on others.👨🍳
This book I am reading makes a good point about the Midwest – the land is cheap, people are friendly and laid back, zoning and codes regulations tend to be much less with less enforcement. Conservative cultural norms are more laid back, preferring that government stay off people’s land and out of private businesses.
Building and living in an off-grid ‘tiny’ house or cabin is much easier when you don’t have to deal with nearly as aggressive of code inspectors. Buying a handgun or other firearm for hunting and personal protection is just as easy – fill out the federal paperwork, have them do a quick background check, and pay the cashier, and walk out with your new gun. Outhouses and composting toilets are easier to get approved, if there is any review at all. As long as there isn’t a high fire risk, you’re free to burn your trash and debris, typically with no permit. Off-road shops, ATVs, snowmobiles, and alike abound, often with a good trail system to ride not too far from home. Good-sized white tails, geese, ducks for hunting and other wildlife abound in the rural landscape.
The flip side, as the book notes, is the Midwest is mostly flat or with rolling hills. There aren’t the big mountains to hike, the state forests and national forests are much smaller part of the landscape – and often far away. The distances are spread out, they mean a lot of driving to get to work, shopping, or healthcare. Much of the Midwest is gritty and industrial, with lots of big farms and industry in cities and surrounding areas. Farmers for the most part don’t care what you do on your land, but recognize they have a business to do and that includes spreading manure and applying pesticides their fields, sometimes late at night with big loud tractors. Cows can be noisy, even if they are fun to watch graze. Hunters hunt, they have loud guns. People love shooting. I get it, I grew up in the country. I like doing many of those things too.
I am not one for conservative politics per se. If anything, I have become less political in recent years, focused on my own life concerns, making and saving money. I actually kind of like the idea of living in a culture that is less politically liberal, one more focused on natural resources and using them efficiently. Is there a thread in conservative politics that is entirely irresponsible and not based in reality? Sure, but it’s hard for a farmer, a hunter, and outdoors-man not to love and respect the resources that produce for them.
Walking in the Albany Pine Bush this afternoon, I was thinking how much I miss spending nights in the wilderness. Those open canopies, like Moose River Plains or even Confusion Flats in the Western Adirondacks are special. While I have a trip planned for 2 1/2 weeks from now, it’s seems like that could be an eternity. I guess I could out somewhere sooner, although the issue would be that there is still a lot of snow up north and the next few weekends I expect to be fairly busy. But it’s obvious that nicer weather is heading our way, and I fully expect to spend more nights in the near future out in the wilderness.
By mid-day it was absolutely beautiful spring day, but alas the clouds started to push in and by evening the wind was roaring and there was an incredibly strong band of heavy rain that came blasting through everything and then it’s cold this morning.
I won’t say it was a complete waste of a weekend, 😎 as I enjoyed the ride out to Hollyhock then Blodgett Hill in Coeymans. It was a bit cool to start out the day but by mid-day I shed the winter coat, especially after riding up Blodgett Hill then pushing the mountain bike up part of way up the steepest part of the hill. Couldn’t really ride 💪all the way up due to drainage breaks they’ve dug into the logging road. I don’t know, you’re probably not supposed to ride a mountain bike in a Wildlife Management Area, though I stayed on roads and truck trails, except maybe that short section of the blue trail, but going up I mostly pushed the bike up the hill.
Generated so much heat with the front rotator on the bike that it started smoking 🚲 — literally 👩🚒 as I rode down Blodgett Hill. I rode the brakes hard going down to the logging rode down the north-side as there was many water breaks to cross then rode the brakes to go slowly down the blue trail but it wasn’t until I picked up speed heading down the hill on County Highway that the brakes literally started smoking. The whole rotor was covered with a grayish-blackish smoke. Not sure if it was brake fluid I got on the rotator when it leaked when I changed the pads a few months back, or if it was a mixture of road and trail dust, leaves and deicing chemicals that burst into smoke when the rotator got really hot.
Of course now, my advertising feeds are full of ads for muffler shops. 👩🔧 Get the brake service you need at our shop! That said, if anything I am not sure if I need any service to bike, if anything the brakes preformed better once they got that hot, they stopped sqweaking. With a bit of chain wear, that new chain – well the one I found from old stock – is preforming well with only a bit of gear jumping at times so I’m going to hold off on replacing the cassette for a while even if I get it in the mail in next few days. I did get the chain wear measurement tool yesterday, and checked the chain wear. It was good but it’s something I’m going to check every time I grease the chain.
While this morning is cold and windy 🌬 I think I will ride out to Five Rivers for a while this morning. I do have hope though for spring sooner then later, and it might actually be a decent evening after visiting the folks to do a quick hike up Bennett Hill. Mom is cooking chicken and sweet potatoes for dinner, 🦃and I’ll do my wash out there and dump the compost buckets out there. And then this weekend will be done, and I’ll head to bed again. 🛌 I am just waiting for warmer weather and more meaningful weekends, spent out in the wilderness, though truth be cold it wasn’t a bad riding out to Blodgett Hill. It was nice seeing the Pitch Pines and Scrub Oaks up there, and that they’ve cleaned it up after the raspberries 🍓and other trash species crowding out the scrub oaks in recent years that have passed since the last controlled burn. I am so ready for a night in wilderness, not just to burn shit 🔥 and turn that junk mail and wrappers in carbon dioxide but also get my sanity back, 🤪 so I can be less extremely mentally ill. I doubt I’ll have be sane though, as I don’t worship the plastic crap that smells so bad when you toss in the fire. Just don’t tell a liberal. 🤫Just like I wasn’t riding my mountain bike on the logging trails at a WMA. 🏳️⚧️
It’s not like invasive species plan an invasion of an area. In many cases they don’t seek take over an area, kill native species, cause economic harm or job losses. Instead, they are just looking to survive and reproduce in a suitable habitat. Moreovercalling something an invasive species rather than a introduced species is a very political statement – introduced species are defined by humans as being helpful rather than harmful.
Every time I open up Facebook or turn on the news on the radio I get a bit angrier. 😡
Why do I really care? The things I read about only impact me incidentally me at best. But there is the dreaded comment box, which I often will click wanting respond, type a few words and click cancel. I’ve grown smarter as I’ve gotten older.
Nobody wants to hear my opinion anyways and if I do comment, it will only elicit a response on why I am wrong or uncaring. If I have something to say, my best venue is my blog where I have full control over content and now it’s presented.
Moreover, I don’t really care that much. My thing is making the best possible world for myself, saving money and investing in my own future. I don’t plan to stay in New York for many more years, so it really doesn’t matter to me how much of a shit hole our great state is becoming. I’ve never voted for the man. Half of decrees sent down from a high are ignored at the local level at any rate.
And the truth is... My opinion doesn’t really matter and it’s just best to close out and ignore the people I disagree with so passionately.
While we are still about a month from a full outbreak of spring weather in the city, I thought I post some tulip pictures to get us into the spring feeling as we wrap up March.
At Washington Park.
At the State Capitol.
Tulips and the Egg on the Plaza.
A burst of color in front of the Moses statue.
I hope you enjoyed this brief intermission of color.
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