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.
Is an old mobile home on a large acreage in a rural town.
I think that would be an excellent start to building what would eventually be my dream homestead — not necessarily because I would want to keep the run-down trailer — it would probably be best scrapped but could greatly reduce infrastructure costs (water well, driveway, septic) compared to building on raw land. Plus if it was not in complete disrepair, it could provide immediate shelter to live in until I could build a more permanent and desirable structure. Not to mention, at least in my mind, it’s not as bad as tearing down the woods to build a new home site. I bet it would be fun to tear one down — scrap the metal, either reuse or burn the 2x4s and landfill any unusable debris. But I’d probably try to reuse a lot in creative ways in my off-grid home.
That said, I’ve come to realize such properties are probably exceptionally rare, because most properties that come with a mobile home are very small acerage, because people who typically can afford a mobile home, can’t afford much land. But I do examine every piece of acerage I do see with a mobile home coming up for sale. And those who do, often are kind of odd characters, and as such those properties are exceptionally rare. It’s not like I’m the only one with such a thought, and I’m sure many others in market are looking for similar properties. Yet, it never hurts to look.
Another option that is somewhat common on raw and minimally developed properties is people living in campers until they can develop their land. In the hilltowns this isn’t uncommon, and it’s an option. Certainly then I wouldn’t have to pay rent, and I could carefully watch what is happening at the construction site. Used campers aren’t that expensive, and my tastes certainly aren’t fancy. But they probably are cold and very energy inefficent in the winter, even if I don’t need or want much space. Indeed, when my off-grid house is done, I doubt it would be all that much larger then some of those campers you see at the RV parks. My grandfather years ago had one of them at a park in Warrensburg. Maybe not peak living, but I could see one as a decent temporary arrangement.
I am not convinced that building in New York is right for me. I have a lot of reservations about the state’s laws, even if I do like my job and for now my family is located in state. I do want to get back to the country. But buying land with a run-down mobile home on acerage is an idea I’ve discussed with friends and they agree that would be a good potential start from building a homestead without an existing house, allowing me to implement more green-building and off-grid techniques.
Grocery shopping at Walmart this morning, that was kind of my thought, all those plastic wrappers soon to be compressed and used for getting a rip-roaring fire going while I crack open a cold one and listen to some country music with my cowboy hat on. Recycling you might call it although I rarely separate out and wash out those plastic containers anymore for designated scrappage bin, especially in the summer months. Just don’t tell Pete Grannis and his gestapo.
I have much less packaging trash then most people, especially these days, 🥦 🫘 🍌 as I tend to buy raw ingredients in their natural form then anything processed, though a lot of things like beans and rice come wrapped in plastic, along with the plastic containers that kefir, milk, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese and spices come in. The sardines, canned tomatoes and pumpkin are in tin cans, which despite being a pain to wash out, will be saved for the transfer station, because I’m green and I don’t really like the landfills. ♻️
$110 bucks later of food and supplies I’m good for next week — I don’t generally go to any stores or spend money mid-week if I can avoid it. 💸 Maybe if I head out of town on Friday I’ll stop and get some missing supplies and fuel, ⛽️ but you won’t see me doing that quick processed food that comes in all that plastic. Truth be told, if anything I’m more annoyed with how much plastic and non-plastic crap you buy that supposedly is a durable good, but quickly falls apart and needs to be discarded. Especially that stuff with the fancy label, 🏷️that you think are buying is quality but is e-waste garbage in a few weeks of use. The stuff you know that should really be recycled but is basically impossible to do without going way out of your way.
Lunch today was sardines plus fried asparagus, onions in olive oil coated with a light coating of whole-wheat flower. 🧅🥒🐟️ I get that sardines are smelly but they are so tasty and filling, a good source of omega-3 fatty acids that aren’t high in mercury or persistent organic pollutants. Relatively cheap too. Asaparagus is good this time of year, and I’ve had a thing for breading since I last night when I was at my parents house and had onion rings 🍔 with the burgers they had. Sometimes I’ll have junk food, like at my parents house, but I generally avoid it especially at home. Since getting into being healthy, I have developed kind of weird tastes, but I also like things that fuel my body up without killing me, taste good, don’t have excessive garbage attached, and are relatively affordable in these inflationary times. 💰️
This afternoon I am going to head down to the library. 📚️ I want to work on the blog a bit, and install R Studio on my work laptop so I have access to the scripts I use for processing data exports on the laptop. Maybe I’ll check out some books, though mostly I am reading E-Books at this point as they are more portable, don’t have to worry about them getting wet and damaged. I love the Libby and Hoopla app. Between the two you really have a good selection, plus audio books can be listened to while you ride. 🚲
Then later in the evening I am going to ride out to Voorheesville and maybe Altamont, 🚵♀️ or maybe jsut Five Rivers. Anywhere off-trail is bound to be pretty wet though for riding. Figure get some good exercise in. Then come up and fry up some of the zucchuni I bought at the store. 🍆 That’s always a good meal. I’m just waiting until I can get it fresh and cheap, as that’s the time of the year really to be enjoying it until your tired. Or maybe I’ll just go out to Five Rivers on the bike to read. The one thing I do have to worry about is random rain showers that could leave me quite wet.
My mom grew up on Long Island. She has not been back there since college, except for my grandmother’s funeral. She asked me yesterday to take her to her childhood home this fall, as dad is pretty old at this time and not up to driving in city traffic. I haven’t driven on the Island since my grandma’s passing in 2014, yet I am younger and probably more able to deal with the traffic.
I think it will be a nice a trip. I do value the remaining time I will be spending with mom and dad, as I know it won’t be long — within the next few years I’ll probably be without them. Mom’s health is probably worse then I am willing to acknowledge, and even my dad has gotten more frail. I would like to see a little bit about their childhood, have learn a little bit more about their lives before it’s too late.
Having known many older people who have passed, you think you have forever to share that last minute with them. At the end, you are in the most denial of the inevitable. When the decline is steepest, it’s hardest to admit it will soon be over. Many questions will never be asked or answered, forever a mystery, because you don’t really know what or how to ask them.
I concede my relationship with my parents isn’t always perfect. I am not them, and they are not me. My own mental health struggles also makes it hard at times to fully apprechiate them. I know they sometimes take advantage of me and I probably do the same in kind. I am not perfect but neither they are either. Still I want to do a few more trips with them — share places I go and explore — and learn a few places they’ve been in their lives too.
It always bothers me that it seems like every other street is named after some dead government worker, but true American hero like William Moore rarely get any kind of monument, are mostly a footnote of history. There are parades and whole celebrations for dead government workers, but rarely do ordinary courageous citizens get much commemoration. While William Moore, nearly 50 years after his death, got a monument to his life in Binghamton, it’s rare that you hear much about him compared to endless streets and monuments to long dead soldiers and politicians.
It’s a cool but fairly nice night but I see the clouds pushing in and the forecast man says rain by 6 AM or maybe sooner — I occasionally felt what seemed like a drop of rain or two out hiking at Kehler Preserve and now as I sit out back. I prefer any night in the wilderness to a night in the city, but hammock camping in the rain doesn’t sound like much fun.
I am undecided about next weekend, but I might go back to the Gas Up, camp in Schoharie County — maybe hammock camp or maybe truck cap camp at Betty Brook or one of the other campsites at Burnt-Rossman. I wouldn’t mind spending more time at the Gas Up without my dad, so I could spend more time observing the exhibits. I am a bit undecided. Or I could go back to Vermont if it seems like I need to work and need good cell reception — Prospect Mountain Road camping intrigues me. If I don’t get out next week, then it will likely be I do a three-day weekend the first weekend of summer at Piseco-Powley / Potholers.
Hoping for some nice weather day. It started out bright and sunny but clouds have pushed in. Hoping it will clear out before me and dad go to the Gas Up Tractor Festival in Gallupville later this morning. Figured this would be the best day, as it’s expected to be relatively cool and somewhat sunny, though lately it seems like a bunch of clouds have pushed in.
Yesterday was was quite the day, 😫 after I switched some of the robo calls to the new robo system, and the network couldn’t take the bandwidth, despite all the of testing of the system I did in advance. Turned out with the end of session ongoing, the network didn’t have enough capacity. 📶 Ended up staying a little late and running the robo into the evening, monitoring it remotely over the VPN. It was fine, I took the local bus home 🚍️ and brought my laptop home to work, as I didn’t want to get caught in the rain. Left the speedometer on my bike yesterday and it got soaked in a surprise downpour, ⛈️ hoping it will dryh out soon.
Definately not missing the craziness of Capitol Hill 🏫 it was nice sleeping in my own bed and getting to bed around 9 PM rather then pulling an all nighter for the final day of session. Even if things were kind of crazy yesterday around the office. It was my fault, I shouldn’t have moved that one job onto the new system, even if it tested out perfectly and was good until the network was overloaded with the legislative session and phones running full blast. I couldn’t have predicted it. 🖱️The one thing I’ve learned at head of Data Services is that computers regularly fail. All your cleverness and work with even smarter technicians can’t overcome when the servers break down.
Uploaded some new maps to the blog, 🗺️ and have been working on some various improvements now that the “fast photo” uploader is done. Works great, will be good for uploading all kinds of photos and content to the blog in the coming weeks, especially as I travel more in the summer. 🖼️ I am trying to do more maps and updating more content, I’ve been busy lately but I have more to add it seems with summer getting underway. Seems like most things have been restored on my computer, though I’ve had issues with QGIS crashing while making maps. I think some of it might be how I’m using the overlay_intersection to filter features — along with ArcGIS REST/Services causing slow performance. 🐢
Tomorrow will be a shopping day, 🛒 with rain expected in the morning. 🧹 A good day to do some cleaning, and then I can go for a ride in the evening as it’s expected to clear out. Maybe out to Voorheesville and or Altamont. And do some reading. 📚️ Visiting with Mom and Dad today after the Gas Up, so I won’t have to go out there tomorrow. 🍔
Who knows about next week, but it looks like it might be hot for the weekend. ☀️ Not sure with work if I’ll be able to get away for the Potholers as there may be targets to cut especially during the second half of the week. I did like the Prospect Mountain Road in Vermont, but there is no swimming holes nearby but it would be cool up in the woods and I do have good cell service up there. 📲 So remote work is definitely possible from there. It looks like Mine Kill State Park won’t be opening next week or even the following week but not until June 29th, so in the mean time if I want to swim, I’m going to have to find a swimming hole like the Potholers. Kind of thinking of taking off June 21st – 23rd to do the Potholers, 🏊♂️sucks that Juneteenth is a Wednesday. I could work on Thursday, and leave straight from the office though. All depends on hot and sunny it is. Juneteenth not only is a State Holiday but I also have a Save the Pine Bush meeting in the afternoon. 🌲
