Balsam Swamp is a sprawling state forest that stretches almost 5.5 miles east-west across 4 towns. The area is very rural, and the landscape surrounding the State Forest is predominantly forested. Balsam Swamp State Forest is comprised of a mix of native hardwood forests, hemlock swamps, and conifer plantations. There are no designated recreational trails on the forest, but there is ample opportunity for self-guided day hikes to explore the diversity of habitats represented on this State Forest. Additionally, the western section of Balsam Swamp State Forest is adjacent to Five Streams State Forest to the south.
The main attraction of this forest is Balsam Pond. The impoundment is approximately 152 acres and is a popular destination for fishing and paddle boat sports. Balsam Pond is a warm water fishery that contains a mix of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, chain pickerel, yellow perch, brown bullhead and sunfish. Tiger muskellunge have been stocked in the past with the last stocking occurring in 1995. However, there have been very few reports of anglers catching any of the adult tiger muskies. A shallow gravel boat launch is suitable for launching small fishing boats.
A small rustic camp ground is also located at Balsam Pond. Camping spaces are available at no cost on a first-come, first-serve basis and there is no running water or electricity. A fire ring, outhouse, and picnic table are provided for each camping space. A sign on Balsam-Tyler Road in Pharsalia designates the entrance to the boat launch and camping facility. This is a carry-in carry-out facility. Please do not litter.
At least that’s what the internet tells me to be the case. And unlike me, the internet doesn’tjust make up shit.
Good morning! Happy Snowman ☃ Day. 15 degrees and partly cloudy this morning as I await the dawn 6:50 🌅 and head out for a morning bike ride. Roughly three inches of snow on the ground ☃, which could probably be turned into a snowman that will last until Monday at 2 pm, the next time it’s likely to be above freezing again.
Last night I was bed 🛏 by 7 pm and asleep shortly thereafter as with the nights so cold and dark I can’t imagine staying up much later. I mean I probably should have gone for an evening walk 🚶 but I was tired. Cooked up some of mom’s lasagna with Butternut squash and the last of the frozen peas and corn I had. Salmon and broccoli 🥦 🐟 for dinner tonight.
Pancakes 🥞 this morning with the remaining fresh blueberries 🫐 and mango that I had. Getting low on fresh fruit but with the snow coming tomorrow I’ll probably wait until Saturday morning to shop. 🛒 Even the veggies are almost out but I have several cans 🥫 of low sodium vegetables I got for camping that I can crack open. I’ll stock up on several large bags when I go Wally World. Bulk frozen vegetables is something I really like. Plus no cans to wash and recycle ♻. The plastic makes a good fire 🔥 starter, lol. 😂
For our snowman ☃ day, slight chance of snow showers after 3pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 29. 🌥 South wind 7 to 10 mph. 3 degrees below the normal high of 33, closer to the typical normal before the climate warmed in Albany. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Kind of a cool day ahead but it is mid January.
I started my morning bike ride 🚲 out to Meads Lane but my face 😔 and hands 👐 were really cold, ❄ so I decided after about 4 miles of riding to head back home, have a warm shower 🚿 and then take the earlier express bus 🚍 in an walk in the Concourse where it will be warm. I prefer the calorie burn of riding but lately I’ve been riding back along Cherry Avenue at 7:30 am and it’s really congested. 🚶 I guess I could have done a walk in Delmar instead this morning but the Concourse will be warm.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.8° from the due south horizon (-44.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:07 pm with the sun in the southwest (235°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (242°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:50 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 17 seconds with dusk around 5:21 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the south-southeast (150°) at an altitude of 59° from the horizon, 231,005 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:56 pm. At sunset, look for skies and temperatures around degrees. There will be a calm wind. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 34 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 49 seconds over today.
The shuttle bus to the suburban office 🏢 works well with the 519 schedule though I admit the evening transfer is very tight and there will be times I inevitably will miss the express at the bus turn around but if I hurry to the Capitol I can likely catch it there or the 18 home. Worse comes to worse, I catch the later 18 home and just walk laps in the Plaza. 👣 I’m getting used to the change, though I miss the heart pumping 💓 of climbing all those stairs. When the weather gets nicer out, I’ll be riding to work, that is once the bike path is free of snow 🚲 and can visit the Corning Preserve at lunch time or explore the bike trail, especially the nicer section near Menands. 🏞 Might be nice to sit down by the river and eat lunch and ride. It’s a big change to working out in the suburbs, but it really isn’t that bad but I do miss the sweeping views from the old downtown office, and just the experience, but I’m young and can adapt.
This evening will have a slight chance of snow showers before 8pm. 🌨 Mostly cloudy, with a low around 18. Two degrees above normal. South wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
I have been trying to dial back the calories and big meals this week, 🤰 as I haven’t been riding into work with the weather, and don’t have the stairs to climb in the suburban office building. There are some halls to make laps, but nothing like being connected with Capitol Complex and Concourse. It’s just been cold and icy, and it’s hard to get in as many steps as I would like to do each day. 👣 Plus I’ve been having a lot of carbs lately with all the bread I’ve been baking 🍞. Of course now the challenge is with the pantry getting low, but as noting before, if I dip into the canned vegetable reserve I have I should be able to make it to Saturday.
Then when we finally reach Friday, ☺ we will have snow 🌨️ mainly between 8am and 5pm. Cloudy and cool, with a high near 26, which is six degrees below normal. North wind 6 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. Then really cold for the weekend. Saturday will be cloudy, with a high near 18. Northwest wind 14 to 18 mph. That just sounds cold, even without considering the windchill. Then Sunday it will be sunny, with a high near 23. 😎 Still cold. But then again, the high temperature for this week of the year is typically around 32 degrees, which used to be only 30 before the planet warmed. Probably staying home, except for maybe going out to shop and if we do the filming of the Rezin documentary, I’ll probably head out.
Looking ahead, next Thursday is 5 PM Sunset 🌇 with dusk at 5:29 pm. On that day in 2023, we had snow, mostly cloudy and temperatures between 36 and 28 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 1938.
The renewable, low carbon energy revolution has made a great deal of progress in recent years. It’s not perfect and there is a lot of legitimate criticism of the technology’s imperfections – environmental costs of construction, it’s less convenient nature, it’s technical flaws – but it’s getting to the point of widespread adoption if we allow it.
I fear that should a Republican take the White House much of the potential progress of recent years on electrification and renewable energy will be stillborn. A lot of potential wasted, needed adoption of advanced technologies to slow the progress of climate change stalled. While no administration can completely reverse progress, a lot could be lost under a second Donald Trump or Republican administration in 2025.
Even should Joe Biden be reelected, renewable energy and electrification faces headwinds. Many proposals are overly ambitious. But most are a step in the right direction and even if we only partially obtain ambitious plans – with unaffordable and environmentally bad proposals killed – then it is still progress. Yet such progress my be even more fleeting under a Republican administration.
I don’t agree with giving Joe Biden and his party an open checkbook to do whatever it wants on climate change. But with moderation, public participation and sensible adoption of the right technologies I believe we would come out ahead of where we would under a more conservative minded administration.
Slept in a bit later then I wanted this morning but I made good time this morning and was able to go for a 45 minute ride out Meads Lane and Orchard Drive. Cows were all lumped together, staying warm in the cold. My fingers felt a bit swollen and sore when I first got back indoors but the warm shower seemed to make things feel better again.
Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Partly sunny and 17 degrees at the Downtown Albany. There is a west breeze at 11 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is 4. Honestly, I think that wind chill is an exaggeration but I’m kind of a tough mother. There are 4 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Tuesday around 9 am. 🌡️
The morning bike ride at 6:45 AM wasn’t bad 🚲 though it was a bit cold at times, especially on my fingers. 🤚 I had gloves on which helped quite a bit, 🧤 but at times my fingers were cold. Riding up the hills on Orchard Avenue helped warm me up but I didn’t mind getting back home and taking that warm shower 🚿 before heading out to the bus. 🚌 It turns out the later express bus works out well for the transfer to the shuttle to the suburban office, making for a commute not much longer then driving, plus it saves money and I don’t have to worry about bumping other cars, and watch videos or do other things while I ride the bus. That said, I look forward to riding to work again, but right now the rail trail is snow covered ❄️ not to mention it’s a pretty cold week.
Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 24 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees below normal. West wind 10 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 33 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1889. 10.9 inches of snow fell back in 1994.❄
Moving back out to working in the suburbs is what you might expect it to be. 👨💼 Very much kind of a corporate experience, working in a massive two-story sprawling building with massive open-air cubical farms, surrounded by acres of free parking. 🅿️ At least it’s convenient for parking for the weekends I plan to head out of town after work, right off the freeway. ☕ And as much free coffee as I want and not many late nights. And it’s a bit more money and a good resume builder, which is important especially in these inflationary times. 💸 Need to study up on VIM and probably awk, as I think those programs will be essential for my new job. They have some books in the office, but I know there is a lot of Youtube videos and other sources of info about it on the internet.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.5° from the due south horizon (-44.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:05 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (242°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:49 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 17 seconds with dusk around 5:19 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south (174°) at an altitude of 56° from the horizon, 228,953 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:55 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 22 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 11. ☃️ There will be a west breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 30 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 43 seconds over yesterday.
Yesterday with the snow was kind of a messy commute ❄️ and I was annoyed that I got on the local bus and saw shortly thereafter the very late express bus passing by. 🚌 I just didn’t trust the real time bus info, as it kept shift as the express bus and local bus kept getting later. I though they might have canceled the express bus or I missed it as the shuttle back to the Plaza was running late due to snow, but it was accurate data. Doesn’t matter, I was still home by 6 PM.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 14 degrees at 2am. One degree below normal, which is similar to a typical Maximum wind chill around 4 at 10pm; South wind 8 to 10 mph. In 2023, we had light freezing rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of -19 occurred back in 1957.
Ended up getting dinged $45 for damaged books 📚 from the library, but I get to pickup the books and I’ll add them to my collection. Two of my books unfortunately got wet and dirty when I was camping. 🏕 It happens, I shouldn’t bring library books winter camping I guess. Or at least plan to keep any books that I take up to the woods with me. Never a problem in the summer, but in the winter, it’s easy for dirt and wetness to get attracted to the paper. It happens, oh well. I’ve paid the fine. At least with the mild weather in December, my electric and gas bill was down, mostly because I didn’t use that much gas heat. This month though with the recent cold blast 🌬 it must certainly will be back up. Trying to limit my power use too by cooking efficiently with a full oven each time I cook. 👩🍳
Cold but clearing this weekend. ⛅ Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Without much sun, that’s going to feel like a real cold day for sure. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 24. Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees. But it’s too be expected in mid-to-late January. By Tuesday, things are expected to be in the low 40s and by the second half of the week if the trend continues, looking at upper 40s. It’s really to far away to know about things though for following weekend, and heck even past Tuesday who really knows but it looks like there is a warming trend ahead.
Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Valentines Day ❤️ when the sun will be setting at 5:26 pm with dusk at 5:53 pm. On that day in 2023, we had partly sunny skies mild temperatures between 50 and 30 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 36 degrees. But maybe there is hope after all the cold. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1946.
The other day when I went to Walmart to pick up some supplies,🏪 I saw the clerk was a younger man, Caucasian with red hair. Somehow I had to react differently, viscerally to see a white clerk there – one who looked more like someone would work on a farm or on your car or repairing mechanical equipment.👨 I bet he owns a lot of guns, a four wheeler, likes bonfires and drinking beer. Probably lives out in country, maybe this is his second job to make ends meet and provide for his family. Certainly, cool guy to hang out with, a bro.
After I got back to my jacked up pickup truck, turned on engine, took a sigh, and realized how truly racist my attitudes were in the store.😐 Just because somebody is white or has red hair, doesn’t mean they’re any more of a decent person then an African American or Latino clerk. Certainly not all blacks are drug dealers who on the side work at Walmart to pretend to have a legitimate job. That’s just a terrible stereotype, often portrayed in the media. Many are not immigrants, many are not struggling to make ends meet.👬 Granted Walmart is famous for underpaying workers, but not every one there is a drug dealer or welfare queen.
Prejudice is a something I’ve struggled with for most of my adult life. 🚧I always have found it disconcerting to see an African American driving a pickup truck.🚛 Some how it violates my idea of the stereotype. It really kind of bothers me a lot, because I don’t think of myself as a racist or a bad person.😥 I don’t dislike people because of their race and would never intentionally treat a person differently based on their race. 🌐I think I should work to be more open minded and less prejudicial, but it’s hard to over-turn long-standing prejudices against the groups that different then myself.🗽
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.
