Balsam Swamp State Forest

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.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/8261.html

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Think Bigger to Motivate Yourself by Tynan on Finding Motivational Opportunities

Andy | August 19, 2023

2411: Think Bigger to Motivate Yourself by Tynan on Finding Motivational

Opportunities 🗓️ 8/13/23 • 🕑 08:13 • 📁 7.9

MB Podcast: Optimal Finance Daily: Money & Financial Independence Author: Diania Merriam | Optimal Living Daily Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/optimal-finance-daily-money-financial-independence/episode/162070630 Episode: https://chrt.fm/track/G52973/traffic.megaphone.fm/OLD1960289880.mp3?updated=1690304828

Tynan encourages us to think bigger as a means of motivating ourselves.

Broke the first thing on Blackie 🚵

Andy | August 18, 2023

A stupid thing, but annoying. Lots of squeaking on the bumps, potentially reduced luggage load. No grocery shopping with the bicycle until fixed.

Lost one of the braze on attachment bolts on the rack, seems to have vibrated off along the rough roads of Piseco-Powley Road. Need to order a new bolt and a tool to reinstall the bolt. Shit happens not an expensive fix. Temporarily fixed using a zip tie but not sure how much weight I want to test that with for obvious reasons.

I’m guessing it’s probably due to the lack of balance from the lock being held on the opposite side. Maybe I need to find a way to better balance the load. Almost want to use a standard but slightly longer bolt with a lock washer.

Early sunsets

Andy | August 18, 2023

It’s really starting to get noticeable how much earlier the sun is setting. 🌇 That said, that’s not a terrible thing it’s means I’m retiring to bed earlier, so I’m getting a full night’s sleep. 😴

When making ice in the freezer for coolers always seems weird to add a bunch of salt to water but actually makes the cooler stay cold longer. 🧊

Andy | August 17, 2023

Water when it freezes can’t get any colder. Ice in pure water is never colder then about 30 degrees. Add salt and you can reduce the freezing point to 20 or 25 degrees so the ice is colder. Colder ice keeps the cooler colder and therefore the cooler lasts longer.

Same principle of why they use salt in ice cream. Not just flavor but also to make ice cream extra cold.

PANDAS and PDF Tables

Andy | August 17, 2023

PANDAS and PDF Tables

I discovered the tabula-py library, which is an alternative to converting PDFs externally to Python using pdftotext -layout from the poppler set of utilities. This might be a good alternative to having to install and run a seperate command line program.

import tabula
import pandas as pd

pdf="/home/andy/nov16-Enrollment/AlbanyED_nov16.pdf"
df=pd.concat(tabula.read_pdf(pdf,pages='all', stream=True))

df.query("STATUS=='Active'")

	COUNTY	ELECTION DIST	STATUS	DEM	REP	CON	GRE	WOR	IND	WEP	REF	OTH	BLANK	TOTAL	COUNTY ELECTION DIST	Unnamed: 0
0	Albany	ALBANY 001001	Active	67	19	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	13	101	NaN	NaN
3	Albany	ALBANY 001002	Active	286	20	3	0	1	19	0	0	0	45	374	NaN	NaN
6	Albany	ALBANY 001003	Active	468	32	9	3	1	19	0	0	0	81	613	NaN	NaN
9	Albany	ALBANY 001004	Active	449	25	6	1	4	15	1	0	1	74	576	NaN	NaN
12	Albany	ALBANY 001005	Active	5	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	6	NaN	NaN
…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…	…
7	NaN	NaN	Active	291	59	4	0	0	31	0	1	1	89	476	Albany WATERVLIET 004004	NaN
10	NaN	NaN	Active	339	213	29	4	3	57	0	0	0	202	847	Albany WESTERLO 000001	NaN
13	NaN	NaN	Active	348	119	17	1	5	43	0	0	0	160	693	Albany WESTERLO 000002	NaN
16	NaN	NaN	Active	314	137	26	2	2	35	0	0	0	196	712	Albany WESTERLO 000003	NaN
19	NaN	NaN	Active	91,658	35,821	2,991	525	608	9,612	49	14	198	41,926	183,402	Albany County Total	NaN

There also poppler bindings for python, which you can use after installing the poppler-cpp developer library. This should work but currently it’s not parsing things correctly.

from poppler import load_from_file, PageRenderer

pdf_document = load_from_file(pdfFile)
page_1 = pdf_document.create_page(0)
page_1_text = page_1.text()

import pandas as pd
from io import StringIO

df = pd.read_csv(StringIO(page_1_text),
   skiprows=3,
   sep='\s{2,}',
   engine='python',
   error_bad_lines=False)

df

				COUNTY ELECTION DIST	STATUS	DEM	REP	CON	GRE	WOR	IND	WEP REF OTH BLANK TOTAL
Albany ALBANY 001001	Active	67.0	19.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	13.0	101.0
Inactive	5.0	2.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.0	9.0
Total	72.0	21.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	15.0	110.0
Albany ALBANY 001002	Active	286.0	20.0	3.0	0.0	1.0	19.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	45.0	374.0
Inactive	27.0	8.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	12.0	50.0
Total	313.0	28.0	3.0	0.0	1.0	22.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	57.0	424.0
Albany ALBANY 001003	Active	468.0	32.0	9.0	3.0	1.0	19.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	81.0	613.0
Inactive	56.0	5.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	19.0	82.0
Total	524.0	37.0	9.0	3.0	1.0	21.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	100.0	695.0
Albany ALBANY 001004	Active	449.0	25.0	6.0	1.0	4.0	15.0	1.0	0.0	1.0	74.0	576.0
Inactive	64.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	4.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	13.0	82.0
Total	513.0	25.0	7.0	1.0	4.0	19.0	1.0	0.0	1.0	87.0	658.0
Albany ALBANY 001005	Active	5.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	6.0
Total	5.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	6.0
Albany ALBANY 001006	Active	462.0	11.0	5.0	2.0	4.0	14.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	57.0	556.0
Inactive	63.0	3.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	5.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	12.0	84.0
Total	525.0	14.0	5.0	2.0	4.0	19.0	0.0	0.0	2.0	69.0	640.0
Albany ALBANY 001007	Active	435.0	19.0	1.0	0.0	2.0	19.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	62.0	538.0
Inactive	60.0	3.0	0.0	0.0	2.0	3.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	7.0	75.0
Total	495.0	22.0	1.0	0.0	4.0	22.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	69.0	613.0
Albany ALBANY 001008	Active	160.0	7.0	1.0	0.0	2.0	2.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	37.0	210.0
Page 1 of 46	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN	NaN

A quick pot of oatmeal, a shower and finishing up packing and I’m off. ⛺

Andy | August 17, 2023

Samdil Farm, Walmart, Roger’s Orchard, set up camp, swim and ride is the plan for today. Got to maximize it as tomorrow still looks fairly wet.

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Mostly cloudy and 67 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a south breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 65 degrees. The skies will clear around 1 pm.

Quick breakfast 🥣 of overnight oatmeal which doesn’t require any cooking and blueberries with yogurt and cold coffee ☕. Finish packing up now and get on the road early. Looking forward to some good sweet corn 🌽 and peaches 🍑 up at camp and floating on the tube ⭕. Looking forward to getting away from it for a while before a five day work week where I’ll be filling in for the role of the unit director in my office 🏢.

Today will have a slight chance of showers between 1pm and 2pm, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Patchy fog before 7am. Otherwise, partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 80 degrees at 4pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 28th. Maximum dew point of 69 at 11am. South wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became thunderstorm by afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 78 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1913.

I decided against bringing the kayak 🛶 as between swimming 🏊, hiking 🚶 and riding Blackie 🚵 I’ll have plenty to do. I don’t really feel that much like paddling in the Mohawk River and I’ve done the East Canada Creek a million times in the kayak. I’d rather just set up at House Pond Campsite ⛺ and float in the tube ⭕ from there.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:00 pm with sun having an altitude of 60.9° from the due south horizon (-10° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:18 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (283°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (289°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:56 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 8:24 pm, which is one minute and 30 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west (280°) at an altitude of 4° from the horizon, 251,522 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:03 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 76 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 53 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 35 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm, then a slight chance of showers between 8pm and 11pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 66 degrees at 6am. Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 68 at 6pm. South wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 61 degrees. The record low of 40 occurred back in 1981.

Tomorrow showers and thunderstorms likely before 2pm, then a chance of showers. ☔ Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Southeast wind 7 to 14 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible.

Not gonna to be a real nice day 📙 but I have several books to read and I’ll have the heater in case I get chilled through. Do some cooking and handing out at camp. 🍳 Probably can still do some hikes or riding Blackie 🚵 along Piseco-Powley as it doesn’t look to be a complete soaker of a day.

On this day in 1977, the Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole. 💈And in 1982, the first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany. 💿 Seems like such an obsolete technology now with streaming.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a slight chance of showers before 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 70. West wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Maximum dew point of 57 at 12pm. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 83. Maximum dew point of 63 at 7pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 82 degrees.

The weekend looks much better ☀ but Saturday might be too cold for swimming 🏊 but excellent weather for riding Piseco-Powley or may be Old Edick Road with Blackie 🚵. Could be muddy though on Old Edick. But also I just like laying in the hammock watching the clouds 🌥 float on by.

One month 📅 from now will be Constitution Day 📜 when the sun will be setting at 7:03 pm with dusk at 7:30 pm. The average high temperature is 34 degrees, with a record high of 61 in 1895.

Second half of August 🎪

Andy | August 16, 2023

So it would seem as time marches on so quickly. Altamont Fair is underway. Tomorrow it’s off to the Adirondacks and it should be a nice day and hopefully Friday won’t be too cold and wet. Got some books to read on Friday, I’ll toss in the heater in case I want to warm my hands.

Good morning! What day is it? A a happy Pseudo Friday for Me Day, of course. Rain and 65 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a south-southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 63 degrees. The skies will clear around 3 pm.

Out walking 🚶 this morning, red kidney beans cooking down on the stove 🍲 to enjoy with maple syrup up at camp this weekend. Thinking cold black coffee ☕ this morning, cream of wheat with chia seeds, yogurt, lemon 🍋 maybe a touch of stevia and some cherries 🍒 to get the day started. And maybe some of the red beans with maple syrup for protein. Save the rest for camp. 🏕

Today will have patchy drizzle with a chance of showers before 10am, then a chance of showers between 10am and 2pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 79 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 1st. Maximum dew point of 69 at 2pm. South wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 87 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1936.

I’m on the fence about taking Blackie 🚵 to work today. I don’t think it’s going to rain but there is always the chance. On the other hand, I kind of like taking my bike to work, doesn’t add much time but it’s free exercise especially the ride back home 🏡 and saves on the bus 🚍 fare. Food Festival is today, so I’ll have to take Howard rather than ride across the Plaza at the end of the day and they’re a risk of thunderstorm ⛈. Time wise it doesn’t make much difference, but I also don’t want to be too tired when I get packed tonight. Plan is to leave by around 8 AM or so tomorrow, though not too early as I’m not sure when Samdill Farm Stand opens, though I want to hit that on the way up. 🌽 🥦

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 61.2° from the due south horizon (-9.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:19 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (283°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (290°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:58 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 8:26 pm, which is one minute and 29 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-northwest (291°) at an altitude of 1° from the horizon, 252,188 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:05 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 77 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 55 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 33 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have patchy fog after 5am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy 🌆, with a low of 64 degrees at 5am. Three degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 68 at 6pm. Light south wind. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It became somewhat humid as the night progressed. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 40 occurred back in 1979.

Tomorrow looks beautiful with only a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4pm, as it’s summer. ☀️ Partly sunny, with a high near 81. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Then Thursday night it turns wetter with showers and thunderstorms likely. Hopefully late enough, it won’t impact my evening. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66. Southeast wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Plan is to leave early 🌅 hopefully around 8 AM or 9 AM, then head north with the first stop to top off my tank in Rotterdam, then Sandil’s Farm in Tribes Hill for veggies 🥦 🌽 then to Walmart in Johnstown for a few groceries and supplies 🛒, then maybe Rogers Orchards 🍎 for fresh apples, then up hopefully to the House Pond Campsite. By noontime, I want to get camp set up 🏕 , inflate the tube, and get floating in the East Branch, as it might be the warmest day. Then in the evening, ride up to Potholers and cool off in the Potholers. 📻 I’ve downloaded several podcasts and Youtube videos to listen to while up at camp.

Come Friday, it’s a bit of a wet start. 🌧 Showers and thunderstorms likely before 2pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 2pm and 5pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 78. Southwest wind 6 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Maybe not a washout. Then Friday night, a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 55. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts less than a tenth of an inch possible.

I got from “Salt, fat, acid, heat : mastering the elements of good cooking” by Samin Nosrat from the library 📚 and plan on reading it on Friday morning. ♨ I think I will pack the heater, so I can warm up next to it in case it’s cold. Also going to pack the screen tent, 🎪 as it’s been such a wet summer and I’m thinking it could be buggy. 🐜 By evening it shouldn’t be too bad, might go for a nice ride on Blackie 🚲 along Piseco-Powley Road with the headlight as I get back late, as sunset is around 8 PM. Maybe too cold to swim, but who knows. 🌆

A picture perfect weekend after we get past Friday on tap. 😎 Cool but sunny. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 74. Maximum dew point of 56 at 1pm. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 84. Maximum dew point of 64 at 7pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 82 degrees. I am thinking I want to ride most of Piseco-Powley Road and hike back to Goldmine Stream Falls or maybe Sand Like on Saturday. Sunday, maybe the Potholers and then end the day in Little Falls, exploring Moss Island and the Herkimer Home, and riding the Erie Canal Trail. I am not planning to get home until dusk, so I will have the full afternoon and evening. I am undecided if I’ll bring the kayak, I’m actually leaning against it at this point. 🛶 Paddling the Mohawk River might be fun but I can see more on Blackie on the bike trail.

Today in 1916, the Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States signed. 🐦 It was designed to save Migratory Birds by giving them international protection for the first time by placing limits on hunting and other means of taking. It became a center part of protecting the flock of birds, requiring duck stamps among other things.

In 1989, a solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, 😎 leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto’s stock market. Sometimes the sun isn’t so nice, not that we’ve had much of it recently but hopefully tomorrow and most of the weekend, bar maybe a few hours of showers on Friday morning. We are though overdue for a big solar storm, and that could be very disruptive to every day life across the world, as the power grid gets shutdown and radio networks go dead during the storm.

Also, in 1993, Debian Linux is announced, 🐧 it would become the basis of many forms of Linux like Ubuntu Linux, which is currently what I run on my home computer. 👨‍💻 I’m not sure I love the direction Ubuntu has been going lately with the snaps, but I do like the XFCE window manager and I don’t know if I want to change over to a totally new distro, having to reinstall everything. Maybe eventually when I get a new laptop when my current one wears out — it’s now going on 7 years old, and while I don’t care it’s getting old but I do worry physical components wear out after a while. That said, I don’t carry it around as much now as I use my phone for most things.

And in 1966, the House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. 🏵 The committee stated to intended to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested. A long time ago now — but it reminds me a bit of the War in Iraq when I was young with Bush as President.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Average High Falls To 79 ️Degrees ⛱️️️ when the sun will be setting at 7:35 pm with dusk at 8:03 pm. On that day in 2022, we had rain and temperatures between 90 and 66 degrees. We hit a record high of 98 back in 1953. The 1953 heat wave!