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.
Earlier in the week I was listening to NPR and they were interviewing a student at an anti-second amendment rally in front of the NRA convention. 🔫 She was saying she was afraid to go to school as she might never see her parents or friends again because she’s afraid she will be a victim of gun violence. I thought what ludicrousy.🙉
Schools have never been safer from non-state actor criminal violence today then in their history. 👩👨They’ve been hardened in numerous ways with security cameras and remote controlled doors, have police on staff👀 and especially the large districts have extensive intelligence operations surveilling and monitoring student communications.📹
Violence of all types is decreasing in our country. There are fewer than half as many murders today as 25 years ago. 👮Tough on crime laws, mass incarceration, better social services and mental health care and even changing demographics mean people of all ages including our youth are less likely than anytime in the past half century to be murdered.🚨
But there is a bigger threat to students then ever before – the state.👮 Not a random criminal shooting students but a lawful shooting of students by armed police officers, protected by sovereign immunity and ex-parte young. Government employees face no consequences when they act on behalf of the state no matter how much of a lack of judgment they show. The next school shooting may very well be a police officer legally killing multiple students in school during a minor disturbance like a spit ball or food fight in the cafeteria. 🏫
Even when police do not kill students, they can wrongly deprive students of their rights.🚔 They can arrest protesters of all ideologies, and charge students with felonies based on rumors and remarks taken out of context.🏤 People talk about the danger of gun violence but ignore the serious danger that the state and its government enforcers poses to all of us.
Students should not be afraid of violence caused by criminals, but instead be afraid of violence caused in the lawful actions of the state. 🏢Government is not your friend, government is the all powerful bully with nearly unlimited power,🐂 going after the weak and unable to defend themselves against the powerful special interests represented by the billionaire class that gets rich off of government contracts and policies that force people to buy their business services.👺
The government and those who work for it are primarily self serving,🤑💰 they don’t care about the youth or students. It’s a fact.
Students should be protesting the ever growing government that infringes on our rights not gun violence.
If you don’t get up and walk in the rain at 6 am on a Saturday morning you’ll feel like crap next week🌧
That’s what I told myself as I felt like the Monday morning walk was too difficultaftertaking the morning slower last weekend in part because I had work to do. Maybe sometimes it best to be early to rise.
Happy Saturday on this rainy Weekend! Rain and 46 degrees for my morning walk in Delmar. ☔ There is a south breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. That cow 🐮 chow smells good on the air. Almost like a county fair. The skies will clear Monday around 7 am. Just in time to get back to work.
Out walking this morning. 🚶 Besides my usual morning walk going to do a little down at the Town Park for a while so I can get in as many steps as possible 👣 before the rain picks up. My goal is to have close to 10,000 step in before breakfast, then come home have breakfast, sit back for a while then go down to the library for a while to work on the internet. Then maybe if the rain holds off go to Five Rivers or maybe spend the balance of the day at home. I don’t know I don’t really like dreary days ☔ when I’m stuck at home.
Today will rain. 🌧 High of 54 degrees at 4pm. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 7th. Not only damp, kind of chilly for late April. Maximum dew point of 42 at 3pm. 🏖️ Southeast wind 8 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 61 degrees. The record high of 88 was set in 1888. 1 inches of snow fell back in 1885.❄
I wanted to finish the wheel on my bicycle 🚲 so I could move on to the derailleur cable and getting it closer but I opened the outer packaging and noticed they sent me the wrong spoke size. 😲 So that project will get laid aside for the weekend. Next weekend if it’s nice I want to be out of town, so this might get laid aside for a few weekends, as I really don’t have time to work on the bicycle after work. Maybe by Memorial Day I’ll have my bike up and running again.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:53 pm with sun having an altitude of 61.8° from the due south horizon (-9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:14 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (284°). 📸
Trying some new foods this week. 🥑 Last week I bought an avocado and scooped it out, refrigerating the flesh. This week I got celery 🥗 and it’s perfect for dipping in avocado and is a great healthy snack. Okay, maybe a bit fatty but low on sugar and it’s a healthier fat combined with the fiber in celery. I also got eggs and some feta cheese, going to make something in the broiler on Sunday I’m thinking for breakfast with lot of peppers, onions, kale, tofu and topped with feta. 🍳 Today though for breakfast when I get back from walking, it’s going to be the mixture of barley and quinoa with pineapple chunks and cinnamon. I found I don’t really like quinoa alone — too earthy for my tastes and barley is kind of a lot of fluff but together they are a perfect mix. 🍵
Also on my list of things to do is roast those chickpeas 🌰 that I have soaking in my refrigerator. I’ve heard it’s a good snack and a healthier alternative to nuts, which can be kind of fatty. Maybe I’ll mix and match. I’m thinking it could be something good to have up at camp. Soak the chickpeas in water overnight and then roast them the next day. Good stuff. I’ve looked at nuts and raisins 🥥 for trail mix but both are very high on sugar and fats so I’m trying to stay away from that. Some whole nuts though like almonds are okay, if fatty but also are kind of expensive too.
The sunset is in the west-northwest (291°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:53 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 6 seconds with dusk around 8:23 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the south-southeast (166°) at an altitude of 62° from the horizon, 251,293 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:01 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 52 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 11 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 3 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 33 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will continue to rain. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 46 degrees at 1am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 8th. Southeast wind 8 to 11 mph. Works for me. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2022, we had clear skies. It got down to 35 degrees. The record low of 25 occurred back in 1874.
Looking ahead, there are 8 weeks until Latest Sunset 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 8:38 pm with dusk at 9:12 pm. Then we start the slow but continuous glide to winter. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 86 and 61 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 82 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1943.
Today is pay day. Ever since I got my first job, I always “paid my future first.” In other words, at least part of my paycheck was automatically deposited into one kind of savings account or another, only to be touched when making a long-term purchase after allowing the money to grow for a number of years. This day of age, paying your future first is pretty easy — automatic deposits and automatic investing can withdraw money from the account where your direct deposit goes in, and it’s like the money never existed — except it does and it’s being saved. This not only accumulates over time, it also takes advantage of cost averaging — your buying into the market both in low-cost and high-cost times.
As I’ve gotten older, made a little more money, gotten promotions and the alike, I’ve increased the amount I’ve been doing to “pay my future first”. Normally if I get a raise, a cost of living adjustment, or a bigger tax break, I always put the majority of increased funds towards “paying my future first”. Sure I like having a little more money to spend, but I figure I am mostly content with my life now and no need to blow the money — when I can invest it and have more later on, compounded by interest and growth in the markets.
I’ve also diversified where I “pay my future first” money to. Diversity is a good thing because it ensures if any one investment doesn’t work out, there is another one to fall back on. If one goes down, one other is likely to go up. Some are tax-advantaged, like my ordinary IRA deferred compensation for retirement, while others like my Roth IRA are not tax-advantaged, at least not until I retire and take money out of that account.
Some of my investments are very stable but have very modest returns, like my FDIC-insured savings account, or the FDIC certificate of deposits. Some are mid-term investment accounts — things that are maybe have some substantial short-term risk but are investment vehicles that will grow at the rate of the market growth. The later will help me down the road in 10 or 15 years when I go to buy land and my off-grid cabin. I stay away from anything flashy or anything that I isn’t inherently diversified and is not easy to understand.
This has been a fairly successful strategy for me in the past. I paid for both my truck and the lift kit on my truck with cash, just withdrawing money from savings. By not paying interest, I saved quite a bit of money — especially when you consider the compounding nature of interest and depreciation. Likewise, by commuting to college, living at home, taking off time and saving money by avoiding costs however possible, I was able to avoid that trap known as college debt that is negatively impacting so many young adults these days.
Based on my long-range projections of investment and interest, I am really hopeful to be in a place to buy land and be able to move out of New York by the early 2030s (which sounds like a long ways off, but that’s really only about a decade away). The year may slightly change based on the growth of economy and recessions, but I think I have a plan for success. My goals are modest — an off-grid cabin, less then 1,000 feet with maybe 100 acres of land in wilderness — but I think given time I can make it a reality. Land is a lot more affordable in other states, especially if you don’t want a big fancy house, and are content to live in a small town and make less money going forward. But if I own land debt-free, don’t have monthly utility bills or fees, I can be quite rich without a big salary each month.
Want to be able to work with American Community Survey data offline using your own local copy of the ACS 5-year Summary File? It’s pretty easy to do with PANDAS. If you are planning a lot of Census queries, this can be a very fast way to extract data.
Before you can use this script, you will need to download some data:
Geography Table Lookup File (Links Logical Record Number to Geography): 5_year_Mini_Geo.xlsx
Summary File (Actual Data): 5 Year Sequence by State Summary File – Each state has two files, one with all geographies except Blockgroups, and one with just Census Tracts and Blockgroups
import pandas as pd
path = '/home/andy/Desktop/acs-summary-file/'
# list of geography
geo = pd.read_excel(path+'5_year_Mini_Geo.xlsx', sheet_name='ny',index_col='Logical Record Number')
# load headers
header = pd.read_excel(path+'ACS_5yr_Seq_Table_Number_Lookup.xlsx')
# create a column with census variable headers
header['COL_NAME'] = header['Table ID'] + '_' + header['Line Number'].apply(lambda a: "{0:.0f}".format(a).zfill(3))
# segment id, along with ACS year and state
segId = 135
year = 2019
state = 'ny'
# create a list of headers for segment file
segHead = ['FILEID','FILETYPE','STUSAB','CHARITER','SEQUENCE','LOGRECNO'] \
+ header.query('`Sequence Number` == '+str(segId)).dropna(subset=['Line Number'])['COL_NAME'].to_list()
# read the segment file, including column names above
seg = pd.read_csv(path+'e'+str(year)+'5'+state+(str(segId).zfill(4))+'000.txt',header=None, names=segHead, index_col=5)
# join the segment file to geography using Logical Record number
seg = geo.join(seg)
# calculate percentage of households with internet subscriptions -- codes from ACS_5yr_Seq_Table_Number_Lookup.xlsx
seg['Internet Subscription']=seg['B28011_002']/seg['B28011_001']*100
# output the percentage of households by county with internet subscriptions
seg[seg['Geography ID'].str.startswith('050')][['Geography Name','Internet Subscription']]
Geography Name
Internet Subscription
Logical Record Number
13
Albany County, New York
83.888889
14
Allegany County, New York
76.248050
15
Bronx County, New York
75.917821
16
Broome County, New York
82.222562
17
Cattaraugus County, New York
72.431480
…
…
…
70
Washington County, New York
80.224036
71
Wayne County, New York
81.508715
72
Westchester County, New York
86.371288
73
Wyoming County, New York
78.387887
74
Yates County, New York
75.916583
# alternatively you can display human readable columns automatically
seg.rename(dict(zip(header['COL_NAME'],header['Table Title'])),axis=1)
State
Geography ID
Geography Name
FILEID
FILETYPE
STUSAB
CHARITER
SEQUENCE
Total:
Has one or more types of computing devices:
Logical Record Number
1
NY
04000US36
New York
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
7343234.0
6581493.0
2
NY
04001US36
New York — Urban
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
6433524.0
5771681.0
3
NY
04043US36
New York — Rural
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
909710.0
809812.0
4
NY
040A0US36
New York — In metropolitan or micropolitan st…
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
7189902.0
6449723.0
5
NY
040C0US36
New York — In metropolitan statistical area
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
6796057.0
6109882.0
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
28400
NY
97000US3631920
Yonkers City School District, New York
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
74897.0
65767.0
28401
NY
97000US3631950
York Central School District, New York
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
2116.0
1964.0
28402
NY
97000US3631980
Yorktown Central School District, New York
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
7068.0
6751.0
28403
NY
97000US3632010
Cuba-Rushford Central School District, New York
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
2629.0
2186.0
28404
NY
97000US3699999
Remainder of New York, New York
ACSSF
201900000.0
ny
0.0
135.0
79779.0
75425.0
Too much work or don’t want to download the summary file yourself? You can query the Census API directly using PyPI’s censusdata library from PIP. For infrequent queries where you are online, for those with Internet at home, you would be much better off just querying the API directly.
import pandas as pd
import censusdata as cd
# attributes to load
cdcol=['B28011_001','B28011_002']
cdf = cd.download('acs5', 2019,
cd.censusgeo([('state', '36'),
('county','*')]),
cdcol)
# seperate out the geoid and geography name
geoid=[]
geoname=[]
for index in cdf.index.tolist():
geopart=''
for part in index.geo:
geopart = geopart + part[1]
geoid.append(geopart)
geoname.append(index.name)
cdf['geoid']=geoid
cdf['geoname']=geoname
# calculate percentage with internet subscriptions
cdf['Internet Subscription']=cdf['B28011_002']/cdf['B28011_001']*100
# output a similar table as above
cdf
Probably by midday it will mark 100 days of walking a minimum of 5 miles a day or 10,000 steps. 👣 That said, lately I’ve been doing a lot more. Yesterday that worked out to be more like 11 1/2 miles. Feeling great, except for my lack of sleep last night!
Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Partly cloudy with fog around and 41 degrees in Delmar for the morning walk. ⛅ Calm wind.
For the first time in a long time I did not sleep well 🛏 last night. Part of it was I didn’t get to bed until later then usual as I walked until 7:45 then went to the grocery store. By the time I was in bed and lights off it was closer to quarter before ten. Then I woke up at 2 am and struggled to get back to sleep. 😴
Worse thing about waking up during the night 🌃 is all the podcast ads magically become for Better Help, sleeping medications and mattress commercials. 💊 Can’t sleep at night, our online therapists can help you 24-7. Talking to a shrink is exactly what I need in this middle of the night when I can’t sleep. Really, lol. No I just need to get up, take a piss and get back to bed listening to some boring 💤 lecture of podcast.
Today will have increasing clouds 🌥 👉 ☁, with a high of 65 degrees at 3pm. Typical for today. Light and variable wind becoming southeast 5 to 10 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 54 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 1990. There was a dusting of snow in 1966.❄
Yesterday was a crickets day at work 🦗 it was dead quiet until it wasn’t. But then the project got sent back to the researcher and it was dead. I’ve been continuing to update R studio packages, and working on some interesting new maps. I like the quality of the simple maps I’m getting out of ggplot these days. Accidentally scheduled too many posts yesterday evening, but I’m moving them around and getting that fixed.
Got out walking after a quick dinner 🏃 managing to get in 11 1/2 miles for the day. Then I went grocery shopping. 🛒 When I got done ringing up my items from shopping, I had a bit of sticker shock after shopping — my bill rang up to $113. 😮 I know, but then again I needed coffee, salmon, and some other more expensive things that will likely last a month or two as a dole out the servings over time. I buy in bulk, and these days bulk buying is expensive. ☕ I expect my grocery bills to much closer to normal in coming weeks, but also I do expect they’ll run about $10-20 a week more then what they were before I started eating healthy. While in some ways healthy foods bought in bulk are less expensive, all the ingredients and variety just adds up. 👨⚕️ And it’s worth it if it keeps me healthy, as I noted last night.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:54 pm with sun having an altitude of 61.5° from the due south horizon (-9.3° 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 7:13 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (284°). 📸
The sunset is in the west-northwest (290°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:52 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 5 seconds with dusk around 8:22 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the south (188°) at an altitude of 66° from the horizon, 252,101 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:00 pm. At sunset, look for cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 59 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 14 hours of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 34 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly after 1am. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 45 degrees at 6am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 5th. Southeast wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of 27 occurred back in 1947.
Tomorrow will have showers. 🌦 High of 50 degrees at 2pm. 15 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 30th. Maximum dew point of 43 at 1pm. 🏖️ Southeast wind 9 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 61 degrees. The record high of 88 was set in 1888. 1 inches of snow fell back in 1885.❄
This weekend I want to work on the bicycle 🚲 rebuilding the wheel now that I have the gears off and spokes here. Once the wheel is trued, I will reinstall the tube. I’m not sure if I need a new rear tube, seems like it has a slow leak, I have rubber cement and rubber patches to fix it. Then I’ll order the remaining parts I need — a rear derailer cable and screw/adjuster plate. 👩🔧
Looking ahead to Sunday, showers, mainly after 2pm. High near 62. Southeast wind 6 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Maximum dew point of 51 at 7pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 66 degrees.
Looking ahead, next Friday is Cinco de Mayo 🤠 when the sun will be setting at 8:01 pm with dusk at 8:30 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 68 and 49 degrees. Right on target. Typically, the high temperature is 68 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 1944. I am hoping to get out of town next week, maybe to the Adirondacks so I can get eaten alive by black flies. But a lot depends on the weather. Some forecasts call for sun, others for rain, but it’s 7 days out and that’s always a wild card. I guess the alternative could be going out to Schoharie or Rensselaerville.
A few months back I posted several articles that I found in my research and reading about milkweed – how it’s wonderful for wildlife and really poisonous for livestock.
There are darn good reasons why farmers spray it and work to eradicate it from their farm fields. It can kill horses and cattle if mixed with their hay. That’s a big deal if you depend on your land for your livelihood that keeps you living the rural life. Seeing an animal die a painful death is traumatic to all involved.
But we need milkweed to support butterflies and our ecosystem. Like everything, there is a time and place. A noxious weed on the farm can also sustain life of other species, be part of a healthy ecosystem. The efficiency of clearing fields of noxious weeds is blamed for the decline of many common butterflies.
What is the solution? Probably a mix of both farming and places where milkweed can be planted and sustained in yards, nature preserves and land set aside by private owners for conservation purposes.
