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.
The other day I was on a work conference call – actually a Zoom meeting and there were people praising Costcos and saying how they traveled to Massachusetts the past week to shop there. Honestly, I can’t imagine traveling to shop at a Big Box grocery store during a pandemic but I guess different people have different values.
I had to puke in my mouth a little bit, off camera, as I’ve been opposed to the Rapp Road development which includes a Costco and a large apartment and townhouse complex in undeveloped woods right next to the butterfly corridor. Honestly I don’t care much about the Costco part of the proposal – it’s mostly in an abandoned residential neighborhood – but I do like many of my fellow environmentalists worry about the apartment complex. The Costcos is still a bit problematic in the sense their building a gas station over a sandy sole source acquifer so all gas leaks and spills will almost immediately mix into ground water and the proposal still demolishes some remaining pitch pine and dunes, that are easily restored to Pine Bush.
So it probably shouldn’t move forward or we should at least demand a tough mitigation to protect as much of the remaining Pine Bush as possible. So much had been lost in fifty years, even more is disappointing a few acres at a time – becoming harder and harder to sustain especially as climate change makes the Pine Bush with less late winter snow even harder to breed butterflies and other native species.
I’ve heard Costco in other parts of the nation are perpetually crowded. You have to think yuck during the pandemic. I can’t imagine shopping at any big box in the near future. A few times during the pandemic I’ve been to Walmart to get things not at Aldi’s, but I’ve finally drawn a line in the sand and said no more. It’s not worth getting Coronavirus to get something I can order online and get in a few days. I dont mind discount groceries and stores that have a limited selection but do we need such massive temples of consumerism?
Why do people get excited about lower prices at stores on Black Friday but not about cheaper prices on stock market? Cheaper prices means you get more shares for less money. What’s not to like?
I was told the other day, I should buy more shit. 💩
I’m like no, I’m tired of things breaking all the time and needing maintenance. I’m happy with the shit I already have. I don’t need anymore. I’d rather use the money, save and invest it, so I have a more secure retirement, and eventually can afford land that will be my own little kingdom in the wilderness.
I have to think about how much black smoke and how smelly most of that junk would be once it’s used up and you toss it in a fire to get rid of it! The best thing to do for your own life is to spend less money and invest more.
Another Example of GeoPandas and Python Spatial Joins 🗺
Yesterday, I posted a much more complicated piece of code that pulled addresses from the SAM (State Address Management) database and did a spatial join to add a column to the file with Assembly District and Municipality. This was a bit too complex, so I made a simpler one for other purposes that doesn’t require the coordinates to be obtained from SAM.
This python script takes two parameters:
Path to a CSV file that contains an X and Y coordinate
Path to a Shapefile or Geopackage to Join Against
Then the code will create a new CSV file with the spatially joined attributes pulled from the Shapefile. I have only run it on a few large data sets, but I found it took roughly 1 second to join 1,000 records from call to end of end of script.
#!/usr/bin/python
import requests,sys,json,os,csv
import pandas as pd
import geopandas as gpd
lines=[]
# read list of addresses from parameter 1
with open(sys.argv[-2], newline='') as csvfile:
for line in csv.DictReader(csvfile):
lines.append(line)
# convert to pandas
locPd = pd.DataFrame(lines,columns=lines[0].keys())
locPd.convert_dtypes()
locPd = gpd.GeoDataFrame(locPd, geometry=gpd.points_from_xy(locPd.x.astype('float32'), locPd.y.astype('float32')))
# run spatial joins against parameter 2
ad = gpd.read_file(sys.argv[-1])
locPd = gpd.sjoin(locPd, ad, op="within")
# remove added geometery and index columns
del locPd['geometry']
del locPd['index_right']
# write pandas back to out csv
locPd.to_csv (os.path.splitext(sys.argv[-2])[0]+'-output.csv', index = False, header=True)
I wonder if Arlo Guthrie would have ever thought that a half century later, radio stations across the would have regularly scheduled playings of Alice’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving.
It’s a bit shocking how much gray I see every time I look in the mirror. But graying hair is not uncommon as one heads towards the fourth decade of their life – historically for that age of mankind it was considered ones later years by 40s and 50s. Nowadays, we’ve doubled the typical lifespan but many of us still gray around the same time.
There are dyes and chemicals one can use to hid the splashes of gray popping up in my beard and parts of my hair widely sold at retailers all over. But I’m not really interested in putting toxic chemicals into my hair. If I am going gray, I figure it’s part of nature, a sign that I am maturing. The gray means I’m experienced, have had a little stress in my life, learned a few lessons over the years. It’s a reminder too that every day I must work towards my savings goals, as retirement and later years, are coming sooner then I want to admit. But I think I will make it. I have a plan, and I’m working to implement it.
