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.
I’ve always been a big fan of Blood Sweat and Tears’ 1968 hit, “And When I Die“,which actually was put out first by Peter, Paul and Mary on their their sixth studio album “The Peter, Paul and Mary Album”.
And when I die and when I’m dead, dead and gone, There’ll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on
I think those lyrics make a good point. Human life is inherently reproducible — it’s not steel or oil that gets used up. Just like livestock and all other animals, humans can and do breed to produce babies, most of which become children then adults. While each human has a personality – as do many animals – humans really just are masses of carbon-based cells and water. Raising a human life is an expensive proposition for sure, and their raising and life consumes a lot of resources, there is nothing really that special about human life.
Most humans only live about 70-80 years, and while they contribute to their families and communities in innumerable ways, their personal impact on the larger world over time is fairly minimal. While It’s sad to see a loved one or a friend leave this world, but realistically their just one of millions, one whose life will be reproduced like any other commodity at the factory. Rather then focus on life itself, we should focus on personal enjoyment, human freedom, and dignity.
While life on it’s own may not be valuable or even noteworthy, experience and human freedom is something worth preserving. Meaningful time in one’s life is short, it’s essential one gets out and enjoys it. We should do everything in this world to maximize the enjoyment of our own lives and those of fellow citizens, stop celebrating life alone — as life without experience is meaningless. It’s not meaningful or even significant that we have preserved life, when what really matters, is that we are giving individuals a chance to enjoy a meaningful life and a better tomorrow.
I have no formal GIS training, as things were still pretty primitive back when I was in college in the early 2000s especially when it came to web services, online data and open source software. Computers where a lot less powerful back then. I remember vaguely hearing a bit about Remote Sensing when I was involved in the Environmental Science Club in college, but it wasn’t something I ever used.
I picked up QGIS in 2010, as I was looking for a way to make my own topographic maps, as I wasn’t happy with what you could get on the Internet. I learned I could FOIL the Primitive Campsite Shapefile from the DEC and get data from there to help find campsites. I was pretty good at map and compass stuff from my years in Boy Scouts. Over time, I’ve branched out into other GIS areas. I’m always been very interested in land use but also demographics.
More recently I’ve been doing more automation of processes, using Python and R statistical language to do some map plotting and a lot of Census data gathering and processing. I like working with R it’s fast and easy to implement code in. I’ve also lately been doing a lot more with Leaflet and web services more generally.
I don’t do anything professionally with maps, it’s just a hobby.
I call bullshit when people call their home their biggest investment, or say that home ownership is an investment at all.
Houses fundamentally are a consumable, they provide for a human need but are intended to be used up and discarded. While with enough money and effort they can be maintained to a high level of habitability and ultimately resold, there is no guarantee of profit even if the sale price is often higher than the initial purchase price.
When I buy my land and build my cabin, I am not seriously considering what will make me the most profit when I go to dispose of it in later years. Maybe the value of my house won’t ever even be a relevant question — if I build what I like and live there the rest of my life — then it really doesn’t matter if the property goes to a negative million dollars in value. Once I’m dead, it’s somebody else’s problem. Instead, I plan to build what I what, regardless of what it does to the sale value of the property in out years.
It’s not say I plan to build cheap, ugly trash that has no value at all — or that I plan to degradate the land and the property. My goal is build sustainability, on a scale that fits me. Not the next person to own my land. To use materials in a right fashion, not because they’re popular or will make appreciate in value in the future.
On my blog, I am often known for my wild and free nature, the cowboy hat, saying my thoughts on how I think the world should work. My ideas are some liberal, some conservative, there’s a mix. I am pretty much know for my maps, camping in the wilderness with Big Red, and open, rural country I love to explore.
At the same time, I have to contrast that to my much more mundane life on the weekdays as a communications professional and political coordinator. The cowboy hat and big jacked up truck is put on the rack for the suit and tie, and a ride on public transit to the big office building downtown from the suburb to the city.
As my bottom of my goatee turns increasingly gray, as do splotches of my hair, I become more and more concerned about my professional development, my retirement, my savings and my tomorrow. Not because I expect to ever become a suit and tie guy at heart, but I do like the money, especially what is saved and invested for tomorrow. I dress up and play the role, not because I love the suburban life, but because I know what it’s paying for tomorrow.
That’s the question of the day over at WordPress.com. I figured I would briefly discuss why I enjoy my job.
First and foremost, work has to be about money. It’s not work if your not getting paid for what you. While pay isn’t the only consideration in life, a good paycheck and benefits can go a long ways to make even the most awful job not so awful, especially when you clock out for the day.
Second, work should be meaningful. I enjoy delivering results for my clients, the look on both their face and my face when I deliver a quality product.
Third, I’ve gotten to like not working downtown. It’s so much quieter working up in Menands, without the craziness of downtown and politics. The dress code is casual, the hours regular and predictable. Parking is easy should I choose to drive in, or it’s not bad biking in either.
Fourth, I like working with others to solve problems. Some of the best times at work are reaching out to others, discussing the issues in front of you, finding solutions by working with others who have expertise in their part of the business.
Fifth, I enjoy coming up with solutions to problems using automation and technical skills, often with real creative thought and effort. It’s fun to come up with time saving solutions and play with code and commands to fix real world problems in the business.
Meteorological winter comes to an end today. This has been a colder winter then recent ones — we only had one 60 degree day, hitting 62 degrees on December 21st. Previous winters in recent memory had some 70 degrees days.
