Lately I spend more and more time visiting arboretums and public demonstration gardens exploring and photographing the flowers and trees. It’s not just a great way to take in the beauty but also observe nature.
Gardens serve many different purposes. An obvious one is personal food production and feed for livestock. Another is to draw in and support local wild, such as food plots for hunting and pollinator gardens that encourage and support local wildlife. I’m less thrilled about people bringing in non native species for purposes of beauty. Even if species are non invasive, you’re still playing with the forces of nature, posing a risk to local ecology just for a frivolous purpose. It’s one thing if it’s just to be eaten but beauty alone to disturb ecology seems troublesome in my mind.
Hoping it will warm up when I head into Mine Kill pool for a good swim. Long pants and the hoodie last night – and a big fire – with that pallet I got from the DEC warehouse and a month worth of junk mail, milk bottles, yougurt containers and frozen fruit bags. I don’t think the flames were more than five of six feet but don’t tell a liberal. I pulled out the nails and metal scraps this morning for recyclingand left everything cleaner then I when I got there.
Big Red’s 🛻 DIC says it’s sixty degrees this morning. Today is supposed to be warmer then yesterday which I skipped swimming 🏊 because it was so cool. Instead I got to camp fairly early mid-afternoon as I wanted to have a token 🪙 to with a beer 🍻 to enjoy the rich colors of the woods 🌲 and eat all that wonderful produce that I got from Shauls. I didn’t eat all $41 in fresh fruit and vegetables I got but most of those peaches 🍑 and sweet corn 🌽 didn’t survive long because they were in my mouth, along with the onions, 🧅 garlic 🧄, zucchini 🍆 all fried up with the tamaworth hog bacon 🥓.
It was so relaxing in that hammock yesterday. 😴 Both of the Betty Brook sites were taken so I ended up camping in the large field site near them. I’m not sure it’s a designated campsite but it’s regularly used. I don’t love it because it lacks trees 🌳 to tie the hammock and flags 🎌 but I ended up setting up camp in the woods. Didn’t bother running electric lights for one night. I had the lantern 🏮 back in the wooded campsite but I didn’t use it because I was worried about having enough propane. Besides all that good eating, enjoyed some grass 🦗 and beer, listened to David Robert’s Bear Ears about the fight over the proposed wilderness area of the same name and also Ansel Adam’s biography. The later one is definitely not a kids book. 📚
It just feels so good to be back. 🛻 Big Red is working good, the anxiety was all in my head. I swear half of the noises I hear is those dam hub caps but also there are noises that truck has been making for years as the ball joints, steering linkage complain about the angles and weight of the wheels. But there is no evidence that things are getting worse. The body is rotting out from 14 years worth of road salt including some section loss to the frame which is a bit alarming but honestly from what I’ve read there is a fair bit of redundancy but it certainly won’t make things feel tighter with fewer rattles.
Today I am going to walk 🚶 around Mine Kill, observe nature and the wildflowers 🌼and then spend the balance of the day either swimming 🏊 or laying along the side of the pool soaking in the sun. ☀️ Read 📖 and or listen to audio books 🎧 and just relax until around 3 pm and then head out to the folks house. I am just enjoying be able to be back at it, in the wilderness traveling and exploring. Truth is I doubt I’ll be in Schoharie again before summer is done so I might as well enjoy the Mine Kill Pool before it’s closed for the year.
I haven’t decided on next weekends plans but I feel like if it’s nice I should get out of town again. 🏕️ There is just not a lot of summer left. Due to staffing needs I can’t take off any time this week but maybe a week from Monday if I want a longer weekend as I think Nicole is back so we’ll have at least one supervisor who can cover for me. Maybe that’s the weekend for one last weekend up at the Potholers before summer is done though I prefer going up on Friday early so I can get the House Pond Campsite. ⭕
That said I’m almost hesitant to take additional days off before summer vacation 🏊 as I really feel like I’d rather just tack additional days on to my end of summer trip. It sounds weird but I’d rather have several days when I just spend hanging around camp 🏕️ and reading a book 📖 rather rushing from place to place.
The US Department of Labor compiles labor statistics by set formulas long set out by regulation and law. It uses data collected by all 50 states based on mandatory reporting of hiring and layoffs as part of the Unemployment Insurance program.
Every state collects their own data on unemployment based on those mandatory reports of an employer that offers unemployment insurance, which is most with a few narrow exceptions like entrepreneurs who own their own business and farms that employ their owners. That data has to be accurate, otherwise it’s insurance fraud.
It’s not to say data collection is perfect. Often it takes months to get all of the data collected and computed from all employers even in the age of computers. When there is not full data available, projections are made and those projections based on incomplete data. That can lead to revisions up and down as more data comes available.
The highly federated nature of the unemployment data collection makes it unlikely states could act in a conspiracy to distort the data, as such a conspiracy would quickly be leaked to the press. A lot of people in a room are bad at keeping secrets. Not to mention it’s hard to get everyone to agree on a certain way to rig things.
Casting doubt on the unemployment data really cuts both ways. If Trump appoints a loyalist to oversee labor statistics, people will be very skeptical if there is a good jobs report going forward, even if that’s that the data legitimately points to. Instead, many will claim the numbers are fake even if they are what the data shows.
It feels so good to be out here in Schoharie. Got an early start leaving a bit after 7 am. Decided to travel light, didn’t bring my bike or tube, as it’s cool and honestly I want to just set up camp early and relax – it’s been a tough few weeks even if it’s all in my mind.
Started out the day driving down through Hauverville and then out along Keyser Kill. 🏕️ Checked out the Keyser Kill campsite I’ve been thinking about exploring but it’s already taken. Looks nice for a future weekend not far from asphalt. Spend a little time at the Fultonham Rest Area, had to take a pee on a tree and walk 🚶 along the creek for a while.
Really too cold for swimming 🏊 today but tomorrow I plan to spend the balance of the day at Mine Kill before meeting mom and dad for Sunday dinner. 🍔 I wanted to take Monday off from work but I am the only supervisor in the office all week so guess who is assigning all work and pulling the work orders besides all the Director crap I normally do maintaining the database and developing 🎯 new targeting capacity.
I could have brought the bike 🚲 but I am not feeling ambitious today, my focus is get to camp early and lay in the hammock and read. 📖 Hiking Vromans Nose this morning, 🚶 then I’ll head to Middleburgh to get a case of beer 🍻 as I forgot that when packing the cooler. 🧠 My mind was so off while packing with the anxiety. You can say it’s not real, and it’s not but it doesn’t mean it’s not attacking one’s brain. Maybe I’ll also hike Middleburgh cliffs when I’m out that way. Then Shauls for sweet corn, tomatoes and especially zucchuni. 🍆 🌽 🍅 I dud bring good tammaworth hog bacon 🥓 to fry up with the zucchini.
It feels good to be away, 😀 to know that summer vacation is still a real possibility in a few weeks. That not all things are bad despite what my thoughts 💭 may be telling me. Where I can still get out in the country and enjoy the sunshine ☀️ and the hills and mountains ⛰️. I should be so more ambitious but overcoming anxiety has consumed so much of my energy. Yet it still feels kind of liberating to be out here, taking in the hills, mountains and farm landscape and know it’s not all real.
