I am very impressed by the EG4 equipment I've looked at in recent months, more then some of the other brands, but maybe because they are particularly glossy and maybe not as good of quality as other brands. Still the specs and interface is quite impressive. Who knows what will be avaliable though by the time I finally buy my own land.
I was driving past one of the homesteads out in Westerlo and there was an a door open to a brightly lit barn, and there was a very tall grass plant growing in it. I kind of chuckled, noting it’s legal now, looked like a good sized Satavia pot plant carefully kept and raised much like their hogs, cattle and chickens. I think it’s a wonderful thing now that such things don’t have to be secret anymore and we can all enjoy the magic plant once the dirty secret of many a county homestead until the cops came a knocking. Honestly, I never understood what is wrong with a little bit of giggling.
Not only did I have to replace the plug on the microwave after I broke the wire plugging it in and out, I broke a spoke 15 miles away in Millerton and had to limp the bike back. I replaced the spoke, not without removing the tire and having to reinflate it as the nibble also was broke, and now that is fixed.
It was a fun day yesterday, 🚲 and while the broke spoke trimmed a few miles off my trip limping it back to my truck, it was fine because it gave me more time to explore the Greenport Conservation Area. 🦋 Some great views there and a lot more to explore then I expected. Checked out the Copake Ironworks, Bash Bish Falls, the Mount Riga Wetlands, some Ancram. Oh, yeah hiked Beebe Hill in the morning, and drove back on NY 9J stupidly until the detour then along the detour through Kinderhook and back down to Croton on the Hudson. Ended my day stocking up on groceries and supplies at Wally World. 🔌 Including the replacement plug so I can use the microwave once again to heat up apples for using as a topping on pancakes. 🥞 It all worked out.
Today is another nice day and I’ll probably go out to Five Rivers 🐸 as much to test out the bike and make sure it’s ready with the wheel relatively true before the Monday commute. 🚲 Then shower 🚿 and head out to the folks. My eyes weren’t so irrated yesterday, 👀 using the drops and not staring at my phone helped a lot. 📱 I don’t think it was a bad choice not to go to Adirondacks this weekend, already the leaves are past peak so I didn’t miss anything too special. Next weekend if I head up on Friday, I’ll hang out in the Speculator-area and head up to Horseshoe Lake on Monday through Thursday, then up to Floodwood Road or somewhere out that way to do the St. Regis Canoe Area and some of the Adirondack Rail Trail. Nine nights so that works out at 3 nights each location, so no permit needed. 🎫 The rain on Wednesday should make things not as dry, and I think it will be cooler so to help further risk the fire risk, but I’ll also be careful where I camp, well away from dry grass, and any fires will be small and extinguished before bed. 🔥 I was just so busy last week the idea of packing and heading out to camp just seemed like a non-starter in my mind. And there was just no rain this past week. Certainly I saw some campfires on way back home last night, and they’re not prohibited but common sense says you get to be so careful when it’s so incredibly dry out.
I should hook it to a power strip rather then unpluging it all of the time.
See in my extreme mental illness, I discovered a few years back with my Kill-a-Watt meter that my microwave uses more electricity sitting idle then actually cooking food. While I use it maybe two times a month, as I don’t eat processed or most packaged food, the thing is the microwave uses 70 watt hours a day just to display to clock or 2.5 kWh a month or 30 kWh a year. That’s a lot of electricity for a clock I never look at.
It turns out microwaves often use a tap off the flyback transformer to run the clock, and that’s a wildly inefficient way to power a clock. But America is a very effluent nation, so we don’t normally notice such waste unless you are severely mentally ill. Then it’s like a dripping faucet to see all this money flowing out of your pocket like a leaky faucet.
I’ve been doing this for about 5 or 6 years now. The energy saved is equal to about my monthly electricity consumption, but I don’t have a lot of devices I power besides a hot water heater, reifgerator, stove, and a cellphone. I don’t own a television and the last time I had my computer at home was probably last winter.
Was it worth it, considering the cost replacing the broken plug from the worn-out power cord from being plugged in and out constantly? Probably yes with current power rates – 150 kWh at a quarter per kilowatt works out to be $37.50 and the plug was $6.32 at Wally’s World.
Columbia County and Western Dutchess County are fascinating places and have been as such for a long time. They are home to some of the Hudson Valley’s best farm lands but also some of wealthiest residents outside of city, brought up there by the scenic Taconic Parkway which has beckoned the wealthy north with scenic views and cheaper, beautiful land ever since it was constructed in the 1920s through the 1960s.
There is some real money in the hills there, just beyond the pungent apple and dairy country in the flatlands above the river. Hamlets with boutique stores with their hand painted signs and custom desserts, lunches and brews. Small businesses, but catering to the yuppie and wealthy up from the city. Not the crowd who wants cheap but function and shops at Wally World but seeks style and appeal to their senses.
It’s kind of a werid place. Both rural and charming but also much of the values of urbane and chic. While there are some run down houses and even trailer parks, much of the land is stylish rural houses and even farms that have been styled to bring in the tourist shopper, rather then working the land primarily. It’s kind of a werid feeling compared to what you might find in more deep rural regions, such as Northern Pennsylvania or some place like Chenango and Madison County NY, where the focus is in on working the land more than making something truly beautiful.
