Salmon River Reservoir

The Salmon River arises in north central New York State on the Tug Hill Plateau to the east of Lake Ontario. It flows 44 miles (71 km) westward off the plateau and there is a hydroelectric dam near Little America to create the Salmon River Reservoir. Both the Salmon River and Salmon River Reservoir are heavily visited destinations for fishermen during peak season. Below the dam it continues westward for about a mile eventually creating Salmon River Falls which is a large 100-foot (30 m) drop as the river continues its westward progress towards yet another dam and the Lower Salmon River Reservoir. It continues westward through the village of Altmar through Pulaski to Lake Ontario. The inlet is referred to as Port Ontario, though it is no longer an active commercial port. The watershed drains 285 square miles (740 km2).[1]

The river is noted for its recreational salmon fishery today. The fishery is possible due to the efforts of the Salmon River Fish Hatchery that is located north of Altmar on a tributary to the Salmon River called Beaver Dam Brook. The hatchery stocks over 3.5 million trout and salmon each year in the surrounding areas.[2] In early history this was Atlantic salmon, but now these have been mostly replaced by stocked coho, chinook, and steelhead which make spawning runs upriver from Lake Ontario in autumn.

The river has become a popular location for kayaking and river rafting during parts of the year when the dam is released, with several companies making excursions to the river.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_River_%28New_York%29
http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/60775.html
http://www.quietkayaking.webs.com/qknyssalmonriver.html

Midwest Love songs 😍 🚜

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That was the name of the trashy audio book I’ve been listening to that has a distinct taste of silage and smallest town life. It’s a story about several small town people, a rock and roll star and a family living on a dairy in Wisconsin, you know bonfires, working the land, etc. I’m just tired of the crowded east coast and the values of the eastern establishment and those who play to their values in the most scummy of ways, I’m probably talking about myself or maybe Bob Moses.

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Sunny and 31 degrees in Bethlehem, NY. 🌞 There is a north breeze at 7 mph. 🍃.

Taking the bus to work today as I found another small, slow leak in my bike tube. 🚍 Apparently whatever I ran over put several small wire shards through the tube. I should get some fix a leak — next time I go to the store and fill both of my tires with it, and pick up an extra tube just so I have it in reserve so I’m not waiting for a patch to dry, unsuccessfully. I think I let that rear tire go too long before rotating it, and I concede even now I’ve rotated the tires, I need to get new tires soo.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 54 degrees at 3pm. 10 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 5th. North wind 6 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 54 degrees. The record high of 89 was set in 2009. 0.3 inches of snow fell back in 1928.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:54 pm with sun having an altitude of 60.8° from the due south horizon (-10.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:10 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (283°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (289°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:49 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 8:19 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:56 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 51 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 54 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 37 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be clear 🌃, with a low of 28 degrees at 5am. 13 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 23rd. Northwest wind around 5 mph. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 30 degrees. The record low of 24 occurred back in 1972.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a slight chance of showers after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 63. South wind 5 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Maximum dew point of 36 at 9pm. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 71. Maximum dew point of 56 at 4pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 65 degrees.

Looking ahead, there are 10 weeks until Independence Day 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 8:37 pm with dusk at 9:10 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 84 and 54 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 83 degrees. We hit a record high of 104 back in 1911.

Above Northville Feels Like The Adirondacks

He had a long chain on… 🐕‍🦺

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It’s pretty amazing to think that Jimmy Driftwood would pen 6,000 songs in his lifetime, including several hit records. Not bad for a High School principal from Arkansas.

Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Clouds with rain showers around and a fairly comfortable 48 degrees at the Exit 23 – Albany (I-787). ☔ There is a south breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 2 am. ☃️ Might need to close my windows this evening it would seem.

I got a flat tire yesterday on my bicycle 🚲 so I did not ride to work yesterday and ended up driving in yesterday 🛻 as it was too late to catch the express downtown. I hate motoring to work, especially if I’m not heading out of town but it was the best option and I needed to get groceries and supplies at Wally World 🛒 at any rate later in the week. That said, I really don’t enjoy driving to work, and because the patch didn’t seem to hold air last night, I am taking the bus in and will walk from the Plaza down to work.

Today will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 61 degrees at 2pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 19th. Maximum dew point of 47 at 12pm. South wind 8 to 18 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 56 degrees. The record high of 81 was set in 2001. 1.2 inches of snow fell back in 1967.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:54 pm with sun having an altitude of 60.4° from the due south horizon (-10.4° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:09 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (282°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (289°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:48 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 8:17 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:55 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 49 degrees. Breezy, 16 mph breeze ⛅ from the north-northwest. Today will have 13 hours and 52 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming clear ☁, with a low of 29 degrees at 4am. 12 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 26th. North wind 7 to 15 mph. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of 23 occurred back in 1965.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 62. Maximum dew point of 40 at 5pm. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Maximum dew point of 58 at 5pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 65 degrees.

As previously noted, next Wednesday is May 🕊 when the sun will be setting at 7:57 pm with dusk at 8:26 pm. On that day in 2023, we had rain and temperatures between 59 and 45 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 66 degrees. We hit a record high of 86 back in 2001.

Looking Up at the Clouds

A bit of a chilly start to a nice Tuesday ahead 🪟

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I concede that it doesn’t help that I left at least some of my windows open last night and all of them are open now for the fresh air.

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Sunny and 35 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌞 There is a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Thursday around 2 am. ☃️

Johnny cakes are with broccoli and onion 🧅 this morning topped with Greek yogurt. A very filling breakfast for sure. Had a banana 🍌 and some coffee ☕. Nice sunny 🌞 morning, looking forward to riding to work. 🚲

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 66 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 29th. South wind 5 to 15 mph. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became light drizzle by afternoon. The high last year was 54 degrees. The record high of 87 was set in 2007. 2.4 inches of snow fell back in 1956.❄

Caught another mouse last night 🪤, this time not the big sucker of last time. 🐁 Since the neighbor moved out and they’ve been renovating the unit next door 🚪 been catching more mice. That mouse zapper trap remains awesome as it’s so easy to use time and time again. Easy to clean and rarely do mice eat the bait before getting zapped. Then you just dump them out.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:54 pm with sun having an altitude of 60.1° from the due south horizon (-10.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:09 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (282°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (288°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:47 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 3 seconds with dusk around 8:16 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-southeast (116°) at an altitude of 5° from the horizon, 248,349 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:54 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 59 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 14 mph with gusts up to 24mph. Today will have 13 hours and 49 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over yesterday.

Got the basics at Hannaford yesterday, 🛒 you know onions, broccoli, 🥦 and frozen fruit. 🍓 In the morning I got bananas 🍌 and apples 🍏 to eat at work. It’s nice being able to stop on the way home when I bike commute. I guess that’s a convience I miss by busing it to work. Made a quick stir fry 🍳 when I got home last night and then went to the Town Park 🏞 for a walk and to read 📖 for a while. Ebooks are great, free from the library.

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly after 3am. Increasing clouds 🌧, with a low of 44 degrees at 6am. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 3rd. South wind 11 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 38 degrees. The record low of 25 occurred back in 1965.

One of the great things about being able to computer program 🖥 is when the programs they give you at work aren’t working properly you can code your own. That is really handy. Been so busy at work lately but maybe it’s because I’m always coding and working on improving processing at work. But I love the job 😍 and always want to be improving things. Already got to run the label 🔖 job for the May birthday 🎂 mailer today. How fast the month comes and goes. I think that means today is a pay day too.

The weekend doesn’t look half bad. ☀ I’ll have to figure out something fun for Saturday. Probably not camping this weekend as I did it last. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 61. Maximum dew point of 41 at 7pm. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Maximum dew point oyvf 57 at 3pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 65 degrees.

Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until 8 PM Sunset 🌇with dusk at 8:34 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 59 and 45 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 69 degrees. We hit a record high of 92 back in 1930.

Trees

It’s Earth Day, Prepare Yourself for Green Living Advertising …

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Very Green

Every day it seems like the marketers are thinking of new products that can give a good green-wash, and sell as a premium, especially around the occasion of Vladimir Lenin’s birthday, popularly known as Earth Day. It’s actually pretty ironic that the capitalists of the world have taken Vladimir Lenin birthday’s to sell marked-up “green” products. Market-specialization does mean you can charge a higher price.

The best way to live green is to buy nothing. Every material item you buy has an environmental impact. The question should always be when shopping — do I really need this item?

A person smarter then me once said, “Nothing becomes obsolete faster then the future.” Futuristic technologies often become obsolete quickly, as do many of the trendy green-products whose use often doesn’t live up to the hype. Sure, energy efficiency standards are necessary to create a floor for products and spur innovation, but much that is hyped as green technology rarely lives up to it’s promise. If something where to save a lot of energy, or have superior environmental performance, why isn’t it used already?

I often thought, farmers and sportsmen are some of the greenest people out there. If you spend a lot of time in the field and the forest, you learn a lot about nature. Hunters spent countless hours peering down from their tree stands, observing the world around them. Farmers know the cost of food waste firsthand, they work tireless hours to produce the raw materials that turned into food. People who live off-grid know how much energy really costs — especially when their battery voltage starts dropping. Country boys who burn their own trash, know exactly how noxious some of the materials are they consume every day.

The greenest thing you can do on Earth Day, is spend no money. Stay off of Amazon, away from the stores. Go for a walk to a nearby nature preserve or park, spend some time observing nature. Go fishing, go hiking! If you can walk to work and your destination, that’s even better, but if you have to hop a bus going that way, it’s better then driving. Don’t by into commercialism crap this Earth Day.

Homesteading and Earth Day! 🚜 🌎

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There are really two kinds of schools of thought around conservation and environmentalism more generally. There are the back-to-earth types, and more high-tech oriented ways of doing things, emphasizing technological solutions to environmental problems like solar panels, lithium ion batteries, heat pumps, electric cars, etc.

The technocratic environmentalists are often pushing for top-down solutions that use the latest in research to provide solutions to human needs and wants that use advanced materials to reduce per capita carbon emissions. They often look at per capita emissions, multiplying them out by population, and have bold hopes that with the right technologies we as a society can be less polluting and less destructive to the earth. Their much touted-solar and wind farms sound great on paper, but what does it mean to the environment and landscape when a lot of our energy comes from them sprawled out over millions of acres?

In many ways, they seem hopelessly naive. For one thing, many of green things in aggregate are less green, especially those who which use heavy metals like cadmium-infused glass for solar panels or various rare-earths for magnets or even more natural materials like timber or farm crops rather then plastics. Often people are sold on things being compostable, even though they are quickly used and discarded to a landfill which is largely sealed from air, bacteria and water to speed biodegradation. Many material collected for recycling ultimately have no value and end up being landfilled. There definitely is a lot of scams surrounding the green-living, high-tech environmentalism put forward by some.

On the other hand, you have the back-to-the-land homesteaders, the off-griders, and country folk who produce a lot of their own needs from the lands they live in. While their per capita emissions might be higher — not everybody can live on 20 or 40 or even a 100 acres of land — in many ways they are living much closer to the earth. Where they raise and harvest their own meat and vegetables without plastic packaging, generate their own power on-site largely using renewables, manage their own waste by composting, burning, reuse and off-site recycling. Rather then consuming 10.3 MWh of fossil-fueled grid power electricity per year and 400 therms of gas per year, and having bins full of trash weekly trash-haul, they are much more self-sufficient.

Technocratic environmentalists often look down at homesteaders. All ruminants from cows to sheep burp methane when they breakdown hay and grass in their stomachs. Off-grid and farm living often means hauling large machinery and water tanks, which means fuel-hungry pickup trucks. Wood stoves and burn barrels produce noxious smoke at levels far above the urban-dweller who relies on gas or electric heat and uses a municipal landfill or incinerator to dispose of waste. Livestock produce manure and make mud which can run-off and is smelly. Even regulated hunting and trapping consumes animals, even if it’s below levels that significant impacts the environment. Remote locations often require longer commutes both for work and purchasing things.

I am not fan of feel-good environmentalism. Certainly I am willing to embrace green technology if it actually improves sustainability, reduces emissions and protects the environment but it can’t be like so many of green technologies popularly sold today to “do your part”. I do respect those who live close to earth, be it homesteader or farmer, who rejects technology and mass-media crass commercialism. That life might be more enviromentally-impactful on a per capita basis, but better for local environment and certainly the person who lives such a life.