While I’ve done this a dozen times before, it always amazes me that with my laptop, VPN connection and my phone as a hotspot I can grab a file off the work server and email it to a colleague in milliseconds, just like I was in the physical office – in the Adirondack wilderness five miles from the nearest electrical wire or ethernet.
Maybe if I wasn’t such a luddite who refuses to have television or home internet I might be less amazed about the technology. Or even a fancy phone or laptop. My equipment is decidedly inexpensive and outdated compared to what a lot of kids have nowadays.
Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Nice to be up north on a Friday, doing remote work, although it seems like the fun is coming to the end with a new CDC guidance and the desire for normalcy. 👨💻 Back to old ways on the bus and in the office. But for the past year, I’ve been able to spend a lot of summer up in the woods with my hotspot and phone. Two weeks to Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ . Sunny and 49 degrees in Speculator, NY. 🌞 There is a west breeze at 5 mph. 🍃.
A beautiful morning to start out the day, 😎 and with the sun and clear skies. I am going to work from the screen tent this morning and my hotspot, but will probably head in mid-day to town to get some lunch and ice cream, and the my afternoon zoom meeting I’ll do at the Spectulator Library wi-fi. Maybe sit down by the lake in the afternoon 💻 with the laptop. I got to say it’s fun while it lasted, although it seems like there is a lot of discussion what the future is — people like remote work, and if the work is getting done, who really cares if it’s happening in a cubicle downtown or up in the wilderness. 🌲 The world of smartphones and laptops isn’t the world of 1970 any more. 📱 Things are changing.
Had a nice fire last night, 🔥 and sat out and looked at the stars for a while ✨ although I didn’t stay up super late as it was an early start yesterday, as I had to make it to Speculator by 9 AM to clock in and get started for work — although admittedly I started my day in Wells, because I was running late. Kind of a busy day at work, lot of meetings and emails, but I got to spend a little time down at Lake Pleasant with a book in the evening before heading back to camp to get things set up. 🍳 Eggs and sausage for breakfast today, it was nice to sit outside for a while before the black flies got to bad. 🐜
Today will have increasing clouds ☁, with a high of 68 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 6th. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 70 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1900.
I may have to be a bit careful about managing my energy resources by the end of the day 🔋 but for now things should be well charged. The important thing is having enough power for the laptop, 💻 I can live with having reduced power tonight, as tomorrow will be sunny and I’m planning to head somewhere else in the Adirondacks and the alternator can top things off so I should be good for the rest of the weekend. I want to camp somewhere tomorrow where I don’t have cell reception, so I can have some time off the grid where I’m not constantly bombarded by news and happenings. 🤫 I want to do some reading this weekend 📚 and not be constantly playing on the Facebook or TikTok.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:55 pm with sun having an altitude of 65.2° from the due south horizon (-4.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:34 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (290°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (297°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:15 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 18 seconds with dusk around 8:47 pm, which is one minute and 5 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-northwest (283°) at an altitude of 24° from the horizon, 249,065 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:29 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 57 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 41 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 10 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 37 degrees at 4am. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 16th. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2020, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 57 degrees. The record low of 31 occurred back in 1977.
This evening I will be participating in the Zoom between John Wolcott and Don Rittner. 🎙Yes, remotely from the Adirondacks. It should be a real interesting one for sure, although I doubt I’ll be doing much of the talking. But if I have questions, all I ask them. 📹 It should be a very interesting discussion. My new phone has good service where I am camping, which is good both for this interview and remote work.
Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 68 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 6th. West wind 5 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 84 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1900.
I haven’t totally decided where I will hike tomorrow, 🏃♀️ but I have some ideas, mostly around Spectulator. I wouldn’t mind a hike up Watch Hill again but I don’t think the road past Mason Lake is open yet for the summer. 😞 Otherwise, that would be a nice hike and place to camp. I thought about Hope Falls Road, but I want to stay up through Monday, that’s pretty far south if I am coming back north to work on Monday. 💭 So I don’t really know — but I want to spend much of the weekend off the grid.
Looking ahead to Sunday, scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 68. Northwest wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 43 at 8pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 71 degrees.
I could head home on Sunday, but Monday looks nice enough that I should try to get one more day in working from Spectulator. 👨💻 It going to be back to riding the bus and big office 👨💼 for the second half of the week, so you got to take advantage of what you can, when you can. I’m a little bummed out that panademic is ending but I really also understand the benefits of in-person work, the social interactions and emotions conveyed at are missing over email ✉️, phone 📞 and the Zoom. 📹 At least I feel good knowing that as a vaccinated person, 💉 I won’t have to worry about getting very sick from the COVID and mask wearing isn’t required 😷 except on buses, stores, and common places — mainly because the law, not because it will make me safer. Studies are pretty clear that the COVID vaccine is safe and very protective. ⚗ My hats off to the scientists that developed it.
As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ when the sun will be setting at 8:28 pm with dusk at 9:02 pm. On that day in 2020, we had hot and humid weather that was mostly cloudy and temperatures between 83 and 68 degrees. I remember it well, I was working in Spectulator. Typically, the high temperature is 75 degrees. We hit a record high of 93 back in 2016.
I don’t anticipate going back to the Adirondacks for Memorial Day Weekend ⛺ this year as I expect to be fairly busy with work and the bugs are bad and things are crowded. Maybe next weekend I’ll do Madison County or maybe that will wait until June. I thought about the Green Mountains but I’d have to camp where I have good reception 📶. I’ll have to think about it more.
Ray Archuleta has had a long career in the world of agronomy and promoting healthy soils. Starting out with the NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Services) to now serving as part of the Soil Health Academy that helps educate farmers and landowners on promoting healthy soils. This has been a long time coming to bring Ray into our Soil Health Series and we couldn’t be more excited! Soil Health has become a concern for many people in the food plot world but it’s important we don’t chase fads, product endorsements, and nonsensical practices. Let’s face it, food plotters, like ourselves like to play farmer. Ray is a consultant dealing with farmers day in and day out, and is a farmer himself. The clear line between the ag world and recreational hunting land is farmers are relying on their practices to make an income, hunters aren’t. With that being said we found it important to go straight to one of the most recognized agronomists in the world today to discuss soil health. We get his answer on many practices for soil health including, grazing, perennial versus annual, monoculture versus diversity, and why we should be focusing on all of our land not just areas of crops or food plots. It’s a very interesting discussion so dive in with Ray “The Soil Guy” Archuleta. #Forloveoftheland Land & Legacy is Powered by Simplecast
Good morning! Happy Thursday. Six weeks to Strawberry Moon 🍓🍓🍓🌕 . Those wild strawberries, the Juneberries are good. As are the ones from the farm markets in the Schoharie Valley. Mostly sunny and 55 degrees in Speculator, NY. There is a north-northwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. An early start, although not so early that I did hit some traffic around Schenectady and Amsterdam, but I made it up to Wells by 9 AM to check into work, and then Spectulator by mid-morning to work on the Wi-Fi up here. 📶 I was supposed to leave by 7 AM, but somehow at the end, things got slowed up and I didn’t get on the road until closer to 7:20 which meant more cars and school buses 🎒 to deal with.
This is the last Thursday I’ll be doing remote work, so I figure I should maximize it while I can. 👨💻 Next week starts 50% staff plus ramping up close to full-time in office come summer, although people still want some flexibility, and not sure if it always makes sense to do in-person when there isn’t meetings or trainings. Remote work is fun, especially when your out of town, but it’s still work — meaning I’m still fielding calls, writing emails and working on the laptop. But I do look forward to seeing my co-workers more in the office, and the benefits of face-to-face contact 👩💼 👨💼 that is rather lost off the Internet. 😷 It seems like masks will be the normal for a while on the bus and around the water cooler, but I really do kind of look forward things getting back closer to normal.
I am going to probably stay up north until Monday after work, 😎 but a lot depends on the weather and how I feel. I want to do some hiking and fishing on Saturday and Sunday. 🎣 I am hoping to also participate in the video call 📹 we are doing with John Wolcott and Don Rittner about the Pine Bush 🌲 on Friday night but that depends if I have cell services or not where I am camping. 📱 A lot depends on whrere I ended up.
Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 65 degrees at 4pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 28th. North wind around 8 mph. Probably back in Albany, it will be closer to normal. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 59 degrees. The record high of 86 was set in 2004. There was a dusting of snow in 1953.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:55 pm with sun having an altitude of 65° from the due south horizon (-5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:33 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (290°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (297°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:14 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 17 seconds with dusk around 8:46 pm, which is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-northwest (289°) at an altitude of 15° from the horizon, 250,745 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:28 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 57 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 39 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 13 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 39 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 21st. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. I brought the heater as I might need it by morning to warm my hands. At least no ice or snow. In 2020, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of 30 occurred back in 1996.
A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Saturday, isolated showers after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 67. West wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Maximum dew point of 38 at 8am. Sunday, a chance of showers after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 66. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 43 at 8pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 71 degrees.
It should be nice up north, about what you would expect for this time of year. 😎 Not too warm, fairly typical. Maybe some thunderstorms, but that’s expected this time of year. I want to do some hiking and laying back in the hammock, although I admit I’ll probably be a prisoner to the screen tent 🎪 more then I want to admit when the black flies are biting around. 🐜 I am thinking hiking back to Bennett Lake or maybe Wilcox Lake or somewhere along the East Branch. Or if Mason Lake is open, maybe up that way.
One month 📅 from now will be Fathers Day 👨 when the sun will be setting at 8:39 pm with dusk at 9:15 pm. The average high temperature is 71 degrees, with a record high of 86 in 2004.
Next weekend starts May. That means it won’t be a long before the black flies start swarming the woods. They can sure be nasty during their working hours – eight o’clock to sunset.
Not sure if I will come back to the Adirondacks again in May because even by next week they’ll be out, especially if things are as warm as expected by mid-week. Maybe not terrible next weekend but I’m sure there will be a few early ones out and bitting. I have the screen tent but I’m not interested in being a prisoner of the tent until dusk, so I might plan trips to other places the next few weeks.
I was annoyed to see a family with their children left an empty worm container down by the river 🎣
What an obnoxious message to be teaching the children about being responsible about litter. Now it’s good that parents are getting their children outdoors but they should be a lot more responsible. I’m no preachy leave no trace actvist but you should minimize the impacts on the environment while using the land.
Good morning! Happy Pink Moon 🌕 ! It was pretty brilliant last night, although I didn’t stay up too late or under the moonlight because it was too cold with breeze, and because I decided the fire risk was too high to have a fire. Next Tuesday is 8:30 PM Dusk 🌆 . Partly cloudy and 42 degrees in Speculator, NY. ⛅ There is a west breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Maybe more sun for a while mid-day but I’m not expecting a real beautiful day for sure.
Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 59 degrees at 5pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 17th. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 46 degrees. Kind of like today, although I am sure it is warmer back in Albany. The skies will clear around 11 am.er back in Albany. The record high of 91 was set in 1962. Nothing like that today. There was a dusting of snow in 1946.❄
Back up a the Spectulator Library, working remotely. 💻 I have to head home this evening after work, as I have a meeting on Wednesday downtown, and truth be told the next few days are going to be quite rainy. But it’s nice to get away for a few days for sure. I wish we had more sun today, ☀️ but I didn’t use the electric lights last night, for quick take down, so my battery bank is in good shape 🔋 for today. I might work down by the lake after lunch, it depends on how mild it was.
Last night was nice, but a bit chilly. 💨 While there was a lot of moonlight, the wind was whipping around although by the time I got back from my walk after dark along Old Route 8B, there wasn’t so much of a cold wind whipping around. 🌟 But with the dry grass and the wind, 🌱 I decided the night was best for sitting next to the propane heater, looking at the stars rather then starting a fire. 🔥
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:56 pm with sun having an altitude of 60.4° from the due south horizon (-9.5° 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 7:16 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (284°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (290°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:55 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 8 seconds with dusk around 8:25 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:04 pm. At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 56 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 13 hours and 59 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 42 degrees at 5am. Typical for tonight. Light and variable wind. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2020, we had light rain in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 39 degrees. The record low of 25 occurred back in 1947.
Cool this weekend with temperatures running 11 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. 😃 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 50. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 59. Typical average high for the weekend is 65 degrees. Actually, that isn’t too bad when you consider you are comparing Spectulator weather to Albany weather. Not sure if I have plans for the weekend — I’ve thought about maybe Madison County, as it’s been a while since I’ve been on the road, although maybe I want a weekend off after this weekend. I’ve really wanted to do some paddling along Nine Mile Swamp 🚤 and I could certainly work remotely one day up at Cherry Ridge Camping Area.
As previously noted, next Tuesday is 8 PM Sunset 🌇 when the sun will be setting at 8:03 pm with dusk at 8:34 pm. On that day in 2020, we had partly sunny, rain showers and temperatures between 61 and 45 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 66 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 1944.
