Black fly season camping is really pleasurable after dark when the black flies have disappeared for the night.🐜 Camping this time of the year really more of a night experience than one of enjoying the day.🌃 Often this time of year the nights are quite mild so it’s best to stay up until one or two in the morning and sleep in until nine or ten, doing your best to ignore the early morning sun. 🌄
A few months back I posted several articles that I found in my research and reading about milkweed – how it’s wonderful for wildlife and really poisonous for livestock.
There are darn good reasons why farmers spray it and work to eradicate it from their farm fields. It can kill horses and cattle if mixed with their hay. That’s a big deal if you depend on your land for your livelihood that keeps you living the rural life. Seeing an animal die a painful death is traumatic to all involved.
But we need milkweed to support butterflies and our ecosystem. Like everything, there is a time and place. A noxious weed on the farm can also sustain life of other species, be part of a healthy ecosystem. The efficiency of clearing fields of noxious weeds is blamed for the decline of many common butterflies.
What is the solution? Probably a mix of both farming and places where milkweed can be planted and sustained in yards, nature preserves and land set aside by private owners for conservation purposes.
People sometimes ask what I like to do while camping⛺ Besides sitting by the fire and listening to the spring peepers and the birds,🐸 I also will often put on some music or a podcast, especially in the evening.
In the day time I like to cook – I actually like camp cooking better than at home as I’m not distracted by all the other things going on at home. 🍳I also spend a lot of time reading as camping often is a long distraction free time for me. Lately I’ve been spending more time writing, 📚as I’m trying to capture more of my thoughts and experiences in words.
Camping in the wilderness is a chance to get away from all the noise and problems that are inherent in living in the city.
I’ve been hoping for a nice weekend to get up into the wilderness before black fly season got underway, but every weekend this April since the Easter holiday has been worse — and each weekend seems to get cloudier, cooler and rainer. Two weekends ago, I could have gotten out of town, and it would have been fine, but the forecast was wet. Last weekend was okay, until Saturday night when it absolutely poured. And then this weekend’s forecast.
At some point my luck will change. Indeed, Mothers Day Weekend might be a good one, as my parents aren’t going to be in town, and maybe depending when they get the state budget done, I can take off that Friday with just credited time. Black flies, if I decide to go up north might be bad. But maybe I’ll do Schoharie, especially if I get my bike working, it could be a lot of fun to ride some of the roads out there.