How a $30 Billion Welfare Program Became a ‘Slush Fund’ for States – WSJ
Just so fucking cold ❄️
Negative five this morning, which isn’t that bad I guess but the wind is howling around. But aren’t you planning a trip up to Northern Michigan and Wisconsin to potentially establish a homestead upon retirement? Don’t you know it’s much fucking colder up there, smashing ice in water troughs and pitch forking frozne manure but maybe not with a woodstove and a forest to feed it, hot bovine breath and a burn barrel incinerating all that plastic trash, standing up wind from the stinky black smoke to warm my hands on.
The years of waste, the years of crime. 🗑️ Singing along with Country Joe and Fish. 🐠 Man I can’t fucking wait until I have that fucking big assed truck with the Godzilla engine, 🐲 even if I do feel the need to defend living in suburbs in a rundown apartment and riding my mountain bike 🚲 to work, as mid-level manager. I was looking back on that trip two years ago now when I was looking at land out in Washington County, actually technically Rensslear County for potentially building that off-grid cabin 🏡. Such beautiful country but New York State fucking sucks in many ways, even if it’s where I make my money over seeing the Data Services divsion. 💰 It was such an accomplishment at least in my mind getting all the parts together last week, formalizing our Digital Lists division through Work Order Tracking, took a lot of conjouling of different divisions to get all those parts working. It’s good to know something you built in your agency will likely last long beyond your tenure and get us set up for the future. 🖥️
Yesterday was cold and boring, 💤 stuck at home watching YouTube, scrolling through social media, reading a little 📚 and mostly just laying in bed under the heated blanket as I try to enjoy some warmth without cranking up the heat too much. I was thinking I do want to get up to Peaked Rock along the Batten Kill again, once the snow is gone and maybe after the roads open back up in Vermont to camp with my Godzilla with the camper. Trout fish 🎣 the Batten Kill! ⛽ I make so many excuses about the 7.3L and bad fuel economy, but that really is the truck I want even if it is mad expensive both to buy and drive. But I economize on so many other parts of my life, keep my heat at 48 degrees and don’t blow money at the bars or plastic retailers, and it’s not like I’m broke, with my retirement and investments doing good. Godzilla is six months of capital gains, at the rate of last year.💸 It’s not like I haven’t set aside the cash for it. Not going to drive that big assed truck to work unless I’m heading to the mountains after work to camp for a weekend or longer. Yet, I keep watching people who make foolish mistakes by buying these big trucks, but that’s the one thing I really like in life, that is until I find my own land, though I just really don’t want to build in New York with all the gun restrictions and burn ban. 🔥 🔫 You can get remote enough and not have anybody see or smell your fires, but it’s hard to get around state gun laws without cops on your ass. 👮 You want to talk about real money, start talking about buying land, building a cabin, roads, and all the things politicians insist you have like a septic tank to collect the poop for landfilling 💩 rather then composting outhouse.
Truth is I am kind of desperate for a good night in woods and fire, 🏕️ away from the city. And I could go out tomorrow and buy that Godzilla truck 🚚 but I’m going to wait until the snow is gone. It’s stupid as it’s going to take a couple of months to get a cap and gear put on in it. In a week and a half, I am thinking of taking off a day from work to test drive a Godzilla, but I worry about the dealership pushing me away – you’re not Godzilla Material – see what you want is a blown-engine F-150 or Maverick – or being convinced that now is the time to buy the Godzilla today, because you know they’re hard to keep in inventory, though if you study the dealership inventory, and settle for an FX4 – STX, travel a bit, and are willking to pay Godzilla money they are out there. 🛻 Maybe I should get a Honda and a house in suburbs rather then a run-down apartment that I rent from landlord month by month, but I like riding my mountain bike 🚴 to work, and traveling to the wilderness in the past with my big jacked up truck with 35s, and so enough with the Godzilla. When the factory tires wear out in a few years, I can put 35s on Godzilla without a lift kit. If I’m so extremely mentally ill, though I think a Godzilla will push them down the road a lot better then a half-ton Chevy did.
People think it’s so werid that I both work and live out in suburbs but insist on taking the bus or riding my bike to work. 🚲 And aren’t you supposed to be an eco-warior, you compost your food scraps 🍏 and hauling your trash to the recycling bin at work, avoiding excessive packaging, but also want a Godzilla, the biggest gas engine currently avaliable on pickup trucks. 🐲 But I really hate driving even though I do like my big trucks and time in wilderness. ❄️ I think after this weekend, we will be past the real cold, with temperatures returning to near normal by second half of the week with a warming trend for the week after Presidents Day. I’m ready to travel again, though not until the snow is gone. If I hadn’t needed to retire Big Red 🛻 at the end of year, I probably would have gotten at least a few more nights in at Rensselearville State Forest over the winter, or maybe the Madison County horse camp 🐴 though I don’t know this year with the snow.
Two Deer Rivers
There are two Deer Rivers in the North Country of New York.
Deer River – a tributary of St. Regis River – This river starts at the Deer River Flow, generally flowing north east to the Saint Regis River, through Deer River State Forest and Brasher Falls.
Deer River – a tributary of Black River – This river starts about 3 miles of Barnes Corners, north of Sears Pond State Forest, enters a deep gorge near Lookout State Forest, flows through Copenhagen and the village of Deer River.
Listen to that wind roar 🌬️
At times this morning, that wind was really roaring like crazy, as the mercury drops into the single digits after a light dusting or maybe an inch of snow last night. This frigid weekend might be the last real roar of winter, slowly but surely next week into Presidents Week there is a moderating trend and possibly close to normal or above normal come the following week.
I am glad the poor desperate individual on the mountain bike, 🚲 decided to go grocery shopping on Thursday night, so I can stay home, preferably under my heated blanket for the balance of the day. I have one of those Italian Bean Soup mixes soaking in the fridge, going to make some bread up later in the day and maybe cook up that acorn squash that’s been sitting in the kitchen for some time for a late lunch or early dinner. I was going to bring my laptop home but ultimately I decided against it. My computer monitor is at work, and honestly I don’t like using my computer that much anymore. Truth is with being so cold, once I’m done blogging for the day, I’ll probably climb under my heated blanket, and spend the balance of my day there were it’s warm. 🛏️ But first I want to get my hands kneading bread to have with the Italian Bean Soup. Sounds like a good meal with things being so cold.
I’ve been spending some time chatting with the Google AI – that is Gemeni about my situation with my truck, 🛻 trying to get some non-judgemental advice both on personal finance, the roll of my truck, what to buy, and how to go about doing it. While I have done a lot of research and given it a lot of though, as a very frugal person, spending $60,000 on a vehicle I’m going to throw away in 15 years seems so extravagant and wasteful. Not to mention a Godzilla engine is going to suck down fuel like crazy and be expensive to drive and insure. As the Google AI notes, “It is clear that this conflict arises because you are evaluating the purchase through two different lenses: your identity as a frugal person and your values as an individual.”
I keep getting suggested these videos on YouTube about people who get over their heads with crazy-expensive, unreliable cars financed by high interest loans. 💸 And reminders how truly wrong people can get when buying a car, doing lasting financial damage. But as the AI notes, “you have achieved a level of financial independence where ‘frugality’ no longer needs to be about survival or strict deprivation. Instead, it can transition into intentionality.” True financial experts often suggest ‘cutting costs mercilessly on the things that don’t matter so you can spend extravagantly on the things that do.’ You have already done the hard part—cutting the ‘doesn’t matter’ list to the bone. This truck is the ‘does matter’ exception.”
Google AI also says I should go to the Godzilla, 🐲 it’s worth the extra money for better reliability and power and it’s not that much of a difference in cost or fuel economy over the Minizilla – and will be good especially if I do end up buying land in the next few years and need to tow livestock or equipment trailers. 🐐 You don’t want to break down in BFE Michigan, and you want the truck to last for 15 years, and if I change my mind about the SuperDuty, a Godzilla truck will have a much higher trade in. It does kind of limit my choices though, as the Godzilla isn’t as common on low-trim trucks I’m most interested in – which means less negogating power at dealerships. And it does sound a lot cooler to tell the bros, I have an F-350 one-ton with a fucking Godzilla, not one of those F-250 3/4 tons with a Minizilla. And the TorqueFlite 10R140 is tougher tranny then a TorqueFlite Q 10R100.
The reality of our landscape
The reality of our landscape 🐄 🌽 🌳 🌳 🌱 🐷
Farm crops and pasture represent roughly 1 out of four acres in New York State, only exceeded by forested acerage which is roughly 2/3rds of the state’s land cover.
While a lot of the forested acerage is Forest Preserve and park, a significant portion of the remaining acerage is farm woodland in support of farm operations – timber used to heat farm houses and make hot water for milk houses, milled in support of farm construction, used to provide hunting grounds, and sold as an additional income stream to the farm.