Ashes
Topics
Number of Babies Born in the United States
Composting Livestock Mortality and Butcher Waste Workshop – Morning Ag Clips
God damn I do declare September 2024 ! 🍁
I have to say it was a fun summer, but things have been so busy lately. Friday was busy at camp, but fortunately bar a few emails and a few documents reviewed Saturday and Sunday were quite relaxed as was Labor Day.
I’ll be the first to admit it was a fun summer, 
and I did get out and do a lot of good adventures. It seems hard to believe that Labor Day has come and gone, though I was reminded of that driving past Sacanadaga Campground 🛻 on my way back home on Sunday afternoon. Closed for the season the sign says. I might stop by there this autumn, and ride around the campground on my mountain bike 🚵 to see what it’s like off-season. It’s pretty crowded as most campgrounds and right off NY 30, so I’d rather wilderness camp 🏕️ then ever spend time there.
Kids are going back to school this week, 
so I am sure the traffic will be back for the morning commute, 
though hopefully by riding my bike to work I can avoid the worse of that. But I really hate the delays on 787, though in recent years they aren’t what they once were with so many state employees remote working a few days a week. I don’t blame them, and indeed I plan to remote work a fair bit this autumn, including not this Friday but probably the following Friday, probably from Renselearville State Forest. Haven’t camped here since April, as I prefer the Adirondacks in the summer months. 
No camping this weekend, the weather looks crappy and I need a break.
It’s just been so busy lately with work. 💻️ Friday might have been a remote work day, but it was packed full of work, I barely had time for lunch or getting camp set up. Maybe it’s best that I’ve been busy, it shows I’m earning my keep, even if I’m working from a hammock up in the Adirondacks. ⛰️ Today, though it’s back off to the office in Menands, 👨💼 though at lunch time I have to go downtown for a lunch meeting. Catered by Chipolte, so it should be yummy. 
Breakfast this morning was out the folks house with eggs and greasy feta. 
Maybe because I don’t eat packaged food much these days, every time I go out to my folks house all the food they have there is so greasy. I guess it’s what I grew up on and it’s what a lot of people eat these days, but it’s gross. 
That said, certainly not my choice. But its good to see them as I know it won’t be all that longer.
With winter coming, I do need to think about getting some more sealant around the door 
of my apartment to at least slow that leak. Of honestly find a better place to live. But I don’t care, I keep the heat low and it’s probably the cheapest place to live for now even if it’s not exactly energy efficent. I do wish I had a woodstove, and indeed that is something top of mind when I own my own land.
Putting a fork into summer 2024 🍴
As they say, it’s done.
Like so many others, I’m heading home from Speculator in a few minutes. It’s been a fun summer but things went much too quickly. Did a lot of floating on the tube, listening to the Grateful Dead, enjoying the grass by the campfire and camping.
Who knows if there will be another summer like this in the future, I’m growing older and things as they currently are can’t be sustained forever. I do need to find a house – a homestead, a cabin – and that will inevitably take away from my travel.
I can’t believe but I’m not surprised that the red maples are all red along the river, though that is common by Labor Day. As it hints of color and what is to come on this cool but clear Labor Day. I may be back to Speculator before the month is done. But it won’t be the same, with much shorter days, cooler temperatures – to cold to float.
Kamela’s A Cop 👮
Everybody knows that. It’s not good to deny who you are as a person, voters see right through that. On the other hand, Kamela has to be careful she does not alienate her base by being seen as draconian on crime or making her status as a cop – actually a former District Attorney – first and foremost in her race for President.
You SMOKE – Immediate Disapproval 🚭
Frank Zappa wasn’t wrong when he said campaigns against smoking were a bunch of yuppies doing what these days we would call their WOKE campaigns. For a lot of liberals admitting to smoking anything is tantamount to treason, a poor soul hopelessly addicted to nicotine or THC, forever sentencing themselves to poor breathing, lung cancer, heart disease and death. You’re a sick puppy! You need help. You’re going to die. How sad!
It’s 2024, there is nobody who hasn’t seen the research and campaigns against smoking. They know the risks. They’re not stupid and most are not addicted – and even if they feel addicted there are all kinds of government and health insurance subsidized programs to overcome addiction. Many quite affordable especially compared to smoking. But we enjoy it.
Smoking tobacco and cannabis has its risks and rewards. People wouldn’t smoke if it wasn’t pleasurable. Tobacco smoke has a rich flavor, cannabis makes you feel relaxed, and engaged in the world around you. Both are enjoyable in the evening around a campfire with a cold beer. Harmful yes but you only have so much time in this world to seek enjoyment.
The research on the dangers of smoking anything are quite clear it’s the number of years smoked that is far greater concern than the amount smoked. That’s why cutting back or lite cigarettes don’t really have much health benefits but quiting for good does. So that’s something to consider before that occasional deep breath in. On the other hand, things like a healthy diet and exercise are far more important to a long quality life then an occasional smoke.
At least liberals don’t disapprove of cannabis, even if they are condemning of anyone smoking it with the carbon monoxide and tars coating the lungs. And I’m not sure I liberals are just as disapproving of the fact that I also burn plastic and paper trash, drive a big jacked up truck and own some guns but not nearly enough! Of course, conservatives probably think of me as some kind of perverted do nothing hippie for enjoying a few puffs up in the wilderness.