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NPR

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Inside Chinese-funded and staffed marijuana farms springing up across US : NPR

Last summer, New Mexico state special agents inspecting a farm found thousands more cannabis plants than state laws allow. Then on subsequent visits, they made another unexpected discovery: dozens of underfed, shell-shocked Chinese workers.

The workers said they had been trafficked to the farm in Torrance County, N.M., were prevented from leaving and never got paid.

“They looked weathered,” says Lynn Sanchez, director of a New Mexico social services nonprofit who was called in after the raid. “They were very scared, very freaked out.”

They are part of a new pipeline of migrants leaving China and making unauthorized border crossings into the United States via Mexico, and many are taking jobs at hundreds of cannabis farms springing up across the U.S.

The years go by too quickly it seems

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It doesn’t feel like a year since I last camped up here at Piseco-Powley. True, probably the last time I was at House Pond Campsite was 10 months ago but it seems more like a few weeks ago then last summer. Certainly doesn’t feel like a year.

Then again, I started coming up to Piseco-Powley with great regularity starting the summer of 2011, so this would be my 13th summer spending many a hot and a few rather cold nights up here like that weekend after Thanksgiving in 2020. I was 28 when I started coming and I’m 41 now.

Rode from Canajoharie to St. Johnsville on the Canalway 🚲

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Great evening after the thunderstorms!

Man, I tell you I love those small towns Just the feel, the old buildings, the smell of the cow shit. I’d kill to live in a place like this, or at least work and recreate in a place like this – I’d rather live in the country but be centered around a small town like this.

Granted not in New York State, but I state where I could open carry, own whatever handguns and long guns I want without permission, have bonfires and burn my packaging trash. Like the bad old days in New York.

Checked out Nielson, Fort Plain and Canajoharie downtowns. Now heading back home via NY 162 and US 20 before dark, out on the back roads, more country driving. Maybe even see a bonfire or some good ol boys. Then it’s back to work at Data Services in my office overlooking old city garbage dump.

To make it home by sunset 🌇

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That’s pretty late this time of year being it’s close to the first day of summer but it should give me enough time to unpack and possibly shower before retiring to bed and heading off to work tomorrow.

I’m playing the game ⛈️ how long can I delay taking down camp before the next thunderstorm rolls on through. I’m hoping the flags 🎌 and screen tent 🎪 will dry out in the sun ☀ when it peaks out before the certain rain this afternoon.

I’d like to paddle Lily Lake 🪷today but I have little faith that I will be able to do that without thunderstorms this afternoon. I did get to kayak 🛶 the Sacandaga River and Lake Pleasant on Juneteenth so not a total wash but I was hoping to see the lilies. While I wait for things to finish drying out ⭕, I’m going to float on the East Canada Creek in my tube for a while then maybe by then the flags and screen tent will be dry and then I can take them down. Then I’ll decide if the skies call for leaving for Stewart Landing to paddle up to Lily Lake – got my doubts – or spend some more time at the Potholers. I kind of are not in a rush to get back on the grid and deal with all the work crap 💩 I’ve missed while away.

In the afternoon to the evening 🚲, I am thinking about heading down to Canajahorie and riding the Canal Trail west towards Little Falls. That’s a section I’ve never done and once you get past Fort Plain 5S and the Thruway head up into the hills and it should be quiet 🤫 and remote along that section of the Mohawk. Plus maybe ride around and explore Canajahorie. I wonder how that hick town Chinese place is in town. 🍜

Yesterday was a day of sunshine and rain showers. 🌦️ Cool but not so cold. Did a lot of reading 📖 in the morning, the afternoon at the Potholers and floating in the tube. ⭕️ Had a nice for a while in the evening 🔥, in part because it was kind of a cold and damp evening.

Call me skeptical about pollution from the Palestine train derailment being found several states over⚠️💥🚂 ☠️

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It really doesn’t make much sense to me when every day humans are bathing themselves in the toxic chemicals of modern living, dumping many of those chemicals into the air, water and land around them. Whose to say toxins from the one shot train derailment and burning off are from that source and not from factory smoke stacks, tail pipes, house fires, bonfires, wastewater plants or just ordinary fugative emissions occurring from dust and wear of products in use by millions of households around the globe. Just rubbing most modern products and ordinary wear releases toxins in the air, even if you aren’t burning it or intentionally flushing down the sink.

It’s quite possible that chemical signatures match but do we really know the source? And should we be assuming that all chemicals in common use are properly and safety being disposed of? The answer is of course not, no matter how careful you are once you extract or produce a chemical some of its going to escape into the environment. Even nuclear plants – some of the most strictly regulated plants in the world – have fugative emissions both accidentally and in the ordinary course of business.

Stormy start to Saturday ⛈️

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To be fair that’s what the weatherman had been predicting. I just chose not to pack more then two pairs of jeans because you know they kept talking about how oppressive the heat wave would be, ignoring the fact that the Adirondacks are much cooler and that by Saturday the heat would break and be much cooler.

I was worried all morning with the rain that my second and last pair of jeans 👖 packed would get soaked after my first pare got soaked jump starting that dude yesterday. Didn’t happen but still they got a bit wet. Soaked through with no more sufficiently warm dry clothes I’d have no choice but to cut the trip short and head home if I was chilled through. 🥶It’s not like I have the propane heater but I guess I could have built a fire 🔥.

Rain stopped to make breakfast 🍳 after a rainy morning. More of a pause in the rain then anything else by the time breakfast was done I was heading back to the truck to avoid the heavy rain. Read part of an Ebook on Foraging in New England. 🫐🫒🪴🌾 Feel asleep listening to a YouTube video I had previously downloaded explaining the concepts behind Buddhism. 🪷 Around 1 pm the sun ☀ came out for a bit, had some mushrooms 🍄 and sardines 🐟and fried up some apples 🍏 with oatmeal.

Yesterday read most of the morning 📖, especially a book about modern Javascript, Node JS, Mongo DB and VUE React. 🖥 I struggle to keep up to date with the latest coding frameworks but it could be handy for updating the blog and developing new useful scripts. I should try to find time to complete that Free Code Camp on React that I bored off a winter ago.

Went down to Potholers after jump starting that truck 🩲🏊🥽 for about two hours when I heard thunder rolling in. ⛈ Rode my bike 🚲 back to camp ⛺ and worked on my laptop – writing a guide to how to use R for work data processing. In the morning I had patched another hole in the tube ⭕ and after the thunderstorm floated in the East Canada Creek until a little after six when I went back to camp, hopped on my bicycle and did round 2 at the potholers until it get dark around 8:15 with night coming and another thunderstorm grazing the area but didn’t rain. But I was tired, no fire last night headed straight to bed in the pickup. Warm enough again that I ran the fan most of the night.

A jump start and no ice cream 🔋🍦

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Around noon time as I was finishing up lunch somebody stop by camp asking for help getting their Silverado jump started. After putting up gear I headed over and he mentioned he didn’t have jump cables. I had them but it been years since I used them so I wasn’t sure if they would work as sometimes wire gets bent.

At first I couldn’t get it to jump. Then a crazy thunderstorm came rolling in and I closed the hood and ran back into the truck. Checking through the manual I was reminded about the ground lug on the engine and when the rain let up, I hooked up the trucks with the grounding lugs and the batteries positives and the other truck fired up. I was thinking I would be making a a trip down to Dolgeville for a while to give the guy a ride and obviously get ice cream at Green Acres on my way back to camp.

Not the first time I’ve given or received a jump start in the back country. Or otherwise needed or given help as needed for some mechanical reason. Shit happens! Guy offered me money, turned him down.