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This year I spent 63 nights in the wilderness. 🏕

Rise and Shine, Finger Lakes Campers

April 2020 – 2 nights

  • Two nights on the East Branch Sacandaga River

May – 8 nights

  • Two nights on the East Branch Sacandaga River
  • Three nights at Mason Lake, Memorial Day Weekend
  • Three nights on Hardwood Hill after Memorial Day

June – 15 nights

  • 3 nights on Hardwood Hill
  • 3 nights at Mason Lake
  • 3 nights at Mason Lake
  • 1 night Hardwood Hill
  • 3 nights at Horseshoe Lake
  • 2 nights at Jones Pond

July – 13 nights

  • 3 nights on Forest Road 71 Green Mountain National Forest
  • 2 nights near Somerset Airfield Green Mountain National Forest
  • 3 nights on Piseco Powley Road near Potholers
  • 3 nights at Spectulator Tree Farm, Old Route 8B
  • 2 nights Piseco Powley Road

August – 10 nights

  • 8 nights – Finger Lakes National Forest (summer vacation)
  • 1 night at Cole Hill State Forest (hammock camping in the back country)
  • 1 night at Burnt Rossman State Forest near Duck Pond

September – 7 nights

  • One night on upper Forest Road 71 Green Mountain National Forest, Thursday Labor Day Weekend
  • 3 nights Forest Road 71 Green Mountain National Forest near Shep Meadow Labor Day Weekend
  • 3 nights at Mason Lake

October – 1 night

  • One night Cherry Ridge Camping Area in Brookfield

November – 5 nights

  • Stoney Pond State Forest during second week of November
  • Piseco-Powley Road – House Pond Campsite, two nights after Thanksgiving

December – 1 night

  • New Years Eve – East Branch Sacandaga River in the Adirondacks

I didn’t think 2020 was all that bad of a year

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I didn’t think 2020 was all that bad of a year … I thought it it was kind of fun ! 😀

Everywhere you go, you here people moaning about how awful 2020 was as a year. They didn’t like the decisive election, the shutdowns of community programs and businesses due to the COVID-19. We lost some great people this year from the virus, and it forced us to rethink how did businesses and lived our lives.

Remote work was kind of an experience, especially not having Internet at home. While I did eventually a week ago get hotspot service for my phone, I spent a lot of the summer and autumn working at various free-wifi locations, and also using my phone and occasionally using the work hotspot a fair amount. It really taught me how to use the internet efficiently and liberated me from my bedroom.

With tonight, it work out to 63 nights in 2020 that I wilderness camped. One night I did camp at the Cherry Ridge Camping Area in Brookfield and three nights at Stony Pond in Madison County, but those forest camping areas are still pretty dispersed. It was fun, although sometimes a bit crazy trying to plan my day around work, making sure I had good cell service and enough power in my battery bank.

I will forever remember those days sitting at Lake Pleasant, with my feet in the sand and the laptop in my lap, running out to the lake to go for a swim. Those hot summer days working in my truck, sitting next to fan, trying my best to stay cool, or shivering come late autumn. Those nice spring days working out back. That week I worked from deep in Green Mountains, and managed to burn a hole in my brand new screen tent when I had that grease fire. Well, that wasn’t so pleasant, but I got it patched.

It was an incredibly busy year with work, some late evenings, and some crazy days working into the weekend, fielding client calls including once when I was out hiking to the Pig Rock on NY 30 through the Speculator Tree Farm. It had it’s share of hot and buggy days, and then before you know it days got short and cold.

Honestly, it looks like a while before things get back to normal. Remote work will continue through the end of January, at least, and while it will be difficult to do much camping in January due to cold and road closures, it will still be kind of nice working from home. But I do look forward to a more normal year next year — I kind of miss my colleagues at work, I miss the time to myself taking the bus back and forth to work, and I miss going down to the library and being able to work inside until closing time at 9 PM. But I do think  those days will be back again, just like those lazy, crazy days of summer.

Remote work

The Complete Guide to Butchering Rabbits

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How to slaughter your own meat rabbits on farm in a safe, easy and humane way.

This is an interesting farm video of how to process a rabbit in a fairly quick, conscientious and humane way, using stunning rather then a bullet. It's actually quite an interesting topic to watch on Youtube, as while the animal is pretty much the same, people have slightly different techniques on how they dress animals. Rabbits are pretty good sources of meat, with their carcasses producing about 3 to 4 pounds of meat from each 6 lb rabbit.

‘Bonkers’ What Americans Believe : NPR

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QAnon Conspiracy Theories And Misinformation: ‘Bonkers’ What Americans Believe : NPR

A significant number of Americans believe misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus and the recent presidential election, as well as conspiracy theories like QAnon, according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll.

orty percent of respondents said they believe the coronavirus was made in a lab in China even though there is no evidence for this. Scientists say the virus was transmitted to humans from another species.

And one-third of Americans believe that voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election, despite the fact that courts, election officials and the Justice epartment have found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome.

The poll results add to mounting evidence that misinformation is gaining a foothold in American society and that conspiracy theories are going mainstream, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. This has raised concerns about how to get people to believe in a "baseline reality," said Chris Jackson, a pollster with Ipsos.

Our Tie Stall Dairy Barn

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Our small family owned dairy farm in North Central Pennsylvania

It's always interesting to watch small dairy farm videos, as they're so common in the hills and hollows of both Northern Pennsylvania and much of New York. Common but kind of a dying breed as milk prices as low, labor is intense and backbreaking on farms, but milk still helps pay some of the farm expenses.

December 31, 2020 Morning

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Good morning! Happy New Years Eve 🎆! It’s true, the worse year ever, as the critics like to say is coming to an end. Onward to 2021! It can’t be worse, right? I don’t know, I thought 2020 was a fun year. Just like bad old New York City. Grimy and awful, but fun. 🏕 Tonight will be 63 nights camping this year. Two weeks to Coldest Week of the Year 🌬. But based on the 8-14 day outlook, that seems unlikely. Rain showers and 35 degrees in Delmar, NY. ❄ There is a west breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 6 pm. ☃️

Woke up early, excited to be heading north for the NYE. ⬆ Feeling a lot better today, 🤒 the sore throat is gone and maybe the slight congestion on the nose. I am going to stay away from alcohol tonight, and hopefully the cold, dry air won’t trigger the cold to get worse, although I figure if I do feel sicker, I can come home and sleep until January 4th. And then it’s work from home, so if I’m sick as a dog, as long as I don’t sound so sick on the phone, nobody will ever know.

Had a nice breakfast of pancakes and coffee. ☕🥞 I got to take a shower next, and then I want to start loading up the truck. My goal is to be on the road by 9:30-10 AM, stopping in Amsterdam for a few supplies, then north.

Today will have a slight chance of rain and snow showers before 8am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 39 degrees at 11am. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 7th. West wind 10 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 1895. 7.9 inches of snow fell back in 2007.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:59 am with sun having an altitude of 24.3° from the due south horizon (-46.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:47 pm with the sun in the southwest (231°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (239°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:32 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 24 seconds with dusk around 5:03 pm, which is 50 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:40 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 35 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 10 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 7 minutes of daytime, an increase of 46 seconds over today.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 23 degrees at 5am. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 12th. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light after midnight. In 2019, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1970.

I am getting packed and planning on heading north around 9:30 or 10 AM. 🏔 I am still not convinced that I will stay more then one night, but I’ll bring enough changes of clothes for the weekend. New Years Day is going to be quite nice, but late Saturday into Saturday morning looks like it will be a mix of rain and ice. But I’ll evaluate at this point, and be glad for getting away at least one night. I want to get up there by no later then 12 noon to 1 PM so I have time to drag the gear back from the parking lot to campsite, as I think there will be too much snow to drive to campsite itself, and I certainly don’t want to leave the truck there overnight should it get plowed in.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 😞 Saturday, rain, mainly before noon. High near 43. Southeast wind 7 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Sunday, a chance of snow after 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 36. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Typical average high for the weekend is 31 degrees.

North