Why I Think Not Owning a Television Makes Life Better
I don’t own a television or have internet at home.📺 I do have a smartphone but I get most of my news from the radio or podcasts that I download at work or on the wifi.
I prefer to get my news and entertainment not by the screen but by listening. 📻 Radio is kind of special – with no pictures you have to use your mind to fill in the details. You don’t have the prejudices that images put in your mind, your free to imagine the characters as you see fit.
You can bring a radio virtually anywhere you go. It’s safe to use while driving. Headphones allow you to use on the bus and in most public places without distracting others.🎧 Radio can take you to far away lands without ever leaving where you currently are.
Even when I get older, settle down, maybe finally own land and the off grid cabin of my future, 🏠 I highly doubt I’ll ever have television or Internet at home.
Land and Legacy Podcast – Farming Practices Old and New
"On this week's For Love of the Land Podcast Adam sits down with his Grandpa to discuss the evolution of farming practices since the 1950s. There is no question much has changed from our understanding of soil health down to implements and farming practices that we use on a daily basis.
Deep tillage was a common practice in those days as there was a big push for preparing a proper seedbed. Herbicide usage has drastically increased over time, as well as the use of a brush hog. To understand where we are heading in land management, it is important to understand where we've been. Evolving is a must as we move forward with farming in a more sustainable manner."
The Senate just passed the decade’s biggest public lands package. Here’s what’s in it.
"Perhaps the most significant change the legislation would make is permanently authorizing a federal program that funnels offshore drilling revenue to conserve a spread of sites that includes major national parks and wildlife preserves, as well as local baseball diamonds and basketball courts. Authorization for the popular program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), lapsed months ago due to the partial government shutdown and other disputes. Liberals like the fact that the money allows agencies to set aside land for wildlife habitat. Conservatives like the fact that taxpayers don’t have to foot the bill for it. Congress is now set to reauthorize the fund in perpetuity, though it will not make its spending mandatory. Congressional funding for the program has “fluctuated widely” since its inception in 1965, according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report. Less than half of the $40 billion that has piled up in the fund during its five decades of existence has been spent by Congress on conservation efforts."
"The bill would also be a boon for another constituency — hunters and anglers. Bow hunters would be allowed to bring their weapons through national parks when trying to reach areas where it is legal to hunt. More important, it makes all federal lands open to hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting unless otherwise specified."
Camping at Cole Hill State Forest, January 2018
In January of 2018, I camped up at Cole Hill State Forest in the back-country during mid-January. It was cold but not too bad. Nowhere fancy, but it was a nice night out in the wilderness.
I built a small little fire and sat as the sky got dark.
I had soup and rolls for dinner.
The tent was warm.
The next morning I hiked back to the swamp.
It was nice little mini-mid winter camping trip. More of a vacation-ette then a real trip, but still sometimes you can’t have the most exotic trip ever.
I was prepared yesterday
February 13, 2019 Morning
Good morning! What day is it? The Hump in the Temperature After the Much Hyped Snow and Ice Storm, of course. Honestly I’m pretty amused about it all. Didn’t really impact me much but I live in the suburbs and landlord does the plowing and I don’t have to drive anywhere. I heard God will remove the snow from my truck later in the week. Four weeks to 7 PM Sunset 🌆. Spring is coming or so I tell myself. Clouds with the sun breaking through and 33 and 1/3rd degrees in Delmar. ☁ There is a southwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. There are 6 inches of icy snow on the ground. ☃ Things will start to thaw out at around 9 am. 🌡️
With the snow yesterday, a lot of people left work early. ❄ I didn’t because I didn’t want to get charged the time and I knew more likely than not with most state workers leaving early traffic would be very light at five, even if the roads were bad. It’s wasn’t a bad commute at all and the buses were on time and snow and sleet stopped for a bit while I caught the bus.🚃 I walked down to the express bus today, sidewalks weren’t too bad, although I found myself hurrying down to the bus as it was a bit more of a slog then normal and I didn’t quite get out of the door by 8:08 (BOB time, as I like to call it), which is when I should leave by.🏃
Last night, I got home and made a big pot of macaroni and cheese with lots of veggies and a small amount of mayonnaise and hot sauce. 🍲Cooked it up than worked on some GIS things for the blog and some blog posts. I also fixed some code for my LED driver including adding code to trigger the relay for the 120 volt lamp. I decided to skip my evening walk because there was a lot of snow outside, and it was sleeting for most of the night.🚶
Rode the exercise bike for about a half hour watching some YouTube videos I previously downloaded while listening through my Bluetooth headphones. 🚲 I like being able to watch movies without disturbing my neighbors. I know that most of the videos I like are off grid homesteaders and farmers, hunters and trappers so typically it’s not really loud but I like to make sure the noise isn’t too loud. 🎧I try not to ride the bike much past nine in case he can here that two, and I try to cuss less.
Took another sleeping pill last night and tried to get to bed relatively early although not as early as some nights. 🛌 But I still feel relatively well rested even if I did wake up for a while during the night. I am ready for winter to be over sooner then later.🌬 I’m ready to sleep with the windows open. 🌫️
We got quite a bit of snow in the evening but my apartment was warm as I left the heat turned up yesterday in case I lost power from the storm. ♨ Going to be above freezing today, so I turned it back down before work. Already it seems like the roads are snow free, we are above freezing, and I expect it to be remain fairly warm in my apartment today, even though the heat is turned down a bit.
Today will continue to be mostly cloudy ⛅, with a high of 42 degrees at 12pm. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 10th. That will kill off the remaining snow and ice off the roads do a number of it even on the ground. Nice easy snow storm. West wind 6 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy in the morning, which became partly cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 30 degrees. The record high of 58 was set in 1900. 9.0 inches of snow fell back in 1893.❄
The sun will set at 5:25 pm with dusk around 5:54 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌨 and temperatures around 35 degrees. Breezy, 16 mph breeze ⛅ from the west with gusts up to 30mph. Might be cool with the breeze but at least everything will be melting. Today will have 10 hours and 31 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 41 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be scattered snow showers, mainly before 3am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 27 degrees at 5am. 10 degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around March 19th. Maximum wind chill around 15 at 6am; West wind 13 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2018, we had mostly clear in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 28 degrees. The record low of -13 occurred back in 2016.
Tomorrow will have isolated snow showers before 1pm. Partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 37 degrees at 2pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical day around February 23rd. Breezy, with a west wind 15 to 20 mph decreasing to 7 to 12 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had cloudy in the morning, which became partly cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 45 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1946. 23.5 inches of snow fell back in 1914.❄
The latest weekend weekend forecast looks nice. 😎 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 36. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 30. Typical average high for the weekend is 35 degrees. I keep hearing different forecasts for the weekend, but I will have to see how much snow there is and how cold and icy it will be before planning to head out of town or camp. 🏕 It is a three day weekend, but there is still so much snow up north. Rain on Thursday into Friday might melt away a lot of snow locally, but I doubt that much up north.🌧
In four weeks on March 13 the sun will be setting at 7:00 pm (Daylight Savings Time),🌄 which is one hour, 34 minutes and 39 seconds later then today. In 2018 on that day, we had snow and temperatures between 34 and 30 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 43 and 24 degrees. The record high of 70 degrees was set back in 2012.
Looking ahead, 7 PM Sunset 🌆 is a month away, May 🕊 is in 11 weeks, 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️ is in 16 weeks, Hottest Time of the Year 😅 is in 5 months and Inauguration Day 2021 👴🏻 is in 101 weeks.
