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Site Map

🌲🌲 Our Public Lands 🌳🌲

Interactive maps with backcountry and roadside camping: New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia & Vermont.
List of NYS DEC Lean-Tos with map coordinates. List of NYS DEC Firetowers with map coordinates and more information.
Google Spreadsheet with Roadside, Primitive and Pay Campsites

Explore the Finger Lakes Trail, Long Path, Northville-Placid Trail and Long Trail/Appalachian in Vermont.
Catskill Park Mountain Peaks, Hudson Valley & Long Island Peaks, Peaks Over 3000 ft Elevation, Highest Peaks in Adirondacks, Interactive Map of All Named Summits in NYS, Blaze Colors in Catskill Park, Trailhead Parking Coordinates and Addresses in the Catskills.

Browse USGS Topo Quads as PDF 🆕 by State Lands or County. You can Bulk Download New & Old USGS Topograpic Maps.

Links to various NY State Land Websites 🆕. Get latest GIS Data from state Web Services.

⛺🌲 Camp 🌲🏕

Moose River Plains – Campsite Listing, Maps and photos of state’s largest free camping area.
Piseco-Powley Road – Campsite Listing, Maps and photos of 15 mile dirt road with camping.
Catskill Park Primitive Campsites – An overview of free camping locations in Catskill Park.
Burnt-Rossman Forest, Cattaraugus County, East Branch Sacandaga River, Finger Lakes National Forest, Madison County, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virigina.

Campsite Coordinates for Bog River Flow / Lows Lake, Hudson River SMA (Buttermilk Falls), Lake Lila, Oswegathie River, Nine-Corner Lake, Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, Saranac River Campsites, Stillwater Lake, Schoharie County, and Sugar Hill State Forest.

Overview of Camping Areas in the Catskills, Green Mountains, Southern Adirondacks, Central Adirondacks, Northern Adirondacks, Allegheny National Forest and Penna. DCNR Motorized Campsites and the Monongahela National Forest West Virginia.

Free Campsite Overview Maps: Adirondack – North Country, Catskills, Central NY, Finger Lakes, Western NY. Interactive Map.

Places I camped in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Bicycle Trails and “Blackie” My Mountain Bike

Finally bought a mountain bike, after chewing over a mountain vs commuter bike. Really enjoying riding my bike to work and when it rains there is always a bike rack to safely take it back home. One way to get to adventures at Thacher Park is the Nature Bus.

Empire Trail – KMZ and Interactive Map. Parking along it.

More Trailways with KMZ files including the Albany County Rail Trail, Black Diamond Trail, Catharine Valley Trail, Catskill Scenic Trail, Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Rail Trail, Genesee Valley Trail, Link Trail.

🦌🌲 Hunt 🦃🐿

Wildlife Management Units (Deer) – KMZ Map shows the WMU boundaries.

Summer 2019 Aerial Photographs of WMUs

KMZ Maps of Deer Harvest Density by Town: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. By WMU 2017, 2016, 2015.

KMZ Maps of Buck Harvest Density by Town: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. By WMU 2017, 2016

2016 -2019 Deer and Buck Harvest by Town – KMZ Spreadsheet with FIPS codes for making your own calculations.

🎣🐡 Fish 🐟🐠

Parking and Access to Trout Streams – An interactive, downloadable KMZ Map.
Lakes with DEC Contour Maps – A KMZ Map links to Contour Maps for Fishing.

🌨🏔 Sled & Wheel 🚙❄

State Truck Trails Over A Half Mile – Dirt roads to explore in the backcountry.
NYS Statewide Snowmobile Trail System – State trails on public and private lands.

📉📊 Learn 💵📈

Interactive Maps of NY Census – Explore and download KML files.
Charts and Interactive Diagrams – From population to pollution control.
Andy Arthur GitHub – Git my R and Python scripts used to make maps and diagrams.
Use ArcPullR to Get Geospatial Data – Super easy way to connect to get GIS data in R from government servers.
GDAL Opens E00 Files – Most open source programs nowadays can open common geospatial formats.
NY Building Footprints – Where to find on the internet for making maps.
WMS and ArcMap Services – Downloadable CSV file listing services used on the blog.
2022 US Census Population Estimates – Red states, south continue to gain population.
2020 Cartogram of State Population

💳 🏛 Property Taxes 🏠💸

Properties in Albany Pine Bush Study Area, Excel Files: Various Tax Rolls, Find coordinates and political districts, Look Up State Tax Records and a Script for Processing RPTL 1520 PDFs. Match NY SWIS Codes to FIPS Codes and GEOID. How to Find MapServer Data and Load Into QGIS.

🚗🚗 Big Red 🚗🚗

Big Red – Photos and Videos of my lifted truck with its camper shell. Big Red’s Dual Battery Setup for Camp Power, Video Tour and Diagram. Big Red is getting old. What is next? I’ve thought about going carless for a while to save money and reduce pollution. Or maybe going bigger? Or smaller? Five dollar gas sucks.

🔥🌲 Off-Grid Living 🏠🤠

I am seriously thinking about building an off-grid house. I have a first draft. I need to learn CAD! I have a road map towards buying land and building. I concede might have to live with long commute and give up traveling and camping. I need to be strong.

Why off grid? Well, I’m not into contemporary society. I want to own land, but not be called a landowner, and a cabin, not hooked to electrical grid, farm, raise pigs for food and burn my own trash. I’m saving for a better tomorrow, hoping to make the leap to another freer state. Having acreage is important. Cornfields aren’t bad neighbors. Maybe though my vision has grown smaller and more local. More on off-grid living.

I am 16 years into my career and have made some significant progress in my life. I love my job. But I do wonder on all the things I’m missing out but saving sure makes me high. Maybe it will be different when I own my own land — the end of goal of all this saving.

2020 into 2021 during the pandemic was a year of remote work. It was a struggle not having internet at home, worked a lot out of my truck. But I worked remotely from Horseshoe Lake which was super cool.

Generally I like the idea of owning land in a red state, particularly Idaho, Iowa, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin — and Midwest more generally. But I may settle for New York – it’s all about the f-ing money!

Learn to code for free modern HTML, Javascript, Python and SQL at freeCodeCamp and web development at the Odin Project.

Politics

Crunched Election Results with Turnout for Albany County: November 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and Primaries June 2019, Pres/June 2020, June 2021, June 2022, Aug 2022, June 2023.

Albany County Races converted to the new 2023 EDs using Super EDs and Code: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and Primaries June 2019, Pres/June 2020, June 2021, June 2022, Aug 2022.

Above Election Results as zipped Excel files.

Albany County Legi slature Districts 2024 Maps –

Maps Comparing 2017 and 2023 Albany County Election Districts and a Crosswalk Table Showing the Proposition of Voting Age Population in New and Old EDs

Maps of 2022 NYC Assembly Races, NYS Assembly Races, NY Senate Races, Governor’s Race in Erie County and Statewide. Partisan shift in governor race between 2010 and 2018.

A comparison of Democratic Performance 2022 Assembly Districts to those proposed in 2023 by the IRC. Here is latest 4/20/23 IRC Maps, showing ADP and how they change from existing Assembly districts. Most towns upstate, outside of cities, are quite red. Using LATFOR data with R to calculate Average Democratic Performance.

You can scrape employee salary data from SeeThroughNY using R. Other useful investigative resources.

I often think politics is for losers. I’m into the politics of statistical analysis and reading history books.

I believe strongly in the first amendment, second amendment, oppose gun restrictions and I support de-funding the police in favor of lower-cost technology and civilian employees. Maybe use red flag laws for voting to stop dangerous voters? And the media should stop promoting mass-shootings, even if it’s super profitable for all involved. They should tax the media when it promotes violence. I think some people are much too paranoid in politics. How elections are rigged under law to benefit incumbents. But vote, it’s the best option and inexpensive.

Yeah for the third parties! I voted for Larry Sharpe for Governor and Jo Jergenson for President but my views are complicated and often vote for Democrats, after voting Jill Stein Green Party in 2016.

Some thoughts on Joe Biden not seeking re-election. Times change, but Biden was been a good change over DJT and glad the Trump era is over and are glad prosecutors and grand jurors are holding him responsible by indicting him for many serious felonies. I don’t think Trump can win in 2024, as nothing has changed politically from 2020.

I think rural people should be left alone and not worship government workers or have parades for them. I am no fan of Donald Trump, his speeches are bad, I don’t like Trump’s embrace of radical environmentalists, but do admire the homemade roadside monuments to DJT.

The Earth

Why I oppose wilderness areas and parks. It’s trendy to be green these days, but is eco-marketing good for the planet? I visited the Mount Storm Coal Plant and Corridor H.

I worry about a lot about overly-aggressive Climate Change Action, and Undermining Environment Laws for Climate Action. I think we should all admit we are Addicted to Fossil Fuels. These days, urban recycling has become a joke, when it’s still an option at all. It’s better to just buy less shit and avoid the alure of Costcos. I really don’t like how aging radicals have become industrial solar salespeople.

Big bucks are coming to state-designated disadvantaged communities under the CLCP. Which counties and political districts are in line for the the most pork? Interactive map.

I’m a big of farmers who are essentially Living Off the Earth and think Rednecks are Noble Savages. Dairy Farming are key to our rural landscape. I’d trust a farmer or a hunter in a pile of guts he’s butchered over any ivory-tower scientist.

🌎🔆 Industrial Solar 🌞 🏭

Hundreds of multi-acre industrial solar farms are being built in our state. How bad is solar for the environment? We should ask tough questions. Interactive of recently built solar farms, proposed facilities. List of proposed industrial solar facilities. See how the Greenville Solar Farm changed the landscape.

Saving Money

I am not a fan of ESG Investing as it’s not well diversified. I prefer index-funds and other tax-advantaged ways of saving. Why I am concerned about saving enough for retirement, even though I’m in my late 30s. We as a nation should save more, consume less. I like the idea of carbon tax to replace capital gains taxes to discourage consumption.

Mission Fifty, Smoking Grass & Being Healthier

I am now officially in my 40s! I am building to a better life in my 50s, which means getting up early, walking a lot, saying no to cake and yes to more fruit. In many ways, the forties are an awesome time to be alive.

And eating healthy for less without losing sleep over arsenic. And I don’t think we should subsidize unhealthy habits. How I got started in eating healther. Meals are too focused on meat and carbs due to how we describe them, maybe I eat too many bananas in the office, what to eat while camping, worry more about salt then GMOs, eat more beans. Do spend extra for farmers market peaches, especially doughnut peaches and plums. Consider ethnic supermarkets. Thinking about how to make a healthier macaroni and cheese, spinach-mackeral-pasta salad, quick-cook biscuits and whole-wheat bread. That said, too many recipes are junk food crap. Okay in moderation is not okay. The fact that I’m thinner is not a sign I’m dying.

A few years back I decided to explore my mental illness with therapy, thinking about why I have so much anxiety and how many of my values are rational or just thinking too much rednecks’ burn barrels and how much of a throwaway society we live in. Do I want to change?

I’ve learned to care less about the world, and focus more on myself. Maybe I am happier as I am now, saving and investing a lot towards owning my own land, where I don’t have to deal with all the bullshit of modern life.

And smoke more grass, now that’s legal. Smoking pot is fascinating. Enjoying the rich colors. A map of licensed pot retailers in NYS. Yes, that stuff we used to think of as the smell of crime. Thoughts on Stoner Culture. Not that the blog advertisers like it.

Mission Fifty: Getting to the point where I own my own land.
Healthy Eating / Growing My Wealth
Healthy Thoughts / Enjoying Life

Questions, comments? Feel free to email me at andy@andyarthur.org.

**I smoke pot and drink cheap beer,** up in the wilderness. Yes it’s my right !

I use GNU open source software.
Plus I like buck goats,
because they’re real macho men
spraying their beards with goat urine.

I own guns, but **not nearly enough.** Some day when I live in a pro-2A state …

“I can’t make everybody happy, so I’ll just be myself.” – Andy Arthur

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June 26, 2021 10 AM Update

Good morning! Happy Saturday. Finally the weekend! Four weeks to Strugeon Moon 🌕 . Partly cloudy and 74 degrees at the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. 🌥 There is a south breeze at 15 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 67 degrees. The skies will clear around 8 pm.

Hot day with the humidity 😰 although truth be told, tomorrow will be even hotter. Waiting for the bus 🚍 up to Thacher Park after walking 🚶🏻 out to Five Rivers. 🐦. 😷 Not wearing the mask much lately, I forgot it and had to run home. I can’t believe how hot it is out already.

Today will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 84 degrees at 3pm. Two degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 10am. South wind 15 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 85 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1952.

The plan is to catch the next bus 🚍 to Thacher Park 🏞 and then go for a, walk 🚶🏻 up to Thompsons Lake, swim and cool off 🏊🏻‍♂️ – already getting hot. Then back to Thacher Park and lay back in the hammock. A lot of people already at Five Rivers, I like the quiet – maybe it will be quieter 🤫 in the evening when all the kids 👧🏻 go home for dinner. Probably do an evening walk there too.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:59 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.7° from the due south horizon (-0.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:55 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (297°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (304°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:38 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 28 seconds with dusk around 9:12 pm, which is 2 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:58 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 77 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 13 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 17 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 21 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 71 degrees at 4am. 10 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 68 at 11pm. South wind 10 to 13 mph. In 2020, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It became somewhat humid as the night progressed. It got down to 61 degrees. The record low of 45 occurred back in 1970.

I suspect that this will be a tough night for sleeping 😴 so I’ll have to use the fan although Sunday and Monday will worse. I might end up going to the office 🏢 the first half of the week just to beat the heat and get more in person hours in to keep the other directors happy 😊. So much pressure to get people back in the office now that COVID is over 😷 👾 💉 but the thing is everybody likes remote work 💻 and things are getting done whether it’s from camp or a bedroom. 👂🏻 It falls on deaf ears.

Last night was cooler 😎 but I still needed the fan. ⚛ I was out at the Town Park last night watching the wildlife and noticing that the deer 🦌 already starting to get good sized numbs as their antlers grow in. Autumn is rapidly approaching. All the farms are cutting hay 🌾, you can smell the manure being applied to the fields now as the first cutting get racked and baled.

On this day in 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, 🎤 underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall. 🇩🇪 Also, The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time in 1974 to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. 🍬

Yesterday was my counseling session and it went well, 👨🏻‍⚕️and I was feeling great after it until I realized how it was kind of a bummer. I really don’t like how my counselor keeps telling me that my problems are silly, and that because I’m not doing anything likely to cause significant harm ⚠ I shouldn’t worry so much about my pyromanania. 🔥 You want to move out to the country, have a burn barrel 🛢, livestock 🐮, four wheelers 🏍️and lots of guns 🔫 more power to you. Liking fire or being a conservative doesn’t make you mentally ill. Not harming any one, if your safe and not smoking out your neighbors.

I guess he’s right but I wanted to be pressured to have my views challenged and change. 💭 I guess ethically he can’t tell me to be an urban liberal Democrat who drives a Prisus, 🚘 doesn’t eat meat 🥩, advocates for gun control 🔫, and recycles rather than burns his garbage ♻. I so wanted to be told I was terribly wrong, but I guess that’s not what a he can do. But I wish he would listen to me more and talk less. 🔕 While I get that I’m paying for his advice I also feel that he should listen more and talk less.

He seems to want to move on to discussing my sometimes contrarian attitude 🙄 but at this point I don’t know how much farther I want to continue. I’m $125 in the hole 🕳 with co-pay now, and I feel like I’ve discussed all my deepist secrets. 🤫 I’ve learned some things, reevaluated parts of my life. 👩🏻‍🌾 Started to think about girl friends and settling down a bit. I’ve learned additional techniques to deal with my anxiety 😯 and as winter became summer. 🏖 I think I want to cancel my next session and reevaluate come autumn although I’ve scheduled an appointment a week from Friday but I could cancel as I’d rather be in the Adirondacks.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Strugeon Moon 🌕 when the sun will be setting at 8:24 pm with dusk at 8:56 pm. On that day in 2020, we had humid, partly sunny and temperatures between 82 and 65 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 84 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1941.

June 20, 2021 Evening

Good evening! Partly clear and 82 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 62 degrees. Back home again, as John Denver once sung. 🎶 Remarkably hot, especially now that I am back home after having a nice Sunday dinner at the folks house. 👕 Slowly unpacking my gear from camping, taking steps to drink and cool down.

Well, happy summer folks. ☺ The next ten weeks through Labor Day Weekend are considered real summer when the state parks pools are open and the days are relatively long. 🏖 Nice hot summer days to spend at the pool or swimming hole. 🏊🏻‍♂️ Do some fishing 🎣 late into the night.

It was a beautiful trip back across the Mohawk Valley and through the Schoharie Valley. Everything was very green and lush. It was a nice weekend up north, although Friday night was very wet. ☔ It drizzled for a while and then when I went for a good walk up to the Potholers it poured and I got completely soaked. 💦 It was decent all three days up north although I have to say that today was the best of the week. That said, much too short. 🐇 Time flies, especially when it’s rare that I am not out of town for four or more nights, in the era of remote work. But I decided I should come home tonight, because I need to at minimum move to a new campsite.

It was three nights up in the wilderness, 🏕 camping up at House Pond, spending much of Friday during the day drinking, 🍺 reading, 📕 writing, ✍ and hanging down at the Swimming Hole by the House Pond Campsite. 🏊‍♀️ It was nice but the water was a bit cold to say the least. 🛶 Saturday, was kayaking from Stewart Landing up to Lily Lake. I didn’t go much into West Lake because I wanted to be close to back to Stewart Landing by 2 pm as they were threatening severe storms by afternoon, which never materialized. Instead, I spent the evening reading, and then down at the same swimming hole on the East Canada Creek. 🏊‍♀️ Most of Sunday was spent slowly taking down camp after a nice breakfast 🥞 then the majority of the day the Potholers. I forgot how much nicer the Potholers are with the flowing water and potholes compared to any ordinary swimming hole on a nice summer day. It’s good to be back there!

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 69 degrees at 5am. 10 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 66 at 3am. South wind around 8 mph. Probably need the fan on all evening. In 2020, we had mostly clear skies. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 69 degrees. The record low of 41 occurred back in 1970.

I thought about staying over the folks house, 👪 but I was tired and wanted to get home. It has been a nice weekend, but alas I should get ready for the work week and get my camping gear put away. I also want to get the volt meter out before dark, and try to figure out why the relay isn’t closing between the starting and accessory batteries when the engine is on or the solar is outputting enough to top off both batteries. 🔋 That was annoying that wasn’t working this weekend.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon with 81% illuminated. At 7 PM, the moon was in the southeast (139°) at an altitude of 26° from the horizon, some 226,818 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by December 9^th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The Strawberry 🍓 Moon is on Thursday, June 24. The darkest hour is at 12:58 am, followed by dawn at 4:43 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:18 am in the east-northeast (57°) and last for 3 minutes and 28 seconds. Sunrise is 11 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:01 am with sun in the east-northeast (64°). Tonight will have 8 hours and 41 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 4pm. Some of the storms could produce small hail, gusty winds, and heavy rain. Mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 89 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 71 at 11am. South wind 10 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 92 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1938.

Friday turned out to be a very late start heading north. 🚍 I decided not to drive downtown as I’m out of practice with parallel parking and I hate dealing with rush hour traffic. 🚙 So I took the bus home and packed the coolers but ended up having to run to the grocery store to get all the things I didn’t previously pack. But at least the nights are long, and I had plenty of time to get set up, gather some firewood 🔥 and get things going.

The relay that connects the alternator – starting battery 🔋 to the accessory batteries quit working on the way up to camp. Not sure if it’s the exciter wire that broke or the relay is seized. It was fine, I had lots of sun ☀ for the solar so all was good. I stopped on Friday to try to get figure out the issue but nothing obvious. I’ll test this evening or tomorrow with the volt meter. ⚡ It’s possible that the big old can relay failed from the occasional clatter of the relay when clouds appear on a sunny day, although I think I have mostly arrested that by adjusting settings on the voltage control. I am betting the wire is just broken.

In four weeks on July 18 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (300°) at 8:29 pm,🌄 which is 7 minutes and 24 seconds earlier then today. In 2020 on that day, we had hot and sunny weather with shallow fog in the morning and temperatures between 87 and 59 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 84 and 63 degrees. The record high of 100 degrees was set back in 1953.

By then, I hope to be on my summer vacation. 😎 I am thinking the Finger Lakes National Forest and the state parks circuit I normally do, finding new places to hike or explore. I kind of like that campsite I stayed at last year without cell service, because I find do a lot more reading and thinking if I’m camping somewhere without cell service, 🤫 the quiet with no Facebook quite nice. 📱 I admit I am a bit of social media addict, even if my own postings to social media are a bit more asinine as I hate all the creepy commercial advertising that follows you around the internet, especially the green schemes.

Looking ahead, Independence Day 🇺🇸 is Next Sunday, World Population Day 👩‍👩‍👧‍👧 is in 3 weeks, Ugly Truck Day 🚚 is a month away, August 🌻 is in 6 weeks, Buck Moon 🌕 is in 9 weeks, Halloween 🎃 is in 19 weeks, Average High is 50 🍂 is in 21 weeks, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 5 months, Repeal of Prohibition Day 🍺 is in 24 weeks, Cold Moon 🌕 is in 26 weeks and Boxing Day 🥊 is in 27 weeks.

June 17, 2021 Morning

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Next Thursday is the latest sunset 🌇 of the year and the Strawberry Moon 🍓 🌕 . Lots of things to keep the lights up late that day. Sunny and 57 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌞 There is a west-southwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 44 degrees. Kind of a chilly start for a late June morning although the heat right now is lurking out on the west coast.

My bags are packed 💼 and I’m ready to head to the Adirondacks after work. I decided not to drive work because it’s just easier to leave from home and leaving a bit after 6 pm means I shouldn’t hit much traffic. The coolers will last longer with everything in the fridge or freezer today. 🥚 I forgot to get eggs yesterday so I’ll have to stop at Stewart’s on the way up north. Not sure if the forecast is as nice as previously announced but I am glad to be gone this long weekend where I can enjoy the quiet. 🤫 No cell service where I’m going, should be nice and quiet.

Bus reroute this morning 🚌 due to a house fire 🔥 on Delaware Avenue. Been a while since a building burnt there but house fires 🔥 in the city seem to follow a trend – neighborhoods destabilize and then one building after another burns. It just seems like Albany is sliding down hill. The whole city after decades of improvement after pollution controls were implemented is just sliding backwards. It may be the pandemic but also foreign investment driving up the rents and driving out the tenants and businesses. All that money 💵 from China purchases is being reinvested in our community by China slumlords looking for a place to park their cash.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 75 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 31st. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 87 degrees. The record high of 94 was set in 1994.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:57 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.8° from the due south horizon (-0.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:53 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (297°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (304°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:36 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 28 seconds with dusk around 9:10 pm, which is 21 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the southwest (225°) at an altitude of 44° from the horizon, 231,723 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:57 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 68 degrees. The dew point will be 46 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, an increase of 16 seconds over yesterday.

I can wait until the work day is over to head up north. I am thinking I also need maple syrup besides eggs for my pancakes. 🥞 I might end up going to Price Chopper in Gloversville. I wish I had just skip the run to the store yesterday. That was dumb on my part. Well, I guess it is what is. I just got flustered over the stupid can return and then I couldn’t find what I needed in the store. I feel stupid but it ain’t the end of world. The days are long now, I don’t care if I get up to camp really late although I’d kind of like to get that House Pond Campsite if possible.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 49 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 19th. West wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2020, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It became somewhat humid as the night progressed. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 39 occurred back in 1958.

On this day in 1972, Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee, 👮🏼‍♂️ 👤 in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition. This would become the basis for the Watergate scandal.

The Juneteenth Weekend looks nice. 🏖 Friday, mostly sunny, with a high near 82. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Saturday, scattered showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 11am. Partly sunny, with a high near 82. South wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 65 at 10am. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 81. Maximum dew point of 61 at 8pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 80 degrees.

As previously noted, next Thursday is Latest Sunset of the year 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 8:37 pm with dusk at 9:12 pm. On that day in 2020, we had humid weather and partly sunny skies, rain showers in the afternoon and temperatures between 85 and 65 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 82 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1943.

June 15, 2021 Morning

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Next Tuesday is Primary Day 🗳️ ! I keep checking the board of Elections website but no primaries locally despite the very empty Early Voting site on Elm Avenue. Seems kind of silly 😋. Five weeks to Ugly Truck Day 🚚. Mostly cloudy and 56 degrees at the Bethlehem Central High School. ☁ Calm wind. The dew point is 55 degrees. The skies will clear around 10 am.

Out for the morning walk 🚶🏻 at seven o’clock. 😴 I probably could have waited until eight as I’m working from home today but I like to maintain the habit and on humid days, a shower 🚿 is good before work even when working from home. Tomorrow and Thursday I’ll be in the office 🏢 and then I am heading up to Piseco-Powley. Hopefully they won’t be tying up things downtown with the filming, it could be a pain today with no buses going down Capitol Hill due to the filming, although maybe interesting looking out the office windows, although my corner office in the opposite end of the building. 🎬

I didn’t get propane, so I will probably want to get back to Tractor Supply on Wednesday after work ⛽ so I have plenty of fuel for the long weekend up in the Adirondacks. Maybe it would be fun to get some charcoal too for cooking breakfast — sure you can do a wood fire but the slow low fire of charcoal can make some pretty good breakfasts for sure. Among other things. I can’t believe I spent $90 at Walmart yesterday, but I needed undershirts among other things. 👕 Sometimes you just need to get supplies. I might have to adjust my budget going forward, but for now I am maintaining my account balance okay while continuing on my savings plans. 🏕 One thing I am really looking to being off-grid this weekend — in the sense of having no cell reception — as so many of the weekends lately have been remote work, and I spend too much time up in the woods playing with my phone.

Today will have isolated showers between 9am and noon, then scattered showers and thunderstorms after noon. Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 74 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 27th. Maximum dew point of 60 at 11am. Calm wind becoming northwest 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 78 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1988.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:57 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.7° from the due south horizon (-0.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:53 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (297°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (304°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:36 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 28 seconds with dusk around 9:09 pm, which is 25 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the west-southwest (258°) at an altitude of 37° from the horizon, 237,152 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:56 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 68 degrees. The dew point will be 58 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, an increase of 24 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 53 degrees at 5am. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around June 1st. Maximum dew point of 58 at 6pm. Northwest wind 6 to 10 mph. In 2020, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 49 degrees. The record low of 40 occurred back in 1961.

On this day in 1967, The People’s Republic of China tests its first hydrogen bomb. 💣 It would be one of the world’s few powers with access to the devestatingly powerful hydrogen bombs. ☢ Nuclear bombs have proven to be so destructive, that they have fortunately been in remission for a little over 75 years, although we all know they are just lurking under the surface waiting for their return some day, hopefully in the distant in the future. 💥

Weekend still seems to be pretty nice start to summer. 🏖 Saturday, a chance of showers, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 82. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Maximum dew point of 63 at 1pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 78. Maximum dew point of 59 at 9am. Typical average high for the weekend is 80 degrees.

One month 📅 from now will be Cow Appreciation Day 🐂 when the sun will be setting at 8:31 pm with dusk at 9:04 pm.

June 5, 2021 Morning

Good morning! Today is the first 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️ . Actually a bit later here as I’m farther to the west here in the Adirondacks. Two weeks to Average High is 80 🏖 . Mostly sunny and 69 degrees at Mason Lake. There is a west-southwest breeze at 13 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 57 degrees. The breeze this morning is nice and keeping the bugs in control. 🐜 Last night until dusk the black flies were bad but this morning with the low humidity, they aren’t bad at all.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 83 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 28th. Maximum dew point of 57 at 10am. West wind 13 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Up north with that breeze it should be pretty nice. Back in Albany I bet they are roasting. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 85 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1925.

I am planning a pretty lazy day on the hammock, 😴 maybe doing some fishing 🎣, day drinking 🍻, laying in the hammock and possibly a swim 🏊🏻‍♂️. I don’t feel real ambitious, going to be a hot one and truth be told, I just want a day and away from it all. Between that fire at Mr. Wolcott’s house to issues I have in my own life, to everything that’s been going on in my life its but wild. 🤪 I just want a weekend with nothing crazy going on, just quiet and relaxing. Next week is going to be really busy and there might be some work projects today so I’m camping 🏕 here at Mason Lake where I know I have good cell service 📱. Lots of laying back.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:57 pm with sun having an altitude of 69° from the due south horizon (-0.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:53 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (303°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:36 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 29 seconds with dusk around 9:10 pm, which is 43 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:57 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 75 degrees. The dew point will be 54 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 15 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 4 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 63 degrees at 4am. Eight degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 54 at 6pm. West wind 10 to 15 mph. In 2020, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was humid. It got down to 60 degrees. The record low of 38 occurred back in 1971.

Yesterday when I went to boot windows for the Zoom Meeting 📹 the silly windows took 25 minutes to boot so my cover was blown that I was working from the Adirondacks as I had to connect using my phone without the virtual background. It’s the worst kept secret ever that I often work from the Adirondacks when working remotely. 🗻 Sometimes technology fails but I made my meeting and work gets done. I really hope they keep the remote hybrid model at work, however their is a lot of resistance to that.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Average High is 80 🏖 when the sun will be setting at 8:42 pm with dusk at 9:18 pm. On that day in 2020, we had hot, partly cloudy and temperatures between 88 and 70 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 80 degrees. We hit a record high of 94 back in 1995.

That weekend in two weeks is going to be the Juneteenth weekend ⛺ which I am thinking would be perfect for some quiet time with no cell service 🔕 and no internet at Piseco-Powley Road. As much as I like being connected to the world its nice to be off the grid spending a lot of day at the Potholers or maybe better yet that campsite at the House Pond Campsite with the swimming 🏊🏻‍♂️ hole nearby if I can get it. Come July, definitely want to check out the renovated Mine Kill Pool and Burnt Rossman Hills Forest and then of course summer vacation in the Finger Lakes. 🏞

What a week it’s been … 🔥📜 👨🏻‍🚒

Over the past week I’ve literally spent 17 plus hours sorting through wet, smokey and increasingly moldy papers trying to save whatever Albany history I can before it’s forever gone. While maybe John Wolcott will never be as famous as Erastus Corning or Nelson Rockeller, the truth is activists like him preserved some of the city’s most important history and lands, raised important questions made a difference again the Democratic machine, often at great personal cost.

While he did pretty well when “Republican” Theresa Cook (ala that time Rezsin Adams ran as a “Republican” for county legislature) was running the county clerk’s office, other times he was attacked tooth and nail for his performance as a title searcher for the county, even though he was probably the best title searcher and researcher of deeds and history the county ever had. I came across his lawsuit today drying out his papers along with the numerous exhibits on Albany County corruption and sneaky misdeeds or the Erastus Corning machine and by that time Jim Coyne’s county operations. The Corning machine was only really interested in punishing male dissidents, they couldn’t see in their minds that women could have any influence of politics. Ultimately it was the federal District Court that sided with him and had him reinstated but he fought for years to get the pension credit he deserved going back to the days when he was a consultant for Fort Orange 787 dig. The Fort Orange file got wetter than I thought but we got it apart drying. It will be saved. And while, maybe the history books write differently, certainly it was John Wolcott who helped to take down Jim Coyne through alerting the FBI to Coyne’s crooked deal over the Knickerbocker Arena, although like with Fort Orange and Paul Huey, the credit can’t necessarily be just his own.

And then as I was going through the papers, putting dried ones away I heard a screech and bang, and a car crashed into the traffic light pole at South Swan and Morton Avenue, causing the 100 plus lb traffic light to break free of the wire. The clearly fleeing car then took off leaking what appeared to be coolant. Police showed up, hauled the broken stop light off the road, talked to the neighbors and took off. Not sure what happened to the fleeting crashed car, I was too busy sorting papers. Albany is going downhill rapidly, things were looking up in the city not that long ago. I’m just glad I’ve been taking the bus there rather than driving especially with the neighborhoods getting so rough. I still remember that last time I walked down to Sheridan Hollow to visit John, a firearm rang out as somebody shot out a car window.

While working on John’s papers, I’ve been going through the EIS for a project in Troy and some Pine Bush issues in Guilderland with some tax data and GIS Mapping. People have gotten to know all the amazing things that I can do and I get more and more requests. It seems like everywhere I’m going I’m getting sucked into fights against City Hall everywhere, me with public records and free software, going up against million dollar reports with expensive professional software, internal only data and decades of training and experience. But if we don’t raise questions and fight development then who will? It’s tough as these professionals have big budgets and skills, but if house wife Jane Jacobs could stop Robert Moses, then so can ordinary people like myself. Not going to win every fight but it’s good to raise questions and stop bad development where we can. Even if it’s a pain to the local Bob Moses of today. It’s important we protect open space. Even if it involves some risk to myself and makes me not trust or respect most government workers.

Beyond all those wet and smokey papers and battling City Hall it’s been a crazy week for sure. The legislative session is wrapping up and I’ve been swamped with work, I was going through agendas for work well into the night on Saturday night. It’s been a crush at work and when I’m not in the office most of the time until late I’ve been drying out papers. I did get some bird watching in at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center this morning – saw a red tailed hawk being harassed by a few sparrows on the way out walking out there. I continue to back up, photograph and store important documents electronically in case of a disaster.

And then I’m also finally dealing with some of my own issues in my life. The counseling I’m getting is helping, it seems consistent with the advice I’m reading from trustworthy sources and publications on the internet. But change comes hard especially with bad habits of both negative thinking and repeated thoughts in thinking I’ve had ingrained for two decades now. I’m trying to change but it’s hard. I’m certainly learning a lot, becoming a better person because of counseling.

And I was doing better until the mixed emotions of Mr. Wolcott’s house fire – grief and sense of lostmy work sorting and carefully cataloging documents would be forever lost. But we saved a lot. But the shock and horror of it all, seeing that house in such disarray and burnt – that only a week ago before the fire when I was sorting and filing papers things looked so different. Plus all that stuff going to the Rensselaer landfill to be buried and forever viewed from my downtown office as a dirt and grass covered hill. Fire can be so bad, especially in the urban areas. Then I saw the other side tonight out in the country, the place I grew up. My parents neighbors, the ones who live in trailers and raise pigs and cows, were having a big ol bonfire, drinking beer burning an old couch, mattress and pallets with lots of black smoke. I’m so jealous of their homestead, even if they are what the government calls poor people who live in rundown trailers and barns. Kind of like that film about Appalachia I’ve been watching. But the country life is a life I’ll get to eventually, saving a bit each paycheck.

Andy Arthur.org

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