Finally a beautiful Saturday out in Schoharie and Delaware County after so many crappy weekends 🚵🏊🏕️

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After such a run of wet and bad weather we finally got a break and I got away from town. Awesome, although I will say that the pool is cold with the low dew point and the breeze. But it was great for hiking Platts Rocks then riding 26 miles round trip or the Catskill Scenic Trail. That said, I’m beat after all that bicycling, I barely want to hit the pool. But it’s fine, I got a shower and some pool time in and it will be closing for a bit and then be time to head up to camp.

Good evening! It’s been a pleasant day. Mostly sunny and 78 degrees at the Mine Kill State Park. There is a northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 55 degrees.

Lol where to start! 😂 Last night turned out much better than forecasted so I ended up deciding to ride out to the Bender Mellon Preserve 🍉 and hiking around that for nearly an hour, exploring the outside parameter trail and taking a bunch of pictures after deciding 📸 the trail wasn’t so wet yesterday and the skies were interesting. Then I decided to ride out to Voorheesville, down Main Street then out past the Voorheesville High School and library then down the rail trail to Adams Place then snaked through the subdivisions back home. 🐍 By then it was late for packing for camp but I got some done like filling the water container and some other things but won’t say that I didn’t stay up late sitting out back and still had a bunch to do in the morning contributing to me not leaving until 9:30 am.

On my way out I realized I forgot toilet paper 🚽 and paper towels. Both are good for camping. What I ended up doing was going to Tops in Greenville and buying paper towels for both purposes. They’ll be good for both. Then I took NY 81 out to Oak Hill which is still closed west of there.

With the detour I ended up deciding to head over to Prattville and checking out Pratts Rock. What a beautiful day. 🏞 Finally got to the Catskill Scenic Trail in Grand Gorge at 12 noon, rode until 1:45 when I got to Hobart at 1:40 pm when I stopped at the park for a while 🚲 and headed south almost to South Kortwright but turned back as I wanted to be back to my truck as close as possible to 4 pm so I could shower 🚿 and cool down in the pool. 🏊‍♂️ Then off to camp at Betty Brook most likely though if the campsite on West Kill Road is open I might stay there.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 54 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 12th. Maximum dew point of 56 at 7pm. Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm in the evening. Going to be a cool evening especially here in the mountains. In 2022, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 65 degrees. The record low of 45 occurred back in 1981.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon with 22% illuminated. At 5 PM, the moon was in the south (185°) at an altitude of 51° from the horizon, some 249,518 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 January 28th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The moon will set in the west (273°) at 11:05 pm. The Strugeon 🐡 Moon is on Tuesday, August 1. The darkest hour is at 1:05 am, followed by dawn at 5:08 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:41 am in the east-northeast (61°) and last for 3 minutes and 17 seconds. Sunrise is 56 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:22 am with sun in the east-northeast (68°). Tonight will have 9 hours and 9 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 48 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 83 degrees at 5pm. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 3rd. Maximum dew point of 60 at 5pm. Calm wind. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. It was humid. The high last year was 97 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1955.

I’m undecided about my plans for tomorrow. 💭 I still want to get to the farm stands of the Schoharie Valley 🌽 🍅 but I also kind of want to set up camp ⛺ and not have to secure it or take it down tomorrow. Plus I don’t love driving that rough Betty Brook Road, it’s tough on Big Reds aging suspension. 🚲 That said it could be a fun filled day. I might cycle from the Rest Area to Middleburgh, then poke around the village, get ice cream 🍦 then hike Vromans Nose 👃 and turn hit up the farm stands, head back to Mine Kill Pool and swim some more before camp. Monday I will park in Stamford, ride down to Bloomfield and maybe hike not drive Utsaythana followed by a swim at Mine Kill before going out to see the folks before vacation which starts Friday.

In four weeks on August 19 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (288°) at 7:55 pm,🌄 which is 34 minutes and 33 seconds earlier then today. In 2022 on that day, we had hot, mostly sunny and temperatures between 89 and 58 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 82 and 61 degrees. The record high of 92 degrees was set back in 1899.

Looking ahead, Work Like a Dog Day 🐩 is Next Saturday (not likely to happen on vacation), Last Sunset After 8 PM 🌆 is in 3 weeks, National Dog Day 🐩 is in 5 weeks, Autumn 🍂 is in 2 months, Daylight Savings Time Ends 🛥️ is in 15 weeks, Veterans Day 🇺🇸 is in 16 weeks, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 17 weeks, Small Business Saturday 🛍️ is in 18 weeks, Average High is 40 🌨 is in 20 weeks, Earliest Sunset of the Year ⌛️ is in 20 weeks, Tea Party Day 🐍 is in 21 weeks, Days are Getting Longer ☀️ is in 5 months, Festivus 🍖 is in 22 weeks, Bacon Day 🥓 is in 23 weeks and Bacon Day 🥓 is in 23 weeks.

Fields

Rural electricifican

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The other day driving past the hunting camps and rural homes up on the dirt roads around Gas Springs NY, I was a bit surprised how far the electric lines extended into this area to very remote farms and camps on dirt roads. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised – rural electricifican has extended to nearly all corners of our country – but it seems like in an era of solar power, batteries and inverters, to be incredibly expensive and wasteful to have run lines all that way out there.

Power Lines

While rural electricifican efforts got underway in the 1930s, many of the more remote farms and homes didn’t get electricity until the 1950s or even 1960s. It seems hard to imagine a modern dairy without electricity to run the pumps or coolers but many other farms certainly did. They had all kinds of belt driven equipment that often ran off of Blackstone and other primitive motors. The modern tractor PTO had yet to be standardized.

More thoughts on Missouri… 💭

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Probably if I were to go there I’d poke around the Mark Twain National Forest, mostly on dirt roads and the alike. I’m guessing it’s a mixture of upland timberlands and leased pasture and significant inholdings but I’ve don’t know for sure yet, I’d have to do more research. I’m envisioning something like the Finger Lakes National Forest but I could be wrong.

I’ve heard the state is hot and muggy in the summer but also in the salt belt in the winter. I’ve heard drugs, crime and poverty can be quite bad parts of the state. But so is the case with many rural areas with ample access to farm fertilizer anhydrous ammonium and long hard work days leading to opiod addiction and meth. Pollution and hazardous waste sites dot the countryside and outskirts of city but that’s not uncommon in New York either. Buffalo and Niagara Falls alone have hundreds of brownfields but you get a few miles out and your in pretty wild country that’s largely unspoiled.

I’m just so fascinated by other regions of the nation and other ways of living. New York has its own cultures, customs, folkways and laws – some good, some bad. Some of the laws and regulations in Upstate NY are just asinine.

I like the idea of living somewhere that land is affordable and taxes are low. Where your not fighting codes or zoning with everything you do. Where you can have livestock and privacy, where you don’t have to worry about neighbors complaining about your pigs or goats or trash burning barrel or making too much noise shooting off guns or fireworks.

Where you don’t have to get a pistol permit, where you can open carry if want, where you can buy an AR-15 for fun or shooting coyotes. Build a gun range out back from a sand pit with your tractor. Get together with some buddies burn that nasty old mattress or sofa bed in a bonfire and scrap the metal. Get muddy with your four wheeler.

There are plenty of small hick towns in New York that are fun to live in, where good ol boys have a lot of fun. I know I’ve been through many of them, the hills and hollars, the dairy country and hill high above them that provide timber and recreation.

But people pay a lot of taxes and everything is just so darn expensive in New York. Even taxes you don’t pay directly trickle down. You can get a pistol permit but it’s an unnecessary and costly process when other states you walk in, pass a background check and walk out with your gun. And if you own enough land, nobody has to know what your doing on it but still all it takes is one snitch.

Now I consider myself to be a liberal and a progressive. I’m a registered Democrat and I work for the party. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy with the direction of our state nor do I think it’s a good state to live in as a rural resident. Urban justice and helping people in need is good for the city folk but those of us who crave the wilderness of Rural America should seek elsewhere.