So, what did you buy on Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

I grew up on Chesapeake Bay, moved to Puget Sound and lived at the beach in CA because I have always loved the water, surfing, sailing, canoes, drift boats, rafts and power boats.

Moving to Colorado and Wyoming I learned to be more terrestrial. Studying forestry has given me a life long pursuit. I love wandering around in the woods. I like looking at forests, wildflowers, and wildlife. I take people on forest walks to discuss succession, management, fire history, grazing impacts and fire resilience. I bought a little trailer for light and fast traveling with my dog in any weather. I am headed to Oregon to look at the big trees.

No electronics allowed, no news, just Nature, some reading and crossword puzzles.

I’ve been studying the regs and sample test questions to get my FAA 14 CFR part 107 drone pilot’s license for the past month, hopefully before spring snow melt. I just ordered my first pro-consumer high level sUAS drone. Why? Several reasons.

At my camp lake, a small non-motors Association lot member’s owned lake on the edge of the Adirondacks, it is fed entirely by inflow of Adirondack waters. This is where I do most of my daytime family canoe recreation and race workout training during the warmer months.

I am past Association president and still hold a seat on the Board of Directors, where I chair a new committee that I created for management and protection of the lake’s waters. The biggest reason is the increasing advancement of native vegetation growth overpowering parts of the lake body, hopefully with no invasives (as yet). I need to overfly and photo-map the outgrowths and document them to obtain the necessary NYSDEC wetlands permits for control and mitigation. Hence my planned new drone activity.

Second, with training and coordination with my DEC Forest Ranger friends and my SAR team, I hope to expand my team’s readiness and value during SAR incidents.

Third, my new local village Chief of Police is a retired State Police Officer who initiated and incorporated drone activity with the state police, and is working to do the same locally. He also has a private drone side business.

My son, a retired AF fighter pilot and now a commercial airline pilot had to start some kind of business during the Covid slow-down to earn a decent income. He had formed a successful and lucrative drone side business and can help me get going with advice, although I do not need nor intend to enter into any such business venture myself. But unfortunately, he is located far away in Texas.

I splurged on a Black Diamond headlamp, supporting a small local business. So now I'm back up to 2 headlamps. They seem to escape me in camp or on jobs. No idea where nor how, but it feels good to be in the preparedness mode as another season approaches.

My buddy got a Mackinaw Wool Cruiser Jacket. It performs in a wide range of conditions. Patented in 1914 it is still very popular today. Mackinaw wool is the finest example of natue's original performance fabric. It's stitched in the USA from virgin wool. It's wind resistant, breathable and insulates when wet. It has spacious cargo pockets and four hand warmer pockets, with a button secure front and adjustable cuffs.