Perimeter Security

Posted On November 1, 2024

An Adirondack Outlaw Update

It’s been a while since I’ve shared anything from my ADKO world. So, I thought I would give a brief update on what I’ve been up to and some of the outlaw adventures I’ve got planned on the trails ahead.

First, a bit of an outlaw writing career housekeeping announcement. As of last week, my adventures and stories will no longer appear in The Adirondack Almanack, as I recently made the decision to completely cut ties with them. While on the surface, this may to some seem a rash move on my part, it is in fact based on a growing number of adverse circumstances.

First and foremost, a series of recent editorial moves has systematically cut my readership on the Almanack site. I was consistently getting between five hundred and two thousand Adirondack Almanack readers per story, reaching a high of 8,000 with last fall’s “From Rail to Trail”. From that point forward, a series of strategically executed editorial actions on their part surgically sliced my reader volume via their site, causing it to plummet to a point where I was averaging less than one hundred Almanack readers per shared story.

Without going into excruciating detail, their decision to cut their daily newsletter back to five days per week, combined with the ever-decreasing frequency with which they chose to share my work with their readers, (despite a consistent submission rate & ever increasing work quality on my part, if I do say so myself), and the increasingly clear reality that there never was going to be (and, despite my aspirations, never had been) any opportunities for resume growth for me as a writer within their orbit, made mapping my route forward clear. All of these factors combined finally made me realize that for me as a writer, continuing to share my work on their platform was a trail to nowhere.

So, enough of the old news. Life’s trail leads ever forward. Many exciting things have been happening. First, my “Relentless” journey indeed had a follow-on chapter.

My beaver came back!

Based on his actions, I’m certain I was facing was the same dam building adversary.

Luckily for me, I learned from experience. My NYSDEC issued nuisance beaver permit still valid, I immediately removed his new dam, confiscated all of the beaver’s freshly cut ash tree food limbs, and then located and blew open the entrance to his new hut with a pick and a shovel. He’d certainly been one busy beaver. I’m not quite sure when or how he found time to dig it, but his new hut was cavernous!

It was truly impressive. However, once I exposed it, realizing that the jig was up and he faced an adversary as relentless as he was, the beaver chose life and once again made his escape.

My “Relentless” issues for the time being resolved, I turned my efforts to more productive projects, one of them being installing a series of new duck (wood ducks & hooded mergansers) nesting boxes.

The full story of this effort is one of my next planned ADKO writing projects.

Tracking my “Trails to Noah” has been a full-time endeavor of late. Some of the biggest stars being a grey fox,

Frog hunting blue heron,

One very fat opossum,

A partridge taking a break from his pear tree,

And as I make preparations to head south for my season’s first father/son deer hunting foray, the emergence of a set of serious antlers.

While all of these Adirondack Outlaw adventures and activities are certain to inspire my next series of stories, the most important activity I can undertake in the coming days is to exercise my citizen’s voice with my vote!

I personally feel our democracy is in peril. This year’s presidential election holds our great nation’s fate in its hands. We have already seen first-hand and experienced what damage a self-focused traitor’s attempt at insurrection can do to a nation. When a man shows you through his actions what he truly is, it is best to believe him. My only hope is that in casting their ballots in what has always been our great nation’s free and fair election, the overwhelming majority of our nation’s citizen’s make their voices heard and do not forget.

I don’t want to live the rest of my life trying to explain to my grandchildren why we as a nation surrendered their rights to a hate mongering charlatan.

I for one will be casting my ballot for Kamala Harris.

Leaving perimeter security in the hands of

“The Sheriff”

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Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO