Above: New York State Agricultural Society President Diane Held congratulates Schoharie County farmer Richard Ball, recently appointed as New York State's new Commissioner of Agriculture, at the group's 2014 forum on New York agriculture. Photo from the New York State Agricultural Society's Facebook page.
Look through the roster of New York State's top agricultural officials, and you might notice they've got something in common: Cows.
Five live rounds and a spent casing. Closeup photo of .45 ammo by Flickr user kcdsTM; published under Creative Commons license.
A popular Delaware County gun shop, Lyn's Leisure Tyme Gun Shop in Davenport, was raided last Thursday by federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents, who seized firearms and ammunition and shut down the shop. The action does not appear to be connected with the SAFE Act, New York State's new gun law.
Don't go out there, kitty. Photo taken in Andes over the weekend by Mark Zilberman; shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool.
It's baaa-aaaaack: The polar vortex, a whirling mass of low-pressure frigid air that usually has the decency to stay far north of us, is dipping down south again this week to pay the Northeast and Midwest another visit.
Above: Inge Grafe-Kieklak, plaintiff in a recent lawsuit challenging a Sidney town moratorium on gas drilling, demonstrates at a pro-drilling rally in Albany on Oct. 15, 2012. Grafe-Kieklak's sign, written in her native German, translates: "Gov. Cuomo, you have no right to take our mineral rights!" Photo taken by pro-drilling blogger Andy Leahy of NY Shale Gas Now; reproduced by permission.
A state judge struck down the town of Sidney's recently-passed moratorium on gas drilling last week, ruling that the town failed to follow proper procedure in enacting the law.
The decision has been hailed by pro-drilling advocates as a victory. But because of its narrow focus, the Sidney case is unlikely to have much impact on the larger legal question of whether towns have authority to regulate gas drilling within their borders -- an issue that is still yet to be heard by the New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.
Left: Gabrielle Alexis Kamlet. Photo courtesy of the Kingston Police Department.
Kingston police are looking for an Olivebridge 17-year-old who was reported missing by family members on Wednesday, Jan. 15.
Gabrielle Alexis Kamlet was last seen around 5pm on Wednesday on Albany Avenue in Kingston. She is described as about 5 foot 7, 200 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes, and was last seen wearing a black pea coat, black leggings, and black ankle-high snow boots.
Before her disappearance, police say, Kamlet told a family member that she was going to meet friends after work and then go to a meeting.
Police say she may be in the company of a 35- to 40-year-old black man who drives a black Nissan Altima. No other information was available about the man.
Above: Pam Brown, owner of Woodstock's Garden Café On The Green. Photo from a GoFundMe page that is seeking donations to help offset Brown's medical bills. So far, donors from the community have pitched in over $27,000 of a $50,000 goal.
Pam Brown, owner and chef at Woodstock’s all-vegan Garden Café on the Green, received the life-changing news of a cancer diagnosis a few months back. For an independent businessperson, the news was especially devastating: Business owners, especially hands-on types with high standards, seldom have much of a safety net.
But what Brown does have is the love of her staff and community. And this Thursday night at the Colony Café, the community is invited to come help out, and lose their cabin fever on the dance floor at the same time.
Above: Doug McLaurine and Robin Factor, owners and founders of Roxbury General, stand in front of the building that will soon house the town's newest Main Street business. Photo by Suzanna Finley; published with permission.
There's no denying it: Roxbury is having a moment. Along Main Street, once-empty storefronts are bustling with life. Until recently, one would be hard-pressed to find an espresso in Roxbury; these days, the Route 30 hamlet boasts rollicking art parties, dumplings shipped in from New York's Chinatown, and a food truck.
On the morning of Saturday, Jan. 18, the town will welcome its latest new business to the recently-renovated Enderlin building on Main Street: Roxbury General, a labor of love for husband-and-wife owners Doug McLaurine and Robin Factor.
A few days before the store's big opening, Factor ticked off a list of Roxbury's newest businesses, obviously delighted to be among them.
A breath of winter mist hovers over the Schoharie Creek. Photo taken Sunday, Jan. 5; with the past few days' warm weather, the cool blues of this evanescent Catskills landscape have given way to a more somber palette of thawing greys and browns.
Photo by Flickr user A Man Called ACME; shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool. To see a more high-resolution version, visit the photo's Flickr page.
Local photographers: Want to see your photos on the Watershed Post? Add them to our Flickr pool, which currently holds over 1,900 photos from across the Catskills.
Above: A running spigot at Hubbell Bros. in the Delaware County town of Middletown gets the polar vortex treatment. Photo taken on Wednesday by Watershed Post reader Burr Hubbell, who writes, "The water's still running inside that icicle thingy. It's just frozen on the outside."
The Northeast is thawing out this weekend, after several days of intense subzero cold. In the Catskills and across a wide area of upstate New York, a combination of rain in the forecast and melting snow and ice from rapidly-warming temperatures has the region under flood watch from Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening.
Still life with fence post. Photos (top and bottom) by Walter Putrycz.
Snowy owls are creatures of the tundra, and a rare sight this far south of the Arctic Circle. But this winter, the ghost-white birds have been turning up across the Northeastern U.S., in an unusual display that has delighted backyard birdwatchers from Maine to South Carolina.
Scientists think the owls might be flying south in search of prey, because of low food availability in their native habitat. Or it could be that this year's generation of young owls is unusually large, meaning many juveniles have to fly far from home to sustain themselves. Either way, this year's irruption -- a term that describes the en masse arrival of birds outside their normal wintering grounds -- is a treat for local birders.
