Dark skies and quiet walks

I wish I could take you all out with me when I walk Zeppo at night, it's so amazing.

After I put our house to my back, there's only one house in my sights. They're far up the road, and don't turn many lights on, so my eyes adjust to the dark pretty quick. I get past our trees, and there are fields to either side of me for 2/10 of a mile. Tonight, there was still some straggling fireflies floating around. The field on the left has new bales of hay scattered all around. I think once they bring those in, they'll put some cows to pasture there. A small sliver of a moon was there tonight, a bit orange as it was rising.

That's the only direction that I get a "city glow" from Potsdam, and it's not much of one with only 10,000 residents. Sometimes there's some more glow to the north from Massena, but that's 30 miles away so it's not very strong either. Looking to the right is always totally black. There are no towns between us and the Adirondacks in that direction. Even though I can't see the mountains, the dearth of human activity is evident at night. Because the moon was just a crescent tonight, and there were no clouds, it was a fantastic night for stargazing. I've never seen as many stars anywhere else I've ever lived or visited. And the milky way stretching over it all.

We usually walk for 10-15 minutes, and hardly ever see a car or hear any sound of humans or machines. Dogs, yes. And coyotes a few times, they call them coy dogs here. Last week, at dusk, a car did come by and scared out a deer that had been hiding in the field as we passed. Poor Zeppo really wanted to chase it back down to woods.

That's where I live. And why I live here.