2020 Election
Wow, that was quite the October in terms of political chaos, unexpected twists and turns (Philly shooting, protests, and looting, Pres gets covid, Pres does 18 events in 4 days), but we seem to be on the back side of it, regardless of the tactics of some of the politicians and their media mouthpieces on the right assert.
Took my son and a friend to Philly to see what democracy looks like.
I'm in a position where each and every day I interact with persons across the political spectrum, and what is interesting is I read a stat a week or two ago that claimed that 70%+ of people do not interact or even know someone who is not in their political silo. I don't believe everything I read, and polls are under great scrutiny, but even if it was half that, I would still see it as an astonishing data piece and explains a lot.
I go out of my way to get information from a wide range of sources - magazines, newspapers, news, radio, random apps like tik tok and instagram. Too much information lately, where by the time election rolled around my phone reported a daily use of screen time of 8+ hrs!!!! I don't really know how they measure that - is listening to a podcast screen time? Or a newscast, or call in radio show? I hope so, though I admit I have a newbie energy level for tik tok - guiltfree too, since I think it's really fun, and lack of guilt makes it all the more dangerous. Keep an eye out for my tik tok shuffle I'm working on.
As a builder, in the niche I occupy, I interact with a wide range of persons, as I said above. I sell homes in upstate (rural and red) to the coastal elite (families from NYC and mostly blue), I work everyday with a range of subcontractors and employees (red) and I also work with surveyors, engineers, lawyers, accountants who are educated, many times male and a tad older and harder to pigeon hole into a political generalization (purple).
It's a fascinating vantage point - with a ton of information and preferences and actions coming from all sides. What is true today, if you turn off the news, most people I'm interacting with have moved on, accepted the results, and are now in the process of putting politics back where it always was - white noise in the background, instead of a daily test of how loud can you support your candidate.
Late last week, as the counts were drip drip dripping in, and cable news was doing a great job of narrating the drama when nothing much was happening, I attempted to go news free for a day. When that didn't happen, I tried for a couple of hours. When that didn't happen, I tried for an hour. Waking up in the middle of the night, refreshing my phone, praying for a non-trump headline. Back in 2016, I went to sleep only to wake up, check the results, and was as shocked as the next guy, and not in a good way. Anyways, I finally on Monday started to create some distance between me and the news, and now I'm trying to check in at the end of the day for the Arizona counts, and other stuff. Nothing much changes hour to hour, so for me at least, checking in less is better, and actually just as informative. Not easy though. Everyone has their TV on to the news.
You have to wonder how long Arizona is going to be at 98% counted? They've been stuck there for a week, and you have really get a kick out of Fox News' premature call of that state, since now it is down to 14,000 votes. What a stake through the heart of Trump's election night momentum.
It's like the Trump Show is truly afraid of what comes next for it. How can you make an argument with a straight face of stopping the count in Georgia and PA, continuing to count in Arizona, claiming that the tight races they are losing are fraudulent but not a word about the close races they won, no introspection into last election, just as tight, with voting done with the same rules, but turned in their favor?
You can make the argument because you know your support is wide, and 2 subsets of that support are the following - people with something political at stake, and non-college educated voters, many of whom are drowning in their chosen sources of information, echoing and repeating a small and selected slice of the day's news.
And let's admit it - education matters. Education gives you empathy, perspective, hope, a baseline of comparing today with other days/times.
Also, from what I saw, Trump turned out the vote. I don't have the data, but I wouldn't be highly surprised if first time voters and 'low propensity' voter counts were large and unprecendented. Trump motivated people to vote who don't regularly participate in the political process. I think the trouble there, however, is these people won't continue to vote, won't be regular voters, and will go back to not participating. Their enthusiasm for Trump is not easily transferable to just any state or national candidate. In fact, just the opposite.
More Drone Pics
New drone pics in late fall. Great work of the new zone with these new perspectives.
Got a Drone
Some of the best shots of real estate is from the air, so the the new drone has been a fun addition to my marketing bag of tricks. Pretty simple to operate, with lots of safety features if you don't get the cheapest one, like collision avoidance, a 'home' button that brings it back home when you push the limits, range et... too far, and a bunch of other stuff. Should also help get better perspective on land and such as I'm buying it.
Bought it right in time for the peak foilage season up here the Catskills. The thing about the 'peak', is you get several false peaks, thinking it can't get better than this, but it does, and then there is that one day, or collection of days, where it really is the peak, and then it quickly fades into the avalanche of falling leaves, and then bare trees before you know it.
My first trial run, besides at my house in Milford PA, was up at our project in Kerhonkson NY we just built out. It was 4 homes, sold quick, and the families are loving them now that the world has changed.
Here's a pic of the famous hotel in Milford named the Fauchere.
This is a shot of a farmhouse, looking east towards the Gunks and New Paltz.
A Ranch.
Shot of a barn going up in Cochecton, NY.
The Delaware River.
Another Ranch in Kerhonkson.
And my All-Star Team of cross-disciplinarians. When you stay as busy as we stay, it's a constant crush of real responsibility across everyone's desktop.
All the problems of yesterday are receding, 4 months into solving them. I can tell by my need to write about them, a process I have always found to help me untangle the issue, and identify ways forward. Now I'm left to solve the 100 regular problems that arise each day. The bottom-line solution is always the same - dig in, sacrifice everything else, work hard and harder, and solve one layer of the issue at the same - the ol' 'a journey starts with a single step'. The sacrifice is always real - in this case, waking before 4am, not coaching, keeping my son out of travel leagues, having little energy left over for life other than work. Each morning I wake now, I slowly can see the extreme nature of the last 4 months, with business doubling, and black swan issues diving from the sky out of nowhere.
Of course, there is another way to - make excuses, fall behind, disappoint vendors/bankers/clients alike, sidetrack your business and lose the momentum which is extremely hard to recapture. We have been on a forward momentum train for 20 years - some times slower than others, but always moving forward. It's way too dangerous for survival to be sitting in one place.
Employee Retainage at Catskill Farms
As most small employers can attest, recruiting and keeping employees is at the heart of any level of success. We see it among our own team, and we see it among all the teams that support us. Those who find a way to maintain and retain employees are those companies that grow with us, instead of us outgrowing them.
This little mini-barn just got over 500 reactions on Instagram, which was nearly a record. I don't think this was the exact photo - the other one had fog - but for some reason really captured the attention of some of our 6200 followers.
At Catskill Farms, back in 2012, I undertook several initiatives to try and retain employees, and for the most part they've worked well, in whole or part. It's funny how a small self-made business person like myself would be caricatured to be against government programs of any sort - an Ann Rand "I can do it myself' mantra - but I actually have seen the benefit of some of these programs, both State and Federal.
One of the most recent was a testament to the safety net NY State offers with its layers of taxes on everything we do. An employee had a serious and disruptive illness in the family and both his wife and he were able to use the Family Leave Act to take 8+ weeks off at a large percentage of their salary being paid. A real life saver.
While healthcare remains a real mess, I was all for Obamacare though I, as a small business person, was supposed to be the main opposition to the cost and administrative burden, but having lived without healthcare for years, and seeing what a lack of it does to the safety and security of individual families, to me it was a no-brainer, even if it meant more hassle for me.
And 3rd, the 401k Safe Harbor plan for small employers, where we can offer a company match retirement plan has been a huge boon to those who have taken advantage of it (and most everyone does). I think we as a company have stuffed away over $750,000 in direct contributions from our employees, and the associated match from me. In an industry where benefits are few and far between, this type of retirement plan is unheard of, and several of my long term employees are approaching 6 figure accounts.
Vacation, holidays, sick leave, raises, retirement, etc... all work together to create an environment where my valued employees think twice before jumping ship and chasing a few extra short term dollars per hour.
