August 10, 2019 Night

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Good evening! Mostly clear and 55 degrees at the Burnt-Rossman State Forest. ☔ There is a west-northwest breeze occasionally reaching 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 49 degrees. A pretty nice evening maybe a bit cool but we are starting to get towards autumn and it’s expected to warm up more come Sunday.

Hiking Hunter Mountain was nice 🗼 and there are some really great views from the tower. As I noted earlier, the restored old Rangers Cabin is amazing and the view is great. A lot of people there but the Spruce Horse Trail was relatively quiet. It’s a nice hike from that direction especially figuring I’m a bit out of shape these days as I’ve not been doing as much walking 🚶 recently but I plan to do more in the coming weeks.

Then I enjoyed visiting Pratt Rock which despite spending so much time in the Northern Catskills ⛲ I had never visited. It’s a short but very steep and somewhat slippery – dangerous hike to the top but great views from the summit and the historic carvings are neat although the whole area is a bit shabby and could use some rehab and maybe some blazes on the trail and a hike map.

This morning I went out to breakfast 🍳 with the parents and didn’t have much packed so I didn’t get a real early start. I am a slow hiker and I spent a lot of time at Hunter Mountain overlook do by time I was off Pratt Rock it was after 7 pm with camp more than a half hour away so it was a bit of hurry to get up there but I got the campsite I wanted and had enough time to gather firewood before dark so it all worked out.

Tonight will have isolated showers before 10pm. Partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 49 degrees at 4am. 12 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 22nd. West wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 64 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1941.

It was cloudy and sprinkling a bit when I set up camp but it’s cleared up a bit now. ✨ Fair number of stars although the moon is blocking some out with its light. 🎑 Full moon isn’t that far off – next week. 🌕 Having a beer or two 🍻 and soon I’m going to retire to my truck for the night. 🌃 Didn’t do the hammock tonight because its a bit cool tonight and this site which was recently logged doesn’t have a lot of places to hang a hammock. I also wanted to keep camp simple as I want to sleep in tomorrow but have camp that’s relatively easy to take down so I have time to fish 🐠 before heading to Mine Kill to swim. 🏊

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 89% illuminated. The moon will set at 2:13 am. The 🌕 is on Wednesday night with partly cloudy skies. The sun will rise at 6:00 am with the first light at 5:29 am, which is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 55 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 25 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 73 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 13th. Maximum dew point of 55 at 6pm. Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph. Might actually be a bit cool tomorrow at Mine Kill State Park. 🏊 Good though for hiking. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was humid. The high last year was 71 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1944.

In four weeks on September 7 the sun will be setting at 7:21 pm,🌄 which is 44 minutes and 42 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 77 and 63 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 76 and 55 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1945.

If I had known how cloudy today would have been I’d probably stay home 🏡 but I enjoyed Hunter and Pratt Rock regardless. Summer is rapidly fading away so I should maximize it before it’s gone. 😔 It was kind of fun to drive through Greenville and Durham again but it kind of saddens me how much it’s changed in two decades and maybe how much I’ve changed. Every time I visit my old hometown I feel like Rip Van Winkle. 👴 The are so beautiful overlooking the hick town I grew up in. Unfortunately the world 🌍 of my childhood no longer exists. Maybe I should stop by the old Town Park and watch the ducks from the gazebo as I once did years ago at lunch.

I do like the small towns and the rural poor at least by the economic standards of the urban elite. I really like the dirty life, the hobby farmer in the trailer or rundown house. 🏡 It’s so much better of a life than the surburbanite life with the vinyl siding and perfect chemical treated lawn. Poor people don’t waste as much as the comfortable surburbanite.

Looking ahead, Average High Falls To 79 ️Degrees ⛱️️️ is in 2 weeks and Average High 70 🎑 is in 6 weeks.

Matthew's Hill Road

Yeap, they still burn in Pennsylvania

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In Pennsylvania, state law allows rural households to burn “domestic refuse” unless prohibited by the local townships. 🔥Many small towns look the other way, and plenty of small farms and homesteads burn their trash – everything they throw away – except maybe food waste that they compost and metals and glass which they either take to the landfill or the transfer station for in some cases for recycling once a year or so.🚮

Cold night, warm fire

It actually works pretty good and saves the rural homesteads money while keeping garbage out of the landfill.🏡 I’ve burned garbage over the years, composting, and saving recycling metals and glass aren’t rocket science. Burn barrels, while smelly and somewhat toxic, have proven a solid way of rural households to dispose of most of their ordinary household trash. Trash disposal in country isn’t a big deal if you have land, and can burn most of it.🔥 Many if not most homesteaders and farmers in states that allow open burning do so, despite the smell and the sometimes noxious compounds released.

Burn Baby Burn

And it can and does smell bad, especially when people burn it in barrels without additional fuel. I had actually forgotten how pungent it can be driving through small town Pennsylvania on a warm summer night with smoldering trash barrel out back. The smell of polystyrene breaking down in a smoldering fire is particularly pungent. ☁Makes me think when I own my off-grid home I’ll probably want to have garbage cans, save the garbage then build a hot fire and burn what I can without as many noxious fumes.

Fire

I do like fire and I do like the idea of living without expensive trash pick up,💸 limiting my landfill disposal to a small bag every year, 🚮burning and comparing the bulk of it. Maybe even getting money rather than paying money 💵 for my aluminum cans and tin cans at a scrap yard. ♻ I’m not that worried about pollution in the kind of rural area that I eventually want to live in. More power to the Pennsylvania redneck that burns! 💪🔥

NPR

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Trump 2020 Campaign Donors Are Under Pressure : NPR

Trump campaign donors are under pressure.

Two high-profile episodes this week could signal a year in which the glare of the campaign usually reserved for candidates pivots to put those who make personal donations to political campaigns in the spotlight.

The first comes courtesy of Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, of San Antonio, who is also the co-chairman of his twin brother Julian Castro's campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.

 

Siberia forest fires spark potential ‘disaster’ for Arctic

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Siberia forest fires spark potential ‘disaster’ for Arctic

Gigantic forest fires have regularly raged through the vast expanses of Russia's Siberia, but the magnitude of this year's blazes has reached an exceptional level with fears of a long-term impact on the environment.

As fires sweep across millions of hectares enveloping entire cities in black smoke and noxious fumes, environmentalists warn of a disaster threatening to accelerate the melting of the Arctic.