Black hands with lots of soot!

My gawd was my propane lantern 🏮 plugged up with black soot and mud!

I’m hoping my bath of carburetor cleaner will get it humming along again! I smell so wonderful and my hands are so black. Can’t really test it inside or today but hopefully before I go camping next time. β›Ί But both me and my kitchen stink.

Not sure why it got plugged up by the generator is pretty simple in the propane lantern to take apart and clean unlike the liquid fuel appliances I have. With propane lantern it’s just a simple nozzle, not a generator tube. Propane after all is a gas when it leaves the tank, doesn’t have to be heated to a gas. The soot could have been the air intake restricted by mud plugged it or because most of the time I operate the lantern at low, below the stoichmeteric ratio.

I’m still looking at getting an electric rechargeable LED lantern 🏮 mostly for backpacking and in the tent. The glass is fragile and if I bring either the liquid fuel or propane lantern it’s heavy. Plus I can’t have it in the tent for winter camping. Sure that would have to be recharged daily but with the solar in my truck that ain’t an issue.

Well shit, we are full of it!

Although repulsive to consider, the truth is we’re constantly consuming food that’s laced with traces of feces, mostly from other humans. As soon as you accept that reality, you will realize that proper hygiene is the key to food safety.

~ From Butchering Poultry, Rabbit, Lamb, Goat and Pork by Adam Danforth

December 2, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Happy Cyber Monday 🛍️! Next Monday is Earliest Sunset of the Year βŒ›οΈ. Light snow and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. ❄ There is a north breeze at 11 mph. 🍃. There are 13 inches of snow on the ground. β˜ƒ ️Everything is shutdown because it’s winter and they seem to do that a lot more these days. But what I do know I live in the city and the bus runs come sun, rain or snow. At any rate, the snow ain’t expected to last long. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around noontime. 🌡️ Sun too out tomorrow β˜€ which help with the melting process. I am going to glue the tips of my skis 🎿 as I expect snow to be around for the weekend.

I mean I’m not complaining that much about being stuck home 🏡, it beats trudging through the snow to the catch the bus which is most likely running behind schedule although it depends on route as the 8:25 has a pretty good layover before the start so it runs close to time. Today I’m going to work on some maps and do some reading 📖, finishing up the book I got on butchering 🔪and of course ride the exercise bike. 🚲 Sometimes being stuck home can be boring without a television 📺 or the interwebs. 💻 I bet the library is closed today as everything is closed today.

At some point I’ll dig out my truck 🚚, and get the ton of snow off the roof before anymore accumulates. ❄ This way with the warm temperatures and sun β˜€ later in the week I’ll be able to have the truck clear of snow come Saturday. Landlord is digging out my door now so hopefully it should be easy to get out once later on to dig out my truck. Mostly want to clean off the truck cap roof and solar panel and maybe the hood – the rest will hopefully melt away this week. 💧After I do that I want to take apart and clean the propane lantern 🏮 in hopes of getting that working properly again. Last time used it was burning dirty and dim, this past weekend winter camping I couldn’t even get to start. 🙍

Today will continue to have periods of snow. β›„ It’s stopped for now but it is expected to pick up later today. The snow could be heavy at times. 🀼/strong>󚀠High of 32 degrees at 9am. Nine degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 27th. North wind 11 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1998. 6.2 inches of snow fell back in 1949.❄

The sun will set at 4:22 pm with dusk around 4:54 pm, which is 18 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for snow 🌨 and temperatures around 31 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 14 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 16 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 22 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be periods of snow, mainly before 4am. The snow could be heavy at times. 🌨 Low of 22 degrees at 5am. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 13th. North wind 8 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of -1 occurred back in 1976.

Tomorrow I have to wear a suit and tie to work 👔which means I have to polish my shoes and iron my shirt and pants. I might wear the boots 👢 in though because I don’t know how clear the sidewalks will be by morning. It would be bad to arrive to the meeting tomorrow and be covered with road salt and with wet dress shoes. That said, it looks like the snow will be pulling out relatively early this evening so the crews should get a lot of it cleaned up by morning.

I ordered a replacement cellphone cradle for my truck on Aliexpress. 📱 The ones I saw at Walmart were like ten times as expensive – I get the convenience factor but I can’t imagine spending more than $10 on something that is a plastic device that you clip your phone to the vent in your truck. Also ordered that voltage sensative control module I linked to yesterday. 🔌 I will use that to feed power to the starting battery whenever I have excess power on the solar panel to ensure its automatically topped off when camping multiple days with the engine off.

Cool this weekend with temperatures running 6 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. πŸ˜€ Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 29. That’s cold for early January but not unheard of for December. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 37. I’m going to fix my skis🎿so I can use them for the weekend. Typical average high for the weekend is 39 degrees.

Warmer next week and we might have rain a week from now which would do a number on the snow β˜” but it’s so far out it could be rain, snow or nothing. I’m rooting for 45 degrees but I know the snowmobilers ain’t as their season opens after big game closes on Sunday.

As previously noted, next Monday is Earliest Sunset of the Year βŒ›οΈ when the sun will be setting at 4:21 pm with dusk at 4:53 pm. On that day in 2018, we had snow and temperatures between 33 and 27 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 38 degrees. We hit a record high of 62 back in 1966.

Towards Vermont