SOLAR LANTERNS, LED HEADLAMPS, and other cool gadgets | Alaska In Winter (off grid living)

Living off the grid we use solar lanterns, LED headlamps and flashlights for everything. Especially here in Alaska in the winter!!! We wake up hours before the sunrise and then halfway through the day wonder what to vlog about.... So we made this poorly lit video to show you all what goes on around the lodge while it's still dark. The sun is in the sky for less than 4 hours so we have plenty of darkness to test out the good, the bad, and the handiest lighting gadgets.

I don't know, with 20 odd hours of darkness, I think I would want a bigger battery bank, more solar and a generator. Headlamps and solar lights are fine, but I can't imagine spending so much of my day in the darkness, without a little more light, especially a golden warm white light. πŸ’‘Maybe you get a bit of it from sitting next to wood stove.Β  Regardless, it has to be a heck of a life living off-grid in Alaska.

January 14, 2020 – Upcoming Sunrises

Upcoming Sunrises

As spring approaches, the sun will start rising earlier, although with the time shift in early March it won’t rise as early as one might hope.

Latest Sunrise (Standard Time) – Tuesday, January 14 at 7:23 am
7:15 am sunrise – Sunday, January 26
7:00 am sunrise – Sunday, February 9
6:45 am sunrise – Thursday, February 20
6:30 am sunrise – Saturday, February 29
Daylight Savings Time Begins – Sunrise on Sunday, March 8 is at 7:18 am
7:15 am sunrise – Monday, March 9
7:00 am sunrise – Wednesday, March 18
6:45 am sunrise – Thursday, March 26
6:30 am sunrise – Saturday, April 4
6:15 am sunrise – Monday, April 13
6:00 am sunrise – Thursday, April 23
5:45 am sunrise – Sunday, May 3
5:30 am sunrise – Sunday, May 17

Final sunrise of 2018

January 14, 2020 Morning

Good morning! Happy Foggy Tuesday in the Albany! 🌁 Four weeks to Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day 🥛. It’s important to strip the teats to prevent mastitis. That’s the problem with thinking 💭 in quarters. At any rate it, it’s a pretty foggy out there, a little over the freezing at the bus stop by Valero. Calm wind. But what will I know when I’m in my windowless office?

Today will have a slight chance of rain after 3pm. Partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 43 degrees at 2pm. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 12th. I like March weather in January, especially the coldest week of the year. Going to be colder next week. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 28 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1932. 9 inches of snow fell back in 1999.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:05 pm with sun having an altitude of 26Β° from the due south horizon (-44.8Β° vs. 6/21). Almost summer or maybe not be we are creeping in the right direction. Be thirty before you know it. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:02 pm with the sun in the southwest (234Β°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (241Β°) starting at 4:42 pm and lasts for 3 minutes and 18 seconds with dusk around 5:16 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:52 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 41 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 22 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 33 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of rain or drizzle before 7pm, then a chance of drizzle between 7pm and 1am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 35 degrees at 6am. 21 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 8th. South wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2019, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 10 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1957.

I am really watching too many YouTube videos these days 📹 while riding the exercise bike 🚲. I did get in an hour reading 📖 last night but I made zero progress on the John Wolcott project index 📇. Data entry is kind of boring, reminds me of my desk job too much. 💼 After spending so much time at work sitting I just want to move and there is so much dreaming of a better tomorrow by watching those off grid and homesteading videos I’ve downloaded from the YouTube video. I’m burning calories at least but I’m ignoring many other needs in life.

I told somebody last night that I will sign Bernie Sanders petitions. ✊ While I can only legally sign one of the petitions I don’t often get asked to sign petitions. I don’t have to necessarily have to vote ❎ for him in the primary but I probably will. I kind of also like Elizabeth Warren but I still a few months to decide which bubble to fill out on the scantron. βœ’

Winter returns for King’s Weekend. β›„ Saturday, snow, mainly after 1pm. High near 31. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Sunday, snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 34. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Typical average high for the weekend is 30 degrees. Yeah, I don’t think Madison County will be on the agenda.

🌹🌻🌼Only 65 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day 🥛 when the sun will be setting at 5:21 pm with dusk at 5:50 pm. On that day in 2019, we had partly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 33 and 18 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 59 back in 1981.

Gully