Going to be fairly sunny and warm at least. I’m still feeling incredibly sore but I’m going to try to ride to work today. Such a nice day ahead.

Good morning! What day is it? A chilly start to Hump Day, but it should warm up quickly. Sunny and 18 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌞 Calm wind. Things will start to thaw out at around 10 am. 🌡️

Just another really busy day ahead. 🚲 The bicycle ride if I feel up to it will be some needed solitude and relaxation. I was up later then usual last night so I did not get a real early start but the orange – oatmeal pancakes 🥞 were a nice sugary start to the morning. 🗃️ I already have a file full of stuff to review today, ignoring the call backs from banks wanting to sell me a mortgage and real estate agents salivating for my business. 😋 I am free to ignore their emails, text and calls. 📧

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 42 degrees at 3pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 6th. Light south wind increasing to 6 to 11 mph in the morning. Not too bad. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning, which became mostly sunny by afternoon. The high last year was 46 degrees. A little warmer than today. The record high of 73 was set in 2018. 11.0 inches of snow fell back in 1929.❄

I got two different pre-qualification reports from banks 🏦 and I’m exceptionally well qualified for up to a house up to $400k in financing if I put 20% down. No way am I planning to buy something that fancy. I called an old friend from Boy Scouts and we’re going to look at some foreclosures and abandoned houses🏚️ on land. He bought his homestead fairly cheap and got a FHA loan and developed a financing plan that had contractors rebuild his house up to spec.

I really love the idea 💡 of saving a blighted, old farmstead – particularly a small cabin or house on acerage. I can certainly haul trash and tires to the dump, scrap metal to scrap yard, and work with the fire department 🧑‍🚒to have bonfires to burn up wood and woody debris. 🪵 Rent a bulldozer to bulldoze any old non toxic farm dumps, cover deep with rock and dirt. This way I could restore a house that might otherwise be demolished and recycle or repurpose as much of the waste as possible. ♻ It could be a lot of fun. Many things I’d have to rely on inspectors and contractors to repair 👷 but as my friend was saying those costs can be part of the mortgage. Plus all then I have control over how many gee gaws on the property, I’d rather have more acerage for goats 🐐 and pigs 🐽 than marble counter tops. Pigs after running a few ton of grain through can do miracles for poor quality land, but you want them well downwind of your house mPlus no neighbors right near by to smoke out with my fires or listen to the roar of their ATVs. 🔥

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:10 pm with sun having an altitude of 36.7° from the due south horizon (-34.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:56 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (250°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (256°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:35 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 59 seconds with dusk around 6:02 pm, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east (87°) at an altitude of 33° from the horizon, 248,471 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:36 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 53 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over yesterday.

This evening I’m driving up to Troy 🛻 to be on TJ Kennedy’s Upstate Outdoors podcast. 🎧 It really should be a fun half hour to talk about some of my wilderness experiences ⛺, camping 🏕 and what my plans are for what is happening in my life. 🐐 It’s just so exciting to think I might be moving back out to the country again, and maybe it’s not the complete off-grid experience, I want to live simple and small, have acerage and so forth. 🏡 It’s almost as if I’m now ready to put the whole camping and wilderness experience behind me for a place that I can actually call my true home. Okay I haven’t found my abandoned farm property yet nor do I have a restoration plan in place but I am hopeful.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃 , with a low of 27 degrees at 5am. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 18th. South wind 6 to 8 mph. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of -8 occurred back in 1963.

I’m nervous about all the changes lately 😏 but I know good things will come. Maybe I’m pushing too quickly for change, there are big decisions ahead. I don’t have to return realtor or bank calls right away 🔕 they’re just trying to get me to part with tens of thousands of dollars 💵 and buy something wrong for me. 🏡 I need to do my homework, really study property and figure out what is right for me. Obviously that’s enough land where I can have things like bonfires and camp ⛺ without ever leaving home. I’ll miss the travel but I’m honestly ready to settle down. If I heat with wood 🪚 and can have fires out back that takes away from a lot of the reasons to spend weekends in the wilderness.

A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Saturday, sunny, with a high near 27. That’s a bit cool for this time of year. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 40. Sunday in particular would be great for searching the back roads for homes with that bud from boy scouting. Maybe I could also do an overnight in the woods on Saturday night. First though, I need to study bank and county foreclosure lists. 📃 Typical average high for the weekend is 38 degrees.

Looking ahead, next Wednesday is Average High is 40 ☀️ when the sun will be setting at 5:44 pm with dusk at 6:11 pm. On that day in 2023, we had snow showers, partly cloudy and temperatures between 36 and 26 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 40 degrees. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1903.