Good evening! Partly clear and 61 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a southeast breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. A fairly pleasant evening although sometimes that breeze is pushing in a cold wind and other times especially when I was walking home earlier in the evening it was quite pleasant.

Went down to the park earlier in the evening to upload my day’s adventures for the interwebs. 🌲I picked a good day to take off even if I didn’t get out camping. 😕 It’s nice sitting out back but I expect rain tomorrow. And maybe better for Sunday at least in the afternoon. Which will be a good thing so I can finish wiring up the solar panel.🌃

Today I started my morning hiking in the Bozenkill Preserve which has some interesting views of the ravine🌲🌳🌾 and the Bozenkill which was a pleasant quiet little stream but becomes a torrent after a heavy rain. Later on in the day I visited the Christman Preserve up the stream about five miles in Delanson to see the Bozenkill Falls. Then drove through Knox and visited Thacher Park for a few minutes. It was nice to drive through Knox, I’ve not been up that way in a while. Solar panel seems mounted firmly to the roof, so I’m happy with that.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy ☁, with a low of 46 degrees at 5am. Two degrees below normal. Southeast wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies. It got down to 53 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1981.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 19% illuminated with the moon setting at 11:46 pm. Already can’t see it out back here but it was a pretty sliver earlier on. 🌃The First Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with partly cloudy skies. The Flower Moon 🌝 is on Monday, May 28th. The sun will rise at 5:29 am with the first light at 4:56 am, which is 55 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 14 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 54 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will rain, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. ☔ High of 57 degrees at 6pm. 13 degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 51 at 5pm. 🏖️ Southeast wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 1989. There was a dusting of snow in 1976.❄

Tomorrow I will spend some time cleaning up around the apartment and working on some various coding and electronics projects. 💻 I will probably get the umbrella and rain coat out at some point and walk down to the library and go to the grocery store later. Maybe do some reading to. As much as I like writing and building things I really should do more reading to expand my knowledge. That said I do a lot more of that while camping.

Looking ahead to Sunday, showers likely before 11am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 11am and 2pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 75. South wind 7 to 11 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 61 at 11am. Typical average high for the weekend is 70 degrees.

My main agenda for Sunday is running the lines from the solar panel to the truck cab where the solar controller sits and properly ground the panel. I didn’t want to take those steps until I was 100% sure that the panel was firmly mounted, that screws weren’t coming loose and there was no wind noise or other issues. ♨I want the sun to be topping off the accessory battery come Monday so I can sit our back and not worry about tripping the low voltage disconnect 🔌 and have plenty of power for camping over the long Memorial Day Weekend.

Memorial Day Weekend starts in less than a week from now. Farther west and north looks better weather. I honestly wouldn’t mind camping at that Pumpkin Hollow Campsite although I don’t know if I can get it.⛺ NY 8 I guess is an alternative but the best sites may be taken by the time I get there. Maybe Pisceo Powley Road but I’d rather reserve that for an early June trip to the Potholers. Maybe I’ll end up again in Vermont but I don’t know. Want to do something different this year.

With the solar panel on the truck, I plan to less driving each day to charge the battery. If it’s sunny and truck is parked in the sun without the kayak on the roof the battery should restore itself to close to a full charge in a few hours. I might idle the truck a bit to top things off and ensure that the starting battery is happy but I expect a lot less idling and just going for drives to charge the battery – plus less issues with a battery that’s only partially charged after a few days camping. 🔋 Maybe I’m too optimistic with my math but only time will tell. With gas prices heading back up, this is all the more important. Plus I kind of want to spend more time closer to camp and less time driving so I can get to know the land better, become a better naturalist and a better hunter. Driving and exploring is fun but so is getting to know a piece of land better. 🗻

Continuing to adjust my budget to do more tax deferred retirement savings to cut my tax liability. 💰I’m just so tired of paying so much of my income in taxes especially when I work so hard and try to save for a better future. But it’s tough to figure out which pot to save into – I have many considerations both short term, mid term and retirement. I just don’t want to be stuck living in suburbia in high tax, high regulation New York until my old age. I see how much others have made for their lives and I want to get there somehow through hard work and careful planning. Sure I want to travel and have fun now but I know the best is yet to come, or so I hope.

In four weeks on June 15 the sun will be setting at 8:35 pm,🌄 which is 20 minutes and 46 seconds later then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had rain, partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 80 and 54 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 78 and 57 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1988.

Looking ahead, Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ is in 1 weeks, Average High is 80 🏖 is in 5 weeks and Buy Nothing Day 🛍️ is in 27 weeks.

🇺🇸🦅Only 6 days remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!🦅🇺🇸