Good evening! Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you are having a good Thanksgiving. Looking forward to dinner. Mostly cloudy and 34 degrees in Westerlo, NY. Road salt is on the roads but that’s fine, I’m sure my truck will be covered with it by the time I leave the Adirondacks. There is a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph. The skies will clear around 5 pm.

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 28 degrees at 6am. One degrees below normal. West wind around 6 mph becoming south in the evening. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 30 degrees. The record low of 7 occurred back in 2000.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon with 27% illuminated with the moon setting at 8:50 pm. The moon will rise tomorrow at 11:35 am. The First Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with partly cloudy skies. The Cold Moon is on Sunday, December 3rd. The sun will rise at 6:57 am with the first light at 6:27 am, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 32 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 46 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny, with a high of 47 degrees at 2pm. Three degrees above normal. South wind 5 to 9 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 40 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 2014. 8.8 inches of snow fell back in 1898.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. Saturday, a chance of showers, mainly after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 47. South wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light southwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 39. Typical average high for the weekend is 44 degrees.

Started to pack for my weekend trip to the Adirondacks. I am going to hike Moxham Mountain tomorrow then camp at one of the roadside sites not too far back in either Vandwhacker Wild Forest or Wilcox Lake Wild Forest. Probably do some hunting on Saturday near camp then head back on Sunday. It doesn’t look to be all that cold, all things considered for late November. There may be some snow up north, but I’m not expecting a lot. I saw Instagram photos of some of colleagues and friends hunting, I want to get back in the woods. 

Went to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center for a while for a walk. It was nice but there was a lot of people up there. Not the quiet I normally enjoy in the wilderness. I was super annoyed that the street lights were on when I arrived, such a waste of energy during the day time. They are supposed to be green with all their grid tied solar but wasting electricity still means your wasting energy and burning coal and natural gas. 

After studying the spec sheet and doing some research, I managed to get the LED driver working well. Next step is build a permanent lighting fixture. I will get some perf board to mount the transistors and resistors, and then I’m thinking of parrelling four of led strings in a 2″ wide by four feet long aluminum ‘u’ bar. Then put plexiglass over the top to better distribute the light. When done it will look a lot like a regular 4′ florescent but be somewhat more efficient and remote control color. 

Tonight is Thanksgiving dinner at the folks house. My niece is here. Should be a good dinner. Then when I get home, I will pack the camping gear. I need to stop for groceries on the way up north but hopefully I can get an early start because the sun sets so early this time of year. 

In four weeks on December 21 the sun will be setting at 4:25 pm, which is 51 seconds earlier then today. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 39 and 19 degrees. That’s typical. The record high of 59 degrees was set back in 1957.

Looking ahead, National Pie Day is in 1 month.