Good evening! Partly clear and 28 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south-southwest breeze at 5 mph. Thanksgiving was pretty good this year with the folks, especially because I have a feeling it will be one of the last big ones with all the family as my parents are getting up there in years unfortunately. You got to take it one week at time. I skipped desert because after all the food I wasn’t real hungry.  Time marches on. But for now lots of good food and my neice was cute. Got out for my evening walk once I go home and it was nice. 

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 27 degrees at 1am. Two degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 22 at 10pm; Southwest wind around 6 mph. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 30 degrees. The record low of 7 occurred back in 2000.

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.

Got a lot packed this evening. The water and propane stove and heater are in the truck. Some of my gloves and stuff are packed too. I will do the food in the morning. I got to go grocery shopping before I head north, but I’m still hoping to get an early enough start to hike Moxham Mountain. If not, I might just set up camp and hike on Saturday. It’s tough how early it gets dark this time of year and because it’s cold setting up camp is a lot more work with the tent and the propane heater. Setting up camp isn’t that big of deal after dark but I want to be off the mountain and preferably off the road and starting to set up camp before darkness, especially in case I run into snow tomorrow up there. It doesn’t look like there is any snow up in the Eastern Adirondacks at this point, but who knows.

I’m excited to get back out camping, it’s the first time I’ve spent much time in the wood since I got back from West Virigina. Lately the weekends have had pretty marginal weather and I’ve had a lot of things to do in town each weekend. I love traveling and spending nights out in the wilderness.. It just hasn’t happened lately. All those pictures of friends in the woods make me jealous. 

I have nothing to do with Black Friday tommorow. Yeah, last year I bought my laptop as part of a Black Friday sale — ordered it online to replace my broken laptop — but the truth is I’m super turned off on all that consumerism. While certainly I like the one-stop shopping they have at Walmart, I just hate the consumeristic aspect of it all. I have my toy, Big Red, but I don’t do most of the rest of this silly other stuff.

That’s why I never replaced the DTV tuner that only worked for a year and a half before failing last August. I never watched much commerical television, and after all those various shootings, I was turned off by PBS’ drum beat on more gun control. If you ask me, we need more criminal control, not gun control. If you don’t want criminals and mentally ill using guns, then don’t allow criminals and mentally ill on the street. Put them behind bars if you think they have a chance of rehabilitation, otherwise execute the criminals. The death penality for criminals that can’t be fully rehabilitated need not be a dirty word.

Speaking of guns, yesterday I got in mail the Cabela’s catalog which prominently featured the firearms that they are selling on Black Friday. While I am not planning on buying any more firearms right away, I think it’s bullshit that in most states you can buy handguns just by walking into a store, plunking down your $300 and passing an instant background check, which at least in New York always seems to take a half hour or sometimes delayed multiple business days. But in New York you have to ask a county court judge for permission get a permit, get finger printed, register handguns and then re-register every three years. For a $300-400 product,e even a simple .22 handgun, which is just a small easier to carry thing then the .22 I use to hunt squrriels with at times. Those AR-15s look like a lot of fun to shoot too. 

 It bullshit like so much of New York — from all the restrictions on the Forest Preserve, to the open burning ban, to the very high taxes and regulations on property ownership. You never really own a house in New York, even if you don’t have a landlord, you still pay the state thousands of dollars in property taxes. Just like the gun restrictions, these kind of things aren’t normal in most states. Most states property taxes are a few hundred dollars a year, especially on  rural land. There are many reasons that I would never own a house or make any final plans to stay in New York. When I build my off grid homestead, it certainly won’t be in New York. I’m fine renting and making a lot of money in New York right now. After all, I think that’s the primary reason for staying in the state for most people. New York jobs pay well even if the cost of living is very high. Missouri or West Virginia might be nice but I’d never make the same kind of money there. 

The LED driver is dimming to black. I think that’s a sign that it’s time for bed. The LED lamp is working well, the next step is to build a permanent feature. 

In four weeks on December 21 the sun will be setting at 4:25 pm, which is 51 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 39 and 19 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 34 and 19 degrees. The record high of 59 degrees was set back in 1957.
Looking ahead, National Pie Day is in 1 month.

Good night.