Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Two weeks to Boxing Day 🥊. I’m all for Boxing Day if it’s a holiday you celebrate using fire and all the packaging Christmas gifts come in. Cloudy with a fresh inch or two of snow on the ground, 27 degrees in Hector. ❄ There is a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at Friday around 8 am. 🌡️ About the ttim I start packing up up for home.

Today will be mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 29 degrees at 1pm. Eight degrees below normal. West wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had light snow and mist in the morning, which became light rain and mist by afternoon. The high last year was 36 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1979. 6.6 inches of snow fell back in 1970.❄

This morning when I awoke there was an inch or two of snow on the ground. ❄ Not a lot, I think most of it came down in the evening before I retired to the tent as I didn’t like all the wet globby snow coming down. Did my business, made coffee, started up the truck as the battery was a bit low. Then I ended up cooking up eggs and sausage for breakfast. The eggs being in the cooler didn’t freeze unlike nearly everything else. All the water I have is totally frozen, I’ve been melting snow on the stove to produce water for coffee, cooking and washing. That stove puts out a lot of heat so

The sun will set at 4:34 pm with dusk around 5:06 pm, which is 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 29 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 38 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of light snow, mainly after 2am. Mostly cloudy 🌨, with a low of 24 degrees at 8pm. Two degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around December 9th. Maximum wind chill around 20 at 7pm; South wind 5 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2017, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 16 degrees. The record low of -6 occurred back in 1988.

Yesterday I decided to stick around camp, going for what was originally going to be a short walk to sit back and study nature🐦 but became a longer seven mile walk via the Backbone, Ravine, Interlaken and Burnt Hill Trails.🌲 Some of the views from the pastures were fairly nice although the woods seemed unusually quiet maybe due to the clouds and somewhat unsettled conditions. I was hoping to see more wildlife but it was still a nice walk. I’ve never explored the trails much up here as they always seem so muddy in the summer.

Plow just came through but I still think I’ll take the less steep route off the mountain in case it’s slippery as it’s still snowing a bit. ❄ I’m chewing over Seneca Falls and Montezuma today versus Ithaca and Luicifer Falls in the winter. I know the gorge trails are closed but I believe the overlook is still open. Not a real sunny day but not much sun is predicted for the rest of the week. I want to get the propane tank topped off just because it’s getting a little light and I’d hate to run out in the cold weather. Maybe I’ll do Seneca Falls just because I hate driving in Ithaca so much. Probably leave before dark as I don’t want to drive back on those rural roads after dark.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Boxing Day 🥊 when the sun will be setting at 4:40 pm with dusk at 5:12 pm. On that day in 2017, we had snow, partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 22 and 8 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 59 back in 1895.