Good morning! Happy Sunday. Four weeks to First Sunday of Advent ✝️. Sunny and 45 degrees at the Stoney Pond State Forest. 🌞 There is a west breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Mist is evaporating off the land, going to feel more like summer than late summer later. The sun feels quite warm.

Camp is all taken down ⛺ and I’m sitting down by Stoney Pond. In a little bit I’m going to head to Bouckville and hike some of the canal trail before heading home. The pond is very still but with a lot of people up this way, there isn’t really the solitude I would hope for. I don’t like hearing a bunch of voices in the woods. Usually it’s quiet 🤫 up here in November but the weather is exceptionally nice.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 68 degrees at 2pm. 17 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 27th. West wind 3 to 6 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1975. 1.7 inches of snow fell back in 1894.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:47 am with sun having an altitude of 30.4° from the due south horizon (-40.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:06 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (241°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (248°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:48 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 9 seconds with dusk around 5:16 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:51 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 67 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 59 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 25 seconds over yesterday.

After I head home, I’ll get unpacked and head out to the folks house for Sunday dinner. 🍲 At one level I wish I could extend the weekend but I have a busy Monday on tap at work and I might end up having to go downtown. 🏢 With winter coming, I expect things to return more back to normal but I’m also aware that spring will always return again 🌼 that is after a long harsh winter. ❄

Tonight will be clear 🌃, with a low of 47 degrees at 6am. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 27th. Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2019, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 18 degrees. The record low of 11 occurred back in 1971.

I will miss Madison County 🐮 and the farm country but while things may continue to change its going to be here much like it was a decade ago when I was here. I might not like everything I see in our country and our state but it’s good to get away. 🇺🇸 I might not agree with everything happening in this world 🌎 but I’m mostly focused on improving my own life and not changing things beyond my control.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until First Sunday of Advent ✝️ when the sun will be setting at 4:28 pm with dusk at 5:00 pm. On that day in 2019, we had snow showers, cloudy skies and temperatures between 34 and 26 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 39 degrees. We hit a record high of 68 back in 2001.

Good evening! Partly clear and 52 degrees at the Stoney Pond State Forest. There is a west-southwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 43 degrees.

Walked down to Stoney Pond but there is enough clouds ☁️ that the Syracuse light pollution makes the stars ✨ much more difficult than previous nights. Came back to camp and sat by the fire 🔥 for a while. Definitely some nice scenery hiking along the Canastota-Cazenovia Trail and poking around Fenner. The wind farm and all the various livestock farms up that way are quite interesting to see. 🐮 It’s amazing what people can make from the earth 🌎 tillage and grass. 🚜 God bless the grass.

Joe Biden is the president elect and I listened to his speech 🎤👴🏻. Honestly with socially distant drive in rally due to COVID-19 it sounded like it was held at the median of the Belt Parkway. 🚘 I get it but it’s weird to hear car horns at a political speech. I voted for Jo Jergenson but I think Biden will be a much better president than Trump. Biden has so much more experience, he listens to experts, and he’s a calming influence during the pandemic. 👾But even if I felt differently, I don’t have much say in the presidency beyond a bubble I marked on the voting Scantron machine. 🖋️ I don’t do many political rally anymore – protests are fun but I’m not interested in defending any particular cause. 🤜

Maybe Trump to a certain extent was a good thing. 🤬 He tore down the old rules about obscenity, brought down the presidency in some ways to the people by replacing the class and decorum of the office with that of a cheap suit worn by Billy Fuscillo. 🕴️ He made politicians a lot more free on their social media and many ways elevated politics over bureaucary and decorum which had gotten awful stuffy 🧐 for the modern era. I think it’s fine for the world to know the president poops 💩 and tweets from his gold plated toilet 🚽. His three justices he appointed in the Supreme Court will provide an effective check on the new administration. ⚖ No one party should be too powerful. 🛢 That farm I passed with the very well used and blacked with melted plastic all over them burn barrels had a big ol Trump flag out front. But as a farmer I’m sure he’s done more than most to conserve our earth 🌎 and probably doesn’t send much trash to the landfill. 🔥

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 47 degrees at 6am. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 27th. Southwest wind around 6 mph. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 23 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1971.

I don’t know it feels colder than that already, ❄ but truth be told it was so warm and sunny today that everything seems a lot colder then it is. But sitting the next to the campfire 🔥with my vest and cowboy hat 🤠 it’s quite warm. I realize that there is so much I can’t change about the world today but I can continue to enjoy my own life free and work to save for a better tomorrow. 💵 The politicians are going to do what they do but I can’t turn off the radio 📻 and avoid the social media. 📱 I don’t think I’ll ever own of those colored televisions 📺,

Tonight will have a Last Quarter 🌗 Moon with 54% illuminated. The moon will rise at 10:33 pm. The Beaver 🐻 Moon is on Monday, November 23. The darkest hour is at 11:47 pm, followed by dawn at 6:16 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:46 am in the east-southeast (112°) and last for 3 minutes and 9 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:27 am with sun in the east-southeast (119°). Tonight will have 13 hours and 59 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 26 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 68 degrees at 2pm. 17 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 27th. Maximum dew point of 46 at 5pm. Light west wind. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1975. 1.7 inches of snow fell back in 1894.❄

Tomorrow I have to take down camp ⛺, officially by eleven o’clock when my three night tenancy expires. I will miss the wild Hill and Hollow country of Madison County 🐮 but it’s not going away any time soon. I mean this was the exact same campsite I was at a decade ago. But with the mild weather ☀ I haven’t been able to enjoy the solitude that was the case a decade ago – people are enjoying the nice weather. Can’t blame them. Me too!

Central NY 🗽 is different than the Adirondacks or the Green Mountains but I like the agricultural landscape for a change. 🐮 There are a lot of neat trails and scenic vistas out along this way. I honestly haven’t spent a lot of time out in Cazenovia area in years and the Trailway is quite nice. 🚶🏻 That said, Chittenango Falls was way too crowded but particularly the high country part of the Trailway was super quiet. 🤫 I just wish more people would wear masks on the trail 😷. Apparently social distancing isn’t as popular here. 🗣️

Iysa beautiful landscape out here, and some day I want to live back out in the country 🏡🐮🐷 but not one of those big fancy houses. More ramshackle like those often rundown farms I pass on by. There is something so beautiful about how nature grows back and works to take over everything – the abandoned homes and equipment, and just the mud and muck that can be found on every farm.

In four weeks on December 5 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (239°) at 4:28 pm,🌄 which is 18 minutes and 45 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 38 and 28 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 40 and 25 degrees. The record high of 65 degrees was set back in 2001.

I may do a December trip ⛺ but I don’t really know, as I expect soon for remote work 💻 to be ending and I don’t have a lot of vacation time left at this point before the end of the year. I feel like the abnormally warm weather is soon to switch to be cold ❄ and snow 🌨. And once the roads are icy and snow covered, camping season is likely done for me unless I hot tent 🎪 locally as I’ve done some years during the holidays.

Looking ahead, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 2 weeks, Small Business Saturday 🛍️ is in 3 weeks, Repeal of Prohibition Day 🍺 is in 4 weeks, Boxing Day 🥊 is in 7 weeks, Static Electric Shock Day 🧼 is in 9 weeks, National Cheese Lovers Day 🧀 is in 11 weeks, Save the Pine Bush Turns 43 🦋 is in 13 weeks, 5:30 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 15 weeks and Snow Moon 🌕 is in 16 weeks.