Good evening! Mostly clear and 66 degrees at Mason Lake. 🌃 Calm wind. The dew point is 59 degrees.

Not right on the lake like last time I camped up here but so be it. ⛺ This campsite has decent sunshine and okay cell service so I’m hoping to work all day here tomorrow but it will depend on if I need high speed internet for work and how hot it gets and how much I want to go to Spectulator Beach for a swim. 🏊

Kept camp simple for the night 🌃 as I just wanted to hang out and relax and I wanted to avoid draining the battery bank 🔋 so I have plenty of energy ⚡ for work tomorrow. The truth is the propane lantern 🏮 in the screen tent plus the ordinary 12 volt lamp in the truck cap is plenty.

Gathering wood for the fire 🔥 I think I wandered into a patch of poison ivy. 🌿Not sure if I got any of the urushol on my legs but I washed them down with water 💦 and soap and changed my socks. I also washed my hands. ✋ Hoping I won’t break out later in the weekend. I knew about the poison ivy in the area and I spotted several three leaf plants near the campsite but most of them where black berry. The poison ivy was down the road from camp.

Tonight will have patchy fog after 3am. Otherwise, partly cloudy , with a low of 58 degrees at 5am. Typical for tonight. Maximum dew point of 59 at 11pm. Calm wind. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was humid. It got down to 66 degrees. The record low of 38 occurred back in 1950.

Tired 😴 and it was relatively late by the time I got up here as I worked from home and had a few loose ends so I didn’t get to leave right at five. Plus this area is a bit longer drive than Piseco Powley Road which not only is closed on the south end but lacks the essential cell service I need for work. 📝

Tonight will have a Waining Crescent 🌘 Moon with 5% illuminated. Really good for observing 🔭 the stars tonight – quite clear. The Buck 🦌 Moon is on Thursday, July 2. The darkest hour is at 1:00 am, followed by dawn at 4:41 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:17 am in the northeast (56°) and last for 3 minutes and 32 seconds. Sunrise is 7 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:01 am with sun in the east-northeast (63°). Tonight will have 8 hours and 34 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 9 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have isolated showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny , with a high of 80 degrees at 3pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 22nd. Maximum dew point of 61 at 7am. ☀ Light south wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 79 degrees. The record high of 94 was set in 1995.

So at the meeting today we were told we had to work a half day on Saturday 💻 and to plan on working late Monday and Tuesday. That said, I’ll probably just work from camp. Going to have to change sites on Sunday but I have a plan. If I can’t get the site I want I might head home Sunday night. Otherwise I’ll stay up until Wednesday – and the who knows. I was thinking I could head up north of Tupper Lake or even up to Saint Lawrence County or maybe the places in the Tug Hill where I have good reception 📶. From the meeting this morning it sounds like our physical office 🏢 won’t be reopening anytime soon. I just hope the bus service is back up and running before then. 🚍

Big Red drives nice with the new ball joints and tie rod ends. 🚘 It wasn’t cheap and while if I was a mechanic I could have saved a bucket of money 🔧 I shouldn’t have to worry about either failing in the life of the vehicle at this point. I can cringe at the cost but I knew it would be necessary after a number of years with the lift kit – which has been on the truck for five and a half years now. I’m much more able to get in and out of tight turns and it rides quieter and steers a hell of a lot better. Hopefully the uneven tire wear will be arrested too. I had budgeted for it when I bought the lift kit and it’s not like I’ve not destroyed them on every other car I’ve owned with the shitty roads I drive. Price the shop quoted me was basically the same price as when I had a similar job quoted on my old truck years ago.

My truck may be pissing a lot of money away 💸 but having a fun car at least once when you are young is worth it if only for the lifetime of memories. I’ve learned so much about batteries 🔋, electricity and solar power and its lead to many nights in the wilderness. 🐺 Could I have given the money away to feed needy children 🚸 or invested it?💰 Sure but it was luxury I could afford and I go without plenty of things like air conditioning, or high speed internet at home. I don’t take expensive vacations, I’m happier wilderness camping ⛺.

The fan I bought yesterday 💨seems to be quite powerful and when the motor heats up uses a little under 35 watts and a bit more when cold. It’s alternating current so there will be greater inverter and reactance loses than my DC fan I use in my truck cap but it’s a lot easier to run 120 volt AC line back to the screen tent 🎪 especially if I’m also charging my laptop and phone 📱 for work.

In four weeks on July 16 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (301°) at 8:35 pm,🌄 which is 6 minutes and 4 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had hot, humid, partly sunny, thunderstorm and temperatures between 92 and 60 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 83 and 62 degrees. The record high of 97 degrees was set back in 1900.