Search Results for: Golden Hill State Forest

January 6, 2020 Morning

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. It’s a five day work week once again. Been a long time since I’ve worked a full five day week but it should be busy and go quickly. Next Monday is Make Your Dream Come True Day 🏡. Maybe that’s a bit too soon for he but I can continue to save and invest. Snow showers and 28 degrees at the Elm Ave Park & Ride – CDTA. ❄ Made for kind of a icy walk 🚶 to the express bus 🚍 this morning and I was running a little late but I made it in time. ⌚ And I did not slip and fall, even those a few times it was a slosh. There is a south-southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. There are 0.2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at around 10 am. 🌡️

Finished off the quiche that I made up on Sunday. 🥧 It was very good, and no I did not die or have any bad taste from cooking up the pie shell that had officially expired on November 16, 2016. 😋 It was pretty good and used up a bunch of eggs, with lots of broccoli, 🌱 cheese topping 🧀 and breadcrumbs 🍞 from some stale bread in the refrigerator. Except for the issue of the broiler not working well, it came out pretty good. You know it’s good if it only lasted for two breakfasts, and I was a hurry to have it both mornings. I got to make it again, but I need more broccoli and another pie shell mix, this time maybe with an expiration date six years newer or so.

Kind of a pretty day with the snow ❄ enough to glaze up the sidewalks and ramps. There was a wreck on one of circle stack ramps ⭕💢🚓🚕🚗🚙🚙🚚 and traffic is just generally moving slow today. Warm enough though with the salt that on the major roads, things are moving well if a bit slow. But thanks to Iran and Trump 🎺 there are delays on the bus turn around due to the gates being closed due to the supposed terrorist warnings. It’s annoying how sometimes the bus has to wait for the gates to open and close. I guess they are supposed to keep people safe, but we know it’s mostly to make the contractors rich with security theater.❎

Today will have a chance of snow, mainly before 4pm. Mostly cloudy 🌨, with a high of 37 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 23rd. South wind 6 to 15 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. With the warmer temperatures I’m thinking the icy sidewalks won’t stick around. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 44 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 2007. 12.7 inches of snow fell back in 2002.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:02 pm with sun having an altitude of 24.9° from the due south horizon (-46° vs. 6/21). Almost to 25 degrees. Maybe tomorrow? The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:52 pm with the sun in the southwest (232°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (240°) starting at 4:34 pm and lasts for 3 minutes and 23 seconds with dusk around 5:08 pm, which is 58 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:44 pm. At sunset, look for snow 🌨 and temperatures around 36 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 15 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 11 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 4 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 25 degrees at 5am. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 14th. Maximum wind chill around 22 at 9pm; West wind 6 to 9 mph. In 2019, we had light snow in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 14 degrees. The record low of -12 occurred back in 1878.

I really am enjoying the big tin of hot coca mix I got from the store. ☕ I wanted to have hot coca for my New Years Eve Camping Trip but I couldn’t find it at Price Chopper, not my normal store, and I was running late. It’s probably good, because those little packets of hot coca don’t always burn up completely when tossed in the fire with the thin layer of aluminum foil, and I was trying to camp in a “tread lightly” fashion, doing as little noticeable damage to the forest as possible. I’m not delusional enough to believe you can camp with zero impacts, but I like to keep my campsites as clean and tidy as possible, with anything that doesn’t full burn get packed out. 🌲 But at home, the big tin of hot coca is wonderful — especially in coffee or on a cold evening. I can always pack some in a ziplock bag for camping. Probably a lot cheaper that way too. I do wish the container it came in was recycable — but I can probably tear off the aluminum parts for recycling and burn the rest. ♻ I normally do not have snacks at home, 🍬 although maybe I’ll break that tradition as this week is $2.99 for all flavors at the Stewarts Ice Cream Special Week. Yum! 🍨 I already see myself falling off the wagon. Fortunately though, I don’t ever have alcohol at home for the most part.🍺

Another rainy but mild weekend on tap. ☔ Saturday, rain. High near 53. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Sunday, a chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 39. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Typical average high for the weekend is 30 degrees.

At least the rain will keep the salt off the roads. 💦I have a lot of things to do in town next weekend including starting working on the Reszin Adam’s video – and possibly heading over to John Wolcott house to work on better labels 🔖 for his files 📂.

🌹🌻🌼Only 73 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼

I am thinking about doing a camping trip over Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend in two weekends, 🏕 but a lot depends on the winter. This time if I do Cole Hill State Forest, I’ll make sure to leave a note on my truck where I am in case anybody reports it parked overnight. 🅿 Although, honestly if there isn’t too much snow I would truly prefer to camp up Moscow Hill Area in Brookfield — I just like seeing that beautiful farm country, 🐄 plus it’s nice having those hardened campsites with the gravel and the pavilion. Ideally, if there is no or little snow, I could drive right back there.

As previously noted, next Monday is Make Your Dream Come True Day 🏡 when the sun will be setting at 4:44 pm with dusk at 5:15 pm. On that day in 2019, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 23 and 10 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 30 degrees. We hit a record high of 71 back in 1932.

North Adams and Hossack Range

January 1, 2020 Morning

Good morning! Happy New Years Day 2020 🎉 ! It’s a new morning in a new decade. Next Wednesday is Bubble Bath Day 🠼򏀮 Partly cloudy, breezy and 29 degrees at the Cole Hill State Forest in Berne. ❄ More clouds then sun but when the blue peaks through its pretty nice with the ice on the trees. Breezy, ️16 mph breeze from the west 🌬 . The current wind chill is 17. Things will start to thaw out at around noontime. 🌡️ A chilly but kind of pretty morning when I got up briefly to do my business 💩 outside.

So we made it to the new decade. 🎇 I guess that should surprise no one, it’s just another stepping stone 🗻 in the great progression of things. One year closer to all hell breaking loose with climate change. That said, it was kind of neat to spend New Years Eve in the wilderness especially with that very brief winter thunderstorm. I wish it had been a little colder when I set up camp though as things were a bit sloshy 💧for a while until the mercury dropped. Made for the sled sliding well with the gear. Everything is frozen solid this morning though.

Coffee with egg nog ☕ is good on this first morning, which is a bit chilly but not too bad. Like anything it’s all a matter of how you choose to dress. 👚 Of course half the winter I keep my apartment at fifty degrees to save on the heat so I can’t complain that much about 29 degrees in the wilderness, sitting next to the propane heater. Gotta save money 💵 so I can burn it in my is jacked up truck.

A new decade with new challenges but I’ll embrace them as they come. 🎉 Always keep on learning and saving for a better tomorrow. I think by 2030 I’ll be much closer to owning land and finally getting to a better place to live with more freedom. 😍

An off grid property like a hunting camp way out in the country without running water or electricity on 40 acres is a lot more affordable than one might think 💭. Certainly a steal compared to the plastic houses 🏡 the suburbanites love. Taxes are so much lower in a place like Missouri too. I bet when you generate your own power with solar, haul your own water, heat with wood you chop your own self and meat you harvest yourself, you are a lot more conscious of waste. ♻

Only a few more weeks of plastic bags 👝 at the supermarkets. I have some cloth bags I got from work I’ve been saving for some time to use when the new law goes into effect. I’ll just need to make sure I reserve them for shopping purposes 🏪 and not bring them to work with lunch or carry them out to the woods with gear for camping ⛺. I used to use reusable bags a lot more years ago, but stopped because I never had them with me. I was thinking this morning how I’ll miss them for camping – so convenient for carrying gear, keeping things dry and storing camp trash until it’s burnt 🔥. I bought paper rather than Styrofoam bowels for camping this time – they’re actually a lot more durable in the pack, don’t smell nasty when they’re burnt and the more I learn about Styrofoam the more nasty I realize it is – especially the blowing agents and climate change. They’re not that much more expensive. 🍚 Now I get that there isn’t much of a difference between paper and Styrofoam in a landfill – waste of all types barely break down in landfills but that’s fine because I don’t want tend to burn my camp trash.

Back from dreaming to the forecast for today. New Year’s Day 2029 will have a slight chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 35 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 15th. West wind around 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 53 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 1966. 9.2 inches of snow fell back in 1961.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 24.3° from the due south horizon (-46.5° vs. 6/21). Still got a ways to go before the sun is high in the sky. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:48 pm with the sun in the southwest (231°). 📸 Might actually be a good time to take some pictures this afternoon, especially in the hill towns with all the ice. The sunset is in the west-southwest (239°) starting at 4:30 pm and lasts for 3 minutes and 24 seconds with dusk around 5:05 pm, which is 50 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:41 pm. At sunset, look for possible snow showers 🌨 and temperatures around 32 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 21. ☃️ Breezy, 16 mph breeze 🍃 from the west. Today will have 9 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, an increase of 43 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight, that is for the New Years Day Eve fondue my parents are having will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 4th. I’m ready to skip ahead to March. Saves on the heating bills, says the boy who puts $60 bills into the tank of his big jacked up truck but hates paying $80 for heat and electricity. ♨ Maximum wind chill around 17 at 3am; West wind 6 to 15 mph. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 20 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1970.

This afternoon having cheese fondue at the parents house 🍲 as their annual New Years Day celebration 🎉. Always a fun way to toast in the new year. Kind of hard to believe it’s already 2020, seemed like we were celebrating 2019 only a few days ago. Last year went by so fast.

Rain and snow this weekend but not really cold. 💦 Saturday, rain likely. Cloudy, with a high near 43. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Sunday, a chance of snow before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 33. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 31 degrees.

This next weekend is a stay at home weekend except for the Save the Pine Bush meeting and maybe hiking in the Pine Bush before it. 🚶 I doubt they’ll have enough snow to ski 🎿 there. But that’s fine. The Pine Bush often is just as pretty without snow than with it.

🌹🌻🌼Only 78 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼

I know, what a joke 🃏 with the flowers 🌷and calendar 📅 spring. I mean by then you might see farmers in Alabama posting pictures of happy cows 🐮 grazing on grass for the first time but it’s still a month or five weeks until you’ll see any real green in outlying parts. Still it gives me something to look forward to. I have certainly camped a few times on the first day of spring.

As previously noted, next Wednesday is Bubble Bath Day 🧼 when the sun will be setting at 4:40 pm with dusk at 5:11 pm. On that day in 2019, we had cloudy, mild, rain showers and temperatures between 41 and 29 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 30 degrees. We hit a record high of 60 back in 2008.

Some Snow on the Trees

December 31, 2019 Night

Good evening on this final blog post of 2019 ! Cloudy and 31 degrees at the Cole Hill State Forest in Berne on this New Years Eve. ☁ We had a thunderstorm with some brief lightning and snow. ⚡ ❄ It was windy and intense for about five minutes and then it got quiet. There is a west-southwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. There is about 4 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ The skies will clear tomorrow around noontime.

It’s hard to believe that New Years Day is only a few hours away and it will be 2020. 🎇 To think it’s already the twenties when not all that long ago it was year 2000 and I was back in High School. I’ll be waking tomorrow to a brand new decade. Although it’s already basically 11 o’clock now and I could if I wanted to stay up the next hour listening to a podcast until midnight. I was outside by the fire until 10:30 when a snow squall and the breeze made me decide to jettison the cold ❄ outside for a nice warm tent 🎪. Maybe I will stay up to midnight 🕛, I’m in no rush to take down camp as things with the dropping temperatures are likely to be frozen early in the day until the sun comes out. Simple breakfast of instant oatmeal 🍚 and coffee ☕ for breakfast tomorrow and then it’s just a 20 minute drive home.

Tonight will have a chance of snow showers, mainly before 10pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 25 degrees at 6am. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 7th. Even warmer back in the city. West wind 9 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. A few good gusts earlier for sure with that winter thunderstorm. The wind is a bit concerning with the ice on the trees being thrown or broken limbs but my campsite is relatively free of widow makers. 🍃 Chance of precipitation is 50%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2018, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 27 degrees. I was up at Cherry Ridge last year and I left the night before because I was worried 😯 about the road being slippery when the ice turned to mud. In retrospect, should have done Moscow Hill horse 🐴 camp instead. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1970.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon with 31% illuminated. At dusk you’ll see the moon in the south (190°) at an altitude of 37° from the horizon, some 251,948 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀It was kind of a pretty moon tonight and it seems like my astrological calculations are right. The moon will set in the west-southwest (257°) at 10:06 pm. The darkest hour is at 12:00 am (the beginning of the decade), followed by dawn at 6:55 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:27 am in the east-southeast (121°) and last for 3 minutes and 25 seconds. Sunrise is 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 8:13 am with sun in the southeast (129°) at an altitude of 6°. Tonight will have 14 hours and 53 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 42 seconds over last night.

New Year’s Day 🎇 will have isolated snow showers after 8am. Partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 34 degrees at 1pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 22nd. West wind 15 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light drizzle by afternoon. The high last year was 53 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 1966. 9.2 inches of snow fell back in 1961.❄

This year my New Year Resolution is to stay the course 🚢and continue to build a better life for myself. I want to keep saving money towards buying land and an off grid cabin. I might stay in New York for another decade but when the time comes, I want to be prepared. I’ll have to see if Big Red needs repairs and decide on my future of motoring 🏁 or if I should try a life with more biking and local adventures. Sure these winter camping adventures are kind of fun but motoring is so expensive and bad for both the environment and ones health. I probably also drink and eat too much unhealthy food while camping although this time ⌚ I intentionally limited my drinking by packing less beer 🍻 being that I’m out in the real wilderness in the cold. That and I drunk most of it earlier in the week. ⛺ That said, this coming year I plan to spend many nights in the woods and maybe even so a bit more wilderness camping.

In four weeks on January 28 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (246°) at 5:04 pm,🌄 which is 31 minutes and 28 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had sunny weather and but rather cold temperatures between 22 and 8 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 31 and 15 degrees. The record high of 56 degrees was set back in 1916.

Looking ahead, Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 is in 2 weeks, Martin Luther King Day 🖤 is in 3 weeks, Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day 🥛 is in 6 weeks, National Drink Wine Day 🍷 is in 7 weeks, St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 is in 11 weeks, 7:30 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 14 weeks, Cinco de Mayo 🤠 is in 18 weeks, Primary Day 🗳️ is in 25 weeks, Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 44 weeks and Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 44 weeks.

Sun Filters Thru Trees