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March 19, 2018 Morning

Good morning! This rather chilly Monday marks the final day of Winter 2018. At least it’s mostly sunny and 17 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a north-northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 1 pm. 🌡️

🌹🌻🌼If today is the final day of calendar winter, only 1 day remains until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼

Today will be sunny 🌞 , with a high of 32 degrees at 3pm. 14 degrees below normal. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 44 degrees. Even that is a bit below normal. The record high of 78 was set in 2012. 9.6 inches of snow fell back in 1971.❄

The sun will set at 7:07 pm with dusk around 7:35 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for clear skies and 28 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 8 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 55 seconds over yesterday. The days may not be getting much warmer but at least the sun is setting later.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌞 , with a low of 15 degrees at 5am. 12 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 9 at 5am; Northwest wind 3 to 7 mph. In 2017, we had clear skies. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of 2 occurred back in 1967.

I expect a long week at work, but hopefully I will get home at a reasonable hour at least a few times this week. 💼 At this point, I’m not defining a reasonable hour but I guess it’s while the sun is still up. I don’t know, we will see. I guess if I have to work late, it’s best that it’s in late March when the weather is crappy.

The bus was pretty much on time this morning, 🚍which made me happy. There was a great big funeral precession heading downtown while I was waiting for the bus 🚏on this fairly cold morning. Lots of blue sky.

I really enjoyed that trip out to the Helderbergs.🗻 I don’t get out nearly enough to the mountains in the winter even though I spend a great deal of time working on maps and looking at photos from past road trips. 🌎

Looking ahead, there are 10 weeks until Memorial Day 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 8:23 pm with dusk at 8:57 pm. On that day in 2017, we had cloudy skies and temperatures between 74 and 60 degrees.🏊 I am looking forward to the Black Flies and mud. Hopefully this year won’t be as wet as last year. Nah, probably it will be super dry and a burn ban for a change. Never is it a reasonably nice weather. 🚣Typically, the high temperature is 73 degrees. We hit a record high of 93 back in 2016.💙 I actually enjoyed that nice warm Memorial Day. I think I was camping that year at the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont too. Been doing that a lot the past few years. It’s close and honestly Memorial Day Weekend camping tends to be pretty marginal with the Black Flies 🐜and some years the tent catapillars. 🐛

An April North Country Trip, A Revised Plan for 2018

An April North Country Trip, A Revised Plan for 2018

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about my plans for an April Road Trip to the North Country. For a number of reasons that trip never got off the ground, not the least being the wet and cold spring and the amount of things I had going on at work last year. This year though, I would like to try to make this trip, with the first few days spent taking NY 30 up to through the Adirondacks, maybe camping off of NY 8 one night then at Horseshoe Lake another night.

Camping

When I reach the North Country, I would probably either camp on Conservation Road at Deer River State Forest or maybe the Walter Pratt Campground at Brasher Falls State Forest. The later is somewhat better, as it’s less likely to be muddy or snow covered in April, and it’s a fair bit closer to Massena. More cell service to keep me entertained at night. Deer River would be better in the sense that there are more areas near the campsites with hills and terrain that could be used as backstops while plinking. Maybe hit up some trout spots? It is April, after all.

Deer River off of Webster Mill Road

My April Road Trip would be quite similar to the trip I took in November 2015 to the Northern Adirondacks, probably fish in Deer River, go up to the Power Project in Massena, maybe do some short hikes in the Adirondacks. Drive back down through the Adirondacks or maybe via the Black River Valley.

Campsite

I would like to explore more of the state forests in St. Lawrence County. There is a lot of great land up that way that I’ve mapped and looked at the DEC websites for but have never explored myself. Many people might denounce the land is being flat with a lot of dairy farms – but I suspect it’s actually quite rolling in parts and many of the state forests are quite interesting. Wolf Lake State Forest seems to perk my interest.

It’s a bit farther then past April Road Trips I’ve done, but it would be fun to get back into this part of the state that I haven’t visited in a few years. I like getting around and seeing different parts of the state, as going to the same location, year after year, gets kind of boring. I’ve only really been up to the North Country (Franklin and St. Lawrence County) twice, so there are a lot left to explore.

Coffee Pot

I’ve been considering buying a drip coffee pot. These days they aren’t really that expensive and for a few bucks over the base model, I could have one with a timer that would ensure by the time I got out of bed I would have hot coffee every morning – assuming that I bothered to set the timer, fill the machine with water and fresh grounds. Then again, all except the automatic switch, I could do the same with the camp percolator I currently own.

Right now, I use a camp percolator for all my coffee. It works fine, but it sure gets dirty and it’s somewhat messy dumping out the grounds and washing out the filter every morning. I ended up with coffee grounds all over my kitchen, accumulating in all the places that aren’t real easy to clean. In many ways, drip coffee machines are less messy, especially with the disposable paper filters that commonly used with them.

Drip coffee pots use less electricity and make much better coffee then the percolator, especially with my tendency to put the percolator on it and boil the heck out of the coffee until the grounds are incredibly bitter. I don’t use sugar or cream, just one percent milk, which ensures the coffee is as bitter as it can be. Maybe I should watch the percolator more carefully, and not walk off and do other things.

Making Coffee

Part of my problem with drip coffee pots is they use a lot amperage – even if it’s temporarily – to heat the water. Sure my electric stove does too, but sometime I envision living off grid without a high amperage electricity supply. I guess one of those high-tech drip coffee pots probably won’t last that long, but then I got to throw it out – which is a pain, because I don’t have trash pickup and would have to take it to the transfer station. Not to mention all those coffee filters and grounds, which are a wet mess, especially because I don’t have a compost bin where I live.

Most people a long time ago would have bought an coffee pot. But I think the percolator pot works fine for my purpose, no matter how grimy it gets or how awful bitter the coffee it makes. I don’t need excessive technology in my life that really serves no real purpose that some point I’ll have to pay to dispose of later on.

January 3, 2018 – Looking Ahead This Week

Some light snow tomorrow, then cold for the weekend. Sloppy mix for Monday into Tuesday, this could make the roads quite icy or it could just be wet and soggy. Generally a warming trend is expected by next week, although hardly bathing suit weather, as next week on average is the coldest of the year. At least the days are getting longer, with 75 days left until calendar spring.

Weather Summary
Tonight. Mostly Cloudy then Slight Chance of Snow and 13 degrees , 5 max wind chill, 7:25 sunrise.
Thursday. Snow is likely and Areas Blowing Snow and 22 degrees , 2 max wind chill, 4:36 sunset.
Thursday Night. Chance of Snow and Areas Blowing Snow and 2 degrees , -15 max wind chill, 7:25 sunrise.
Friday. Cold and 6 degrees , -16 max wind chill, 4:37 sunset.
Friday Night. Mostly Cloudy and -7 degrees , -25 max wind chill, 7:25 sunrise.
Saturday. Cold and 1 degrees , -25 max wind chill, 4:38 sunset.
Saturday Night. Mostly Clear and -13 degrees , -22 max wind chill, 7:24 sunrise.
Sunday. Partly Sunny and 15 degrees , -22 max wind chill, 4:39 sunset.
Sunday Night. Chance of Snow and 10 degrees , 2 max wind chill, 7:24 sunrise.
Monday. Chance of Snow and 31 degrees , 8 max wind chill, 4:40 sunset.
Monday Night. Wintry Mix is likely and 24 degrees , 7:24 sunrise.
Tuesday. Snow is likely then Chance of Rain/Snow and 34 degrees , 4:41 sunset.
Tuesday Night. Mostly Cloudy and 10 degrees , -2 max wind chill, 7:24 sunrise.

McMansion Hidden By the Snow

December 2, 2017 Evening

Good evening! Partly cloudy and 26 degrees off of the East Branch of the Sacanadaga River near  Bakers Mills. Calm wind. A bit cool but still pretty nice. I decided that I wouldn’t pitch a tent, because I decided it wasn’t that bad cold, but I do have plenty of propane that if I need the heater and the tent, I certainly could put it up. But for now it’s fine by the fire. Maybe it will prove to be a mistqake at 5 AM when I’m freezing, but honestly under the covers in my truck is pretty comfortable.

Today was a nice day out on Thomas and Cat Mountain. The Thomas Mountain cabin that currently is open to the public is so nice. It’s really disappoiting that they’ve proposed to demolish it to comply with the rules set forth in the Adirondack Park. The only thing it’s msising is the wood stove, which was removed what appears to be fairly recently. I don’t know, if they allow intensive use campgrounds in the Adirondack Park, they should allow the legacy cabin to remain. I figure its good to see it before it’s demolished. If they want to continue the state’s prohibition on closed camps on state forest preserve (which I think is silly, but so is the whole forest preserve concept), they should just remove the front wall, and make a really nice two-story leean-to. I think my dream house would be a lot like that cabin, although I would want some kind of hot running water and shower, so I could get clean in the winter. I like camping, but not having regular showers is probably the biggest disadvantage of being out in the woods. That’s one of the things I like about the Finger Lakes National Forest and visiting the state parks in the summer — the nice showers before and after swimming.

Tonight will have increasing clouds, with a low of 20 degrees at 1am. Six degrees below normal. Calm wind. In 2016, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 35 degrees. The record low of -1 occurred back in 1976. That’s the Albany record, I’m sure it’s gotten even colder up north here. I mean, we are already in December.

While tomorrow officially is the Cold Moon, December’s Supermoon, for all purposes the moon is nearly full. The sun will rise at 7:11 am with the first light at 6:39 am, which is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 52 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 20 seconds over last night. Nights are really long this time of year, but then again around the first day of summer, you can go walking at Moose River Plains at 9:45 PM, and there still is a little light leftin the atmosphere. I like camping year round, but those warm summer nights are still so delightufl.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny, with a high of 37 degrees at 1pm. Four degrees below normal. Calm wind. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 42 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 2009. 5.2 inches of snow fell back in 1893. 

My toes are a bit cold from the boots getting wet, despite changing my socks. I’ll chanage them once again before bed. I finslly got out the propane heater, and I’ve had it next to my chair warming up my behind. I am glad I got propane, because I had only about 2.94 lb left. With the heater, camp stove, and latern, that would leave me dangerously low by morning. 

But I really don’t have an execuse for not having enough propane going up to the Adirondacks. Tractor Supply in Clifton Park is only a short distance from the Northway and tanks don’t have to be totally empty to be filled, and they only charge you for the amount of propane you need. In other words, they charge by the gallon, $2.99. Which is better then the Delmar hardware store where it’s a flat fee no matter how empty your tank is. Which is a good markup from bulk propane delivery, but it takes specially trained staff time to operate the filling machine. The lumber mill in Wevertown also fills propane tanks, but I’m sure they are more expensive and probably aren’t open the long hours as Tractor Supply.

I am very much still in shock that it’s already December. It just got cold so quickly, and summer faded away before you knew it. Been listening to Christmas music while Iam, and that Cold Moon is quite beautiful. I am pretty sure this will be the last night in the wilderness at least truck cap camping for the year, but I might pitch a hot tent later on in December. Fire is roaring away now. While I bought a bag of wood at Stewarts, I’ve been almost entirely just burning wood that I found in the woods. I’ll save the wood for a future trip. The nice thing about the kiln-dried wood is it can be legally brought across state lands and is easy to ignite — and for $8 you still get a pretty good amount of wood — some places it’s cheaper too. Having a cozy campfire is well worth paying for and knowing you have a security of not getting stuck in the dark trying to scrounge up some wood. 

Thomas and Cat Mountain are a nice hike. While there are a handful of modestly steep cliffs that the trail between them goes over, most of the trails are old woods roads. Cat has some pretty impressive secenery, and the Thomas Cabin is really nice. I was slow and took a lengthy stop on both moutains, but if you do both, you can enjoy a nice 7 mile loop that I was able to turn into a five hour hike. There is a good amount of elevation gain, but it’s hardly strenous compared some of the hikes I’ve done elsewhere in both the Adirondacks and Catskills. I will post lots of photos when I return home.

In four weeks on December 30 the sun will be setting at 4:29 pm, which is 8 minutes and 50 seconds later then tonight. It remarkable to think that 2017 is coming to aclose to so quickly. I wonder if I will get a chance to get out camping once again before the end of the year. I guess it depends a lot on the weather — will we get a lot of snow, and how old it will be. I keep telling me a New Years Eve camping trip would be fun, but that never happens. One year I did welcome in the New Year Eve on Overlook Mountain. That was cool but I don’t think I made it quite to the top by when the ball dropped, and it was a bit scary driving down the snow covered Overlook Mountain Road in the morning. Camping I wouldn’t have to worry though about bad roads or drunks on the highway.  In 2016 on that day, we had snow, mist, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 35 and 24 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 32 and 16 degrees. The record high of 53 degrees was set back in 1984.

Looking ahead, Ground Hog Day is in 2 months and The Day the Music Died is in 9 weeks. Bye, bye,Ms. American Pie.

I may listen to another podcast, then I will likely retire to bed in the bed of my pickup truck on last time this year. Good night.

October 29, 2017 Morning

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Next Sunday is Daylight Savings Time Ends. Light rain and 63 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south-southeast breeze at 8 mph. The dew point is 55 degrees. Today will get progessively wetter, but it won’t last for long with the skies clearing out tomorrow around 1 pm. Probably not a good day for your outdoor activities unless you like playing in the mud and muck. 

Light rain this morning, heavy rain this afternoon into the evening and possibly a thunderstorm after noon. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. High of 67 degrees at 2pm. 12 degrees above normal. Maybe wet but not that cold. Maximum dew point of 59 at 1pm. Southeast wind 8 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. The high last year was 53 degrees. The record high of 77 was set in 1946. 3.8 inches of snow fell back in 2011.

The sun will set at 5:51 pm with dusk around 6:20 pm, which is one minute and 21 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for pouring rain and 66 degrees. The dew point will be 59 degrees. There will be a southeast breeze at 13 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 24 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 35 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will rain and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Low of 54 degrees at 6am. 13 degrees above normal. Southeast wind around 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible. In 2016, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1969.

Made some blueberry muffins from a mix I had bought for camping but it was pretty good. Only had one cup of coffee though as I’m a bit low on milk. I should run to the store and get some milk before it starts to rain too much. I usually just walk down to Stewarts which is around the corner. They have good milk prices and good milk. A lot of the local dairies produce the raw milk that is turned into Stewarts products.

Did some cleaning this morning and worked on some more maps and going through the photos from vacation. There is a lot more to check out, but I am getting there. I will probably upload a lot more photos this afternoon or evening. Depends somewhat on the weather. I don’t have any new photos from this weekend, so just more vacation photos. I took so many so it will take a while get through all of them.

Just mostly the usual. I really needed today to decompress from the road trip and continue to clean and put things away. I vacuumed the carpets, cleaned the kitchen counters, swept, reorganized the clothes a bit. I want to wash the kitchen floors shortly (a lot of mud got tracked in when unpacking the camping gear), the get the recycables out, wash more of the bathroom today.

I have go shopping. Lately I’ve been shopping at lot at Walmart but I feel like Shoprite or Hannaford is more economical. As werid as that sounds. Hannaford lately has had great prices on dry and canned goods. But the thing Iike about Walmart is their packaged meats and cheeses for sandwitches, while lower quality, do last a lot longer. I find when I get meat from the deli, it’s often getting moldy or dried out by the end of the work week for my Friday sandwitch. Biting into a moldy sandwitch is not how you want to do your Friday. Never had that problem with the Walmart stuff with more of the preservatives. As my inspection sticker expires Tuesday and I don’t want to drive until I get it serviced and inspected, I want to have everything I need for the week. I really don’t want to damage things further with that rattling shock aborber. It’s fine I almost never drive on the weekdays anywhere, and if I’m stuck in town next weekend that’s fine too. I need a break from my travels. If the weather is nice next weekend, I might walk out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. Always a nice walk and you see so much more when you don’t drive.

Tonight is Sunday dinner at the folks house. First time since Mom is back home from her sugerary. It will be good to see her, especially because that rehabilitation center she was at was a long haul, and I was gone last week. I am thinking of baking cookies. I will get them at the store.

Decided I am not going to have to take money out of savings to cover vacation. At least for now. It will all depend on what the November bills all come out to be. Hopefully the inspection and routine maintaince will be just routine and the noise I hear is just the loose shock absorber. I am hoping for a Good Black Friday sale so I can buy a 512 gigabyte SSD drive for my laptop, which will give me needed space with all the video I do and make it boot up and run applications much faster. Doesn’t look like it will be that difficult to install. I wanted to get an SSD drive when I bought the laptop, but all the models that I saw with SSD drives were either really overpriced or had shitty low-resolution screens which would suck with the map making I do.

I think Veterans Day this year is on a Friday so it will be a long weekend. Not sure where I will go, I have to consider my options more. Maybe the Western Catskills or the North Country. But only if the weather is nice. I don’t want to spend any more cold, wet days in the wilderness this year.

As previously noted, next Sunday is when Daylight Savings Time Ends when the sun will be setting at 4:42 pm with dusk at 5:12 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 57 and 32 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 1994.

October 23, 2017 – Looking Ahead This Week

This week is going to be mild but quite rainy. So much for the leaves sticking around for long. Clouds today but very wet tomorrow. Nice on Friday and Saturday, showers return for Sunday.

Weather Summary
Today. Mostly Cloudy and 68 degrees , 5:59 sunset.
Tonight. Chance of Showers and 63 degrees , 61 max dew point, 7:20 sunrise.
Tuesday. Heavy Rain and 71 degrees , 61 max dew point, 5:58 sunset.
Tuesday Night. Heavy Rain and 55 degrees , 7:21 sunrise.
Wednesday. Chance of Showers and 63 degrees , 64 max dew point, 5:56 sunset.
Wednesday Night. Chance of Showers and 43 degrees , 7:23 sunrise.
Thursday. Chance of Showers and 57 degrees , 5:55 sunset.
Thursday Night. Partly Cloudy and 40 degrees , 7:24 sunrise.
Friday. Sunny and 63 degrees , 42 max dew point, 5:54 sunset.
Friday Night. Mostly Clear and 41 degrees , 7:25 sunrise.
Saturday. Mostly Sunny and 62 degrees , 43 max dew point, 5:52 sunset.
Saturday Night. Chance of Showers and 44 degrees , 7:26 sunrise.
Sunday. Chance of Showers and 59 degrees , 5:51 sunset.

Little Rock City Road