I’m kind of a dirty hick no matter how you look at it. I just kind of like the look and feel of dirt and mud, the smells of nature. Cleaning is difficult and I’m not sure how healthy it really is with harsh chemicals and the destruction of healthy bacteria that builds the immune system. Plus it’s often hard to get things cleaned without a lot of hard scrubbing.
It is pretty common on dairies for parents to bring babies out in a stroller and plop them out between the feed aisles so they can breathe in the barnyard air with the breathe of cattle and the pungent smells of silage and manure. The cows mooing are soothing and the natural bacteria healthy. Barnyards are hardly sterile, they are living natural things.
My apartment is dirty as is my truck and my camping gear. I do some cleaning but I’m not particularly worried about a little bit of mud or dirt. Sometimes things smell bad – I do my best to clean them but I’m not perfect. I probably should do more but what is the harm? Living close to nature means living in the dirt.
Cleanliness has its benefits in the city, although it’s hard to argue most cities are particularly clean – people track in mud and dirt and pollution from buses, trucks, cars and factories can make cities quite gross. Cleanliness can help slow the spread of viruses without vaccines like the common cold virus but even that is somewhat over stated. It looks nice and smells better to be clean but it’s debatable if it’s that much healthier.
Just reviewing my packing list and finishing getting ready, doing some cleaning and double checking things.
Good morning! Partly cloudy and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ There is a north-northeast breeze at 13 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at Saturday around 10 am. 🌡️
Kind of a cool day to start out my trip with the breeze 🌬️ but it will be sunnier later and then a cold night 🌃 is ahead. But my propane tank is full 🏮, I’ll have a good fire 🔥 and enjoy the cold. Winter starts at 10:27 pm. ☃️ Going to be a cold night, I’m not sure if I’ll stay up that late. Maybe.
Today will be partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny 🌞, with a high of 32 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around January 15th. North wind 9 to 14 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 34 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 2018. 6.6 inches of snow fell back in 2008.❄
Today’s plans are to head out to Stoney Pond State Forest 🏞 and camp there. I’m thinking about stopping at For the Love of Bacon 🥓 to get some of the name sake, and maybe to ride the Chenango Canal Trailway and explore Hamilton NY on my bicycle 🚲 as time allows. That said, the sun sets early this time of year. Looks like it will be a nice day but maybe somewhat cold. But it’s to be expected in December a few days before Christmas.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:54 am with sun having an altitude of 23.9° from the due south horizon (-46.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:40 pm with the sun in the southwest (230°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (238°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:25 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 25 seconds with dusk around 4:56 pm, which is 28 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the east-southeast (120°) at an altitude of 43° from the horizon, 229,997 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:33 pm. At sunset, look for sunny skies 🌃 and temperatures around 30 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 9 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, an increase of one second over today. Days are getting longer.
Working from home 🏡 or in my case the library 💻 was good yesterday, it gave me an opportunity to get packed and get supplies before camping 🏕. I ended up working late as it took longer than I expected at the store midday 🛒 but all was good. Came home made bread and had it ready to bring camping.
Tonight will be clear 🌃, with a low of 12 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 9 at 12am; North wind 6 to 8 mph. That’s going to be a cold night for sure. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -8 occurred back in 1955. At least not that cold.
Clouds for theweekend but warmer. ☁️Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 39. South wind around 7 mph. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 43. Typical average high for the weekend is 36 degrees.
Looking ahead, next Thursday is 4:30 PM Sunset 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 4:30 pm with dusk at 5:01 pm. A sign of longer days ahead. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 41 and 22 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 1982.
