I have been acutely aware of the shortening days, as the onset of darkness and cold halt all work on Hut 2.0 shortly after sunset. Sunlight, which used to last until well past 8pm during the summer, now sinks beyond the western tree line shortly after 6pm. While some may accept the earlier than desired arrival of dusk as an inevitable side effect of our planet’s tilted axis, such defeatist attitudes have no place out here in the woods. Something had to be done, and soon, since the upcoming time change would further exacerbate the issue by robbing us of another hour of daylight.
A solution came to me easily enough, and with a few taps on my iPhone, my evil plan had been implemented. In Serenity Valley, the sun no longer sets at 6pm. Instead, it stays light out until past 8pm, as it reasonably should.
No, I did not use an app to change the earth’s rotational axis (though, no doubt, there must be an app for that too). Nay, the solution was much simpler: I set the clock ahead 2 hours. And when everybody else is “falling back” an hour, I will not be changing my clock. In fact, when the days get even shorter, I may set the clock ahead another 30 minutes. Or maybe another hour. In Serenity Valley, it’ll always stay light out past 8pm.
I’ve been living in Serenity Valley Time for about a week now, and I’m quite satisfied with the results. I can go to sleep at 2am, sleep in until 11am, and still get 9 hours daylight! On those rare occasions that I interact with the outside world, I have to remember that everybody else is in a backward timezone, but I’m pretty used to that, having friends and family in various timezones all over the world. Besides, everybody around me is 2 hours behind, so while the local hardware store closes at 5:30pm PST, it stays open until 7:30pm SVT, and the grocery store’s even open ’til 10pm SVT! So not only have I gained 2 hours of daylight, I even extended business hours. Not bad, eh?
Laptop and a Rifle 
great idea!
HA! It sounds completely MAD. I love it. Why *is* a Raven like a Writing Desk?
I love this creative but common sense solution. I’m afraid I would’nt have thought of it. Great idea and thanks for sharing.
Should the “time” of day matter at all then? Work when its light and sleep when its not. A much simpler solution really.
I love it. Many a time that I have been on a longish backpacking trip I have set my watch in a similar way to catch maximum sunlight without disorienting the “clock” in my head. There is something odd about getting up at 4am to catch the sun, but set your clock so that it says 7am at dawn and you don’t even blink any eyelash. Its all mental, but oh so effective. Keep up the work and stay warm.
Simply brilliant. I love it!
Excellent solution. I have been musing for the last couple of years that society in general should be even more agrresive with time changes — not only DST, but in midsummer, Double DST, and in mid winter, Double Standard time.
Of course a real solution to maximizing personal daylight is to build another Serenty Valley in southern chile and commute every six months.