May 2010

Thursday May 20th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

It is a very nice day outside today. With a mix of sun and clouds and temps around 80, it is almost on the warm side. We are in for more spectacular weather over the weekend.

The high pressure that we have enjoyed this week is moving east. As we know the west side of a big high pressure means warm, as the clockwise rotation of the flow brings southern air north.

Today, Friday and Saturday should be in the upper 70s or low 80s. Sunday warms up  little with temps reaching mid-80s.

It will be a good weekend for camping. Usually clear skies mean cool temperatures. With the warm air mass in place, it looks like we will see night time temps in the mid-50s Friday and Saturday night. Very nice.. That will be very comfortable for sitting around the campfire and watching the stars.

The trees are filling in nicely, as is the understory. I think that the lack of rain has the green explosion a bit of a fizzle, but there is still a lot going on.

The bug of the week this week is the wood tick. Abundant is a good word for them. I haven’t gotten out the Repel yet, but it is probably coming today as I head out into the high grass to work on whatever.

I have been a little irate this week because I want to go fishing but can’t. The fishing should be pretty good right now on some lakes. Maybe next week will work out better.

The drought didn’t go away this week. We have had no precip at all. There is a slight chance that a weak line of showers could sprinkle us for a few minutes  Friday afternoon, but that is about it. Next week holds a little more promise, but it is one of those forecasts that I look at and discount immediately.

The lack of rain and snow has rivers and lakes low. When I drove by Waube Lake this morning, I would call it 2-3′ low easily. A lot of lakes are like that. I have a friend on a seepage lake with small local springs that feed it. The springs stopped bubbling since there is no water percolating in from the surrounding land. That isn’t good.

Rivers are low too. Spring fed creeks are down a little, most rivers are at July or August levels. As far as rafting, the Pesh is rocky but it can be done if you are in for the workout. The Menominee with it’s mandated minimum flows is a much better choice.

Folks around Silver Cliff wanting to take to the water should check out Kosir’s. They have tubing trips on the non-rapids section of the Peshtigo, and sit on top kayaks that you can go and paddle around Caldron Falls Flowage. They might have canoes too, they did last year.

In the wildlife department Chris spotted a new born fawn this week while walking to the mailbox. Supposedly there are pictures, I will see what I can do later. Beyond that, the chippies are quite um frisky, and the standard assortment of turkeys and deer are present. A pleasant side effect of the drought, the gators (mosquitoes) still aren’t too bad.

I don’t have any events for this weekend. It really picks up next week and beyond. It is a shame that there are no events this weekend considering the weather forecast.

Oooo Ooo! Chris sent me the fawn picture..

Well, It has been a busy week with inside work, and now it is time to go and play outside.  I haven’t done my firewood this week yet, so I am probably off to jump on that. The the little cartoon devil character on the other shoulder claims it is 80 outside, and wants to pack a cooler and head for the beach. Hmmm I wonder how that is going to work out..

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday May 18th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

It is a spectacular day outside today. There isn’t much wind, it is sunny, and temps and humidity are very comfortable. Call it sunny and 74, and call me late for skip out of work day.

I am not too worried about it, the whole week and even next weekend look great for weather. There is no rain in sight for a week, and temps will be in the 70s most of the time. Later this week we could have a few days that get into the low 80s.

The area is greening up very nicely, the weather is getting spectacular, it might just be that summer is here.

The critter world knows about it. Wildlife sightings are way up this week. While shooting pictures on the river last weekend I spotted an osprey. Later there were a group of butterflies that swirled up around me and out over the river as I walked toward them. Chris is out in the driveway now trying to catch a picture of the Momma deer and just born fawn that she spotted on the way to the mailbox. There is a new nest of the black & white bees under the back step this week (not for long..), and the general insect world is thriving from the ticks to the moths and butterflies. The exception is the mosquito, who needs water to breed, so numbers are down a little.

It is a very cool time of year in the great outdoors of Silver Cliff.

I don’t have any events for this weekend, but there is one Wednesday.

Events really pick up for Memorial Day weekend and beyond.

A passing thought.. This is the week that will make the lakes and rivers a lot more comfortable to swim in. With upper 70s planned as well as some outside work, it will likely be the week of my first swim of the year. It might even be today.

This is also the week that I go about coaxing my old lawn mower back to life. The grass is now well overdue for cutting and between the ankle and knee in some spots.

Some dark economic news.. Last Wednesday Cramer’s Brown Jug closed down. Rumor has it that there will be new people eventually taking it over, but as of now the bar is closed. The gas station remains open for the short term at least.

Things are getting thin for a lot of places up here. Deer hunting is way down, the snowmobiling has been way down, both for a few years, and now tourism in general is down. It has been a rough couple of years for the area, and now a quiet spring. A lot of people are looking forward to the summer season.

Well, there are bees to freeze and a whole day to tackle outside, so I am off to jump into it. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday May 13th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

Sorry that I am late today. I had some business come up that kept me away a few hours longer than expected.

The week did not turn out quite as expected. We did have two storms come through, but they did not produce quite as much rain as expected. The old Silver Cliff Split is alive and well. We did see some rain out of both storms, just not as much as hoped for.

The first storm fell victim to the dry air up here. It rained on radar, but not here at the surface. Later the atmosphere did saturate and we saw a little rain, just not what we were expecting.

Last night and today’s storm tracked farther south than expected. Most of the rain stayed south of Green Bay, but again we did get some. It is wet outside and there are puddles, but we are going to come up a little short of the flash flood warnings that they had downstate.

Not to worry, some rain is better than none. Fire danger is low and the rivers are up a little.

The weekend weather looks nice. It looks like Friday will be the windy day behind the storm, leaving us with nice weather and temps around 65-70 for Saturday and Sunday. Unlike last weekend, the nights will be fairly seasonal with temps in the 40s. Last weekend temps at night went down into the 20s.

The events for this weekend include the kickoff of summer rafting, river tubing, and sit on top kayak touring on Caldron Falls Flowage with Kosir’s. Saturday there is also a steak fry at Eagle Creek Pub, with a full steak dinner for $5 in advance or $7 at the door. Saturday night is the May Birthday Club party at Curve Inn.

Beyond that I don’t have much to report. Yesterday was filled up with more firewood work and some business, and today it is raining.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday May 11th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

It looks like we are in for some rain today. We had a line come through last night and again right now that is showing on the radar but it is not raining here on the ground.

We have very low dew point temperature here at the surface (25F) meaning that the air is very dry. As the rain falls it evaporates right into the air. Not only does the rain not hit the ground, we get evaporational cooling. This will help cool down the day and the precip, putting us in the mid-40s and entering the chance for a few flakes mixing in later.

The latest on the storm has precip totals downgraded a little. Some of my maps showed 0.75-1.0″ or 1.0-1.25″ of rain possible, now it looks more like 1/2″, maybe less if it doesn’t get going soon.  The possibility is looming of getting skunked.

There is another rain storm behind this one for about Wednesday night and Thursday. That one again was expected to bring us over an inch of rain and has been dropped to 1/2 to 3/4″ maybe an inch.

Behind that storm the weekend looks great. Look for clear weather with temps in the mid-60s Saturday and mid-70s Sunday.

I have one event for this weekend, a steak fry at Mikes Bar aka the Eagle Creek Pub Saturday. They have a full steak dinner grilled out for $5 in advance and $7 at the door. The weather should be nice and the price is sure right.

The rafting this weekend should be better than it has been all spring. The rivers are both up from Friday’s snow and rain, and hopefully the two storms this week will keep it coming.

This weekend is also the weekend that the price of rafting goes almost in half for summer rafting season. The Peshtigo rafting trips are $45 in spring and $25 in summer (cheaper weekdays).  This is the first weekend of summer pricing, and there is some promise in both the weather and water outlooks.

I also suspect that this may be the weekend that people start tubing on the Peshtigo flat water stretch. Last weekend wasn’t very nice weather, and the snow melt water was probably a little cold for tubing. This weekend again holds very different prospects.

Work has been chewing up my outside time, so I don’t have much to report beyond the goldfinches spotted out the back door this morning. The way that I saw it there were two brightly colored males courting the drabber female. They are cool looking birds, hopefully they settle here.

That is about it from here. Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!

RJB