June 2011

Thursday June 16th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

It has been another quiet week in the Northwoods. The gas prices and bad economy have really been slowing down tourism. Usually this time of year features a lot of people around during the week and it isn’t like that this year.

We finally had some meaningful rain yesterday. It started mid-day and went into the night at a slow and then moderate pace. Local rain gauges show between 1/3″ and 1/2″.

Tuesday after my report I went to town for a photo shoot. Later I took the camera out of the car before heading out to a local trail stop just after sunset. It made sense at the time.

On the way there I saw were no less than 5 huge snapping turtles up from the flowage to lay eggs. There were deer and turkeys not in any hurry, and there was a huge full moon rising to the east in the post sunset medium bule sky. Curses, foiled again.

The weather for the weekend will be a close call. There will be a storm heading this way, but it isn’t supposed to get this far northeast until later Sunday. The Green Bay forecast has them for a chance of showers/storms Saturday and later Sunday. Around here the NWS outlook only has us for a slight chance of T-storms Saturday night and Sunday and then better chances next week.

In the middle is some of my guidance that shows a chance of rain Sunday and an outside chance of a little getting here sooner.

The plan is that the storm will have trouble getting to the NE 1/4 of the state and that will delay things long enough for us to have a nice weekend. I will go with that for now, but I would submit that the similar scenario that had yesterday’s rain coming today didn’t quite work out that way.

This week Jeff D sent a message via Facebook that Father’s Day weekend is always the car show in Lakewood. A quick look around confirmed it, there will be a show on the 18th.. Link

( I am guessing that it is the Muscle Maniacs Club out of Lakewood)

11 th Annual Charity Car Truck and Bike Show Registration is $10.00 Date of Show. Awarded Trophy in All Categories for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Places.
D J Music, Food and Refreshments on the grounds.
Free Vendor spaces(space size as needed first come first server) ). Trophy Presentation at 3:00 PM.  Registration from 9:00AM til 11:00AM  For additional Information contact Les at 715-276-1810

From the Tuesday update..

Porterfield Country Music Festival (June 16-19, TR-SU).

Friday there is a Gril Scout Rummage & Bake Sale at Athelstane Town Hall Sponsored by Girl Scout Brownie Troop 4569. Proceeds to fund troop projects & outings plus a donation to the Amberg Food Pantry
If interested in donating rummage items call Harriet at 715-759-5145

Saturday at the church on A & C in Athelstane there is the Cornerstone Assembly of God’s 4th Annual Custom & Modified Antique Car Show 10am to 3pm -. Free admission and Free Car Entry
For registration or more information please call (715) 856-5537 or (715) 856-5518. Food & Refreshments available – inflatables for children.

Twin Bridge Ski Team shows Thursdays and Saturdays 6:30pm at Boat Landing #3.

That is about news for today. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday June 14th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

Last weekend ended up being a pretty decent weekend in the end. It was cold at night, but Saturday ended up cloudy & cool with no rain. Sunday was a bluebird day and brought shorts weather.

My tree across the driveway ended up a little bigger than I thought. I told my neighbor that volunteered to help clear it not to worry, I’d have it done in 20 minutes. As it was it ended up taking about 4 hours.

Because it was so green it was really heavy and I took it in 3 small truckloads.  The bottom pieces were about 18″ diameter.
Being soaking wet red oak they weren’t much fun to lift into the truck. Ten of them sagged it pretty good and was about my limit too.

My time out there brought some wood ticks, maybe 5 or 6. There were again that many waiting in the cuffs and folds when I put my work pants back on the next day. They are certainly present where I was playing.

The gators have been a mixed bag. I have had days where I didn’t see one, and places where they were a cloud. I haven’t quite figured that one out yet.

On the way to Lakewood yesterday I must have hit a dragonfly hatch. A little this side of Knowels Creek Road the low areas along the road were full of them. We have some unusual species of them up here, and some are pretty funky looking. It’s all good though, they eat other bugs, like the gators and gnats.

We have a pretty nice week in weather ahead. There is a chance of showers and storms probably about Thursday. Other areas of the state will see some sooner, but around here Wednesday and Thursday are the best chance for rain, with the latter being the most likely.

Temperatures look seasonal right through the weekend. We are looking at 75-80 today, low 70s Wednesday and Thursday, then high 70s Friday and Saturday. Friday and Saturday look like great days. Sunday brings a bump up into the low 80s, along with a minor chance for rain later in the day.

Fishing should be good right about now. Tomorrow is a full moon, and that brings peak days on the solunar tables.

This particular full moon will also bring the longest and darkest lunar eclipse of the century tomorrow. Unfortunately we are on the opposite side of the planet when it will be happening early tomorrow afternoon.

I don’t have a lot for events this weekend. Maybe they don’t want to compete with the Porterfield Country Music Festival (June 16-19, TR-SU).

Friday there is a Gril Scout Rummage & Bake Sale at Athelstane Town Hall Sponsored by Girl Scout Brownie Troop 4569. Proceeds to fund troop projects & outings plus a donation to the Amberg Food Pantry
If interested in donating rummage items call Harriet at 715-759-5145

Saurday at the church on A & C in Athelstane there is the Cornerstone Assembly of God’s 4th Annual Custom & Modified Antique Car Show 10am to 3pm -. Free admission and Free Car Entry
For registration or more information please call (715) 856-5537 or (715) 856-5518. Food & Refreshments available – inflatables for children.

I missed it last week, but it was the Twin Bridge Ski Team‘s first show of the year. They will be back at it Thursdays and Saturdays for a while.

Well it is a very nice day outside so I am going to go and tackle some of the stuff to do out there. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday June 9th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

Now that is what I call a change in the weather. Yesterday it was in the mid-90s and the day before it was 97. Today I am cold in long pants because as of noon it is 57 degrees. I am going to pounce on that in a little while when I get done here and tackle some long overdue outside work.

Yesterday I had a hard time believing that the atmosphere was going to equalize a 30+ degree temperature drop without any drama. It was a windy day yesterday, but I still expected storms. They came and came in force, but not around here. The southern part of WI had a memorable night though.

We did get some strong winds out of it but not much for damage. I had a tree down in the driveway this morning, but it was going down at some point anyway. In my 40 mile round trip to Amberg this morning on a computer call I only saw a couple of branches and trees down, and most were ready to go anyway.

In my case I had to be somewhere, so I made a couple of cuts on the tree, dragged it out of the way, and headed out. I will be back with the saw and the truck later when I go outside to tackle that, the lawn, and all sorts of cleaning and fixing. It sure beats doing it when it is sunny and 85 or 90, so I am going to pounce on the opportunity and put my regular work aside for a little while.

There is an  update on events for this weekend. I am not sure how it got by me, but this is the weekend of the tick races at Fisher’s Camp. Yes you heard right, wood tick races. There will also be toilet seat horseshoes and a meat and VIP raffle. From their Facebook page..

(Saturday June 11th) Woodtick races start at 1pm along with toilet seat horseshoes!! $5 a person for woodtick with 100%payout $10 team for horseshoe with 100% payout meat raffle starts at 4pm with our 2nd VIP drawing for a cabin for the weeken or $100 tattoo…. for more info call 715-757-2207

That just has to be fun, and the meat raffles are pretty popular too.

The weekend forecast is about the same. There is a minor chance of showers now extending into Saturday, but the two 6 hour frames with a chance show a total maximum possible of 2/10ths of an inch. I ain’t skert.

The Friday/Friday night storm looks like it has some strength to it, but the forecasts still have it mostly staying in the southern half of the state, a lot like yesterday’s storm.

Otherwise expect a cloudy day in the mid-60s Saturday and a nicer day in the upper 60s Sunday. Overnight lows could go into the mid-40s.

Keith B posted that we could see some northern lights tonight. The sun has been a little more active lately, and tonight is expected to have displays possible low on the horizon as far south as Des Moines, IA. The clouds will be a problem for a lot of us, but if the sky clears a little we have a chance at seeing some aurora.

It is pretty cool that with the Internet age and all of the new solar observation instruments and the ham radio operators watching we can actually get forecasts on the northern lights now.

A little OT.. I have been drooling over solid state computer hard drives for about a year now. Kevin the snowmobiling friend said to just do it, it was his best upgrade ever.

Finally I got one while upgrading the movie editing computer for the Hi Def helmet cams and camcorders. It was a little bit of a pain to install because I need to run XP, but yowza what a difference. My computer is so fast.

You really do want one.  This is not only great at home, it puts an end to the sluggish laptops.Those always suffer from slow hard drives, and this will wake it right up. What an amazing difference, even from my 15K rpm SCSI 320 drives.

I got my 115 gig version for ~$170, but you can get 40-60BG drives suitable for most people for about $100. Call Ray the Computer Guy, that’s me.

Well I am off to get some lunch and dive into a whole season of outside work since it is so cool out.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting.

RJB

Tick races… I wonder if they have little tick trainers and Nike endorsements..

Wednesday June 8th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

It is another hot one today. Yesterday we hit 97 and today looks like about 90.  The fun part is, tomorrow we will be lucky to hit 65.

It is classic WI weather as a big storm system brings warm humid air in advance of it and cold dry air behind it. What I am not seeing is a big line of thunderstorms to bring the change. I’d certainly expect it as the atmosphere equalizes the 30 degree difference in air masses. Maybe it will come later.

There is another storm possible for Friday. It looks like it has some strength to it, but it will mostly likely stay north and south of us. There is a chance of some of the lighter stuff catching us Friday and Friday night.

Once that is done we are in for a very nice weekend. Saturday looks like there willbe some leftover clouds and highs in the mid-60s. Sunday looks like a bluebird day with partly cloudy skies and low 70s.

Last weekend was a good one for weather, and I even jumped into the river a few times to cool off. Saturday night brought clear skies and even a touch of the northern lights. I was going to post an alert on the aurora, but it turned out weaker than expected.

The plant and animal kingdoms are flourishing this week. The forests are filling in pretty solidly now. The maples had a great year for helicopters with the wet spring, and the bounty has started to fall. Deer should be having fawns about now. The ticks and mosquitoes are present and abundant in places.

The wildlife sighting of the week came last night when I spotted two different bears in about 2 miles by Thunder Mountain Ranch. The first one was pretty normal sized, the second was just a little guy.

We have some good events this weekend..

June 11- Crooked Lake Sportsman’s Club-CL/Mountain Lions Club Town Rummage Sale 8am – 2pm

June 11th- Dogleg Open Golf Outing Fundraiser for MS

Black Bear Trail Golf Course Suring, WI

Benefits the Wisconsin Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Cost per person is $70, which includes 18 holes with a cart, prizes, and dinner.
Scramble format – Food and beverages will be available on the course.
For more information or for an entry form, please contact
Dylan at 414-627-9177 or Black Bear Trail at 920-842-4653.

June 11-19 -28th Annual Porterfield Country Music Festival
Details at countrymusicfestival.com

Sunday June 12th-Oconto County Breakfast on the Farm at the Engebretzen Bothers Farm in Gillett

Serving from 8 am to 1 pm – Celebrating June Dairy Month
Fun Family Activities including Petting Zoo, Pony Rides, live music

I believe that there is also a motorcycle ride this weekend out of the I Don’t Know Bar in Middle Inlet. I will see if I can track that down.

Special thanks go out to Tim and Ron, both snowmobilers who did nice things for me last weekend. I sure do appreciate it, thank you.

The whitewater rivers are running pretty close to normal this week. That is somewhat amazing considering that we haven’t had meaningful rain in two weeks. The wet spring and fall are paying off. I saw yesterday that there were people tubing down the Peshtigo by Kosir’s, and I thought that was just a heck of an idea as I drove by in my black no AC truck in 97 degree temperatures.

Gas prices have not moderated, and remain well above what they should be. Normally the spread between the NYMEX price and the pump price is 65-75 cents. We are getting gouged regionally for ~30 cents a gallon above that. The NYMEX price today is $2.99, and the pump price is $3.99, with my no E premium 93 up to $4.25.

I wonder how that feels spanking every gallon of gas in 5 states an extra 30 cents a gallon. That has to be pretty sweet on payday. For the rest of us around here the pain continues as we take the double hit of high prices and a major loss of income due to tourism suffering so badly. The area is taking a hard hit from it and things are pretty dark for a lot of places.

If there is a good side to that it would be reduced fishing pressure. I like it when I’m the only one on the lake.

Well I am going to bobber on out of here and get back to work. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB