Friday October 28th, 2011
My update today was posted on the Big Snow Page. Please check over there.
Thanks!
RJB
October 2011
Saturday Oct 22nd, 2011
Greetings and welcome!
I had planned on getting back here a little earlier than 12:30am Saturday morning, but a few things came up. The big one was my main hard drive got scrambled last night and I had to spend some time recovering it and thankfully it worked. It still put me back a few key hours.
Anyway, we do have some events to talk about. There is an Iron Snowshoe Associate Membership meeting at Thunder Mountain Valley Inn today at 10am. Tonight Fisher’s Camp is having a Tina’s Birthday Party and Halloween Bash. I caught that one last year and it was definitely fun.
Meteor shower-
If you are up early, go outside and take a gander about mid-sky to the southeast. This morning is the peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower. It is the result of the earth going through a trail of debris from Haley’s Comet. Depending on the article that I saw, they said that they were sand grain sized particles entering the earth’s atmosphere and getting speeds up to 90,ooo or 148,000 mph. As they burn up we get the shooting stars of the meteor shower.
Bring an umbrella-
We have more space junk that will be falling back to earth this weekend. The old Roentgen satellite that was a joint US & German venture will be coming down. Most likely if it hits on our side of the planet it will be in the south Pacific. In theory there is a 1:2000 chance that it will hit someone. It was a space observatory, and they expect about 1.7 tons of ceramic and glass mirror related parts to make it to earth.
One article that I saw said that it could hit anywhere from 53ºN to 53ºS. At 45º25′ N we are on the outer edges of the strike zone. A piece that big will make a fireball visible for a long way, probably hundreds of miles or more, and we could get a glimpse if it happens into our hemisphere.
Here is a page with live tracking from Google. At last check it was at 148miles high and falling a 1/100th of a mile a second. Hopefully the little red dot on the map is my location and not the expected crash zone.
Someone asked yesterday how cold it has been and if they should be worried about freezing pipes. So far no worries. Tonight is one of our colder nights and it is 32 right now. Low areas might see a little shell ice on puddles. Pipes become a concern more in the 20s and teens, and when the daytime high stays below about 40 and the place doesn’t warm up. Many people don’t close down plumbing until deer hunting, and usually that is about right. So far we are on track with that this year too.
I have been a very busy boy this Fall, and haven’t had time to hit the woods for firewood in a couple of weeks. This year I cheated and bought some slab wood, waste wood from the sawmill. I cut it up into perfect lengths my little wood stanchions and slide the cut pieces into the cart next to it. It goes pretty fast. The odd sized little chunks get saved for the grill next summer.
It burns good once it dries, but it leaves more ash.
I will still hit the woods and split some that I have gathered up, but this is a start. The two bundles that I cut made a little under a cord stacked.
That is about it from here. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Morning Update-
I knew that I was missing something when I did my update but I couldn’t figure out what it was. The fog of morning brought it back.
Curt asked a few weeks ago where they could get breakfast via ATV trail when they launched in Athelstane. That one stumped me. Now I have an answer. Jungle Jims. They serve breakfast on Sundays.
You could also get to breakfast from the west if you are riding the Oconto Co trails or the Lakewood road trails through the Nicolet National Forest. The new road openings in the Town of Stephenson would allow you to get to Twin Bridge Resort and their breakfast buffet. In the same neighborhood Pine Acres serves breakfast, but I am not sure if the trail gets all of the way there or if it dead ends at Parkway Inn.
He also asked about cool places to visit via trail, and my top pick is 12 Foot Falls. They have a trail that goes right there.
RJB
Thursday October 20th, 2011
Greetings and welcome!
A busy week kept me from an early week update, so we have a lot to talk about.
It is a cold gray windswept day outside today with a few showers to top it off. It is like one of those raw November days that aren’t really good for much outside.
That somewhat describes the last week. It has been very windy almost daily, it has been overcast, and there have been some occasional showers.
The winds have been brutal. Figure a daily 15-30mph wind with some gusts into the mid-30s. The other day Athelstane Weather recorded a gust of 48mph.
There has been very little damage. Some trees have fallen, but for the most part the forests have been hardened against wind storms by our last 4 or 5 high wind episodes. Power has not gone out or even flickered here, and a check of the WPS map only showed very scattered outages.
The wind has been merciless for the last week or so. Today they could go 20-30. Tomorrow we should finally get a break when they are only expected to be 5-10.
The weekend looks to be partly cloudy and in the mid-50s, and without the big gusty winds of the past week. The NWS is putting a chance of showers in for Sunday and Sunday night. The GFS is holding it off until Monday, but then bringing three days of the stuff.
About two weeks ago I predicted snow for yesterday. There was a pretty good mass of cold air behind the storm, and I expected the two to get together for a little snow. It didn’t happen.
One of the guys from Kosir’s goes to school up in Ely, MN near the Boundary Waters, and he had a picture of about 1/2″ snowfall on Facebook the other day.
According to the GFS the next good chance of seeing the first snowflakes of the year are in a week, behind next week’s storm.
Even though we haven’t had snow, it has been cold. Most days have been peaking around 50, and nights in the 30s and low 40s. The once a day fire to take the chill off has been replaced by an all day fire or 2-3 small ones. Heating season is officially under way.
Most of the leaves are down now, but there are still a few with color. One fairly common species of popple (or cottonwood maybe) still have yellow leaves. I also noticed the tamaracks are turning their bright yellow, bringing some color to wet areas.
I do not have any events on the list for this weekend.
Time has gotten away from me again, and I have to go for now. I will be back tomorrow with a part two of the update. There is still much to cover.
Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Thursday October 13th, 2011
Greetings and welcome!
Two days in a row? Yep, that happens when I am in a hurry and miss about half of my update.
First of all, it looks like a rainy day. The radar is showing a big blob of rain that covers about half of the state just on the other side of Forest County and heading this way. It probably won’t be a nice day to play outside cutting firewood, and painting the house-probably not..
Item #2 is that Steve, a page supporter and local Volunteer Fireman, suggested that I remind you again to clean out your chimneys. The creosote build up can start on fire, and when it does it burns hot and fast, turning your chimney into a really hot jet engine. We have chimney fires around here just about every winter, and it often takes the house with it.
Cleaningthem isn’t that hard, and the brushes are not that expensive. The last time that I wrote about it I found brushes and extension rods on E-Bay pretty cheap. A kit for doing my chimney would set me back about $24 for a brush and another $20 for two extension rods.
Item #3– Events.. I am not sure how I missed it, but we have a Bear Point Sno-Cruisers meeting this Saturday at the Bear Point Yacht Club at 9am. The meetings usually last about an hour.
After the meeting we are doing the Adopt A Highway road clean up along HWY 180 east of the Yacht Club. Last fall we had pretty many volunteers, and it was finished in just over an hour. It didn’t take long with a lot of hands, and we picked up a couple of truckloads of garbage along the road.
Snowmobile clubs aren’t just about snowmobiling, they are about helping the community too!
Item #4- The Hunter’s Moon.. While we haven’t seen too much of the moon recently, yesterday was the Hunter’s Moon full moon. Often times the Hunter’s Moon appears huge and orange as it rises from the east like a giant pumpkin. You might be able to catch it over the weekend if the clouds part enough.
The NWS hasn’t changed their forecast for the weekend much except to add the word blustery to Saturday’s forecast in reference to the expected 15-25mph winds. The still don;t think much of the fast moving system for Saturday night into Sunday morning, and did not put rain in the forecast for Saturday or Sunday.
Well I am off to dive into another busy day. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB