2011

Friday November 4th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

It was a cold one last night. Athelstane Weather marked a low temp of 21.6 this morning. I knew that it would be when I went outside at about 9pm and the plastic garbage can was already well frosted. It was a clear enough sky to see the moon, so I figured low 20s were on tap.

That looks like it will be the coldest that we get for the short term. The low temps in the forecast for the next week are upper 20s to mid-30s. I was getting a little concerned that I might have to start heating the well house before the usual date of after deer hunting week, but so far it looks ok through next week.

Tomorrow should be a decent day.  We have a storm that will pass well to our northwest, and we will be in the warm air in front of it. Look for highs in the low 50s, but there could be a little wind. Saturday night and Sunday the NWS adds a 20% chance of rain, and increasing winds. Sunday they have 15-30mph winds and gusts that could peak at 35.

I have been seeing a lot of deer along the roads this week. Tuesday night it had to average about every two miles. Wednesday night saw a few less, and last night they were out in force again. Last night also brought a bear sighting on the road. I slowed down to let him get off of the road, and once he did, I found two more around the next corner.

Beyond that I have been a very busy guy with outside work.  I am happy about the work, but way behind on my fall chores and firewood. I might end up breaking tradition this year and putting in a LP furnace instead of going with 100% wood heat.

We have an event this weekend..

7th Annual VFW Gun & Knife Show

8 am to 2 pm @ Crivitz Village Hall

Dealers – Collectors – Gun Enthusiasts
Call 715-854-2676 to reserve a spot
Sponsored by Crivitz VFW Post 2063

The cell phone commentary last week was right on. I tried two GMS phones and had bad reception in the front yard, and none in the house, at work, or in the truck. My new CDMA phone has good reception everywhere, with 1-2 bars in the house, 3-4 in the truck, and 4 at work. Neal e-mailed in that he had a similar experience and switched from GMS (AT&T) to CDMA (Verizon) and had much better success. CDMA is the secret password.

One last thought before I go.. Looking at the weather in the context of what if it were January.. The storm for Sunday would pass to our NW, leaving us on the warm side. The storm for Tuesday is lined up perfectly for a good sized snow storm. If it were January and it played out as shown, there would be some happy snowmobilers. I like that we are seeing some southern storms taking that path.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday October 28th, 2011

My update today was posted on the Big Snow Page. Please check over there.

Thanks!

RJB

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