2011

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

Wednesday October 12, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

Our string of nice days ended with yesterday’s sunset. We had a little shower move through in the afternoon, and once the sun set, a lot more rain. There were a couple of pretty good downpours and even a few cracks of lightning in the bigger clouds. It is still warm out today, but the threat of rain is not too far away.

We are going to see off and on rain right up until the weekend, and some bands could be moderate to heavy. Once Saturday comes we are expecting clearer weather, but with highs in the mid 50s instead of our recent mid-70s. There is a chance of a fast moving system bringing some light rain Saturday night or into Sunday, but it looks minor with the lowest QPF on the scale.

Our recent weather was really pleasant, but it was not normal. Our normal high temp right now is about 57. Having days almost 20 degrees above that was bordering on unusual. By my observation, most of the time we will see our temperatures within about 10-15 degrees of normal, with the occasional stretch of 15-20 degrees above or below. We seldom go 20-30, but it happens. Having a week in the mid-70s this time of year was great, but it couldn’t last.

Something that I found unusual was that the  Asian lady beetles weren’t too bad this year. They swarmed a little with the warm weather, but nothing like in years past. Likewise the paper wasps are usually pretty aggressive and out scouting. Both pests were present, but not in the numbers usually seen in a warm October week.

I took advantage of the nice weather when I could and actually got a couple of days of work in outside. One day I just focused on the truck, tuning it up, changing the oil, trans fluid, transfer case oil, and a lot more. The other day was mostly spent chasing supplies, but I got the roof fixed and a few other details.

Seeing that it was going to be an insanely busy Fall, I went ahead and ordered a load of slab wood to supplement my wood pile. The slab wood is the D shaped pieces that the saw mill cuts off of the side of the log to make it square. That scrap makes good kindling and medium sized wood, but I still have about 4 more cords of oak to cut and split for deep winter, affectionately termed January Wood.

The fall colors have come and gone for most species. There are still some oaks and popples putting on a good show, but there are a lot of trees that are done. We are definitely in late season for color.

We have some events coming up this weekend.

The Snowmobile USA Show is in Milwaukee this weekend. In conjunction with that there are snowmobile safety courses and a swap meet. See the Big Snow Page for details.

More locally, here is Chris’ list..

Between the nice weather bringing outside work and work for other people I am welcoming a rain day to catch up on my neglected computer work. I probably have 7 projects that need immediate attention and a couple of more that will need some soon. It is going to be a very full day today, so I am going to run along.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

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Friday October 7th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

It is another beautiful Fall day outside. At 10:30am it is already 67 and climbing toward our high of 77. Our normal high temperature is 57.

We are in store for a nice weekend with more of the warm weather. The big high pressure system is still influencing our weather, and it is about 3/4 of the way past us. The nice weather will be coming out of the south and southwest.

Eventually as it progresses the weather will get more unsettled. We will see the rain on the north and west side of the high pressure eventually pushing our way. Right now the NWS and Accuweather have that happening about Wednesday of next week, the GFS shows the first of it about Tuesday.

I am not sure that it will take that long. The timing of it isn’t carved in stone by any means. Yesterday’s forecast had rain pushing in Monday or Tuesday.

We do have a few sprinkles in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. That isn’t anything organized in our area, it is some instability brought by a storm well north of us. The NWS forecast discussion said that it could rain in the mid levels a little, and it would be falling into dry lower levels. Some or all could easily evaporate before it hits the ground, thus the sprinkles.

So the outlook is for nice weather until early next week and well above normal temperatures.

The fall colors have changed a lot this week. We are now into a different color scheme than last week as the earlier maples, sumac, and cherry fade away. The new wave is a lot of oak, aspen, and birch. Some are very bright yellow, some are deep red, some are rusty. Together they make a nice patchwork on hillsides. It was a pretty scene this morning with a little fog and all of the color.

Is it past peak? Which peak? The early stuff is past, the late colors are prime. There is a layer of leaves to rake and that fall leaf smell is there when you go for a walk.

It is a great time of year to go for a walk in the woods. The smells, the critters all running around in preparation for winter, and the sound of leaves crunching under your feet are all delicious.

The warm days also mean warm nights, and our low of 51 instead of 36 makes that sunset chill a little nicer for sitting around a fire.

At this time of year we often see big temperature swings between day and night. Going from the mid-70s to the low 50s is a pretty big swing, so bring a jacket and long pants for when sunset comes, and shorts to change into after about 11am.

As far as fall stuff to to, the corn maze on Nejedlo Road (off of 141 between Crivitz and Wausaukee) should still be going, and the Lakewood Zoo has their Haunted Zoo and fall activities like hay rides. An article in the paper said that the baby white tigers at Lakewood Zoo are up to about 8 pounds and are getting very playful, so that is a bonus too.

Here is a copy n paste of the weekend events from Tuesday..

I also got word that they will be out brushing trails on the Iron Snowshoe trail system Monday.

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

RJB

Tuesday October 4th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

The Fall colors continue to illuminate the forests. The earliest stuff is gone, mostly the maples that turn bright red, yellow, and purple. Not to worry, there is another wave of color coming right behind them.

We have a nice variety of tree species around here, and instead of an intense week or two of color, we get a stretched out fall color season as they come in waves.

Anyone remember that cut off low pressure area that had it raining on us off and on for two weeks? Meet the flip-side, the stalled high pressure area. In this case it is expected to bring us nice weather in the mid-70s for the next week or so. Our normal high temp is 60 for today, so this is a nice surprise.

Like the cut off low, this might get a little hard to predict. At the moment the GFS has the high pressure sticking around until about the 14th. There is a chance of a little rain on the 11th, and by the 14th we could see a real rain storm again. Can we believe it? Usually when things look too good to be true, they are, but that is the current forecast.

As with any warm stretch in October the Asian lady beetles are emerging. They just started yesterday afternoon, but it looks like they are coming in force. They were just starting to get a little irritating yesterday afternoon.

People have asked frequently how to control the lady beetles. My best concoction was a mix of permethrin and diazinon through a sprayer. A wall covered with the things would be clear in 5 minutes. Sprayed around windows and doors it has helped to keep the infestation outside.

Since you can’t get diazinon any more, permathrin or deltamethrin based insecticides would probably be my top choices. The permithrin is very toxic to cats, so the delta stuff might be my next choice to try out.

Also in the insect world, the bees and hornets are getting active. They always get a little aggressive at this time of year, and this nice weather has them out scouting the south side of the house.

I am still trying to establish where the hornets nests are this year. Some years they are 20 feet up in the trees, some years they are right in the ground. I just haven’t seen that many over the summer, and the usual population around my house hasn’t been obvious yet. My guess is that they are hanging pretty low, I saw two smashed by bears last week along a trail.

When I was out cutting firewood over the weekend I found two more paper wasp nests on the ground. I almost stepped right in one walking through the brush, resulting in a jump-back and some words Mom didn’t teach me.  Those two were huge, about the size of a small beach ball. I am not sure if they were built on the ground or blew out of a tree in the high winds last week, but I am now definitely on watch for them when I am out cutting.

I am not afraid of much when I have my chain saw running in my hand, it is a pretty big one. Stepping into a beach ball sized hornet’s nest has moved up to number two behind falling trees and branches.

We have some events this weekend.

I also got word that they will be out brushing trails on the Iron Snowshoe trail system Monday.

Curt posted a question on the bulliten board..

I heard rumor that the Oconto ATV trail/road routes are now connected to the ATV
trails/routes in Marinette County. Can anyone confirm ?

Yes I can. The Town of Lakewood, much to the chagrin of the USFS’s anti-ATV policy, established that many of the roads through the forest are town roads and not forest roads. They opened the town roads up between here and Lakewood/Mountain/Crooked Lake.

The Town of Stephenson recently opened Caldron Falls Road, Ranch Road, Landing 11 Road, and Thunder Mountain Rd to ATVs.

The Town of Silver Cliff opened Landing 11 Rd as far north as C, where it dead ends into the county highway.

The end result is that you can now access a lot of the flowages area and some Marinette County trails and roads. The Ranch Rd route goes to Parkway Inn and north a few places.

Marinette Co has also allowed ATVs on Parkway north (I) as a temporary bypass around some closed hunting land. Hopefully that works out and can happen more often. Those county roads have been a big blocker to a lot of trails that might need a stretch of highway to be complete.

They are still not up to speed on that like Michigan is. When you cross the big bridge on 141 heading into MI, one of the first signs that you see is one explaining that all county roads are open to ATVs and snowmobiles. Maybe someday we will get there.

I think that is about it for now. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB