July 2012

Tuesday July 31, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

My apologies that I never got back for a late week update. I am glad that I did the quick version done, mostly only missing events. Some days fill themselves up.

The Peshtigo River rose sharply from the late week rains and went from about -5 to almost +6″. It was in record high territory for the weekend in the 14 year record. People had a great time, and there were epic flips, pop ups, saves and swims. The river is still running nice and should continue to do so this week. Next weekend depends on rainfall this week.

The weather over the weekend was fantastic with nice days in the 80s and comfortable nights.

There was a line of storms that came through Monday afternoon with some dramatic clouds and intense storm cells. It didn’t rain here at all, but the radar shows that it stormed pretty good just to our north, and a line from there to Wausaukee saw 0.4-1.0″ of rain. It was probably a pretty intense storm because it wasn’t a long duration event.

We are probably lucky that the storm didn’t get started a little farther to the west and pick up more steam before it got here. We had  CAPEs  in the 2,000j/kg range, a moderately unstable atmosphere. The storm was pretty narrow in scope around here, but went on to be severe over Door County and a few counties south of there along the lake. The news showed golf ball sized hail and several places reported hail of 2″-2.5″.

This week should bring more 80s, with a chance of rain about mid-week as a storm comes into the area and fades out over us. There is a storm possible for the weekend, but at the moment it is only showing us getting a little Saturday afternoon and night. That one will need watching for changes and a better look as it gets closer.

The gators are back.  After enjoying a mostly mosquito free summer, I found a nest of them last week near a lake, and they were plentiful and hungry. I heard a few people over the weekend that offered similar experiences.  It’s been a nice summer without them, but they are bouncing back in some places.

The good news is that the ticks are gone. I walked back to the creek tonight in waist and chest high weeds and didn’t have a single one.

I walked back and checked on the berry crop because a few black raspberry bushes up by the house had ripe fruit. I didn’t find much for a crop, they were mostly first year canes without fruit. The same went for up by the house. There were a few bushes with some fruit, and more coming when the immature ones ripen. There was one red raspberry bush on the west end with a little fruit, but I am not sure if it was past prime or just ravaged by chippies .

My theory on the whole non-crop is that the heavy snow in March trampled a bunch of the mature canes. Mine were pretty beaten down when the snow melted. That left mostly first year growth and not much of a crop. Your results may vary, it was a pretty narrow survey of three patches.

Thousands of hornets died at sunset last night as I went on my Bee-Freeze raid. I am sure that the nest in the shed went away, that got a good soaking with them all home. The big nest on the west lot line is a different story. That one started as a typical large hive, but it got blown apart by the exhaust on the lawn mower and fell down. They recovered by building a nest on the ground almost 2′ across where the old one fell. The weeds kind of blocked that one, and it was a huge nest, so it might need another visit.

As mentioned before, they are nesting low to the ground this year. The one in the shed is the highest nest that I have seen. Others have been under picnic tables, in truck fenders, and right on the ground.

My method on this is to get them at night when they are all home and not as active. It keeps from having angry stragglers hanging out around the nest for a few days after, and might save a sting or two during the eradication.

We have a lot of events coming up this weekend and next weekend, then there aren’t many until Labor Day. This weekend is a big car show at Curve Inn. Usually there are over 100 cars, and they raffle a bunch of stuff off, this year including about 2 grand in Craftsman tools. There is cook out food and live music too.

Also at the Curve on August 11th is a good regional band No Schtick. I saw them a few months ago as was quite impressed. The 11th also brings the Silver Cliff Picnic and Parade and the Crooked Lake Lion’s Day.

Here is Chris’ list for the next two weekends..

Mike asked about ATVs on Town of Stephenson roads. A month or so ago the town board voted to open all town roads to ATVs. They dropped the speed limit on Parkway, Newton Lake, and Caldron Falls Rd to make the situation safer. The roads need to be signed as ATV routes before they are opened.

Last week the town crews were out, and Parkway Rd was signed as an ATV route from the Silver Cliff town line to Hwy X. The speed limit from the Silver Cliff town line to Twin Bridge Park was dropped to 35, and it is 25 from the Park to X.

While you can get all of the way north to the Silver Cliff town line, the access ends there. Some land owners north of the line feel pretty strongly about not having ATVs on the road, and the town and clubs are honoring that.

I don’t know the progress on signing the rest of the town roads. Parkway has been done down to X as of last week, and Caldron Falls Rd and Ranch Rd has been an ATV route for a few summers now.

One last item, a little OT stuff. Broadway Bob, the founder and owner of Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove for 50 years passed away last week at age 83. He will be missed by many. I spent a lot of time down there in my younger days, and met a lot of good people there. RIP Broadway Bob.

That about wraps it up for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

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Friday July 27th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

I am still planning an end of the week update, but I have to take care of a few things this afternoon, so it won’t be until later. Here is the short version..

Weekend weather looks nice with no expected rain and temps in the low 80s, and about 60 for a low.

The Peshtigo River watershed got hammered with rain over the past two days, and saw as much as 3.5″ of rain. The river is on the rise, and the gauge is going straight up. The Peshtigo will be fun for whitewater rafting or flat water tubing this weekend.

Local rain gauges show 2.6″ for he past two days. Some people measured a lot more than that. Puddles and low lying areas are very full, and the driveway and roads have some gravel washouts.

Rapids Resort is having Glori-okie Friday and Saturday night 8-10 and 8-11. Gloria will DJ and let you sing the hits if you think that you can. Maybe we can get Steve to do that Adam Sandler song about his car again.

More soon-

RJB

Tuesday July 24, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

It has been a hot stretch. Yesterday a lot of places in the state topped the 100 degree mark. From what I saw, we didn’t, but we did see about 96º. Today is a little nicer, so far peaking out at about 88.

It cracks me up when the heat advisory line is across the middle of Marinette County, and the line lands about 1.5 miles south of here. What, it isn’t hot here too? Boy did I luck out missing that by a mile and a half..

The forecast for this week and weekend sounds a little nicer. Tomorrow there is a 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms, but the high temp between 73 and 78 has my attention. The rest of the week brings a chance of rain daily(40-60%), along with temperatures in the mid and upper 70s.

The weekend looks nice with temps around 80, and a chance of rain Sunday afternoon.

The rain for Wednesday looks like it could get heavy, though the models are showing the heaviest rainfall well to the north of here. The HPC has tomorrow’s rainfall forecast to be in the 3/4-1″ range around here, and more north in the UP. The 5 day QPF for our neighborhood has us in the 1.25-1.5″ band, and close to the 1.5-1.75″ band. I am not seeing it as quite that heavy, but that is the forecast.

Last week brought a huge law enforcement presence to our area with last Monday’s drug bust. They kept us in the dark for a few days, but details are emerging. It turns out that some people had a patch of land in Middle Inlet and another in Athelstane, and they were doing some dope growing. The news said that it was one of the biggest busts in the state, with 13,222 plants. So far they have five people in custody,and they are seeking two more. The perps are looking at 10 years to life in prison and enormous fines.

Also in the news, they did catch the guy that stabbed the two girls downstate. Apparently someone called him in, and he was arrested on Hwy X near High Falls Flowage last Thursday.

Last week a gas pipeline broke downstate in Jackson, WI. They picked up on the leak pretty quickly, but it shut down the pipeline for almost a week. As it turns out, that is one of the key pipelines that brings gas to the terminals in Green Bay that feed our area.

The gasoline suppliers were running trucks out of Madison and Milwaukee to keep the pumps flowing. They did a good job, I am not aware of anyone running out, but the price jumped from about $3.44 to $3.69. I haven’t been past the gas station yet today, but as of yesterday the price didn’t drop with the pipeline being back on line.

There were posters at the grocery store that said that the postponed Townsend 4th of July fireworks show was going to be this Saturday. Beyond that, here is Chris’ event calendar..

This weeks’ wildlife sightings were pretty minimal because it has been a busy week with work. I did see a bear. I missed a deer in the truck because I anticipated a second one running across the road behind the first one that darted out. I hit the brakes and missed the first one and stayed on them expecting a second. Wait for it…3, 2, 1- yup a second deer.

I forgot to mention last week that I saw a really nice buck in velvet down by the ranch. He was medium large bodied and had some really nice headgear.

I have high hopes that the recent heat wave knocked down the tick population. They don’t like heat, not just from my Bic lighter when I find one on me, but the 90+ degree weather kind too. Unlike the mosquitoes, they have been common this year.

I will find out in the next day or two when I take a walk back to the creek to check the berry patch back there, check the well house for hornet’s nests, and get a little quiet time in my secret place where the big pine log across the creek makes a great seat.

Speaking of hornet’s nests, it has been a good summer for them. There are several big nests here on my land that I know about, and I am expecting to find a few more.

Two of them are close to the ground, one is in the usual spot by the shed. There was one at a friend’s house in the fender of a truck, and one under an outdoor bar. They have been active and aggressive with the hot weather, and the nests are low to the ground and easy to disturb. Watch under picnic tables, decks, stairs, car fenders, snowmobile or tractor hoods, and other semi-sheltered spots.

The answer is right around the corner with the cooler weather. The upper 50s and low 60s at night will make them a little less aggressive.

You can kill them in the daytime, but the ones that were out collecting will come home and be mad. They hang around the area for a few days and stay in a bad mood. I always get the nests at night when they are all inside, and the colder the night the better. The cool temps make them more lethargic. I use the bee freeze that shoots about 30′ and I have a can in each hand going full blast as soon as the stream will reach the nest and I don’t stop until it is well drenched and none are emerging.

I am not fond of them since the shed incident a few years ago. I was out working in my shed on a hot day. I was aware of a cantaloupe sized hornet’s nest up in the corner by the door, and I had plans for it for that night. I am working away when a huge cloud of hornets comes in and raids the nest by the door. It was all out air combat for over an hour with the air in my 12×16 shed completely full of hornets attacking each other. I was crouched down hiding behind the tractor, trapped in there since the action was centered around the door. It was cool to watch, but I was not  happy guy. Now I am a fan of ASAP eradication.

About the only other news that I have is that I ran into a lot of cheap laptops last week. Locals looking for one, give me a call. I am getting nice off-lease business lap top computers silly cheap. I will have less than 300 into mine with a new battery and a premium solid state drive.

Speaking of that, I am having some communication issues. Last week I broke my phone and lost all of my numbers and the ability to answer the 2190 number. I am using the old 2624 number for now until I get my new phone.

I am also having problems with my Cybrzn e-mail address. They let enough spammers use cybrzn.com that most ISPs reject their mail as spam, so I can’t mail out. Now I am getting notices that people e-mailing me are getting bounced back. Use Ray a-t northerndestinations.

That’s news.. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday July 19th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

It looks like a pretty decent weekend for weather coming up. There is a chance of showers (40% Sat & 30% Sun) according to the NWS forecast. The temperatures look seasonal with highs in the mid-80s and lows in the low to mid-60s.

I looked up some additional information on the weekend weather. The North American Model  shows a minor chance of rain, mostly Saturday. The HPC QPF has Saturday’s rain adding up to less than 1/4″ ( about 0.2″), and a weekend total of 0.25-0.5″. That isn’t very threatening, so let the good times roll.

This weekend is Hog Wrestling weekend at the Caldron Falls Bar near High Falls Flowage. Saturday thousands of people will converge on the CFB to watch the muddy action. The long and short of it is they put a team of people in a mud and water filled arena, and they have to catch a pig and sit it up on a padded barrel. The pigs have a huge advantage, and the people end up with grand wipe outs and face plants in the muddy slop.

The event draws thousands of people to the area each summer. Bar stool estimates range from 3-8,000 people that might attend on any given year. There will be live music, cookout food & drink, and fireworks after the sun sets. It is really quite an event.

The whole thing is a good time and a big boost for the area. I know that the Curve Inn, about 5 miles south, is having a live band both Friday and Saturday night this weekend.

Naturally with so many people gathering to have a good time, law enforcement will be there to keep the order. It is common to see a big enforcement push in the area this weekend, so designated drivers are strongly encouraged for those that want to consume adult beverages.

The Doty VFD picnic is also this weekend. For those that don’t know where Doty is, the picnic is held on Hwy T & Star Lake Rd. T is just west of 32 on 64, and you go north a little to Star Lake Rd.

There was a lot of excitement in Athelstane and Middle Inlet Monday. There were all sorts of law enforcement and SWAT teams, blocked roads, and people being told to stay indoors and keep doors locked. There was a news blackout on it for a few days, and speculation was rampant. Some people though that they were chasing the guy that stabbed a couple of girls downstate, others thought it might be a big drug bust.

As it turns out they were busting a big pot growing operation where people had bought land in Middle Inlet and Athelstane and were doing a little farming. When raided, they took off, and a big man hunt ensued. Here is an article.

A lot of people found it a little unsettling to see such a large law enforcement presence and not know what was going on for two days until the news buddies got around to reporting it on Tuesday night or Wednesday. Generally if there are armed and dangerous fugitives running around the neighborhood, people would want to know about it, right?

The troubles continue for the Lakewood Zoo. It looks like the USDA won’t issue them a permit for at least a year, though they might try to open in time for Halloween under a different operator’s permit. Here is an article that explains it a little better. For clarity when reading the article, Casey Ludwig is the operator of the zoo. It is an unfortunate situation, a lot of people really like the zoo and the critters there.

One last item, a word about the bees and wasps. A lot of people have been having bee/wasp encounters recently. This year there are a lot of nests in or on or near the ground. Keep a sharp eye out. There have been nests built in the fenders of trucks and spots like under picnic tables and under outside bars.

Around here I had a basketball sized nest built in the back tire of a junk moped, which I unknowingly blew apart with the exhaust from my riding mower. Thankfully it has a road gear, and I exited the scene with great haste before being stung.

Anyway, really keep an eye out for bee and wasp nests, they are close to the ground this year. If you are allergic, definitely have an EpiPen with you at all times.

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

RJB