May 2013

Wednesday May 29th, 2013

Greetings and welcome!

It looks like it was a busy weekend last weekend. There were plenty of people out and enjoying the fun things that we do around here.

Yesterday on the way to Lakewood the damp day and the mist in the trees really showed off the colors of spring. The trees are always more vivid on damp overcast days, but combined with all of the various shades of the new leaves, it was a show as good or better than fall. A lot of the fruit trees, flowering crabs, and lilacs are in bloom, and that added to the show.

It looks like a wet few days between now and the weekend. There is a storm to our west that is kind of camping there and giving us an occasional wave of rain. It is a slow moving system, and it could keep a chance of showers lingering into Saturday and leave Sunday nice. My hunch is that it will clear out a little ahead of time  and bring us a nice weekend.

This weekend the state gives us a freebee. You can fish without a license, ride unregistered and out of state ATVs/UTVs on the trails, and the state parks are open for admission without a fee.

ATV riders in the neighborhood should stop by the Dun-Good Clubhouse in Dunbar for an open house sort of thing with dealer displays/demos and coupons from local businesses.

In years past Marinette Co has opened up their parks for free this weekend too, but I haven’t seen anything on it yet and a net search produced no leads.

This coming Sunday at 2pm there is music in the park at Evergreen Park in Wausaukee featuring Fossil and Tom St John. I have know Tom since high school and have seen him play many times. They play 70s rock with acoustic guitars and are very good at it. Stop by if you get the chance.

The whitewater rafting remains very good. Last weekend found above normal water levels and people had a blast. The water has gone down to normal (median flow is 399cfs and we are at 404),  but with the rain this week I don’t expect it to go down much. I consider anything above 300cfs the fun zone, and it is runnable down to 200 if you are dedicated. Four hundred plus sounds good to me.

If I had a little extra time I would probably be fishing today. It should be about prime time for bass and bluegills right now. Hopefully I can get out later this week.

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

RJB

Friday May 24th, 2013

Greetings and welcome!

It has been a very busy week so I only have a few things to offer for my last minute update.

First up is the weather..

It looks like we won’t see too much rain, but there will be some cold nights.

Friday- Sunny with a high of 62 and a low of 37

Saturday- Sunny 62/36

Sunday- Sunny 68/40

Monday- Partly cloudy 69/45

Some of those low temperatures could get stretched a little on clear nights. The air mass over us is fairly cool and clear skies always bring brisk nights. It is very nice out right now, but bring an extra blanket and sweatshirts for around the campfire and after sunset.

Last night we had a big full moon lighting up the landscape. That will make star gazing a little less ideal, but it is bright enough to walk around at night. Usually a full moon means prime fishing time too.

I didn’t make it back to town this week to cement event details. About the only thing that I have  to add is the Twin Bridge Rescue rummage sale Saturday the 25th from 8-1pm. There are a lot of other rummage sale signs popping up around town, as Chris pointed out, Memorial Day weekend is big for rummage sales.

There is a sign in Crivitz by the post office that says that the OWI Task Force will be in the area again this weekend. Drive sober or use designated drivers. A lot of bars/resorts/restaurants will come and pick you up and give you a round trip, give your favorite places a call and see what they can do.

Thanks to a lot of rain this week the whitewater rafting this weekend will be excellent. The Peshtigo is running about +8″, pretty much a fun level for anyone. The Menominee River trips with Kosir’s start this weekend, and that river is running big too.

If your thing isn’t whitewater, they offer lazy river tubing trips, sit on top kayaks for touring Caldron Falls Flowage, and now they have pontoon boat tours on Caldron Falls Flowage on a really nice new pontoon boat.  As always I will be there taking pictures of the rafting action and editing up the movies.

Cabin owners will want to bring along the lawn mower. It is time to cut grass.

So far the ticks have been the biggest bug issue, and they haven’t been bad the past few days. I’d be surprised if the rain didn’t bring out some gators, but it hasn’t been my experience yet.

That rain also dropped fire danger down quite a bit. You will still want to be careful, but an inch plus of rain this week really helped.

That is pretty much it from here. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday May 21st, 2013

Greetings and welcome!

It is a pretty morning outside this morning with the mist from last night’s rain and a lot of new green things growing.

We had a line of rain come through early this morning that showed up as yellow on the radar. It rained hard enough to hear it on the roof for a while but didn’t last long. We had a similar line of rain come through Monday early morning. According to the USGS gauge by Kosir’s each brought about 0.15″ of rain.

We are expecting a little more rain today and Wednesday, followed by clear weather and mid-60s right through the weekend. The GFS scenario for the weekend has a little light rain well to our west and southwest in MN and IA, and the closest edge of it stops at about Wausau and Madison. I don’t see any suggestion of a wet weekend. The NWS has daytime temps in the mid-60s and overnight lows in the low to mid-40s.

There is an active sunspot on the sun that has been putting off impressive solar flares and CMEs. So far it has been pointed away from the earth. About Saturday it would be pointed close enough to offer a glancing blow if it did have an eruption. It has been just about daily, so there is an outside shot at some northern lights this weekend.

The past week has brought incredible changes to the area. The underbrush in the woods has filled in tremendously, and the hardwoods are getting leaves unfolding. The ferns are popping up with their fiddleheads and will unfold soon. The trillium are coming in as well as some early violets and marsh marigolds. The plant growt in the past week has been incredible, and the rain will really set it off. It does seem like we are a little behind this spring.

The gators (mosquitoes) haven’t been bad yet but are due any day now. The wood ticks are present in the usual numbers. The bug of the weekend was the gnat. They weren’t bad Saturday but weren’t hard to find Sunday.

The first fawns were spotted this week, and several reports came in yesterday alone. I dodged a porcupine in the truck the other night, the second of the season.

Silver Cliff made the news with a bear attack last week. It went after the dog, the owner went after the bear and it turned on him. The Mrs. smacked it over the head with a shotgun as he was being attacked, and they got away. The bear got killed, the guy will be ok, but had to get stitched up.

I don’t know much beyond the news report. Someone at the bar said that it was north of Old J. Other than that all that I can offer is that it is the first that I have heard of a bear attack in my time here (since 99). I have had plenty of bear encounters and they always ran away.

One of the many jobs on the list today is to get the lawn mower into the shop and get started on the lawn. It is time to cut grass, and before the underbrush fills in, time to establish the cut area and clean up anything on the sides that I don’t want overgrown.

I have plenty of cleanup to do in the wood yard. There is some left over wood to cut, and shards to rake up so that I don’t hit them with the lawn mower. Usually there is a big campfire with the leftover and irregular wood, and I have been holding off on that because of fire danger. With the rain this week I’d expect fire danger to return to pretty normal levels.

The whitewater rafting for this weekend is looking good. The Peshtigo River is at about a +5″, a little above normal, and the rain this week will help.

The Kosir’s outpost on the Menominee River opens this weekend and they will be running trips on the big river too. That one is running above normal too, and will be a great time this weekend. This would be a good weekend to do the two rivers special, and maybe catch a few waterfalls on the way.

I really dropped the ball on the event listing yesterday. When I was in town I walked out with my groceries and meant to walk back in with a pen to write down events. I got distracted and never went back in. At that point I don’t have a lot of specifics.

The McCaslin Lioness Faire in Lakewood is Sunday. Silver Cliff and Waubeno are having memorial services and picnics. Silver Cliff’s is Monday, presumably Wabeno’s is too.

Last year’s list had a rummage sale at the Ranger City Rider’s Clubhouse in Amberg, and an Auction in Crooked Lake.

I know that there are more events and I will scour the papers and posters to find and many as I can. I expect to follow up late week with that, the latest weather, and anything that I missed.

For now, have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Wednesday May 15th, 2013

Greetings and welcome!

It has been an interesting week and weekend. Over the weekend the action on the river was hot, but the weather wasn’t. Sunday night we got down to 21 degrees, and the weekend didn’t get much above 50. As is typical in WI in spring, three days later we are looking at mid-70s.

Spring is moving right along. The trees are getting buds and leaves. The choke cherries, pussy willows, marsh marigolds, and now the first dandelions are in bloom. The grass is green in the yard, and the big fields are coming along too. You can still see into the woods, but not for long. The underbrush is growing in too. It is a time of year with many changes noticeable pretty much daily. When it rains next week I expect the growth to be incredible.

We haven’t had much rain in the past few weeks. According to the morning news, Marinette County is now under a red flag warning along with most of the UP.  A red flag warning means no outside burning at all because fire danger risk is very high.

Usually a red flag warning comes with a low humidity and warm temperature scenario, along with dry fuel and some wind to spread the fire quickly.  At that point you will want to wait on burning any brush or using the burning barrel. Things like fireworks and tossing lit cigs out of the car window are a no-no for sure.

We actually have some haze in the air this morning from a big wildfire in NW WI. The fire in Douglas Co was 6 miles wide and a mile across as of yesterday and they were evacuating a lot of people potentially in its path. They have 6 airplanes on it, plus heavy equipment, and it is still out of control. So far it is over 3,500 acres, and is putting up a smoke plume visible for miles.

It was a pretty windy day yesterday, and it had to have that fire burning like a forge. That area also saw a big wind storm last July that leveled a lot of forest that will make it harder to access the fire and offer a lot of dead trees to burn.

A guy would be in a world of hurt if he started something like that illegally burning brush or a burning barrel.  You are liable for your fire, and it could be in the millions. Ouch. Not a good weekend, right?

It is pretty common for us to have high fire danger between when the snow goes away and the land greens up. The dead brush and grass from last year gets nice and dry from the spring sun, and is prime tinder to get a wildfire going.

We are not expecting any significant rain this week or weekend, so fire danger will be high over the weekend.

Last Tuesday I wrote about how I had only had two wood ticks on me over the weekend. That crashed and burned in grand fashion later last week. Tuesday night I found about 10 from walking between the back step and the grill a few times. Wednesday I did yard work all day and found plenty. Only one stuck.

Based on that experience I won’t go into great detail on how I remain mosquito bite free to date, but I will suggest that it is time to start bringing Repel with the outdoor gear..

When I was out in the work shed last week the hornets were already scouting nesting sites. They like the eaves of the shed and were on it. I have found in the past that a strategically applied dose of wasp/bee/hornet killer to those eaves ahead of time will keep them away all season.

The weather was cold last weekend, but the whitewater rafting was fantastic. The river is still above normal, and people were taking both rafts and the funyaks. Plenty of people got munched by the fast moving river, and people had a great time. This weekend the river will be  little lower, but still above normal. I am guessing it for about +9 or 10″ for the weekend. Having it around 70 instead of around 50 will be a little nicer.

This is the weekend that spring rafting ($45) becomes summer rafting ($25) at Kosir’s. It brings a chance to catch high water at summer prices, so it should be a popular weekend.

If you aren’t into the whitewater, no big deal. Kosir’s has really expanded their offerings. They have lazy river tubing, they offer sit on top kayaks (anyone easily can use these), and canoes that people can rent and go tour Caldron Falls Flowage, and now they are working on setting up pontoon boat tours. Here is a link to the tubing and kayaking page. I will have to get on one about the newer offerings.

People visiting the area this weekend will want to be on top of driving sober or having a designated driver. Rumor has the OWI task force is targeting Twin Bridge and Crivitz again this weekend. With them targeting the area on most of the busy weekends in recent memory, some area bars and restaurants have responded by making arrangements to offer sober rides. For a nominal fee you can get a round trip and leave the truck at home. Call your favorite places, chances are that they can help.

I have mentioned that the weekend ahead should be in the 70s and we aren’t expecting rain. The NWS has us for 66 Friday, 69 Saturday and 73 Sunday. They mention a chance of a shower or storm Friday night and Saturday night into Sunday.

The morning news had Green Bay in the upper 70s over the weekend with a very slight chance of a shower. The GFS is showing me a weekend a little above normal for temps. There is some precip in the region, but not affecting us at all on the QPF maps. There is a storm showing up to the west and south but the GFS has it staying there until Monday and Tuesday. Right now it looks like a nice weekend.

It looks pretty nice out right now (67 and sunny) and I have plenty of outside work to do, so I am going to go and dive into the day. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB