August 2013

Friday 8-30-2013

Greetings and welcome!

It is the holiday weekend and time to do an update. I would have liked to do it earlier in the week, but life has been insanely busy.

Item one, go whitewater rafting this weekend, or if that isn’t your cup of meat, go tubing on the Peshtigo. We had rain Monday and Tuesday and again Thursday night that has both the Peshtigo and Menominee Rivers running at record high levels. The record for the past 20 years on the Menominee for this date is 2,300cfs, and it was running about that yesterday. The Peshtgo the record for the 15 year history of the gauge was 272cfs, and it running at 409 and rising this morning. That is probably about a +4″.

That is a very fun level for both rivers, so if playing in the water is your thing go for it.

Next up the weather..

We have a chance at some storms later today. There is a chance of heavy rain, high winds, and some hail, but where it will hit ( or IF it will hit) is anyone’s guess.

After that the forecast has bounced around daily. Right now the NWS has us in for a chance of some rain Saturday night into Sunday morning. The NAM model shows it splitting around us and leaving the region dry. The GFS is a little more wet, with a shot at some rain anytime Sunday.

My honest opinion is that it is a loaded atmosphere and it depends on front timing. I have seen it go from a wet weekend to just Sunday morning and a couple of variations.  I’d say be ready for it but don’t let it be the focus of your weekend or a reason to cancel plans.

Next up is events.

August 31
Annual Corn Roast and ATV Parade – Valley Inn, Townsend
ATV Parade at 10:30 am from Townsend Shell to Valley Inn – Meat Raffles, Food & Refreshments – Live Music at 7pm
Under the Big Tent – Rain or Shine – Hosted by the Red Arrow Snowmobile Club – Proceeds go to trail maintenance

Sept. 1
37th Annual Auction Fundraiser – Northwoods Bar – Athelstane – Benson Lake Rd & Northway Dr.
Parade lineup at 10:00 a.m. at Fire Station #2 on Benson Lake Road, parade begins at 10:30 a.m.- Auction to follow – Food, games, music
Proceeds from the Auction go to the Athelstane Fire Department and the Silver Cliff Rescue Squad.

Aug 31 Riverview VFD Corn Roast- FREE corn all day, meat raffle, kid’s bounce house, a corn eating contest, and a DJ. That runs from 11am-? Riverview is the next town south of Lakewood on 32.

Saturday is also the Amberg VFD 33rd annual picnic. Th4ey have a parade at 11 am and then the festivities start at the park. There will be horseshoes, bounce houses for the kids, a homerun derby, free corn and a couple of live bands. The park with the festivities is west of 141 on Hwy V. You go about 1/2 mile and when the road swings left by the town hall and museum and you will be looking at the park.

That is about all that I have for today. Have a fun and safe holiday weekend!

RJB

Friday 8-23-13

Greetings and welcome!

Storm reports continue to come in. From what I can tell there was a lot of tree damage from about the Red Pine BP down to Thorntons along Parkway Rd. South of Thornton’s on Parkway looked like there wasn’t any damage at all visible from the road.

The house by Bella Riva about a mile west of C and the Peshtigo River lost a few trees, and there were some down between there and the BP.

Additional reports came in that there were some tree tops taken off on Richard’s Lane just west of the Peshtigo, but it was specific to a couple of tall trees. Silver Cliff Camp looked intact driving by.

There were reports of damage by the old Borderline store at Tower Rd and C at the Athelstane/Silver Cliff line, and some wind damage a mile and a half east of there.

Finally, there were some trees down on Benson Lake Rd around Northwoods Bar, but I haven’t pinned down exactly where.

When I checked the McCaslin Mountain and Old J & Harper Rd areas yesterday they looked fine, as were some places a mile east of C and Parkway south.

The storm damage appeared to be very area specific. One house would lose trees, and the next would be fine. Oaks seemed to be the tree of choice.

This weekend is the Marinette County Fair in Wausaukee. Here is a link to their web site with the events and information.

This weekend is also the Oconto County Fair in Gillett. Again, here is a link to their web site with events and information.

The bees didn’t get me last week, life did. I had planned a late week update but a flood of things came up that prevented that. My apologies.

As far as the hornet’s nest, I won on that one. I went out there at 4am on a 39 degree night, crawled under the steps and let ’em have it from about 3′ away. Not a one came out, they never knew what hit them.

One last item, the black raspberries out in the yard are becoming abundant. There are a lot that aren’t ripe yet, but I had no problem finding plenty to snack on.

Last year about this time I went out to the abundantly fruited canes in the front of my land expecting to harvest a bumper crop. I went out and there was not a single berry to be found. Huh? I started looking for tracks- deer, bear, people? I found no tracks at all.

As I am sitting out there contemplating this mystery I saw a chippy run up a cane, tip it to the ground, and start feasting on the unripened berries. Ah ha ! Mystery solved.

Last year I had a big chippy population, this year not so much. I have a barred owl that hangs out in the back, and he is the prime suspect for keeping that population down. Maybe this year I will get some berries.

I will be checking a few more places over the weekend, if you want me to check on yours let me know.

I will also consider helping clean up people’s places with oaks down in exchange for the firewood. I have a good sized chain saw, truck, trailer, and straps. I even know a couple of guys that do stump grinding.

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

RJB

Thursday 8-22-13

Storm update #2
I surveyed a few people’s places this morning and am happy to report that all is well with them. The first stop was a place near McCaslin Mountain. That was fine other than a little gravel erosion in the driveway.
The next stop was Harper Rd by the Rat River. Fisherman’s, Poacher’s and the other roads around there looked fine. Stop number three took me up Parkway north. Again the cabin was fine, but there were a few branches down along Parkway and a big cottonwood leaning over the side road at about a 45 degree angle.
Almost all of the damage that I saw was trees and branches down between Bella Riva and the gas station at Parkway and C, and from the gas station south to about Thorntons. The hunt club folks with the memorial forest will want to bring a saw, their driveway was blocked by a couple of trees. The cabins just north of there had trees down but no damage to the houses.
I saw a lot of trees down but no property damage other than the crunched car.

As of 11am the gas station was still dark, but the power company crews were across the street working on it.

Wed 8-21-2013

I was watching the storm come in on radar and thought I’d go and get in front of it and do some big wall cloud and lightning shots from Landing 8 on Caldron Falls Flowage.
The storm promised to be a good one, and I was watching the Doppler radar closely for cloud rotation, shear, and other warning signs. It looked like a good storm, but not dangerous. Doppler can kiss my ….
I left in the first rain heading east from my house near C & F in Silver Cliff. I got to the S curves just past Rustic Inn and it got ugly. I came around the eastern most corner by the old riding stable and started wondering if I was driving into a rain wrapped tornado. The wind was throwing the car all around and I was doing about 5mph due to zero visibility. The rain and hail was so fast that there was a half inch of rain on my windshield immediately behind the wiper on high.
I stuck it out at a crawl until Jungle Jim’s and pulled in there. The parking lot had about 6-8″ of water, and a gushing stream pouring into the parking lot from the ATV trail.
When it let up I went east toward Red Pine BP. The ditches in front of the church were full and running over their driveway, and the yard across the street was flooded. There was a tree down just east of the church, and another a few doors east on the north side of the road.
The gas station was out of power. I headed south on Parkway to survey damage. There were a lot of small branches in the road. The guy with the white mobile home and the permanent rummage sale lost about 5 big trees. There were a few trees partially across parkway past that and a lot of branches.
I got stopped just south of H & S Lane by some trees across the road between there and the 359 degree corner on the Silver Cliff/Stephenson line. An hour later it was still blocked.
On the way back I saw that the guy with the old riding stable by Bella Riva had some big trees down, and one crushed a car.
Heading south on Landing 11 Rd later there were a lot of small branches in the road, and a couple of trees across the road south of the boat landing. Between the pipeline and the paved road on Landing 11 had varying amounts of branches in the road and a few downed trees. Caldron Falls Rd had a few small branches. I moved a few small trees off of Ranch Rd right by the swampy S-curves just west of the park.
That was pretty much it for my travels, it was dark by then.
Some really nice campers at Kosir’s showed me a very funnelish looking cloud picture that they took right before they headed for shelter. It looked pretty real to me, especially after driving though it.
The storm came through right before sunset. Between blocked roads and the setting sun I can only tell you the little bit that I experienced, that I offered above.
My impression was that it was a wicked storm, but only in spots. My little Ponderosa was untouched, my neighbor’s campers 600′ east got their awnings shredded. It was very hit and miss, but where it hit, it was pretty real.
I am planning on checking people’s places tomorrow morning with the truck, straps, and chain saw. If you want me to check in on your spot, let me know. I am glad to do it. I know how much I worried about my place when I still lived in MKE.
I would say that there is an 95% chance that any given place survived the storm intact. A few took a hard beating, most didn’t.
If you want me to check your place around Silver Cliff, let me know through FaceBook, email me at rayb@cybrzn.com, or leave a comment.