September 2013

Friday September 27th, 2013

Greetings and welcome!

The fall colors are making some progress, but the really big show is yet to come. When I drove to work yesterday the early maples were going off, but there was still a lot of green in between trees displaying. I have had a pretty limited range of travel this week so I am not really sure beyond the east side of Silver Cliff and down to work on Parkway and X. I would guess that some of the bigger groves of early maples are pretty nice.

The weekend weather, if it goes off like the NWS is predicting, looks ok. Saturday should be cloudy and about70, but with some wind increasing and getting gusty in the afternoon. After 4pm they have us for a 70% chance of showers and storms. The chance for showers & storm continues overnight and is expected to yield to a sunny and 69 day for Sunday. If it is going to storm on a weekend that is about as good as it gets.

Events this weekend-

September 28
Annual Silver Cliff Chili & Soup Fest from 11am – 4pm
Silver Cliff Memorial Park – Sponsored by the Silver Cliff and Athelstane Legion Post 66 Auxiliary

September 28
Crivitz Fall HarvestFest at Crivitz High School – 400 South Ave.
8:30am to 2pm – Crafts/Bake Sale/Food & Refreshments/Outdoor Fall Decorations/Rummage Sale
Admission – bring a can good to donate to local food pantry

The Red Arrow Club in Townsend is having a Fall Fun Day tomorrow 9-28 at the Old Town Hall restaurant in Townsend from 3-7. There will be music, booyah, a meat raffle, and a bonfire.

At Skinny Dave’s they are having a benefit ride in the afternoon (register by 11, leave at noon) followed the Chute Pond Club’s Fall Dance. The dance will have live music.

The Dun-Good Riders is having an open house and fun day at their Dunbar club building. Food, beverages, raffles and fun all day long! Drawing for the winners of the Smooth Trail Raffle at about 5:00pm. Poker Run ends that day also. This is the yearly fundraiser for the club. Proceeds go towards trails and equipment.

Saturday the 28th is the Wausau grass snowmobile drags and swap meet. It isn’t quite up to Hay Days status yet, but it sees 6-8000 people, so it is a big deal. Here is an article from the Wausau paper about it.

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20130914/WDH04/309150078/What-drag

The old Lakewood Zoo is now Chumlee Park, and they are doing a big Halloween thing with a haunted house, hay rides, and more. There is a coupon on their web site that you can print off and save $5.  Here is a link.

• Friendly Haunted House
  
• Spooky Bonfire & Grave Yards
  
• Unlimited Haunted Hayrides
  
• Huge Computerized Lights Show to Music, with over 100,000 lights
  
• Kids can feed ducks and chickens
  
• Kids Indoor Maze

Slug sent in a note that the corn maze on Nejedlo Rd ( just south of Wausaukee) is open daily from 11-7pm.

Last but not least, there is an ABATE ride and poker run drawing at Curve Inn Saturday night. They are having a really good regional band. Here is a poster with details on that.

My week was dominated by firewood. I cut and split a lot of wood getting a head start on winter.  That pile is bigger than it looks, probably close to 3 cords. There is another 3/4 of a cord already stacked in the wood house.

I took a job being a parts counter guy at a local auto parts store that starts Monday, and I found myself needing to do 2 months worth of winter preparations in one week.

My old body was not amused doing wood four days in a row, but I did get about half of my firewood done. I will probably get a little more split oak like this, but most of the rest will be slab wood according to the plan. That gets delivered here, so getting it cut and stacked will go a lot faster.

The split oak like this works good for December/January/February when the wood stove never goes out, and the slab wood is good for early and late season.

I do have my work cut out for me, but I am really looking forward to the new job, so I have been pounding away at it. My evenings and weekends look pretty full for the next couple of months.

The top question was, will I still be doing the blogs here and at the Big Snow Page, computer repairs, and the web sites. The answer is yes. Chris has been taking on an increasing amount of the web site work, and I will continue what I do with the blogs and computer repairs on evenings and weekends.

Well, work calls, so I am off. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Saturday 9-21-2013

Greetings and welcome,

As usual, I was wrong about the fall colors. It’s on. I probably saw 20+ early splashes of color on the way to work Friday afternoon. Some of the early colors are the best, and these trees were the vivid orange and red that are almost iridescent.

There is still plenty of green out there, but now there are some nice early maples showing great color. The show has started.

Have a great weekend and thank you for visiting,

RJB

Friday September 20th, 2013

Greetings and welcome!

It has been a wild week in weather. We had a couple of nights that were right around freezing, yesterday was hot and humid, and we have had rain three of the last 6 days. The rain totaled 1.4″ according to the USGS gauge by Kosir’s, with 0.8″ last night.

On the way to work yesterday I hit some of that rain on Parkway Rd. At the top of the hill a mile north of the bridge over the Peshtigo River between the flowages I got a few sprinkles on the windshield. At the bridge the wipers were on high and I couldn’t see because it was raining so hard. There were big puddles on the road and water running down the side. By Caldron Falls Bar my wipers were off and the sun was coming out. That was it for rain until after sunset.

Most of the rain came last night after about 9pm. It was a good lightning show on the way home at about 8, but it was distant. I went out to cover my firewood at about 9 and the first drops were just coming.

That rain cleared out the oppressive humidity and it looks like a pretty nice day outside. Other than a chance of a few sprinkles today as the storm clears out, there is no rain in the forecast between now and Tuesday.

The weekend looks a little on the cool side but pretty pleasant for weather. Saturday night promises to be cold though. Tomorrow’s high temp looks to be about60, Sunday about 65, and Monday & Tuesday in the low 70s. Tonight we are looking at low temps in the low 40s, but Saturday night the NWS is calling for widespread frost and a low of 31.

From what  saw on the TV weather this morning, we are behind a lot of the rest of the state for fall colors. The TV was showing places like Vilas Co up to about 35% of peak and areas south at about 25%. We are probably at 5 or 10%. I just saw my first big display early color maple yesterday. It was one of two splashes of color that I noticed between here (Hwys C & F) and Parkway and Hwy X.

Someone suggested that because we have had a good summer for rain and a fairly wet past few weeks the trees aren’t closing off the leaves quite as fast as they normally do. I don’t really know, but it seems unusual to only have a couple of splashes of real color the third weekend in September.

I have a near perfect record of forecasting fall color- wrong every year.. That having been said, I am expecting the colors to really come in over the next week. My analogy is that it’s like that last little nub of fuse before the firecracker goes off, and it’s burning. A lot of trees are transitioning from green to yellow, but just aren’t quite there yet.

I am reminded that this Sunday brings the official start of fall. Sunday at 3:44pm it goes from summer to fall.

I am really happy to see clear weather ahead over the weekend and next week. I am in a near panic on where I am with my fall preparations and firewood. I got a nice boost last weekend when a website visitor friend dropped off a couple of big loads of split oak. Thank you very much!

It rained on two of my days off last week and shut me out of the woods. I finally got cutting late Thursday afternoon, and cut we did. There are four medium sized oaks down and one is cut up and waiting for the splitter. I will be back on that over the weekend.

I only have one event listed for this weekend, but more for next weekend.

Saturday 9-21

3rd Annual Dogleg Open Golf Outing – September 21 at Parkway Golf Club, Pound, WI, 920-897-3950

A family friendly golf outing, with all proceeds going to fight Multiple Sclerosis here in Wisconsin. Greens fees, cart, and dinner are only $60 per person. We’ll also have many contests and raffles- fun for everyone! Golfers AND non-golfers are welcome to participate (“Dinner only” is a $12 donation).

Saturday 9-28

There is a big poker run drawing party and ride for ABATE at Curve Inn. They are having the No Schtick Band, a really good regional band. Click on the poster for more info.

The Iron Snowshoe Associate Members 2nd annual Membership Pot Luck will be Saturday, September 28th. at Jim & Gail’s @ W12563 Ranch Road, (Twin Bridge) Meeting will start at 1:00 and party will follow. Bring a dish  to pass, Lawn chairs if you have a favorite, Your own beverages, and a friend to join the club. RSVP by FRIDAY, September Sept 19th Jim Stradal 715-927-2793

Silver Cliff soup and chili festival at the picnic grounds by Hwy C and Parkay north (Hwy I). That is always a popular and delicious event.

Sunday September 29

Crivitz Fall HarvestFest at Crivitz High School – 400 South Ave. 8:30am to 2pm – Crafts/Bake Sale/Food & Refreshments/Outdoor Fall Decorations/Rummage Sale. Admission – bring a can good to donate to local food pantry.

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

RJB

Monday September 17th, 2013

Greetings and welcome!

I think that I finally got the date right.. Thanks Mike.

Just a quick update with a few things..

Item one, we have been having some cold nights. Last night we got down to 30, the night before was 33. That is according to Athelstane Weather.

When I woke up this morning the far back field by the creek and the pond basin looked frosted up. I must have caught the last moments of it, by the time I rubbed my eyes and headed for a camera it was gone. I am going to guess that the low areas like that where the cold air settles went into the upper 20s last night.

The big color show still hasn’t really started, but I am expecting it any time. There is some general dulling of the leaves and yellowing as they die back, but the real fall colors aren’t here yet. I am wondering if the cold will set them off.

The last item is a picture of a sturgeon that Slug sent in. The Menominee River is to my knowledge the only place that you can hook and line fish them in WI and the season is open.

This is a63″ 55# female caught downstream of Bear Point by Paul Schmidt.

As always, Bear Point Yacht Club is the HQ for fishing that stretch of the Menominee River.

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

RJB