July 2014

Friday 8-1-2014

Greetings and welcome!

August already! Golly where did summer go?  The good news is that we have 5 Saturdays in August. The bad news is that we have 5 Saturdays left before September, and this is one of them.

We have had kind of an unusual summer for weather, and the recent past is no exception. It has been cool, and so far we have only had one 90 degree day to my knowledge. We have been under the influence of an upper level low pressure system up by James Bay. As it pinwheels counter clockwise, it keeps the cool air from the north coming along with the occasional disturbance that brings a line of showers or storms. It sure beats 90 and humid.

The nice weather looks like it will continue into the weekend, along with a daily chance at a line of storms that can happen on any summer afternoon. Look for highs in the upper 70s and lows in the mid-50s.

We have events this weekend. First up is the Bear Point Sno-Cruisers float trip. That is this Saturday. They get together early and by about 10 they figure out shuttles upstream. People float down the Menominee River and enjoy the day, eventually landing at Bear Point for more fun and friends.

Here are more-

Family Fun Day and corn Roast at Townsend Town Hall Saturday 11-6. Food, refreshments,, raffles, and kid’s sawdust pile.

Laona Community Soup at Silver Lake Beach Saturday noon-5

Annual Corn Roast at the Schoolhouse Bar in Mountain. DJ 1-6, live music 6-?

Lakewood Arts and Crafts Show at Lakewood Town Hall Saturday 9-3

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

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Thursday July 17th, 2014

Greetings and welcome!

It is a big weekend for events with hog wrestling at the Caldron Falls Bar and Weinerfest in Lakewood, both coming up Saturday, and it looks like a great weekend for weather.

First up is Hog Wrestling at the Caldron Falls Bar. That is an annual event for thousands of people. The whole thing turns into a massive outdoor event with the hog wrestling of course, food and drink, music, vendors, and a couple of thousand people out to have a good time.

It is a massive event and a pretty wild time.

As always I will warn you to bring your designated driver too. The law enforcement community usually pretty active throughout the area this weekend. According to the Sheriff’s Dept web site the OWI Task Force will be working the Town of Stephenson this weekend.

In years past several of the Twin Bridge area private campgrounds have run shuttle buses, allowing people to have a good time and a safe ride home. Check with your spot to see if they can arrange something. There is also the safe ride home program (ask the bartender), and there is a taxi out of Middle Inlet that will likely be working in the area. Have fun, but be safe about it.

The other event that I know of is Weinerfest in Lakewood. Here is a copy n paste from Lakewood’s web site..

4th Annual Wienerfest North
Date: July 26, 2014
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: Lakewood Pavilion

4th Annual Wienerfest North 11 A.M. – 7 P.M. Lakewood Pavilion. All Profits benefiting Troops & Veterans. Honor Guard presenting colors at Noon. Meat raffles Noon – 4:00 P.M. Happy Schnapps Combo 4:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M. Miller Team providing contests for the Adults. Food & Beverages. Try some of Meatski’s famous wieners. Entertainment for the kids. Please come rain or shine and help support our Troops & Veterans! http://www.thebeachclubwi.com/ – See more at: http://www.lakewoodwisconsin.org/town-of-lakewood/events/2014-07/4th-annual-wienerfest-north-2014-07-26

Everyone knows about the Happy Schnapps Combo, right? Its the second week of deer camp and all the boys are here..

That should be a good time too, and if it is a benefit for our military men and women, it is that much better.

The weather looks nice for the weekend. The first chance of rain showing up in the official forecast is for about Tuesday. The NWS is looking for mostly sunny days with highs around 80.

I am going to be a little less optimistic and say be ready for a stray shower or storm. There isn’t anything organized in the way of storms, but we will have some moderately humid air and sunny days that could build up a passing shower or storm. It’s summer, that happens.

Today the clouds were trying to build, but the tops could only reach so high before they reached stable air. It looked like they were pushing against a glass ceiling or something the way that the tops spread. It was an interesting demonstration of a capped atmosphere limiting storm formation.

In the past week I have seen a lot of young critters. You saw the bear cubs picture last week. I spared a pair of fawns in the road by expecting them to pop out of the bushes. I saw something in the road about a mile up and I was already on the brakes when it happened.There have been lots of turkeys with a cloud of young following along, and yesterday a mallard family crossed an intersection in kind of an unusual place. There was a baby skunk along the road on the way home from work a few days last week too.

I didn’t have time for an update last week, so you missed the bear story. The cub picture was about one of probably 15 that I took. It was about a half hour after sunset and the camera wasn’t up to the job in the dark, so that was the best of them.

Anyway, I spotted the cubs playing in the ditch along the road and I stopped a ways away to give them plenty of room to cross. They kind of played their way across the road and went through the fence.

Naturally Momma wasn’t far behind. She was about a 400 pounder, a big bear, but not a giant. She ambled over to the fence, climbed up the fence post, and proceeded to balance all four paws on the fence post. She reached over and grabbed a tree close to the fence and swung over onto it and climbed down. It was really something seeing her balance like that.

I was having fits that my camera couldn’t focus in the darkness. It was my $35 E-Bay camera that I use for for the snowmobile and car (no big loss if it gets lost or wrecked). I sure wish that I had my nice Nikon DSLR, it would have been an amazing set of pictures.

Well it is time to wrap it up again. Have a great weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday 7-11-14

Wednesday 7-2-14

Greetings and welcome!
We have a big weekend coming up, and it is looking like a good one. The weather looks nice, there are a lot of events, and even the fire danger is reasonable.

The weather looks great until Saturday night. Friday and Saturday are expected to be clear and in the mid-70s.

One forecast model (GFS)brings in a chance of rain Saturday night, and then leaves us clear until Sunday night. The AVN skips the Saturday night rain chance. The HPC is shoing the same Saturday night scenario and not much for Sunday.The NWS is a little more skeptical offering a chance of rain Saturday night and Sunday. I am not too worried about it. The worst case scenario has us getting about 1/4″ all weekend.

Bring Repel or Deep Woods Off. I use the 40%. The mosquitoes have been having a good year. While they aren’t as plentiful as they were a few weeks ago in my travels, there are still spots that are really thick with them. If that happens to be your spot, you will be really happy that you have some spray. I’d expect that local stores are ready, but with a busy weekend, who knows.

Gas prices are between 3.69 and 3.79 depending on where you go.  Crivitz and Wausaukee have been on the high end of that lately while Lakewood/Townsend/Carter were a dime cheaper.

There is a bunch of construction going on in Green Bay, especially on 41. Hwy 43 is the better way to go. Hwy 141 and Hwy 64 will bring another construction zone. They are making that intersection into an interchange and overpass. Rumor has it that the project is to be done in 90 days, and that they are working day and night.

Hwy 141 through Wausaukee brings more construction. They are replacing the southbound side of the 141 bridge, so southbound traffic is rerouted onto side streets just before the bridge.

They will also be rerouting traffic on 141 northbound Saturday from 180 to the north end of the bridge for their 4th of July celebration and parade. They are having their parade starting at 1pm starting at the first road north of 180, and I’d guess that it will go on for an hour or so.

http://www.dot.state.wi.us/travel/road/workzones-ne.htm

The only other event that I have to add to the lists in the last two updates is the Goodman Armstrong Creek VFD fundraiser. They will have a DJ, food & drink, and raffles. It is at the VFD hall in Goodman.

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

RJB