April 2015

Tuesday April 28th, 2015

Greetings and welcome!

We are having a much nicer week this week. Today the bank clock and the car thermometer agreed that it was 68 this afternoon, and Athelstane Weather had 72. Yesterday was pretty close to today. The nights are still cold, I had a decent layer of frost on my car this morning.

Tonight and into tomorrow we will see a weak cold front pass with a minor chance of a little rain. It will also put us back into the low 60s for Wednesday and Thursday.

That is ok if the weekend forecast holds. We are looking at nice weather and highs around 70 Friday and Saturday, and mid-70s Sunday. Sunday night into Monday there is a chance of rain and thunderstorms. I’d love to be able to lock that forecast in.

The deer have been a menace along the roads this past week. They are out eating the tallest grass, which is along the roads. Friday nght I had to slam on the brakes repeatedly, and I have seen them daily. Some stayed in the ditch, some didn’t. A few learned the hard way, but thankfully not off of my bumper. Watch for deer.

Fire danger will be right up there this weekend. It is already in the high range, and will probably go o very high or extreme for the weekend. The rain tonight doesn’t look like it will help much. I have been putting off my burning until next week because it is just way too dry out there. Be careful with your fire this weekend. I am not saying don’t have a campfire, but maybe leave the brush pile for a different one.

This should be a big weekend around here with the ATV trails opening up and the fishing season opening. I think that we are a little ahead of normal for water temperatures, and there is no ice on any lakes that I have seen.

It might also be a good weekend to go whitewater rafting. The weather will be nice and the Peshtigo is running at about a +6. I consider the real fun zone to be 300cfs or above, and it is running at almost 500. Get it while it is here.

I am loving the longer days. The sun rises at 6:45 and sets at almost 8pm. That gives a guy a chance to really fill up the weekend. I am about to go and take advantage of one of those bonus hours out in the work shed and yard. I don’t need the lawnmower yet, but I had best be fixing it up soon.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday April 23rd, 2015

Greetings and welcome!
It has ben a very different week than last week. We have had rain, snow, winds, and haven’t made it into the 50s yet this week. I was driving home from work early week in a hard wind driven snow and it was accumulating a little on road shoulders. I thought to myself, wow that was a fast summer.

I did wake up to a light snow on the car the next morning, but it never really accumulated. Wednesday we had off and on snow showers that would suddenly snow pretty hard with gusty winds, and just as fast it wasn’t snowing. Again it didn’t accumulate here, but places in the UP and Vilas Co saw upwards of 4″.

With lows in the mid to upper 20s the wood burner has been gobbling wood again. Likewise plans to turn off the heater in the well house were delayed for another week.

Today the clouds parted and it was a little nicer. The ever present wind was again with us, but the sun and lack of precip made it feel a lot better.

The weather will calm down for tomorrow and the weekend. We are actually expecting to get into the 50s and with nice weather. Sunday could get into the 60s, and after that we should see more normal or even above normal temperatures.

The grass is really greening up now. It isn’t time to cut grass yet, but it is an ideal time to clean up before the grass sprouts really get going.

Cleaning up the yard brings the urge to burn brush, but be careful. The fire danger is at moderate and will rise over the weekend. We have a lot of dead grass from last year that is always a danger in the spring. The TV news this morning said that we are at 60% of normal precip since January 1 and 80% of normal for April, so it is a lot drier than usual. Be careful with your fire.

The road weight restrictions have been lifted for all of the county roads as of Monday. You could tell too. There were dump trucks, excavators, loggers, and all kinds of big trucks on the roads. It is good to see those folks get back to work.

The ATV trails in the area will open Friday May 1st according to the Dun-Good and Red Arrow web sites. (Covering Goodman-Dunbar and Townsend-Lakewood respectively.) Again people will be happy to be back on the trails.

The opening of game fish season should go better than usual. The lid of ice is long off of the lakes, and the water is warmer than usual for this time of year. This week didn’t help, but last week sure did. Some years we worry if the ice will be out by the opening of fishing, this isn’t one of them.

The days are much longer now. It is 8pm and still a little light out. That sure beats December when the sun sets at 4:17 or something like that. Once we see 60s next week it will be nice to have a couple of hours of light and decent temperatures after work.

Well time to get back to work. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday 4-16-2015

Greetings and welcome!

We have had some very nice days this week, and golly have things changed. Some lawns in Wausaukee are almost fully green. The maples are starting to get their first red flowers, and the cottonwoods have first leaves emerging making them look hazy at a distance. Here is Silver Cliff the grass is just getting started, but the greening is definitely under way.

The frogs in the pond are putting up quite a ruckus now. There are the peepers and the croakers, and they are really loud. Sometimes you can get surprised while driving along and passing a little pothole pond or wetland and the frogs are suddenly so loud.

The turkeys are not as abundant up by the roads anymore. I did see a Tom strutting Tuesday, so the season of love is still here for them, but they have moved more into tthe woods and fields.

Fire danger is very high right now throughout the state. Really watch your fire. They had red flag warnings for most of the southern and central parts of the state this week. With a little more humidity and a little less wind they reduced it to very high fire danger, still really bad.

This will be a good weekend to go whitewater rafting. The Peshtigo River is running high. The last that I saw it was close to +24. That is a very fun water level, and with decent weather, Saturday would be a good day to hit the river.

We hit 73 today, similar temps Tuesday, and 69 Wednesday. Tomorrow should be in the low 70s too.

The weekend doesn’t look quite as nice, but Saturday looks good. Temperatures should be in the 60s Saturday and about 60 Sunday. Saturday looks nice, but Sunday brings a pretty good change of rain after about noon.

Earlier model runs had held off the rain until Sunday night. Hopefully the weather will follow the earlier scenario and we end up with two good days.

While some years have us wondering if lakes will open in time for fishing, this isn’t one of them. Most lakes are ice free. All of the small ones that I have seen were wide open. When I went by Townsend Flowage last Friday the north end had a lot of open water, and the south end looked dark like it was ready to open up. Our 60s and 70s probably finished that off.

The ground has firmed up quite a bit this week. There is still soft stuff out there, but it has come a long way. A week ago the wood truck was parked by the wood shed because it would make huge ruts if I moved it. Today I could drive right out.

It is a little early to speculate when ATV trails will open and road bans will be lifted, but we are ahead of normal.

Well time for me to get back to work. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB

Monday 4/13/15

Greetings and welcome!

That was a great weekend!! Saturday was nice in the mid-60s, but Sunday got up to 73 or 74. Later the wind whipped up pretty good and was roaring in the trees. Monday brought 60s again, but with more strong wind.

We are looking at 60s all week, followed by some rain Friday night and a little cooler weekend. The TV and the NWS have us for 67 and Sunny Friday and near 60 for the weekend.

I heard the first croaker frogs in the pond Saturday, and the peepers started their vreep vreep Sunday. Tonight when I came home from work they were loud.

The warm weather wasn’t lost on the insect world. I killed my first gator last week out in the work shed. I was hoping that it was the mother ship, but apparently not. I had a few visit while I was working on cars over the weekend.

There hasn’t been much greening yet, but this week should help. It is pretty early for green grass and things sprouting but the soil should warm this week and get things started. The ground around the house has firmed up since last week.

The warm spell and rain has the Peshtigo River roaring pretty good. When I checked earlier it was running at a +24, about 1,400cfs. That is a great level for whitewater rafting. If you want to catch high water and good weather together, this week and weekend would be the hot ticket.

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

RJB