2016

Friday November 11, 2016

Greetings and welcome!

It is the weekend before deer gun season, typically a pretty busy weekend around here. There are folks getting cabins and deer stands ready, people getting in one last weekend of bow hunting, all sorts of stuff.

I can tell you from my rides to and from work that the deer are active and running stupid.  I have seen a few bucks, but so far no huge ones. The way that they were standing out in the road suggests that they may be a little distracted.

We have a sunny and above normal temps weekend ahead. The weather forecast in for temps in the low 50s and a little wind both days. With clear skies the nights will be cold though, tonight they are looking for low 20s, and Saturday night around 32.

I will be at Athelstane country Mart this Saturday with my little red tent selling my LED flashlights, headlamps, floodlights and such. They also have a 1 day LP sale with some hard to beat prices. Stop in and let me know that you are a site visitor and I will make sure that you get a good deal.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Wednesday November 2, 2016

Greetings and welcome!

You know that it is the end of the show when the tamaracks give their golden grand finally. The swamps are alive with color right now. There are a few other tress still in color, but you can see pretty far into the woods now.

That is good, because it is getting into prime deer hunting season. I have been seeing a lot of deer out on the roads and it has been the source of more than a few E-stops. The two deer that caused the contents of my car to fly forward this morning might have been part moose or Guernsey or something, they were both pretty big. The fact that they couldn’t care less that I was there at 55mph laying on the horn suggests to me that they might have been bucks.

While I am not a fan of dodging them with my car, it is good to see more deer around.

The word on the street is that a lot of dirt two track roads are pretty muddy. It is true. We have had a very wet fall and the ground is very soft. There are some pretty good mud holes too. I have seen some tracks that suggested the folks weren’t having much fun in the mud. Be ready for that.

We have a very mild late week and weekend ahead of us. Friday is expected to be nice and in the upper 50s. Saturday and Sunday we could see nice days and low 60s, what I would guess is 10-15 degrees above normal. With clear skies we can expect some cool nights. Lows in the mid to upper 30s are expected Friday and Saturday night.

There was a graphic on the Green Bay weather the other day showing how dramatic the temperature change in November can be. They showed a normal high of about 50 on the 1st, and a normal high in the low 30s at the end of the month. That is pretty significant.

That has me with big plans for the weekend working on outside chores. Anything that I don’t want to freeze hard or that needs to get done above 50 degrees needs to get wrapped up. A third list is stuff that needs to happen before the ground freezes. Much colder weather is showing up in the farther reaches of the GFS forecast model.

Also on the list is firewood.I have 5  8′ bundles of slab wood coming tomorrow, a fair bit of wood to cut and stack. Other than a little more big stuff for deep winter, that will pretty much secure the wood shed for the winter. I had about 1/4 of my wood left from the mild winter last year, and that helps. I have been burning through the night on cold nights, a lot of nights like tonight a small fire to take the chill off is enough.

One last item is the flashlight business. With hunting season and shorter days here I have been having very good sales. Tonight I proofed my very first newspaper ad, letting people know about my parking lot sale the Saturday before gun hunting at Athelstane Country Mart. They are also having a propane sale, so it should be a busy day there.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB

Wednesday October 26, 2016

Greetings and welcome!

We are wrapping up one cold and rainy day. The rain started after sunrise this morning and is still going at 8:30pm. It was a pretty steady rain all day, and with temps in the upper 30s and low 40s it was chilly too.

I don’t have any ground truth on this, but the radar today was showing snow up in the Vilas Co area, and as close to home as northern Forest Co. There was a blob or two of white that briefly showed up around Carter a little while ago. I will check with some friends in Wabeno tomorrow to see if they actually saw the first snowflakes of the year..

It has been cold in the recent past. I recall at least three mornings in the past week that I had to warm up the car while I ate breakfast to clear off the heavily frosted windows. The coldest that I have seen so far was 26. It’s cold enough, but I am not too concerned about exposed plumbing just yet.

We have been getting frequent rains too. One storm last week hit to our north and west with a lot of rain, bringing the Peshtigo River up to almost +18”. That is pretty big. It is still about +6” and we just had an all day rain. It has been a wet October.

The fall colors are pretty much done. There are still patches of color here and there, but you can see pretty far in the woods now.

The deer have been getting more active this week. Yesterday I had 9 different encounters in 20 miles on the way home from work. Some were e-stops, others close calls or deer bounding away from the roadside. I don’t see that getting any better as the rut approaches. Keep an eye out for the deer on the roads.

It is firewood season for sure. I have been making it, and burning it too. With LP under $1 a gallon I was considering installing a furnace and tank. I decided against it at the last minute, and now I am hustling to finish filling the wood house. I will be fine but there is work to do.

Time to go and stoke the fire. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday October 13th, 2016

It is another frosty night outside tonight. The front that brought dark skies and intense rain Wednesday also brought a big push of cold air. My car windows were good and frosted up this morning with our low of 28. As of 9:30pm the cycle was repeating, it was 28 and there was frost forming on everything.

The heating season has started. I have been running the wood burner the past few nights. Both nights when I got home from work the house was down to 58. I am not too concerned about the well house or stuff in the work shed that shouldn’t freeze. The buildings will hold enough heat to ward off any damage as long as it is above about 45 in the daytime and not too far into the 20s. I will be addressing a lot of that this weekend.

I was thinking on the way home from work today that it is a good thing that the fall colors are so late this year. Last week the colors were at or near peak for the early colors. Friday a storm came with rain and strong winds and knocked some of it down. Quite a bit of it survived because it was so late in changing. The same thing happened Wednesday with wind, rain, and more leaves down. Again because they were so late in changing, some early season color is still there, and the mid-season color is intact. It is still a good show.

We are looking windy days Friday and Saturday, with an increasing chance of rain as Saturday progresses. The upside is that it will be warmer. Highs in the mid-60s should be the rule for the weekend, with lows only in the 50s. Sunday and Monday look pretty nice.

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

RJB