2016

Tuesday 7/19/2016

Greetings and welcome!

It has been a while. I don’t like to skip updates, but I have been one busy guy. We have some stuff to talk about, so lets get to it.

We have been having some hot and humid weather and there is more ahead this week and weekend. Along with that will come some thunderstorms. We can try to guess at the timing, but hot and humid summer weather can make that a challenge.

This weekend is Hog Wrestling weekend at Caldron Falls Bar. That means a lot of people visiting the area, so the weather forecast is extra important today. Right now my guidance is showing that it will be hot in the mid-80s with a chance of rain and storms increasing late Saturday. There will probably be some rain Saturday night into Sunday. A lot can change in four days so take it with a grain of salt.

Two Sundays ago Chris & I escaped to Caldron Falls Flowage late morning with the fishing boat. I took her to the secret hot spot and we proceeded to have a great morning for fishing. She proceeded to out-fish me by 3:1 or more, and tallied four different species. We caught a lot of fish and had a good time doing it. We even saw an eagle. To top it off we got the boat out of the water and onto the trailer only minutes before the rain hit. It was a good day.

Last Thursday evening after work had me groaning about not having my camera. I took a trip to Antigo and encountered a lot of small thunderstorm cells. One cell on the way there was raining amazingly hard, enough to make travel very difficult. I made it back to Lakewood a little before sunset, where the sun was poking through to clouds and doing a really nice sunbeam stairway to heaven thing. To the north was a distant thunderstorm with its huge sea of majestic clouds. It was really something to see.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about people seeing does with two fawns quite frequently. It is true. Last week I saw a trio east of Wausaukee mid-afternoon, and again 15 miles west of town a few hours later. Those have not been the only twins that I have seen. The theory is that it was a fairly mild winter for them and they could carry two fawns to term. It is good to see the population rebounding.

I mentioned before that this is Hog Wrestling weekend at Caldron Falls Bar. This is one of the biggest events in the area. Thousands will visit the area, and it is quite the spectacle. The actual hog wrestling starts late morning Saturday and ends at 5pm, but the party goes on into the night with live music.

It is common to have a strong law enforcement presence and OWI Task Force deployment this weekend, so be safe and use one of the many taxi services, tavern buses, or other designated driver rides. Use your head and have a fun and safe weekend.

This Saturday is also a float trip over at the Bear Point Yacht Club. Late morning they take to the river in Wausaukee in whatever floats them and they just have a fun day floating down the river ending up back at the Bear Point Yacht club for more fun and friends.

Here upcoming events from Chris’ event calendar on Northern Destinations.

July 23
31st Annual Hog Wrestling Competition
Caldron Falls Bar– Food & Refreshments – Live Music

July 23
Bear Point Float Trip and Picnic
Bear Point Yacht Club– Hwy 180 – Wausaukee – Float Trip starts at 11:00 AM

July 30
Bear Point Float Trip and Picnic
Bear Point Yacht Club– Hwy 180 – Wausaukee – Float Trip starts at 11:00 AM

July 30
Eagle Creek 11th Annual Car Show – Fun, Food, Prizes and Trophies
Registration from 9am – Noon – Trophies in 20 Entry Classes – Entry Fee $5.00 – Call Mike at 715-856-5642 for further information.

July 30 – 11am – 7pm
5th Annual Wienerfest North at the Lakewood Park & Pavilion
Food & beverages, entertainment, meat raffle, more – All profits to benefit the our troops & veterans
visit website for details

July 30
Ride For Rescue sponsored by the Crivitz Rescue Squad
100 mile motorcycle ride starting at Riverside Tavern. Registration at 10:30 with the ride leaving at 11:30 sharp. Raffles, food, and music. Proceeds benefiting the Crivitz Rescue Squad. Visit Website for Details.

That is news for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting.

RJB

Wednesday 6/29/16

Greetings and welcome!
It has been a busy little world around here so I haven’t escaped much this week. Saturday afternoon I took Chris for a ride in the car that lasted about 20 minutes each way. On the way back we didn’t see much, but on the way there we saw rabbits, birds, a bear, and a wobbly legged fawn. Not bad.

I have been working on the boat here and there and hope to take that out this weekend. We will have a great weekend for it according to my guidance. What I am seeing is a big area of high pressure camping over WI like a painted on bull’s eye. That should bring us clear weather, normal winds, and comfortable temperatures. I would expect daytime high temps around 80, and night time lows around 50. For a 4th of July weekend that is about as good as it gets.

There are rain chances Thursday and next Tuesday. That is about it. The Thursday afternoon and evening rain looks like it could bring a decent amount as storms roll through. I have seen guidance that shows our area getting mostly passed by, and some that said 1/2″-1″ or more. It will be good to give the land a drink to reduce fire danger for the weekend and boost water levels a touch, and it is well timed as far as the weekend goes.

Events this weekend…

6/30-7/3 Norway 125th Celebration – A big all weekend event with lots of live music and attractions. Bounce houses/carnival type festivities, food & drink tents, a lumberjack show and much, much more! Big name music stars!

Saturday July 2nd

July 2  Lake Noquebay –Crivitz Ski Cats Water Ski Show and fireworks. Starts at 6:30pm

July 2 High Falls Flowage- Boat Landing #3 Twin Bridge Ski Team Water Ski Show and fireworks. Starts at 6:30pm

July 2 Wausaukee Independence Day Celebration
5K Run/Walk, Parade, kids games, tournaments, Food, Beer, Beverages, Entertainment, Spectacular Fireworks. Details at Wausaukee.com

July 2 Mountain Fireworks Celebration- Craft show starts at 9am. Horseshoes, music, pool tournament, water fights, live music, and fireworks.

July 2 Crooked Lake Sportsman’s Club Annual Picnic- 11am-7pm Food, music(3-7), raffles, games, money pit, and trout pond for the kids.

July 4

Crivitz Independence Day Celebration.
Flag Raising at Village Hall at 10:45am followed by Parade at 11am.
Flea Market downtown. At the Park starting at noon there will be food & refreshments, kids activities, DJ from noon to 6pm, and the Brass Differential Band at 6:15pm. Fireworks at 9:30pm.

Townsend Centennial 4th of July Celebration–  Parade at noon, fireworks at dusk.

July 9
Athelstane Fireman’s Parade & Picnic
Parade Line up at 10:30 am at C & A – Picnic to follow at Fireman’s Park

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. Have a fun and safe weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Greetings and welcome!

Summer is now under way and with the summer solstice a few days behind us the days are now getting shorter. For now it is ok, I don’t mind sunset 8:53. That leaves an hour or two after work to get stuff done. We lost a minute of daylight today when the sun rose at 5:23 instead of a minute earlier.

Wildlife has been easy to spot this week on my ride to and from work. For some reason there are a lot of critters in the ditches. This morning on the way to work I spotted a buck with maybe 4″ of antlers and a knot on the top of each one ready to branch. That was probably the highlight of the week. There have been a lot of birds, chippys, squirrels, porcupines, skunks, and rabbits, and a lot of deer. As a result there has been a lot of road pizza too. Keep your eyes peeled for critters if you are out driving. They seem particularly active this week.

We have a hot and steamy weekend ahead, and a chance of some storms Saturday night. There is a fairly strong area of low pressure to our northwest up in Canada. As that gets closer we will be in the river of warm moist air being drawn up from the south.

Right now the GFS and the NWS  & TV forecasts are predicting that the storms will come mostly Saturday night, and they could be some good ones. The GFS QPF is showing me that we could see 0.5-0.75″ of rain by Monday. That doesn’t sound too bad, but there are areas less than 100 miles away that are shown getting 1-1.5″ or more. That isn’t a big margin of error 48 hours out. As always, be ready for anything, but don’t let it ruin your weekend. It is just a forecast.

We have some events coming up this weekend. Here is the list from Chris’ event page on Northern Destinations.

June 25
2nd Annual Pig Roast at Parkway Inn & Resort, starts at 1:00 PM

June 25
Bear Point Annual Fishing Tournament
100% Payout – 2 Persons per boat – 18 boat Maximum – Visit Website for Details

June 26
2016 Marinette County Breakfast on the Farm.
Visit website for full details.

And one that I heard about on the radio..

Next weekend 6/30-7/3 Norway 125th Celebration – A big event with lots of live music and attractions

Norway, MI is just across the Menominee River from Kosir’s Rafting Menominee River outpost on Hwy 8 East.

Last Saturday evening I escaped for a little white and went to my favorite sunset spot for a little time in the water, a cold beer, and a few sunset pictures. I met some web site visitors there and enjoyed seeing them. There was a loon that popped up every little while, fishermen and kayakers, and a nice night for the show.

None of these pictures were color corrected at all. It was all aperture & shutter speed, and a beautiful sunset of course.  I resized them for a 1920px desktop background, down from 300 to 72dpi,  hit the sharpen button once and saved them at a fairly low compression.  Enjoy!

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday 6/16/2016

Greetings and welcome!

We have a nice weekend coming up and a lot to talk about.

The weekend ahead is expected to have mostly clear weather and mid-80s for high temperatures. My first thought is that it will be a good campfire weekend. With partly cloudy skies and low temperatures around 60 it should be very comfortable.

Warm weather will also drive us to the water. With our recent rain the whitewater rafting is highly recommended. Both the Peshtigo and Menominee Rivers are at very fun levels. For those not into the thrill, it will make tubing better too. Not only is the water higher, but the river is warming up from the rain.

That same high water will make a waterfall tour a good call this weekend.

The Muscle Maniacs will have a nice weekend for their car show in Lakewood this weekend. There will be some top notch cars there, check it out if it is in your travels.

In nature this week the raspberries continue to bloom, though not quite as much as last week. Also making a strong showing this week were patches of white daisies along the roadsides. I have seen pretty many snapping turtles up on the roads as they seek a sandy spot to lay eggs. I went to take pictures of one Sunday, and it wasn’t a snapper at all.

I took the boat out on Caldron for an hour Sunday afternoon. It needed a shakedown run and I learned about plenty to fix. It was mostly about the boat so I only fished for about 10 minutes. and don’t have any fish to show off. Not yet.

Speaking of going out on Caldron Falls, Kosir’s Rafting has a sweet pontoon boat that they take people out on. It can hold 13, and it is something like $20 to go. I was on one ride, and it was great. Check it out.

For now, have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB