4/8/2016
Greetings and welcome!
We had a cold night last night with clear skies and cold air behind another storm. The coldest that I saw locally was Wabeno that posted 34, and Athelstane weather that marked 37. There was a frost advisory out for areas north and west of here, but Marinette Co was not included. My windshield was damp with dew this morning, but it was not frozen as of 5am when I went out to check on it.
Even if it didn’t freeze hard, it still isn’t ideal for plants and gardens to get into the 30s. My rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t plant anything that you can’t bring inside before June 10th. While the average last frost datae is around Memorial Day, I had my gardens frosted up more than once in the first week in June. I am sticking to my guns on June 10th as the last frost day. By my recollection, I have only had one hard frost after that date, but quite a few the week before it.
The weather the past few weekends hasn’t been ideal, but they haven’t been total washouts either. I recall some nice days between the rain showers and storms. Probably the worst that I have seen this year was Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend. We had one storm blow through that was really raining hard with some strong winds. I opened my door in the thick of it to pull the storm door shut and in about two seconds I had a river of water running across the floor.
This weekend looks better, but only after a good soaking Friday night. There will be some warm humid air in place, so the storms could get a little rowdy. There are no watches or warnings yet. I do expect things to clear up Saturday morning and give way to a warm but nice weekend.
The unsettled weather has brought some pretty spectacular sunsets. This one was Sunday evening of Memorial Day weekend. Last night looked pretty nice with the clouds behind the storm. I meant to go to the lake with the camera, but got sucked into other things once I got home. I recall looking out of the window about 8:30 and seeing some colorful clouds being bottom lit by the sun and groaning about not being there for it.
The generous rain over the past few weeks has been good for the area. The whitewater rivers and waterfalls are in great shape for the coming weekend. Things that are green and growing are prospering, and now the raspberry bushes are in bloom adding a floral twist. I also haven’t heard the words Fire Danger in a few weeks.
In my daily travels the gators (mosquitoes) haven’t been too bad, but they are certainly present. I recall them coming out of the bushes after us when we went for the sunset Memorial Day weekend. I have only had a few ticks so far, but that might be a product of me not getting out enough. One quick trip into the tall grass to retrieve something yielded 3 in about 2 minutes. Bring Repel.
Last weekend I spotted one of the local fawns. Chris saw the Momma deer, and I told her to wait a minute and the fawn would come out of the bushes. Sure enough, the rowdy little fawn made an appearance only moments later. I got a few pictures through the kitchen window, and here are a couple to share.
At work I have a front seat view of the road construction on 141 in Wausaukee. Right now only northbound traffic is on the old road, and southbound traffic is being routed onto the western frontage road like they did when they rebuilt the bridge. This time they are getting a wider road through town, sidewalks, curbs and storm water management. There will be no road parking downtown when they are done, opening things up a little.
I keep reminding people that the construction of passing lanes on 141 between Wausaukee and the 4 lane near Beaver was a hassle last summer, now I don’t know how we got by without them. Hopefully there will be some gain for the pain on this project too.
As usual my time is up before I am really done, but here we are. Have a good week and thank you for visiting,
RJB
