Friday April 14th, 2017

Paddler’s Alert!

Peshtigo River is at +26″.

Greetings and welcome!

It looks like we are in for a mostly nice weekend starting with today. The TV is showing high temps of 60 today, 70 Saturday and 64 Sunday.

There is rain in the forecast for Saturday, but my guidance shows it coming early and late and a 70 degree day in the middle. The morning storm doesn’t look like much and the evening storm should come late enough in the day to not bother daytime activities. It might douse the evening campfire, but my earliest guidance has it coming in about 9 or 1opm. Once the evening storm gets here we could see some thunderstorms. The TV showed us getting 1/2″ of rain by morning.

Yesterday I put a lot of miles on the car, and in my travels I checked some lakes. Waubee Lake and Townsend Flowage are free of ice now. High Falls was wide open by Popp’s and again as I traveled over the Hwy X Bridge. Caldron Falls is wide open at Landing #8 by the dam with no ice in sight. You can put a boat in and do some fishing or cruising, though swimming might be a brisk experience. Do that at Kosir’s where you have a wet suit.

Speaking of Kosir’s, earlier in the week I suggested that with all of the rain ” I would not be surprised to see it go into the 30?+ range for this coming weekend. “. (It being the Peshtigo River..) I checked this morning and it is at +26”. It isn’t 30+, but it will be a really fun level to go whitewater rafting. Call Kosir’s to get your reservations.

Something that I saw in my travels yesterday is the greening of the grass. In Wausaukee the lawns are full green and growing. Here in Silver Cliff 22 miles west I still have more brown than green, though it is starting to green up.

That brown stuff from last year’s vegetation is part of our spring fire danger. It will burn readily, and with the ever present spring breeze a single spark could set the neighbor’s whole field on fire.

That kicks my butt every spring. I have a nice day and want to clean up the yard, but I am too chicken to even have a basic campfire most days. Even with a garden hose right there, some days with a breeze and low humidity I wouldn’t even consider it.

This week we had a lot of rain and we have some humidity, so the wind will be the key factor in me having a campfire/grill/beer@picnic table happy hour today. When I checked a few minutes ago fire danger was only moderate.

For those of you interested in a nice Easter Dinner Hilltop Resort is having an Easter buffet with broasted chicken, ham, and much more for $12. I hear that they have very good chicken, and if I can get my taxes done in time, that will very likely be my Easter Dinner destination.

There has been no sign of Houdini since Tuesday night when he licked clean yet another traditional mouse trap without setting it off. The sticky traps and the latest baited trap remain untouched. My guess is that he died of obesity from all of the peanut butter that I have been feeding him.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB

Tuesday 4-11-17

Greetings and welcome!

We had a very nice warm weekend, and then…

Sunday night and Monday brought storms. Monday’s storms brought some pretty good rains when they hit our area. The storms were going down a frontal boundary with waves of rain following each other like train cars. That boundary was about 30 miles to our north, so we missed the heaviest of the rain, but some of the more southern squalls hit our area.The ones that did hit were very intense with heavy rain and hail. Last night the rain changed to ice pellets and then snow, and there was enough snow to make the ground white this morning. There was some thunder too, including at about midnight as it was changing over.

According to the USGS river gauge by Kosir’s, we have seen 1.4 inches of rain since Saturday. The heavier rain to our north wasn’t just the three or four storms that we saw, it was an all day hammering rain storm. Radar returns are showing some areas of the Peshtigo River watershed getting 2.5-3″ of rainfall. My personal observation is that the radar returns significantly underestimate rainfall since the watershed is 100+ miles away from the radar. Between the understated radar and how heavy the rainfall was in the storms, I expect that they got hit pretty hard up by Hwy 8 and points north..

The Peshtigo River has risen significantly already from the local rainfall. The Peshtigo has a long narrow watershed that starts all of the way up by Crandon and Laona and Fence. There is usually a 2-3 day delay before we see rain from the upper watershed hit the Roaring Rapids section that we raft and paddle. The river this morning is running at about 1,1100 CFS, about +18″. Those of you familiar with the Peshtigo River whitewater know that we are looking at a huge fun level right now without any additional water.

Take that already huge fun water level, add 2-3+ inches of rain, and you have a really big river. (But wait.. if you order now..) What I haven’t mentioned yet is that all of that rain fell on saturated ground with the frost coming out of the ground. That spring soggy ground dynamic makes the rain spike river levels even more dramatically because none of the water soaks into the ground.

With only the unreliable radar returns to go on it is hard to estimate how high the river will go, but I would not be surprised to see it go into the 30″+ range for this coming weekend. The soggy ground is there, the heavy rain is there, and it is already flowing at very exciting levels. It will be a good weekend for high adrenaline white water this weekend. Call Kosir’s now and book your flight.

We had some excitement over the weekend when a couple allegedly broke into Country Convenience on Hwy X over the weekend. They supposedly shot at sheriff’s deputies while trying to get away, and fled on foot after crashing their truck.

They were on the run for two days, and according to reports, broke into a cabin and stole an ATV. They were captured near the Wausaukee Club. The TV said that they had at least 12 different agencies hunting for them as well as a DNR plane and Coast Guard helicopter.

I have my own little criminal to deal with here at the house. I have a mouse that I have named Houdini. For almost a week now he has raided and evaded my regular trap and poison line. He goes up onto the kitchen counter, eats anything left there, and leaves droppings.

Sunday night he licked a T-Rex trap clean of peanut butter with no ill effects, and left 10 turds as a thank you. I figured the trap was bad but it snapped shut as soon as I touched it. Last night I had the exact same result using a totally different trap and a different location. He can lick a fully functional mouse trap clean and not set it off.

Trapping mice is nothing new here. I usually get them as fast as they come in. Getting into the kitchen and up on the counter is totally unacceptable. That is it. This is war. DEFCON 1. I am heading to town today for sticky traps and birdseed, and maybe rent a couple of hungry cats.

——–

Later this month Kosir’s is having their 2nd Annual Peshtigo River Festival on April 29th. I will have a poster soon. In the meantime know that there will be river activities, good food and live music, and much more. Last year the food was amazing and people had a great time.

I will be there selling my flashlights and lanterns, and I have big plans. I have been shopping bargains, and will have $5 and $10 LED flashlights in addition to my regular fare at Pesh Fest only pricing.

Someday I will finish the Work-Sport-Adventure website. I took a couple of passes at it this weekend, and just didn’t get the effect that I wanted.  Self employment has found me very busy. This week I have three web sites and my taxes to tackle, but I really need to get this done. There is a saying in Wausaukee.. The cobbler’s kid always goes barefoot.

Well I have to get back to work. I will see if I can’t take a little break time to explore outside and the progress of spring and update later in the week.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB

Saturday 4-8-17

Greetings and welcome!

We are in for a couple of nice days this weekend get out there and have fun!

First up we have a very high fire danger this weekend. Be really really careful with your fire. From the DNR page–

Due to fire weather conditions, burning is NOT allowed today. Therefore, burning in barrels, debris piles, and grass or wooded areas with your annual permit is prohibited. Campfires, though strongly discouraged, are permitted if used solely for cooking or warming purposes, but please use extreme caution.

Last year’s vegetation is very dry. We have low humidity and a little bit of wind, and between the three of them there is a significant wildfire risk.

Thursday when I was out traveling I got a look an the ice on some lakes. Waubee and the Townsend Flowage had the last covering of ice on them, but it was black from the water on top. I would expect that between the wind and sun those two have probably lost their lid by now.

Caldron Falls Flowage at Landing 11 was open at the landing and upriver. Downstream from the landing there was quite a bit of ice in the north part of the bay, but farther down it was open. By the dam on the big bay by Landing #8 it still looked like winter, the ice did not even look like it was in distress. The bay by Landing #2 on High Falls was still pretty locked up too.

We have a couple of 65-70 degree days ahead, we should make a lot of progress this weekend and early next week. I would not be too concerned about moving ice to get in on opening day of fishing.

The next item up is an event for tonight. It is the Stephenson VFD Aux chicken dinner. It is free beer and a chicken dinner for $10, and the Mullins will be playing. Bring your designated driver if you like free beer.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

4-5-17 Silver Cliff Election Results

Here are the unofficial election results from yesterday.

Silver Cliff Town Board Chairperson-

Henry Burkel-143

Cindy Jonet-96

Silver Cliff Town Board Supervisor-

Bruce Weber-137

Sue Victoreen- 102

More results are available here-

http://www.marinettecounty.com/i/f/Election%20Night%20Call%20In%20Return%20Sheet%20County%20Wide%202.pdf

http://www.marinettecounty.com/departments/?department=729bda5d0642&subdepartment=0cef667065e9