2017

Thursday 10-19-17

Greetings and welcome!

There is massive carnage at my house this morning. The lady beetles came out this week and I was ready for them. I use this stuff that you mix up in a pump up sprayer. I hit the windows and doors inside and out, around the air conditioners, around the firewood hatch, and then I did the outside walls. I don’t have a single one inside but the outside is littered with carcasses. It works great on other creepy crawlies too, and lasts for months.

The storm last weekend and the wind this week have taken a lot of the fall color down. There is still a lot out there, but there are a lot of bare trees. The main players now are the oaks and tamaracks, with some beech and cottonwood hanging on. Here are some pictures from yesterday on Knowles Creek Rd.

Here is the only event that I have for this weekend, so far..

The weather for the weekend looks ok with a chance for rain Saturday night into Sunday. There is a slight chance of rain Saturday according to the NWS forecast, and I am on board with that. The conditions might be there for the rain to come in the afternoon. They have temperatures forecast to be 75 Friday, 68 Saturday, and 61 Sunday.

That having been said, the last two weekends looked ok on Thursday too, and ended up as wash-outs.

You will want to really watch out for deer on the roads, especially from sunset on into the night. The doe deer are plentiful on the roads and apparently are pretty stubborn about staying there. I had two yesterday near McCaslin Mountain that just wouldn’t move. One in each lane, two feet away from my car as I am laying on the horn. It wasn’t until they were going to get tipped over by the bumper that they decided to move. Thinking about it this morning, I could have just gotten out the camera and made them disappear.

At any rate, that is not the first time that it happened this week. I don’t know why they are so stubborn about staying in the road, but I am ready to mount the plow on the truck and start driving that so that I don’t wreck the car.

It looks like there is a big change coming in the weather about the middle of next week. Our 70s will be a distant memory, and our first snow could come about the 31st with a pretty good storm. Ready for that? Me neither. I had better get going..

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday Night 10-12-17 Updated Fri AM

Greetings and welcome!

I took a ride to Crivitz today and got a look at the fall colors. There are some bare trees but there were a lot of color and scenic views too. Some of the late colors are starting to show. The first one that comes to mind are the tamaracks, but some oaks and soft hardwoods are turning as well. Some areas are past peak, others are putting on a great show. It isn’t over yet.

We have a fast moving storm coming in for the weekend. The current timing in the forecast is about as good as it can be with the rain starting after dark Saturday and ending fairly early Sunday morning. Can we believe it?

Fri Am Update- No we can’t believe it. The Fri am forecast says rain from 1pm-1pm RJB

In events this weekend we have the Crooked Lake Octoberfest Saturday.

There is a haunted house on Moonshine Hill Rd and Camp 5 Road.

I haven’t been down 141 in a while but I would assume that the corn maze and pumpkin patch on Nejedlo Rd (Just south of Wausaukee) just west of 141 is still going.

For snowmobilers the Snowmobile USA Show is in West Allis this weekend.

The Peshtigo River continues to be way above normal. It hit +12” this week and is back down to about a +7”. Zero is the normal summer flow, and the average for today is about a -2”. The watershed must be really saturated to get flows like that.

The deer are abundant along the roads this week. There were at least three in the ditch dead between here and crivitz. Last night when I was driving I saw a dozen plus deer in a 14 mile ride, and they were not interested in moving. Keep a sharp eye out for deer when you are driving.

That is it for tonight. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday 10-10-17

Greetings and welcome!

Last Saturday’s storm was a dandy. It rained all day and the wind blew too. It was a pretty miserable day. The first wave of rain alone had to bring us close to an inch. It really poured Friday night, and it kept it up Saturday morning and into the afternoon. Th4e USGS gauge by Kosir’s says that we had a little over an inch. I guarantee that we had that by noon.

It is common for us to get a big storm like that just in time to strip the trees of leaves at the peak of the fall colors. We did lose some leaves Saturday, but thankfully the color was late this year and a lot of it hung on. When I went to Lakewood yesterday it was a very pretty ride down Hwy F.

Right now the TV is predicting another weekend like we just had with the big storm, lots of rain and the wind and so on. This morning they are still on that forecast, but my latest GFS forecast model shows Saturday as being ok and Sunday being the washout.

The Peshtigo River still has not hit zero this year, and is running at +9″ after the storm. Normally I would expect it to be between 0 and -2″ at this time of year.

I am a little surprised and a little concerned that we are still having September weather as far as temperatures go. The past week has been about 10 degrees above normal, and this week will be warmer than normal too.

Today is the anniversary of the photo van paint job about 15 years ago. I was still out painting it at 10:30 at night because we were going to get 6″ of snow the next day (and we did..) and it never went above 50 for the rest of the year. It is a reminder of how fast that pendulum can swing back.

Right now our normal high temperature should be in the low 60s. According to Ray’s rule of variability, a 10 degree departure from averages is very common, and a 20 degree departure is not unusual. That tells me that on a cold stretch we could be seeing highs in the low or mid-40s.

That is all very motivational for my outside work. I am about 1/2 way through firewood, and I have been hammering away at other outside jobs with enthusiasm. This also comes in the context of days getting much shorter. We lose about 90 minutes of daylight in October. The end of the month has the sunrise at 7:29 and sunset at 5:42.

The past few weeks have brought a mouse invasion to the house. It isn’t abnormal to have that about this time of year. I have been the grim reaper for them though. I use the T-Rex spring traps and big sticky traps. The sticky traps are for the ones too smart to hit the spring traps, and for around their typical entrance points. The best bait for the spring traps is not peanut butter or the pro stuff (Provolk), even though both work. My secret is a handful of roasted and salted sunflower seeds. Apparently those are irresistible, and any new guests are dispatched quickly. Hot tip..

This Saturday is the Crooked Lake Sportsman’s Club Octoberfest. Here is a copy n paste..

Oct. 14
Crooked Lake 8th Annual Oktoberfest
Starts 11:00am at the Crooked Lake Community Center. Outdoor Craft Market, Free Pumpkin Decorating for the kids, Free Hayrides, Minnow Races for Young and Old, Beer Graden, Music by Local Favorite, Whitey! Pig Roast dinner served from 1:00 – 5:00pm, Raffles all day long! Visit website for details

I am sure that there is one more event, but I just woke up and it eludes me at the moment.

Well the sun is coming up and there are 19 things on my to-do list for today, so I had best run along. I will see if I can stop back with some pictures later in the week. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday 10-6-17

Greetings and welcome!

My travels this morning took me to Wausaukee and on the way home I detoured up into the beech forest on Parkway North (Hwy I). It was a good color show for the whole ride, but I think that we are a touch ahead of Wausaukee for color. I have a bunch of pictures that I took along the way. The first ones were on Perch Lake Rd 3 miles east of A. Next was a hillside 4 miles west of Wausaukee. On the way home I stopped at Hwy C and the power lines just west of Deer Lake Rd. From there I went up Parkway and stopped where the ATV trail crosses I by Wolfe Ln. Next it was the beech forest and river pix from Camp 5 bridge. Finally I took some pix looking at Thunder Mountain from the top of Fox Hill on Hwy I 3 miles north of C, and a quick bridge picture driving by Rapids Resort.

The colors were a lot nicer than the pictures suggest. They are near peak but not quite there yet.

One dynamic for weekend leaf peepers is tonight and tomorrow’s rain storm. The NWS is predicting 1/2-3/4 inches of rain each for both Fri night & Sat. With a little wind that could go 25-30mph I am concerned that our color show will take a beating before it hits the peak. It seems to happen every year. On the upside, rainy and overcast days make the colors much more vivid to the eye.

Anyway.. pictures..

RJB