2017

Thursday 9-14-17

Greetings and welcome!

The fall color show has started. Every day I see another splash of red or some trees getting lighter leaves as they begin the big change. Right now it is mostly the very early maples, but some other species are starting to get in on the act. The next couple of weeks will be a lot better for color, but right now you don’t have to go far to see a splash of red here and there.

I was not crazy last week when I though that I spotted one of the dark purple maples in fall color. I saw another about 2 miles east of Wabeno on Hwy C. Unfortunately it is on a pretty blind curve and they run a lot of logging trucks up there, so I did not stop for a picture.

Our weather feels more like June than September. We have been in the low 80s with clear weather the past few days. That is probably about 10 degrees above normal. Those low 80s are expected to continue through Saturday.

Saturday night and into Sunday we could see some rain as a cold front passes through and drops our temperatures back to more normal levels (low 70s). After some rain early week, next week looks like more of the above normal temperatures.

When we have high temps in the low 80s and some humidity and low temps in the mid-40s overnight there is a pretty significant (diurnal) temperature swing. That takes us below the dew point, and we have had some dewy mornings where everything is wet until the sun comes up and burns it off. It also make some fog at sunset as the temperature drops quickly. Here is a pic that I took last night about 30 minutes after sunset.

I was a little surprised that while taking that picture I was swarmed by mosquitoes. We have had some pretty cool nights, but apparently not cool enough to kill off the gators. I had the same experience later when I was at a dark spot and tried to take some star filled sky pictures. I haven’t done any of that with the little Nikon, so it was a  trial & error experience. It didn’t take much trial & error before I started losing blood and I bailed. Maybe I will try to dial that in at home before heading to my dark skies spot next time.

We have some events for this weekend.

First up there is a truck and tractor pull at Equity Park down in Pound Saturday. (Link)

Saturday Lakewood is having a Festi-Fall downtown with vendors, artists, food, and more.

There is an EAA Warbird fly-in and car & tractor show at the Oconto Airport Saturday. That is a little farther away than I usually have events around here, but it sounded like a cool one. They even have airplane and helicopter rides for $35-$45.

Crivitz is having an Octoberfest celebration Saturday. It looks like a big affair with three bands, German food and drink, and adult activities. They tap the first keg at 11am. (Link)

This weekend also kicks off a lot of hunting seasons. Bow hunting for deer opens Saturday, along with turkey, bear, grouse, rabbit and others.

Next weekend Sept. 23 is the Silver Cliff Chili Fest & Soup Contest at the Silvercliff Picnic grounds 11AM. People love that event with all of the delicious and unusual entries.

Well I am off to go and get back onto my fall outside chores. I hurt a wrist early week and have been on light duty for three days. That has been driving me crazy as I want to work of firewood, the house, the cars, the plow truck, the snowblowers, the snowmobiles, and more. I can’t stand it anymore, so I am going to go and try to be productive.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB

 

 

Friday 9-8-17

A last minute event update. Not sure how I missed this..

Mountain Motor Madness- Proceeds of the day’s events will be split between Chute Pond Snowmobile Club for trail maintenance, Vets 4 Vets of Northeast Wisconsin, and Oconto River Kids.

The Bill Lazansky Community Center, 13412 HWY 32 & 64 Mountain, WI, will be the setting for Mountain Motor Madness 2017, sponsored by Chute Pond Snowmobile Club- a “non-judged, no awards presented” show where any vehicle with wheels is welcome to be displayed. The show will run from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm on Saturday, September 9, 2017, and there is no charge to exhibit your vehicle(s). The public is welcome at this family friendly event, with no admission charge for spectators. Food and beverages will be available for purchase throughout the day, and Jake Rock Entertainment will be providing DJ services for your listening pleasure. Awesome bucket raffles and the always popular “All Meat- No Fillers” Spin Wheel raffles (4 meat winners per round) will round out the day’s fundraising activities.

What would you do with 32 beef tenderloins, 30- 5 lb slabs of bacon, 26 huge pork loins, 26 racks of baby back ribs…and a whole lot of hams, turkeys, brats, braunschweiger, summer sausages, and more? Have an ALL MEATS, NO FILLERS spin wheel at Mountain Motor Madness- that’s what we’re doing! 4 meat winners per round. 11am- 4pm this Saturday!

Thursday September 7th, 2017

Greetings and welcome!

It was a chilly night last night. We saw a low of 42. I did eventually have to start the wood burner this morning. I was thinking finesse.. one extra log and you will have it 90 in here. I did fine. It went from 60 to 74 and the fire went out. Perfect.

We are expecting another cold night tonight. We could see some frost and a low in the mid-30s.

The cool temperatures are a good sign for the weekend. We are on the eastern side of a big area of high pressure, and it is pumping cool Canadian air our way. As that high pressure moves into our area for the weekend we can expect bluebird days and clear skies. I am expecting highs in the upper 60s and lows around 40 for the weekend.

We are getting some fall color happening. When I was out driving around Tuesday the earliest maples were showing a branch or two in color. The beech trees are starting to get a lot lighter green to them and should start getting colorful soon. I saw one tree that might be one of those maples that turns dark purple when the leaves change. I caught it out of the corner om my eye at highway speeds, so I am not sure, but I think that is what I saw.

We will have a very bright full moon this weekend. The full moon was actually yesterday, but minus a small sliver it will be big this weekend. Tuesday night I stopped in the forest for a look around. It was brighter than some overcast days, and when not in the shadows it was no problem walking through the woods. I would expect similar results this weekend.

This morning I made an archive of the Peshtigo River USGS gauge graphs for 2017. This was a record year and I wanted a copy of the graphs. The river never hit zero on the bridge gauge from the time that the ice went out though this weekend. Zero is the normal summer flow for the river. Also of interest, the gauge showed that we had 9″ of rain from July 1 until this morning. That has to be close to a record too. Usually July & August are pretty dry and an inch of rain a week rarely happens.

Today the river is running at about 450cfs, and a +5″ on the bridge gauge. Normally it is less than 200cfs. While people may have considered Labor Day the end of summer, the river is still running like it is spring. Kosir’s does run raft trips after Labor Day, so a fall color rafting trip might be an option this year.

The events for this weekend include The Country Fling at Parkway Inn & Resort a mile north of Hwy X on Parkway. They have live music, booyah, and raffles.

This weekend is also the Lena Lions Dairyfest. They have a run/walk, truck & tractor pulls and more. Link

For the snowmobilers among us this weekend is Hay Days over in MN. It is a huge snowmobiling event with grass drags and an enormous swap meet. I am working on a Big Snow Page update, but I am a little distracted this week. I will get there.

That is about it for today. Have a great weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday 9-5-2017

Greetings and welcome!

Well I wasn’t very happy about Saturday’s rain, but Sunday was a beautiful day. I’d take a whole bunch of days like that.

Saturday’s rain paid off for Sunday paddlers, the river was +6″ and on the rise. People had a blast.

Next weekend’s forecast looks great-on paper.. Right now the GFS is showing me high pressure camped over the upper Midwest right through the weekend. That would bring us comfortable temperatures and bluebird weather.

Right now I am watching Hurricane Irma. The later reaches of the GFS model show it going up Florida like an olive on a pick. In order for that to happen the high pressure would have to move east, bringing a very different forecast. Right now the timing looks good for a nice weekend and then some rain. As long as that timing stays the same we are golden.

The events for this weekend include The Country Fling at Parkway Inn & Resort a mile north of Hwy X on Parkway. They have live music, booyah, and raffles.

This weekend is also the Lena Lions Dairyfest. They have a run/walk, truck & tractor pulls and more. Link

That is it for today. Thank you to everyone that made it such a fun weekend, and thank you for visiting!

RJB