2018

11-10-18 Winterize Now

Greetings and welcome!

I want to give people another heads up about our early cold weather. Most years I don’t worry about winterizing plumbing until about Thanksgiving or after gun hunting season. There are some close calls but I usually get away with it. This is not one of those years.

The NWS forecast is for a low of 13 Monday night and a low of 9 Tuesday night. Tuesday is only supposed to be a high of 23, so there is no relief with daytime heating.

I winterized the well house the other day but did not close up the crawl space on the house after an insulating project that I haven’t gotten back to. I found myself with a frozen shower drain tonight. At that point I decided that people need to know that stuff is freezing up and you need to pay attention to exposed plumbing.

The snow from the other day added up to about 2″ around here. Today the sun would take off a thin layer like a cleared car window, but we had a high temp of 30 so for the most part it wasn’t going anywhere.In Crivitz and Wausaukee it is patchy and does not cover the ground.

Friday on the way to Crivitz I saw my first ice. About 2 miles south of A & C there is a little pond along Hwy A by Nelson Rd. I was surprised to see it close to half covered with ice. I am not sure how the lakes are doing, but if they don’t have first skin ice already it will come early next week.

Anyway, if you have plumbing to winterize you will want to pay attention to that Sunday.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday 11-9-18

Cross posted from The Big Snow Page

Greetings and welcome!

We had about 2″ of snow fall overnight. There is some very light snow still falling mid-afternoon Friday. The NWS forecast is for another 1-2 today, but there isn’t much on radar. The light snow chances continue into tonight.

The UP was under a winter storm warning last night and today for lake effect snow. The western UP got it last night and the central and eastern UP are getting snow today. This early in the season the lake is relatively warm and the wind is very cold so there will be plenty of potential to bring the snow.

The snow isn’t going anywhere, there is cold weather on tap into next week. The warmest day that I see on the NWS four day forecast is a high of 33. At 2:30pm Friday afternoon it is 27 degrees. The TV said that the normal high temp in Green Bay today is 45 degrees.

Normally I don’t worry about winterizing plumbing until around Thanksgiving. This is not one of those years. I had to hurry up and winterize the well house yesterday. The NWS has us for a low of 21 tonight and Sunday night, but Saturday night we are looking at a low of 19 and Monday night a low of 15.

If we have sunny 40+ degree days around those cold nights the well house is fine with the stored daytime heat. With only a high of 33 and a low of 15 I had to winterize early. If you have exposed plumbing it might need attention.

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

RJB

Friday 10-26-18

A Correction..

Joe and John both caught that daylight savings time does not start until November 4th. Some places do use October 28th, but CST is not one of them. Hat tip to you guys for catching that!

RJB

Greetings and welcome!

This is going to be one of my last updates here for the season. I am migrating over to The Big Snow Page. I do my blogging over there a lot like I do here, but from a snowmobiler’s perspective. In the short term I will be taking a little time off during the transition.

It is crazy time around here. There are cars to fix, firewood to cut n split, the house needs winterizing and the snowmobiles are on the list too. There is plenty to do that I don’t really want to do outside under 40 degrees.

The weather was cold and wet early in the month cheating us out of a lot of that prime fall weather. The standard used to be 50 and above was nice for outside activities, now it is down to 40 and above, and that is flexible.

The weather this week got a little more normal. I think our normal high right now is about 50, and we have been getting close.

The weekend weather looks ok for the most part. There are remnants of a tropical storm coming out of Mexico that have been raining on Minnesota and central and Western WI. So far it has not made it east of the middle of the state for the most part.

With that moisture surrounding us on all four sides eventually we will probably get a little too. Right now tthe NWS forecast is only for a slight chance of rain today and Saturday, and a good chance  (60%) of rain and snow Sunday. My guidance shows me the same things. The precip is expected to be minimal in any case. The TV is showing a precip total of 1/10th of an inch by Sunday and about 1/4″ total through Monday.

The fall colors are about done for the year. The tamaracks and oaks are the main color right now. The tamaracks are putting on a good show though.

This Sunday begins daylight savings time. At 2am Sunday we roll back the clocks an hour. Living north of the 45th parallel I gotta tell you that I am not a fan at all. It is bad enough that sunset is already at 5:48, Sunday it will go to about 4:40pm. How is a guy with one of those jay oh bee things supposed to get anything done outside when the sun sets 10 minutes after he punches out?>GRR. /rant.

Halloween is coming right up. I will remind you about the corn maze and pumpkin farm a mile south of Wausaukee on Nejedlo Rd and the haunted house on Moonshine hill and Camp 10 Rd Friday and Saturday night.

One last item.. a lot of people have been contacting me about snowplowing. Apparently Kitch passed away this summer and people are looking for driveway plowing. Here is a list that I sent a friend this morning.

John Feaker 715-757-3550.
Kelly Van Ark 920-619-9225.
Crazy Jon 715-927-2075.
On that note I am off to go and play outside. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB

Tuesday October 16, 2018

(Cross posted to the Big Snow Page and Northern Destinations)

Greetings and welcome!

Sunday was a quiet day with both the Brewers and Packers off. It was a big day in weather though, it brought our first accumulating snow. At about 2pm we started having a few snowflakes mix in with the rain. As sunset came there was less rain and more snow. By 9pm is was all snow, big goose down flakes coming at a moderate pace.

In the end we had close to an inch add up on cars and grassy areas, as well as anything else cold enough to hold it. The roads did not accumulate snow though one friend said that they were getting a little slushy build up.

We only got up into the mid and upper 30s Monday, so the snow stuck around into the afternoon, but eventually the sun ate most of it.* At sunset there was still a little snow left in sun sheltered areas and on my front step on the north side of the house.

The TV showed snow totals, and Polar, WI was the big winner locally with 2.5″. That is a small town on Hwy 64 between here and Antigo. With our sub-40 degree temperatures they probably have a little of it left.

* We are about 70 days out from the winter solstice, which on the other side of it would be about February 1st. In late winter the sun is becoming a factor, but isn’t as hot as it gets later in the month. We are losing 3 minutes a day of sunshine, so it won’t be long before the snow stays.

The recent storms really knocked down the fall colors. We are well past peak and down to a late season show with the oaks dominating the color. The tourism map on TV shows us at peak. No. That ship has sailed due to nasty weather last week and weekend. It is a shame, we had a really good show going last week.

We did see a fair number of kayakers take to the Peshtigo River this weekend. The recent rain had it rise up to almost +28, huge water for any time of year. Usually you have to catch the snow melt and perfect weather conditions to get it that high. It is not coming down all that fast and is still at about a +18″ as of Tuesday morning.

Here are a few snow pix from Sunday night..

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB