Friday 9-28-18

Greetings and welcome!

The big story today is how much the fall colors have changed in just a few days. Monday when I went to Lakewood there were a few pretty trees but not a lot. Yesterday when I went it was WOW. The early maples are really putting on a show and some other species are really standing out too. The ride from Silver Cliff down Hwy F was very nice, as was the ride north on 32. The big show part one is here. This is a maple from right by Wheeler Lake. It is pretty representative of what to expect. The show is starting and there is a lot more to come.

The fall weather is here too. Oconto Co is under a freeze warning for tonight. They could see a low of 29 tonight.  Here in Silver Cliff we are under a frost advisory. The NWS forecast has us for a low of 30 tonight and 36 Saturday nigh and low 50s for high temps Saturday and Sunday. I laugh when I see the weather maps like that and think thank goodness I didn’t move two miles south or 4 miles west, I’d be in the warning area..

Also a weather note.. I am seeing the first mention of snow in the forecast. Sunday morning could bring a little snow. The forecast is for a 30% chance of rain and snow showers before the day warms and makes it only a 30% chance of showers.

This weekend I only have one event, the Toys for Joy ride at Prospect Lodge. People bring toys to give disadvantaged kids, and they raise money with raffles and stuff after the ride. It is a big event and one of those good times for a good cause events.

Several people asked a while back when Crivitz would allow ATVs on the road. They set up routes and marked them sometime over the summer. I am not sure of routes, but the ones that I saw were down Hwy W by the lumber company and on the road by McDonalds the ATV route crosses 141.Beyond that I don’t know what the routes are, but yest they do have ATV road trails in Crivitz now.

Time for me to get back to work..

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Wednesday 9-26-2018

Fall Colors Are Here

Greetings and welcome!
I want to give you a heads up that the early fall colors are coming into their glory. The earliest red maples are in full bloom. There are a lot of early yellow and orange trees showing off too. A lot of the forest is still deep green but the early stuff is going off. I like the early colors the best and this will be a good weekend for seeing those. As far as seeing the whole woods in color that is a week or a few weeks off yet.

RJB

This is a picture from last Sept. but it shows about where we are.

Fri 9-21-2018

Greetings and welcome!

It has been an interesting week in weather. Monday we hit almost 90 degrees. Tonight we are under a frost advisory where we could see 35 degrees for a low.

The most intense weather was yesterday, last night and today when we saw close to an inch of rain, a decent thunderstorm overnight, and very strong winds today. At one point the forecast had us for a level 3 severe weather potential. Thankfully the line of storms came through late at night and were less severe than they could have been. Today’s wind was very strong. It stripped the pines of dead needles, took down twigs and small branches and one tree that I saw.

People will welcome tonight’s frost. This week the gnats and mosquitoes were plentiful. It would not bother me to work outside without the bugs.

This Saturday is the Silver Cliff Soup & Chili Fest at the local picnic grounds. Here is a pic of the sign.

The fall colors are getting there but the big show is not here yet. This week a lot of the choke cherry had yellow leaves. The sumac is a cool iridescent red and green, and some other species are starting up. There is a species of maple that are bright red already. The wind today stripped a lot of the color leaves, but there wasn’t much that had changed yet. A lot of the trees are getting ready to pop, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Saturday night after dark we officially begin the fall season. The shorter days are already obvious. The sun now sets at about 7pm, shortening the work day by almost 2 hours since the longest day of summer. I am not a fan of that, especially when I am scrambling to do my outside work like firewood and getting cars ready for winter.

This year I cheated on firewood and had a logger friend drop off about 5 cords of dry oak. It is saving me a ton of time in the woods, but it cost some money. About half of that pile is already cut, split and stacked in the wood shed.

A big help this year was trying a different kind of saw chain. I always ran Oregon chains and cut down the rakers a little to be faster in big wood. I saw on an arborist site that Stihl had a chain that was harder steel and much more aggressive cutting. The downside is a high kickback risk.

I am strong enough, safe enough, and have a couple of decades of experience running aggressive chains, so I bit and bought a Stihl 33RS chain with the yellow dot instead of my usual Oregon 72 chain. On my 65cc saw this is just a beast. My goodness what a machine. It is really dangerous if you are not careful, but it was the chain that I have been looking for. I can cut a foot thick oak log in under 3 seconds, and can actually slow down the 4.6hp motor on my saw if I push it. It is ready for a file touch up after 2 full cords, but is still cutting great. That was nice too. Most of you won’t care about this but a couple of you will be very happy that I shared my secret.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday 9-7-18

Paddler’s Alert- High Water on The Peshtigo & Menominee Rivers

Greetings and welcome!

We had a little rain this week. The USGS gauge by the Peshtigo River at Kosir’s shows about 2″ for the week. Not too far west and north of us the rain totals went waaaay up. The mid-week storm dropped as much as 5.5″ in Argonne, which is on the far reaches of the Peshtigo River watershed. As a result the Peshtigo is just rippin’ at what I would guess to be a +16 or +18″. That is great water anytime of the year. The Menominee River is big too, running 5,000cfs. That river is a heck of a ride at that level.

Here is a screen cap of the rain totals, followed by one that I cropped down and did a very rough outline of the Peshtigo River watershed.

So.. if you are inclined to go and paddle this is a great weekend for it. In April people will be paddling in 35 and 40 degree weather hoping for water levels like this.

With the big rain came a welcome weather change. Earlier in the week it was hot and humid. Now we are looking at low humidity and upper 60s for highs this weekend. Last night we got down to 45 degrees for a low and I actually had to start the wood burner this morning. It always amazes me how I am running the air conditioner one day and the wood burner the next, but that is Wisconsin weather for ya. I have had days where I ran both on the same day. That is messed up.

Anyway.. we are in for clear and pleasant weather this weekend.

It looks like we are in for an early start on fall colors this year. I was seeing some trees start to change a month ago and some ground vegetation dying back. I wrote it off as drought stress, but it is becoming obvious that it was not the case. Driving back from Crivitz a couple of days ago I saw a lot of trees getting lighter as they head for the big color change. There were even a couple of trees showing some color. It isn’t much of a show now, but the early maples will be starting any day.

I did not see any events for this weekend other than the big snowmobiling show Hay Days over in Minnesota. I did do a Big Snow Page update today and I will give you a thimble sized version.. we are probably in for an ElNino winter. It is a little early to get excited about that 4 months out but that is what the models are showing right now.

For me the Labor Day weekend kicks off firewood season. I did my first couple of carts yesterday now that the weather is finally a little cooler. I would love to have a big head start right now but I just don’t do it when it is 85 and humid. With the days getting a lot shorter and the weather getting a little more active the race is on. The mission is 5-7 cords, and that is a lot of wood, over 15,000lbs. That is why I call firewood the Gold’s Gym of the north. I will be in a lot better shape when I am done. Where did I put my ibuprofen?

Time for me to get back to work. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB