October 2018

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

Thursday October 11, 2018- Paddler’s alert ! Peshtigo River @ +24″

Greetings and welcome!

The rain has finally stopped. The USGS gauge says that we had 2.5″ in the last 3 days, but I think that was a little understated. I know when I was going to Crivitz yesterday it was raining so hard that I couldn’t go 50mph with the wipers going on high. The moderately heavy rain stayed with us for a few hours too. My wild guess is 3-3.5″ in the last 3 days.

As mentioned in the title, the Peshtigo River is WAY above normal, and is running at +24′. That is big whitewater excitement right there. Its mean flow for today is 300cfs, and we are at 1,490cfs. Private boaters should have an absolute blast this weekend. The graph did not show the river leveling out, so it is still on the rise. What is next? +26? +28? It wouldn’t surprise me at all.

The rain finally blew out of here this morning. I say blew out of here because it was followed by some very strong winds overnight. The roads had a lot of leaves on them this morning. It did cost us the color on a lot of the earliest trees like my maples and paper birch. Other species are still spectacular, but there are some bare ones in the mix now. It is amazing how fast things change around here. We went from full peak magnificent to 10% past peak in one day. That is ok though, some of the later season species of trees are coming into color. It is still a great show.

The leaves were not the only thing that went away. Yesterday’s high temperature of 58 was replaced by today’s high temperature of about 44. I looked and I don’t expect to see 50 degrees again until late next week. In the meantime I am expecting low and mid-40s and mid to upper 20s for overnight lows.

The cold weather was not lost on the mice. My trap line has been busy the past few days with three so far. It is the time of year where they try to invade and I am ready for them. After almost 20 years here I have tried a few things to stop them. This is the ultimate rig in the picture. It is a T-rex style trap with dry roasted sunflower seeds. The T-rex traps work good and are easy to empty and reset. The dry roasted sunflower seeds are the ultimate bait. They far outperform cheese, peanut butter, and the $9 for 2oz bottle of miracle attractant from the exterminator. They taste pretty good to me too..

Once in a while I will get a smart one that needs a sticky trap, but not very often. For those I use the seeds too. I put a pile right in the middle and scatter a few off of the sticky. They get a taste of the free ones and commit to the pile in the middle of the trap.

Mice are a fact of life around here. They are double jointed and have no collar bones, so they can squeeze through a very tiny gap. Even the nicest tightest houses can get them. This is how I deal with them and it is very effective.

I am going to close with one of those cool nature things.. Recently I have seen a few people/articles/movies claiming that the moon doesn’t rotate, that is why you see the same side all of the time. I disagreed, saying that it rotates, but does it a lot more slowly than the earth. Ok so I had to look it up. The moon does rotate, but instead of doing it on a 24 hour cycle like the earth, it takes 27 days for a rotation. At that point on a full moon, which also comes roughly every 27 days, it will show the same side as it did 27 days ago. It would be easy to think that it doesn’t move. Here is a link for more info.

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

RJB

Tuesday 10-9-18 Paddler’s Alert

Greetings and welcome!

It is raining again. Rain rain rain rain. We have had close to 2″ in the last two days and will be at about 3.5″ for the past 7 days by morning. This has totally shut down my firewood operation and put a crimp on a lot of people that work outside for a living. I guess we don’t have to worry too much about fire danger.

The whitewater rafting season is over, but the rivers are rocking for private boaters. The Peshtigo is rising fast and is at about a +16″, about 1,000cfs. The Wolf is also at about 1,000cfs, and the Menominee River is an enormous 5,000cfs. I will predict that the Peshtigo will hit +24″ by the weekend, and maybe more. We are lucky to see water levels like that in spring with the snow melt. To get it with 50+ degree weather is a blessing.

With all of this rain we were supposed to get 70 degree weather, at least that is what the TV said for Green Bay. Apparently we are on the other side of the line, we have been in the upper 50s. That seems fairly warm until you add rain, fog, and mist.

The Fall colors are rocking. Everywhere I look there is something orange, yellow or somewhere in between. The storm has finished off some of the earliest maples, but you wouldn’t hardly miss them with the rest of the world so colorful. On my ride between here and Peshtigo today the leaves around here are at peak or maybe 5% past. The area around Crivitz is just magnificent, and south of Hwy 64 the color is just coming into its prime. It is quite a show.

In events this weekend… The local paper oopsed the date on this one.. Crooked Lake Lion’s Club Octoberfest.. Featuring German food, a beer garden with music, meat raffles, and a craft show. There is more, follow the link.

The corn maze and pumpkin farm on Nejedlo Rd is open. Nejedlo Rd is the first road south of Wausaukee on Hwy 141.

A few miles south of there on 141 is Moonshine Hill Rd. On Moonshine Hill Rd there is an organic pumpkin farm. There is also the Camp 5 Terror, a haunted house that is open Fri & sat nights. Take Moonshine Hill Rd west a few miles to the stop sign. That is Camp 5 Rd. Be afraid, be very afraid.. Booo!

That is all that I have for events for right now.

I just saw the forecast animation on TV for tomorrow. They are calling for another 2.25″ of rain tomorrow before it finally ends. It also shows us under a flood watch. Hunters with a low lying trail or soggy spots on the way into the stand might need better boots.

One last item.. I have not seen snow here yet. Someone at the bar mentioned that last week’s storm actually dropped about 1.5″ of accumulating snow up near Iron Mountain. It won’t be long before we see it here too.

I have an insanely busy second half of the week coming up, so I am updating tonight while I can. I may be able to pull off a Fri report, but I can’t promise.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB