2018

Friday 8-24-18

Greetings and welcome!

We are getting a little much needed rain this morning. According to the USGS gauge by Kosir’s we have only had 1/2″ of rain in August. Driving to town yesterday the corn fields really were showing the drought stress with either brown corn stalks or curled up leaves. I haven’t had to cut the grass in a couple of weeks.

The weekend weather looks nice once the rain clears out Saturday morning. Look for highs in the low 80s and lows in the low 60s. There is a chance of rain again Sunday afternoon into Monday. We could use it.

This weekend there are a couple of events.

First up is the Marinette Co fair in Wausaukee. That started last night and runs through the weekend. Here is a link.

Tomorrow the Chute Pond Snowmobile Club is sponsoring a car show called Mountain Motor Madness. More than just cars will be there. They will show pretty much anything with a motor.. bikes, tractors, whatever. They have raffles and stuff too. Here is  link.

There is also a car/Truck/motorcycle ride to benefit Wabeno & Laona schools. They leave the Pour House in Lakewood, take a 100 mile ride and end up at Golden Eagle Pizza in Townsend for a pork roast dinner. Here is a link.

There is also an end of summer party this weekend at Kosir’s & Rapids Resort. There will be live music Saturday night.

Over Labor Day weekend the Wall That Heals will be in Crivitz. It is a 3/4 scale model of the VietNam memorial wall. Here is a link.

Someone asked about the date for the soup and chili fest in Silver Cliff. Chris reminded me that it is keyed off of the 4th Saturday in September. We have 5 Saturdays this year that would put it on the 22nd not the 29th. I will update if that changes.

We have had a little cooler weather this week. A couple of the nights were downright cold. I didn’t start the wood burner but it was close one night. Sunday morning was a cool one and I got this picture of fog coming off of the lake as the cooler air came across the warmer lake water. It was very cool to see.

Strictly from commercial..

I finished up a pretty new web site for the Twin Bridge Resort this week. Take a look. They have a very nice place and the food is excellent. Here is a link.

I can tell that it is going to be a busy weekend. The Verizon/Cellcom cell phone based internet is already slowing down and it isn’t even noon on Friday.

That is it for today. Time for me to go and run between the rain drops and try to make a living. Have a great weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday August 17th, 2018

Greetings and welcome!
We have a pretty nice weekend ahead. I am looking for highs in the low 80s and lows around 60. There will be a little humidity though.

There is a chance on an isolated shower or storm today otherwise the next rain chance is for Monday and Tuesday.

We really could use some rain. My lawn hasn’t grown much and there are a few brown spots where it went dormant. I could see driving to town the other day that the corn and beans were ready for some rain. I would have to guess that we have an elevated fire danger.

The one event that I recall fr this weekend is a fundraiser for Hidden Bear Trail ATV Club..

FUNDRAISER:  Our 6th Annual Hidden Bear Trail ATV Club Fundraiser will be on Saturday August 18th, 2018 at Animal’s Bear Trail Inn on the corner of Hwy 64 and Hwy T Mountain WI from Noon to 6:00 pm.  We will have food, refreshments, meat raffle, 50-50 raffles, gun raffle, packer autographed football raffle and our large cash raffle drawing will be 6:00 pm.  Please feel free to bring friends and families, members or non-members.  This event is open to the public.  All money raised from this event will go back into opening new ATV Trails and maintaining the current ATV Trails.  At 11:00 am we will have our 2nd membership meeting at the same location.  We will be setting up for the event starting at 9:00 am on Saturday, if you can help, please be there at 9:00 am.  Hope to see you all there!!!!

Here are a couple of scenic pictures..

Kurt e-mailed me this week about getting over the air TV in Silver Cliff. I gave him a very detailed recipe for what works for me, and will share it because other people want to know this. Here goes.

Hi Kurt, > I have local TV at my house here near C & F in Silver Cliff. It isn’t easy > but it can be done in most places that don’t have big physical barriers. > > I bought the biggest deep fringe digital antenna that Fleet Farm had, it > was about $100. It is up about 15-20 feet and my elevation is just over > 1000′ above sea level. I am in a wooded area. My antenna looks exactly > like this. https://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=cm-3020 > >

I use a 36db signal booster that injects the signal up by the antenna and > has a box by the TV. Mine looks just like this but it has an injector up > on the pole too. > https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-36DB-CABLE-TV-ANTENNA-INLINE-BOOSTER-COAX-SIGNAL-AMPLIFIER-WITH-GAIN-CONTROL/302010961643 > > The box by the TV sends power up the coax to the amp on the antenna. It > amplifies the signal right off of the antenna. The box by the TV filters > out the power before sending the signal to the TV. > >

**The takeaway here is that it has to have the amplifier part up on the > antenna before the already weak signal is eaten by the coax line loss.** > We are not dealing with a strong signal and you will lose a lot (most) of > it in even 50′ of coax. I learned that the hard way. > >

I use a top quality balun matching transformer to convert it from the > antenna to the amplifier. I don’t know if it is a local issue but I burn > these out about once a year. The cheap ones don’t work well. Don’t get > cheap on coax cable either. Use high end well shielded coax cable. I > learned those lessons the hard way. > >

With that kit I get 22 digital channels out of Green Bay. I did not get > the rotor, but I have turned it manually and gotten channels out of Iron > Mountain, Wausau, and Rhinelander. Green Bay has more to offer so I leave > it pointed there. > While rare, the other night the ‘skip’ was in and signals were bouncing > crazy. I was only getting some Green Bay channels but I was getting > Milwaukee channels wall to wall. That was unusual atmospheric conditions. > Ham and CB radio guy know about that. > >

I don’t recall the exact degrees that I pointed the antenna, but it was a > little farther east than I expected. > >

I have a friend that has one of these goofy looking all in one > antenna/booster/rotator in one unit. It is up on a high phone pole. When > it works, it works ok. Mine works way way better. He is also on his 3rd > one. One was lightning, one was probably the bal-un, but he just replaced > the whole kit. This is just an example of one. They vary a lot. > https://www.ebay.com/itm/Indoor-Outdoor-TV-Antenna-HD-Digital-360-UV-Dual-band-Amplified-Booster/283078720610 > >

One last thought is to make sure that the antenna is level. You are > looking over the horizon with a thin area of signal making it past the > curvature of the earth. Having the antenna pointing up or down even a > little makes a big difference at 85 miles out. > >

This project can be done in an afternoon for most people. Properly done > you can have a great system with 22 digital HD channels for about $200 > plus whatever mount or tower that you would want. > There are exceptions around here where people are deep in a river valley > or behind a mountain. The only way around that is a tower that can see > over the horizon or satellite. > >

Sorry for the TMI. This is one project that I learned the hard way an element at a time that details matter. That and other people want to know > this. I figured as long as I writing it out I’d share it with my web friends too. > > Good luck and best wishes- > > Ray >

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

RJB

Friday August 10th, 2018

Greetings and welcome!

The Silver Cliff Picnic and Parade is this Saturday. Unless something has changed the parade lines up at Boat Landing 11 Road and they take Hwy C to the picnic grounds.

It looks like a hot but mostly clear weekend ahead. Mid to upper 80s are on tap with clear skies. Expect low temperatures around 60, nice for a campfire. If the skies are clear we could have a good star show too.

Along that same thought, we are in for a new moon this weekend, which is good for the star show and for fishing. Saturday is the new moon, and it is a super moon. The moon is in its new moon phase, but it is also at its perigee, the closest to earth that it comes in its elliptical orbit. (More Info Link)

I mostly worked this week so I don’t have a lot to talk about. I will mention that there were a lot of does with young ones up by the roads today. Keep an eye out, the youngsters can be unpredictable.

Earlier in the week I took the long way to the store and got a few pictures to share. I really need to do more of that.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday August 3rd, 2018

Greetings and welcome!

We have had a little cooler week this week, but that is coming to an end. The cool nights have brought heavy dew overnight and in the mornings. I was outside very late.early a few nights ago and the tree leaves looked strange in the flashlight beam. My guess was that they were absorbing the dew.

The fog this morning was indicative of the change to come. As warm moist air overran our cool night the fog formed. It was pretty in the trees but not much fun to drive in.

We have a nice hot weekend coming up. The TV says that we could see 90 Saturday and 87 Sunday. It is August, right?

Something else that the TV said caught my eye. We lose over an hour of daylight in August. Sunrise/sunset times for the 1st and 31st of the month are 5:36-8:20 to 6:13-7:32. Sunrise is 37 minutes later and sunset is 48 minutes earlier. That is 85 minutes a day of less sunlight. Wow. That will certainly cut into a guy’s after work outside hours.

This weekend we have a couple of events that I know of. The big one is the Lakes Country arts festival in Lakewood. They have over 200 vendors and artists. Here is a link. There is also a folk music and art festival in Wabeno, the WAM fest. The Schoolhouse Bar in Mountain is also having their big corn roast this weekend.

Summer is moving right along and there isn’t much left. Enjoy your summer weekends while you can.

Have a great weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB