2019

Tuesday 1-22-19

Greetings and welcome!

Yesterday was one nasty day. It was fairly mild but the rain and the wind and gloomy day reminded me of a winter storm. The rain just kept coming and coming and coming. Later in the storm there was a river of moisture coming up from the south and passing over us as heavy waves of rain. Radar returns estimated 1.-1.5″. automated rain gauges showed about 0.75-.8″. Locals with rain gauges estimated 1.25-1.5″.

Through my (somewhat unrealistic)  lens of what would this storm be about if it came in December/Jan/Feb/March, it would have still been mostly rain. The low pressure area tracked too far west and we were on the warm wet side of the storm.

The Peshtigo River jumped up quickly from the rain and is now at a 21 year high for this date. The mean flow over that time period is 323cfs (about a 0″ or +1″) and it is running at 1010cfs about +14″. There have been quite a few kayakers taking advantage of the fall weather and high water.

The wild winds have been hard on our fall color show. There are mostly oaks and late season species on display. We are well past the peaks.

We have a cooler than normal week ahead with high temps mostly in the mid-40s and lows from the mid-20s to low 30s. We should see warmer weather for the weekend with temps well into the 50s.

I do not have any events other than the haunted house on Moonshine Hill Rd and Camp 10 Rd and the corn Maze on Nejedlo Rd a little south of Wausaukee. I have a hunch that there is at least one more event this weekend. I will watch for ads and posters.

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

Thursday 10-17-19

Greetings and welcome!

Mother Nature has not been playing nice lately. Our rain Tuesday added up to about 3/4″ according to the USGS gauge by Kosir’s. I wonder if it wasn’t more than that, the Peshtigo River bounced up from about a +8″ to about a +13″ today. What didn’t show up on the gauge was the little mist and passing showers since the storm that kept the weather unpleasant.

That storm also brought some very strong winds. I would guess that right after the storm we saw 30+mph winds, and the wind was strong again yesterday. That did not do a lot of good for our fall color show, and it took down any loose early color leaves. The show is not over by any means. The mid and late season colors are in play now and the patchwork hillsides look pretty nice.

I made good use of the bad weather finishing up my taxes (4 days!), working, and addressing emergencies. Today I am finally having a Ray day. So far it has been domestics and web site stuff, but I am headed outside to play this afternoon. With the temperature finally hitting 50 and the strong winds subsiding it is actually nice enough outside to tackle some outdoor fall chores. At the top of the list is firewood. I have about 1/2 cord cut/split/stacked out of an expected 7 cords. With daylight savings and November right around the corner I am in high gear with that. The heating season has started and the wood shed is pretty bare from last winter.

Very high on my list today is cleaning my chimney. I am a bit of a freak about that, but in 20 years of heating my house with wood I have never had a chimney fire. I typically will do it 3+ times a year, and sometimes 4x if I am burning green or wet wood. It is cheap insurance.

I have not had time to scout out events for the weekend. Right now off of the top of my head the Snowmobile USA show is in Milwaukee this weekend. The Haunted house on Camp 10 & Moonshine Hill Rd is open on Friday and Saturday nights, and the corn maze & punkin patch on Nejedlo Rd just south of Wausaukee is open.

The noon news on TV just showed a graphic for the NOAA long term outlook for winter. It showed equal chances of above or below normal temperatures and a 70% chance of above normal snow. You may have seen that I have predicted a snowy winter both here and on the Big Snow Page. The weather lady also pointed out that not all storms would be all snow. I am right on board with that too in my predictions.

A couple of follow-ups.. Those decks that I needed to get stained before winter just are not going to happen. Even with 4 days in a row without rain last week they were still much too wet to stain. The wood was so saturated that staining it would have just made a big mess.

The cell phone booster project was a fail too. I was so busy that I didn’t get back to that for a few weeks. When I did the cheap booster that I bought did not work at all. I tried 3 different installations and the box just was not putting anything out at all. I tried it at a friend’s house with a weak signal outside and no signal inside of the metal shed. Nothing at all. Was the box bad? Was the coax bad? I’m not sure. It seemed like a very nice booster, I think that I just got a bad one. I will be coming back to this soon. I am pretty sure that I can boost a signal without getting the $400 WeBoost/Wilson Electronics booster, and doing that would help a lot of people.

Well I am off to go and get dirty. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Saturday 10-12-19

First snowflakes in Silver Cliff!

Greetings and welcome!

We had a storm hit us late this week that brought some rain but it also brought a drop in temperatures. A couple of days ago it was almost 70 outside. Today we are in the 40s.

Last night we had our first low temperatures in the 30s. The TV said that Wabeno hit 31. I did not see any signs of frost on the ground or windshield this morning so it was not a very hard frost or freeze.

This afternoon the radar was showing some patchy areas of snow over us. Several trips to the window found no snow falling. As of 4pm it was snowing but it is too light to photograph. The radar shows more on the way. We could actually see a little white grass or slushy car hoods if the storm gets a little carried away.

Fall colors- In my opinion the colors peaked Thursday. It was beautiful just about anywhere. Mother nature decided that it would be a short show. Friday’s rain and wind took some leaves down. Today we had 30+mph winds that took more. There will be fall color for a while yet, but some are on the way out.

RJB

Tuesday 10-8-19

Greetings and welcome!

I am not going to spend a lot of time here because it is not raining outside and it will soon be over 50 degrees. At this time of year I need every hour outside that I can muster when the weather is nice.

The two main topics today are the weather and the fall colors. Let’s start with the fall colors.

It has been a strange year for our foliage. Spring greening seemed to come about two weeks late. The fall colors are having a strange year too. The early colors came later than usual, and the later colors are not here yet.

We had some wind Sunday and Monday that took down some leaves from the very earliest colors. The sumac are pretty well gone along with some maples. At the same time some of the trees that are glorious in the fall are still in pretty much full green. The patchwork hillsides are kind of there but not really in their full glory yet.

The TV showed a graphic that we are right on the line between some color and peak color. I am not sure what to think about that, it seems like there are multiple peaks of color, and this year it is stretched out a little. One thing that I am sure of is that there is still a lot of fall color to come.

It finally stopped raining. Sunday was supposed to be a nice day but our fickle weather still managed a few passing showers and some mist. Yesterday was just plain a nice fall day. Today we have sun and could see the mid or upper 60s. The nice weather should last through most of Thursday.

We have not had our first frost or first snowflakes yet this fall. Both could come over the weekend. There is a storm coming late week that seems like a season changer. Today, Wednesday and Thursday we are looking at nice days with high temperatures in the mid to upper 60s. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we are looking at high temperatures in the low to mid-40s and lows close to freezing. The rain is expected Thursday through Saturday night, and there is a decent chance that the rain will be snow or a mix toward the end of the storm. Our first frost seems likely over the weekend.

It is one of my little beliefs that the first snow can come anytime around October 10^th. It looks like that is on track again this year. I am not sure if it will add up to minor accumulations or just be a sloppy rain but it wouldn’t shock me to see some white grass. It is a little early in the week to do more than guess.

Today I am going to make a first visit to the firewood yard in quite a while. I have been incredibly busy with work and other people’s stuff and have not cut the first stick of wood yet. I am probably going to want to move that up the priority list a little. The daytime temperatures have been ok, but I have been running the wood burner at night. If we are going to have high temperatures in the low 40s that will likely change, so chop chop.

There were some kayakers around last weekend paddling the Peshtigo River. That is still well above normal, and over the weekend they found river levels in the +11 to +12” range. This morning it is down to about a +8”.

We have some events this weekend. In Crooked Lake there is an Octoberfest Saturday. The Ranger City Riders are having a fall color ATV/UTV ride in Amberg Saturday. The Near North Riders are having a brat fry at the Nimrod in Athelstane Saturday. I think that there might be a fall thing going on in Lakewood this weekend, but I haven’t seen an ad for it in the paper or on the Oconto Co website. Not sure about that one, my travels have not taken me that way in a while.

There is a weekend Haunted house on Camp 10 & Moonshine hill Rd through October, and the Corn Maze & Pumpkins on Nejedlo Rd just west of 141 (Just south of Wausaukee) is open.

That pretty much wraps it up for me for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB