November 2020

Thursday November 19th, 2020

Greetings and welcome!

This weekend is the opening of the 9 day gun deer season in Wisconsin. From all indications that I have it will busier than it has been in past years.

Last weekend was unusually busy around here. Part of it was that Michigan’s deer season opened last weekend. Part of it was likely people coming around here getting things ready for this weekend.

People are obviously getting a head start. When I tried to use my Verizon based internet this morning before 7am it was already slow. At 8am it was worse than dial-up. That means that a lot of people are already here. That also means that we are probably in for a weekend where cell phone based internet is completely useless (like Cellcom & Verizon).

This week got colder than our delightful 70 degree weather a week or so ago. Ponds started getting ice again and the ground started freezing. Small ponds skinned all of the way over, bigger ones had ice along the shoreline. That is a big change from last year.

Something else to be aware of is that we had significant wind and rain earlier this week. The winds howled pretty good. The rain I would estimate at 1-2 inches.

That brings me to my next topic, all of the water that we have. Be prepared for lowlands to be flooded. It has been an extremely wet year and lowlands and swamps are full to overflowing. That spot where the ground is always soft is probably under a foot or two of water. Rivers and creeks are going to be well above normal. The Peshtigo River normally runs at about 300CFS today. Right now it is at 850CFS, solidly a foot above normal.

The weather for this deer season looks to be very seasonal. Expect high temperatures in the mid-30s and lows in the low 20s. There is a minor chance of rain or snow Sunday, and a storm for next Tuesday that could bring 1-3 or 2-4″ of snow. There is no snow on the ground right now.

Here are some posters about the bake sale and thanksgiving buffets.

There are also Thanksgiving buffets at Rapids Resort and at Nimrod’s.

In other local news.. It is true that Dollar General is building a store at Hwy X and Kottke Rd. Hwy X takes a jog south at the old Tommy’s Corner Pub and mile or so later to jogs west at a stop sign. That is the corner where the Dollar General will be. There is a gas station and convenience store on that corner now. Coming from the west, it is probably 3 miles east of Popp’s Resort where the stop sign is and X turns north.

I saw a notice the the Trillium in the Woods (The Woods) restaurant and banquet facility is closing temporarily on December 1st. They will still have banquets there but they have cut back daily hours until the world figures out how this COVID thing is going to work out.

On the flip side of that, there is a new place opening up in the old Brown Jug bar in Athelstane called Barrel House North. They have a lot of different kinds of beer and an ambitious menu including char broiled sandwiches and smoked offerings like brisket, ribs, and pulled pork. Good luck to them. Here is a link to their FaceBook page.

Oconto Co ATV trails closed November 1st. Marinette Co is still open, but they advise against recreational riding during deer hunting season for obvious reasons. They left the trails open because a lot of people use ATVs to get to and from hunting spots.

That is it for today. Have a good deer season and be careful.

RJB

Friday November 13, 2020

Greetings and welcome!

Friday the 13th in 2020? Great.

I skipped last Friday’s update because it was 70 degrees outside. We had about a week in the 70s, which was 15-20 degrees above normal. After October being 15-20 degrees below normal and windy and rainy, I had a month of outside work to do in a week.

The nice weather brought some oddities. One was the lady beetles in November. The next one caught me by surprise. For several days the roads were all wet even though it had not rained. My guess is that the frost was coming out of the ground and the moisture was condensation like you get on the outside of a glass with a cold liquid in it.

Small ponds had skinned over with ice and that was long gone by the end of the week. Last year you could walk a little way out on the ice on the lakes.

The nice weather broke earlier this week and the big change was announced by a couple of inches of rain. The USGS gauge by Kosir’s has been winterized, and I didn’t catch the radar estimates, so I am down to guessing. I would put it at about 2-3 inches. Right now the Peshtigo River is running at almost 1,200CFS, much beyond its normal flow of about 300CFS. I would guess it to be at about a +16.

Ditches and low lands are very full of water. Between the wet October and the big rain at the beginning of the week the whole area is well saturated with water. People planning on hunting swampy areas might be surprised by how much water that there is.

Yesterday got into the low 40s. It was a shock after the 70 degree weather. Last night it started raining after sunset. Eventually that rain turned to big goose down flakes. There is a layer of white on the grass this morning. The sun has eaten some of it. It did melt on contact with the sidewalk. so roads are likely just wet.

I have not looked into a deer hunting week forecast  yet.

Work is calling so time to run along. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB