2021

Thursday May 6th, 2021

Greetings and welcome!

My apologies for not updating recently. I have been a very busy boy. Put it this way.. I have already tripled the amount of hours that I worked last month and the month isn’t over.

Anyway.. Spring came early this year. The grass is green and growing and the cherry trees and dandelions are blooming. The grass will get cut for the first time next week. A lot of years we are just starting to see the great greening of the land about now. This year we are about 2 weeks ahead of normal by my estimation.

So far it has been a fairly bug free spring. We all know that will change soon. I did run into some pesky gnats last week near Crivitz. I have not seen my first mosquito or wood tick yet though some people have found ticks on their dogs. Again we know that will change soon.

It is amazing to see spring come on so fast. Usually the trees don’t have leaves yet. Most have emerging leaves. The cherry trees are in bloom and putting on a nice show.

The deer and turkeys are very active up by the roads. Be careful there. I drove about 5 miles the other evening and saw at least a dozen deer and had to hit the brakes at least three times. The turkeys have been fanning out and strutting for a couple of weeks now.

The temperatures have been above normal enough that I have to assume that the lakes and fishing are well ahead of normal too. I recall years where we weren’t sure if the ice would be out on the lakes by the first weekend in May opening of fishing. That sure isn’t this year. The ice was gone weeks ahead of time and it wasn’t even remotely a concern.

The weather has been a little crazy. It is common recently to run the air conditioner and furnace on the same day. For the short term we are in the cold side of that, running about 10 degrees below our normal high temperature of about 60. We have likely frost and freezes ahead for the next four or five days. We have had our first 80 degree day.

It is tempting to get outside and start gardening. I learned my lesson on that one the first 10 years that I lived here. Now my rule is that unless you can bring it inside or cover it up don’t plant it until at least June 10th. I even got burned (frozen) a few times using the June 10 rule. It is typical to have our last freeze in late May.

When it does come time to plant there is a greenhouse across from the Tall Oaks General Store that some friends started up. I will have more info soon on that.

Real estate and building have been going crazy lately. The place around the corner sold in less than a week and that is a common story in this area. It isn’t surprising with interest rates low and huge inflationary pressure on the US dollar.

Building would be going crazy if lumber prices hadn’t tripled and beyond. There is a lot of construction going on still, but people like me have sidelined building projects until lumber prices come back down to earth. Fifteen dollars for a 2×6 stud? That should be a $4 board. Forty eight dollars for a sheet of 1/2″ OSB? Ummmm. No. I had a project planned for this summer that should have cost about $1,500. Now it is north of five grand. Yeah.. I’ll pass. I settled for some paint projects, and the paint was $200 for a 5 gallon bucket. Wow.

Fire danger has been an off and on thing. The dry vegetation from last year and spring winds have combined to give us some high fire danger days. The rains would usually come before it got more than a few days of high fire danger. That should improve as stuff greens up more.

Well it is time to go to work. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

4-13-21 ATV Trails Open 4-23 & 4-24 Weather Permitting

Some nice folks sent me this to share with you. Thanks!!

Monday 4-12-2021-Updated

Update- They weren’t cherry trees they were some sort of pussy willow.

Item #2- PeshFest is this weekend at Kosir’s.

Friday:
Augie’s Blues Experiment- Live music

Saturday:
 Commercial raft trips at 10:00am and 1:00pm
Kayak race registration ends at 10:00am
 Kayak race starts at noon in flat water above first drop (at Red Bull buoy).
 Raft race shuttles start at 3:00pm
 Awards at 7:00pm
 Music to follow

Greetings and welcome!

Last week was one of big changes.

First up we went from very high fire danger to pretty much daily rain. I think that three or four nights last week had thunderstorms, and we are not talking about a quick line of storms. These put on a good show for a long time and left a lot of rain. It rained more yesterday and we have more light rain today.

Now all of the lakes, rivers, and streams are quite swollen. The small streams are running fast and are full to their banks. The Peshtigo River where they do the whitewater rafting is at a +24″ a very rockin’ level. If one were to raft today you would be anything but bored.

The changes in the past week to the plant kingdom was amazing. The grass is starting to green up pretty noticeably, and many trees have their first leaf buds. I’d swear that I saw the first white cherry blooms a few days ago, but I was driving by and I want to go back and take another look at that. It sure seems like the great greening of the land is coming early this year. I fully expect to be cutting grass before Memorial Day this year.

Talking to a friend this morning he brought up the danger that goes along with the early greening. If trees and plants start blooming early the blooms are in danger of getting bitten by some late spring frost or even freezes. If I were a cherry or apple orchard owner I’d be a little nervous right now.

Likewise, once the rain stops it will be tempting to go out and start working on planting gardens and flowers. I learned that lesson the hard way repeatedly. I don’t plant anything that I can’t move indoors before June 10th. Even using the June 10th rule I have been bitten by frost and freezes a few times.

Also early this year is the emergence of the insect kingdom. I have seen my first moths and spiders, and many people have reported the first wood and deer ticks. I haven’t seen the ticks yet myself, but enough people are reporting them on FaceBook that it won’t be a surprise. It wouldn’t bother me if the ticks got frozen out. I have not seen my first gator (mosquito) yet.

There are a lot of critters taking advantage of the early spring. The bears have been out of their dens for a couple of weeks. I have heard geese flying north and have heard sand hill cranes. There are a variety of returning songbirds. The deer are up by the roads getting the first green shoots of grass. The squirrels must be in their mating season because I have seen a lot of them very active, and quite a few that became road pizza as they ran out in front of cars. I am not sure why the squirrels and chippies do that but my theory is that it is a show of bravery for potential mates. I have been seeing a lot of turkeys up by the road, and quite a few toms fanning out and displaying for the ladies.

I heard that Forest Co has opened ATV trails but I have not verified it myself. Oconto and Marinette Counties remain closed. All of the rain will help to take the frost out of the ground faster, but as long as it is soft and muddy the trails can’t open. I would not be surprised to see trails open early this year, but we have to wait until we get the official OK before riding. Some people did violate, and the clubs and the DNR would like to catch them and give them a memorable ticket.

The ATV trails on the Marinette County roads are not open until May 1st. Some towns allow ATVs on town roads before the trails open. The Town of Silver Cliff DOES NOT allow road use before the trails open. (PDF Link) The Town of Stephenson does allow road travel. (Link) You can look up other town ordinances the same way to see if your town roads are open.

Well work is calling so it is time for me to call it a day here. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday 4-2-2021

Greetings and welcome!

It has been a fairly chilly week this week. Spring is here, but it has been slow to warm up. Thursday morning we got down to 14 and Friday morning we got down to 12.

This weekend will be a much different story. Saturday looks beautiful with sunny and 64º and only 5-7mph winds. Sunday looks about the same with a high of 60 and a little more wind. After that we are expecting a warm week, but there is a chance of showers almost daily.

With the nice weekend it will be tempting to do some yard clean-up and some burning. Be very careful burning. We have an elevated risk of fire danger today with low humidity, the ever present wind, and all of the dry vegetation from last year. That fire risk will be present all weekend.

The grass has started to show a little bit of greening. It isn’t there yet, but the first hints of it are. That has brought the deer up onto the roadsides where they hope to graze on those first green shoots. They are spooky and will run out in front of you, of in my case, right into the side of the truck.

The ice is coming off of the lakes a little early this year. When I drove past Waubee Lake Tuesday it was about ½ open and the other half the ice was black, and not likely to survive the day. The cold night the past few night have set that back a little, but the ice will be no match for 60 and sunny with some wind.

The ground is drying up quite well in sunny areas. Very sheltered areas still hold a little snow and frost-out mud. ATV trails remain closed.

People have been reporting bear sightings for the past two weeks. Yes they have awakened from their hibernation. Watch your bird feeders and your food refuse.

This weekend is the opening of whitewater rafting at Kosir’s. They have a special this weekend where you can run both the morning and afternoon trips for the price of one trip. The river is wide open and ready to go. It is running at about a +7” or 561CFS. Not huge but not bad at all.

This weekend is also Easter weekend. There are Sunday Easter buffets at Hilltop Resort, Sportsman’s Cafe, Nimrod’s, and I think that I am missing one.

Like a lot of people, spring has me looking at building projects. Get ready for some sticker shock. When I looked at Menards a 2×6 92-5/8” stud is almost double what it usually is. I was expecting about $6 and they are at $11. Steel isn’t cheap either with basic roof steel at about $3 a foot. Ouch. I will likely be doing some high priority projects early but I might have to hold off on the bigger stuff until the lumber market calms down a little.

I have been looking into Starlink for satellite internet. It is in the beta phase and they let me know that I could be a beta tester. It is $99 up front and they will let you know when it is ready, probably later this summer. Once it is up and runninng I need to buy a $500 dish (+$50 shipping) and then it is $99 a month. People are reporting speed of 150+Mb.

It is a cool system with low orbit satellites that will have minimum latency and very high speeds. They are actively deploying satellites, and it looks like our area is pretty well covered. I was watching the live satellite tracker and it seems like there is never a satellite more than 300 miles away. Here is a link, take a look. The big long lines of them are the ones just deployed that haven’t found their place in the constellation yet.

I think that I am going to go for it. My Hughesnet is miserable and Centurylink won’t hook me up to DSL. Cell phone based internet works good until the weekends come and the towers get clogged tight. If Starlink works as well as expected I think that we will see a lot of people setting up remote offices around here. Many have tried, but poor internet choices have held them back. It would be pretty huge for the area if it works.

They have started digging for the new Quick Trip gas station in Crivitz, and they have ads looking for help. The word on the street is that they will be ready about August, but I have heard people talk about a sooner opening date.

I also saw that the Vacationland Fun Park across from the Sportsman’s Cafe on X near Popp’s has new owners and they hope to open in May. Good luck and best wishes.

That is about it for today. Have a great weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB