Greetings and welcome!
Just a couple of quick updates..
First of all we have freeze warnings out for tonight. Bring those new garden plants inside or at least cover them up. You know my advice… don’t plant until June 10th or you WILL get bit by frost.
Item #2 I missed an event for this weekend- Motocross racing at Pine Ridge Raceway on Deer Lake Rd.
The bands at Rustic this weekend are local boys Bullets & Booze Band Saturday and Killer Clowns Sunday. Both start at 7pm.
RJB
Greetings and welcome!
We have a mostly clear 80 degree day going on today. There is a little bit of wind but nothing too troublesome.
The green explosion is slowly going off. Most trees are getting full with leaves. The color pallet of the different new green leaves is very pretty on hillsides and valleys. The ferns started unrolling their fiddleheads this week and some are turning into real plants. The cherry trees and flowering crab trees are in spectacular bloom.
The trillium are a different story. Around here and between here and about Amberg they are just getting started. When I went to Wabeno yesterday I found a much different story. About the time that I crossed into Forest County it was like walking through a doorway. The woods and roadsides were just littered with trillium blooms.
I expect that the major trillium bloom will spread east and we have some scenic beauty coming here any day now.
We have been getting a lot of smoke from Canadian wildfires over the past week. That has made for some very strange sunsets with the reddish brown haze. That isn’t going away any time soon.
We currently have high fire danger here. That isn’t going to get any better by the weekend. There is a strong cold front coming through tonight, but not much rain is expected. After that the next rain that I see on the GFS forecast model is June 1st, a week from Thursday. It will be plenty dry by then. I would not be surprised to see high or very high fire danger for this coming weekend.
ATV/UTV riders will want to remember their dust masks. The forest roads and trails are plenty dusty right now.
Our wet spring has come back to haunt us. The mosquitoes are incredible right now. Forget the lawyers, guns, and money, send Repel. This is the stuff that I use. Repel Sportsmen Max 40. I know that a lot of people don’t like DEET. I don’t either. Sometimes it is just a good idea to suck it up and spray. When I took the sunset picture it took about 2 minutes to drive us back into the car. https://www.amazon.com/Repel-Sportsmen-Aerosol-Insect-Repellent/dp/B07DNKF34T/
There are an assortment of other bugs, gnats, midges, and so on. No big deal. The gators (mosquitoes) are the star of the show today. Maybe I should start calling them sky piranhas.
Those will get a lot better soon. The dry weather will limit future hatches. The bats are starting to do their job, they eat their body weight in bugs every night. Soon the dragonflies will hatch and start their feast. For now bring Repel.
The deer along the roads have become more scarce. Their food sources in the woods are coming into play and they don’t need to be up by roads. They are also getting into fawning season. I haven’t seen one yet but they will be having fawns any day now. You still need to watch for deer along the roads, but it isn’t insane like it was a couple of weeks ago.
Last night I was sitting on the back porch at sunset and just digging the quiet and the sounds of nature. I sure wish that I could bottle that.
I have some events this weekend and there are likely more that I don’t know about yet.
Saturday- The Crivitz Museum will be hosting a Craft/Vendors Show and Flea Market on May 27th the Saturday of Memorial Weekend. $15 for a 25×20 lot. 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Vendors can set up at 7:00 a.m. The fee will be collected during the event. No need to register, just show up. We have plenty of room.
The Crivitz Museum is right behind McDonalds.
Sunday there is a memorial service followed by a picnic at the Silver Cliff Memorial Picnic Grounds. I have conflicting information on times and I will have to track that down. I believe that the service is at 10 and the picnic to follow at about 11.
Parkway Inn is having a HUGE bluegrass music festival Saturday and Sunday with the pre-party Friday night. They have two stages with about 20 music acts and a lot of acts that I have heard of.
There are a ton of bars that are having live music this weekend. I could spend all day tracking them down and still miss some so you are on your own there. I know that Rapids and Rustic are having live music. Lil Tipsy’s in Townsend is having a big name act. After that places like Uncle Mikes, Woody’s, and others will be having entertainment.
There memorial services in Crivitz, Middle Inlet, Amberg, and most other towns. Remember WHY we have this holiday.
Gas companies are in the habit of cranking up gas prices for the holiday weekend. I paid $3.39 in Carter yesterday. The TV said that it could go to $3.50 or maybe a little beyond.
I saw on TV yesterday morning that the AAA said that it would be the busiest Memorial Day weekend in 20 years. They didn’t tell us WHY they though that, but that is their story. Of course I wish everyone to be safe and have a great weekend, but OK, lets have a little fun with that.
From Facebook..
And my favorite..
That’s all fun and games but please be safe in your travels. The cabin will still be there if you get there 15 minutes later because of traffic.
One final thought.. The grass needs cutting. I have held off because of No Mow May, a plan to let the beneficial bugs and pollinators that live in the long grass and leaf litter emerge. It is time now to get cutting.
I am off to do just that. Mr John Deere is in for a workout today.
Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Greetings and welcome!
We have been having some nice weather lately with temperatures getting up into the 70s. We are dry though.. very dry. Fire danger is very high, and some days approaching critical.
I think that the dry conditions have slowed down the green explosion a little but it is definitely here and it is going off. A lot of the trees are getting leaves, and from a distance the various shades of new green leaves are almost as interesting as the fall colors. The dandelions and marsh marigolds are out, and the first trillium bloomed this week. In fertile spots the grass needs cutting, in most of my yard it doesn’t yet but it will soon.
The bugs… Golly. I have been fortunate here and haven’t had the swarms of gnats and mosquitoes yet, but driving around has left the car a mess. They are out and plentiful. Likewise I haven’t had a tick yet but others are reporting that their dogs are coming back with them. It is time to get the Nexguard or Frontline for the fur-faces and some Repel for us humans. For my border collie I use the Nexguard chewables and they seem to work pretty good. I wish that they had that for people.
As mentioned before it is now very dry and fire danger is very high. Yesterday we had very low humidity and winds gusting up to 28mph and fire danger was near critical. There is some rain possible for Thursday night and Friday. Hopefully it is a lot and we have reasonable fire danger for the weekend. I am sure that the folks that ride the ATV trails will appreciate the dust not being quite so bad.
The rivers have returned to a much more normal level. Trout streams are again viable. For whitewater rafting the Peshtigo River is at about a +5″, still well into the fun zone.
The area has been getting a lot busier in the past week. Mother’s Day held some people back last weekend, but traffic is picking up this week. It took several minutes to make a left turn out of the Pig grocery store in Crivitz yesterday afternoon. I expect a very busy weekend this weekend. Some years it seems like the weekend before Memorial Day is as busy or busier than the holiday weekend.
When I was in Crivitz yesterday the gas prices were as low as $3.23 and as high as $3.39. An article that I read yesterday said that gas prices were being held down by ample inventories. I like that. They haven’t had an excuse to put the $0.25-0.50/gallon Memorial Day gas gouge yet, but they usually find a way.
People are getting excited about gardening. It happens every year. My experience is that you don’t plant outdoor plants before June 10th or there is a very good chance that frost will get them. Here we are. Last night got down to 28 degrees. I was walking through the garage and considered putting the last snowblower into storage, and yeah, maybe it is time for that, but I won’t be putting in tomatoes or peppers for another two weeks.
The deer have finally backed off from the roads. They are still present and still a danger, but most are finding enough food in the woods to avoid the roadside danger. I did see a FaceBook post yesterday that someone saw the first fawn of the year. That seems a little early but it is almost that time.
The black bears are out and about, and thanks to restrictive hunting regulations, quite plentiful. Diane and I saw a Momma bear and two one year old cubs along the road yesterday. You will want to be very careful with food if you are camping and bird feeders if you have a cabin. The berries and grubs that they usually eat are not available just yet and they are hungry from hibernation, so they are quite willing to tap human sources like coolers and bird feeders.
I looked ahead to Memorial Day weekend on the 16 day GFS forecast model. It does not look like any organized storms at this point, but there will be some rain possible from the typical summer afternoon thunderstorm. At 10 days out that has all of the credibility of a northern Wisconsin tavern fishing story, but I had to look. As always be ready for any turn of the weather.
We joke about that around here. You know that a guy is a local by looking in his trunk. He has shorts, long pants, a sweatshirt, a jacket, a snowmobile suit, an umbrella, and some Repel. That’s just the summer kit…
On that note I am off to embrace the day. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Greetings and welcome!
Here we are on May 10th and the green explosion has not gone off yet. Shocking, amazing, surprising!
There was a horticulturist guy on TV this morning that said that our late greening of the land was because the soil temperature was too cold. He explained that the soil temp needed to be above 40 degrees for stuff to really grow. We had that stretch of 80s for a week that got things started, but then we has snow and 10 days of cold that locked it right down.
When I was out walking the dog yesterday I was surprised that we weren’t farther along. The trees have their very first leaves emerging from the buds, but they are very tiny. Some of the soft hardwoods like cottonwoods are starting to fill in leaves, but they are the leaders of that. The grass is greening up nicely. The dogwoods and cherry trees are now in bloom. Where is the rest of the plant kingdom?
We had a 76 degree day yesterday and most of the week looks like it will hold similar temperatures. That should get things moving. I would expect big changes in the days ahead.
The ATV trails open this weekend. A few people have been around riding the roads, which is legal, but the trails don’t open until Saturday. I would normally expect a crazy busy weekend for opening weekend, but it is Mother’s Day this Sunday. That may cut into it a little. If I were still in the bar business I’d still be ready for a busy weekend.
I took the Mrs for a ride up in the northern county forests last week to see how spring is progressing. I now understand why the ATV trails don’t open until this weekend. Some of those roads were still a little muddy with frost-out mud and a couple were a little dicey in spots. After this week all but the most sheltered spots will have firm ground. We did find a couple of places that were deep enough forest and so sheltered that they still held snow.
There are no upcoming events that I have seen for this weekend other than some Mother’s Day buffets. The Sportsman’s Cafe has one that seems reasonably priced compared to the others.
The nice weather has me working like a mad man on my outdoor stuff. I have a new to me RV that I am trying to whip into shape, the house, cars, and lawn mowers all need love, as does the pontoon boat. One of my goals is to get the small fishing boat into shape and actually go fishing during the bass and panfish spawning seasons. In my 22 years here I have made that once. May is always so busy that I just never get there. As I have said 21 times… this year is GONNA be different… We will see..
The one thing that has changed with the spring is that our wonderful variety of song birds are back. People are reporting seeing the gross beaks, orioles, hummingbirds, and I saw a pair of goldfinches chasing around the other day.
The deer are still common along the roadsides but it isn’t completely nuts like it was for the past few weeks. As the green plants away from the roads grow more they will be less of a problem.
People on Facebook have been posting a lot of black bear pictures. They are out and they are hungry. There are no berries or grubs for them to eat yet, so bird feeders and garbage are their primary food source. Be wise about how you manage those or you will likely have visitors.
I am off to get the day under way. Have a great week and thank you for visiting!
RJB