Uncategorized

Friday September 16th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

We have a cool and wet day outside today. We had a pretty good double storm come through Wednesday and Wednesday night that left well over an inch of rain (1.3″ in my pan). With occasional showers, it is still soggy outside.

There is a little more rain possible later today and overnight, but after that the weekend should be good for weather. We will see a little below normal temps. Our normal hi/lo is 67/45. Today we should be around 63/45.  Saturday looks like clouds and 60/40 for temps. Sunday again looks 60/40, but partly cloudy. It is not a bad weekend for opening of all of the hunting seasons. The woods should be quiet to walk in with the wet forest floor.

The fall colors are not too far along yet right here at the house. There are splashes of yellow, but the big show is yet to come. The trees between here and Wabeno were farther along than that last week already, so I would expect some areas to have some color. I haven’t traveled too much since our last visit, and just don’t know.

Here are some events for the weekend..

There is also a meeting of the Bear Point Sno-Cruisers snowmobile club. From Slug–

The Annual meeting of Bear Point Sno-Cruisers is at Newingham’s Saturday September 18 in Wausaukee at 1:00. This is your last chance to be a charter member. One of the things that means is your a founding member and you have a special number you keep as long as you renew each year. Let a friend know. After this weekend you can still be a member for sure but not a charter one. Lunch is up to each person bills will be separate for each to pay on their own. We will have samples of clothing to look at but waiting for venders to give us quoits for apparel. We need to be able to order one or two pieces at at time but still get a fair price. Sorry but we are a young club not much money in the kitty to order a quantity to have on hand. Look us up on  www.silvercliff.com then go on the big snow page. We look forward to seeing you and having some good conversations. We will have guests with some interesting things to talk about. THINK SNOW SLUG

Note that the Kolorama Kickoff did move to the Lakewood Zoo this year. Also noteworthy, you could win an ATV in the Near North Raffle.

I do have a new resident. The hole I dug for the septic guy quickly became a den for something that burrowed into the side of it. The hole is easily a foot across and pretty deep. Groundhog? Porkie? Badger? Skunk? I don’t know, I haven’t spotted it yet. I am going to check tracks in a little while and come up with an eviction strategy. It might be an interesting afternoon. (Honey, do we have any tomato juice?)

That is about it from here. Have a good weekend and good luck hunting!

RJB

Tuesday September 14th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

I am getting an early start this morning because I will be up early and out working.

It is firewood season and I rented a splitter. I got a nice start on it yesterday, but I still have a lot of wood to split before I take the splitter back. I figure that I am about halfway on the oak, and there is probably almost that much basswood and maple left to split.

It doesn’t look like much but to put it in perspective, the stanchions on the right are  5′ wide and 6′ tall, and the pile goes back a ways, easily 15′.

I surprised myself a couple of times yesterday. One was that the load last week that I thought was so huge, actually was. It took 3 1/2 hours to split just that load. The other part is how much 16″ plus diameter oak I managed to stockpile early in spring. Four hours of splitting did not cover half of it.

It is a happy sore, since I appreciate both the wood and the exercise. Like I am fond of saying, firewood is the health club of the north.

It is a cold night tonight. The NWS says that we could hit upper 30s or low 40s. We have the low 40s. Tomorrow night looks a good bit colder. The NWS is looking for 32-37 and areas of frost.

The week ahead looks like it will mostly be on the cool side with highs around 60. The best chances for rain come about Wednesday night and again on Friday & Friday night. The weekend looks nice, again with a hi/lo of about 60/40ºF. Our normal hi/lo in Rhinelander is 68/46.

The fall colors are under way. A trip to Wabeno a few days ago on C found a lot of trees already starting to turn colors. Some were still drab as the green left the leaves, some were starting the color show. It is here, but still early in the show.

In addition to being a wood splitting madman this week, I have a couple of projects coming up with making the Internet go a little farther. In one case I need to shoot WiFi about 600′ between buildings. No problem. I can supposedly send it over 10 miles with the right equipment.

Likewise there are a few customers with weak cell and OTA Internet signals, and I have solutions for that. I will be out doing site surveys and getting equipment set up for that mid-week.

In critter sightings.. There was a small buck and a lot of does spotted since our last visit. They are obviously starting to play in the road a little more. Also seen along the road was a small bear, a lot of turkeys, a few squirrels, and a fair number of dove and grouse. The coyotes have been sounding off a lot this week.

Which reminds me.. we have a lot of hunting seasons opening up this weekend. Chances are that you know about that if you care. If not I will refer you to my post on it a week ago and to the WI DNR site.

The Bear Point Sno-Cruisers Snomobile Club will be having their first annual meeting at Bear Point Yacht Club this coming Saturday. You can still sign up for the club and be a first year charter member, but tick tock, year two starts Saturday.

In addition to the business of the meeting, there will be a good bit of socializing and getting reacquainted with our snowmobiling friends. It should be a good time. I know Chris is looking forward to it. The calendar is cleared. Car and health willing, we will be there.

Here are more events from Chris’s event calendar..

I recall seeing a poster that the Kolorama Kickoff was moved to the Lakewood Zoo. I will want to get verification on that.

Events coming up that probably aren’t on the list are a hayride poker run with Thorntons 10/3, a lawn mower poker run with Twin Bridge 9/21, a horse ride in Mountain 9/25, and the indoor mini-golf at the bars & resorts around the flowages area, date TBA, but it will probably be early or mid-October.

The Shindig in the Pines bluegrass festival at Pine Acres Resort is coming up soon too, watch for details.

One last note, gas prices jumped 20-30 cents a gallon in the past few days. From what I read, they had a pipeline problem in IL. No big deal until that pipeline supplies two of the major regional refineries that make our gas.

The price jump will tighten up demand temporarily while they get a grip on the situation and start making gas again. It should not be a long term hike for the pipeline issue, but it is still hurricane season, and almost time to start the change to winter blends, so all bets are off on gas prices.

That is about it for this morning. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday September 9th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

Did anyone else catch the last moments of last night’s sunset? It was epic. I was driving home and heading west and noticed a little pink on the undersides of the clouds. Cool stuff. I came into a clearer area, and the cloud formations and sun lighting were doing grand things with pink orange and blues. There were thin spots in some of the clouds that between the back light and the under lighting, came out a very unusual shade of aquamarine. It was quite a grand display. Naturally I got home about 3 minutes after the show was over, so there are no pics.

The weather for the weekend looks like a 50/50 deal. Friday night and Saturday we are expecting a storm to bring a little rain. The models are in good agreement on the timing and quantity, which all have in the 0.25-0.5″ range. Sunday looks clear and about 70. Friday and Sunday look great, Friday night and Saturday bring a chance of rain.

I don’t have any new events, so here is  a copy n paste from Tuesday’s update..

For the snowmobilers among us, this is also the weekend of Hay Days, the big grass drags and huge swap meet in Minnesota. It is the “Official start of the snowmobile season”.

Yesterday was the official start of the firewood season for me. I brought home a couple of nice 18″ diameter oaks that was a fine haul. The truck & trailer were both heavy with big wood, probably a lot more than they should have had. Hey I was on a roll. Today I am on a mission to locate some Ibuprofin, but it is a happy/proud sore. I made a lot of wood yesterday, and I wish that I could go back today.

I was out there working hard and I was thinking that it was about the perfect day for it. It was 65 & partly cloudy with a little wind, and I could work hard with minimal sweat and overheating. The thing that set me on that course of thought was that there were no bugs. There were no gnats flying into my eyes, ears & nose, no gators biting me, no ticks climbing my leg.  September rocks.

I did not find the paper wasps that I expected to find in the oaks. It was only two trees, hardly a big sample, but they would have been prime for nests with the peeling bark. It could be that the early May snowstorm and cold snap killed off a lot of them the way that it did the frogs in my pond.

Well, it is a very nice day outside, so I am off to dive into it. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

ATV Trail Update-Updated

Greetings and welcome!

We got an e-mail from Carole at Jungle Jim’s this morning about the ATV trail.

The ATV trail between Jungle Jim’s and Brandywine Lane has been closed for the hunting seasons.

This year they got permission on a 12 week trial basis to have the trail temporarily run on Parkway Rd (I). You can ride from where the trail crosses Parkway Road by the big parking area, down to the trail by Jungle Jim’s & the BP.

You will want to ride on the road, not in the ditch.**

** In addition to staying off of private property by staying on the road, the ditch is full of hidden stumps. The county has been clearing the sides of the road in preparation of a widening and resurface project. The weeds in the ditch are hiding a forest of 6-18″ high stumps. Don’t go there.

Anyway, there is a trail reroute on a popular segment of trail. Very recently they got permission on a trial basis to have a detour down Parkway between Fox Hill and C.

TYVM Carole!

RJB

Updated.. Chris made a map for it on the Crivitz Recreation web site. http://www.crivitzrecreation.com/re-route.jpg