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