NorthernDestinations.com

Friday 7-14-2023

A couple of quick Friday updates..

The weather looks hit and miss for the weekend. The cut off low set up to the west of where I expected it. That means the possibility of some more wildfire smoke and occasional rain. The rain looks pretty hit and miss so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The past few days have been nice with an occasional shower.

We have some events this weekend.

The Paul Bunyan snowmobile club will be having a brat fry at the SuperValu store in Lakewood Saturday.

The Near North Trail Riders (snowmobile & ATV club).. “We’ll be having a Meat and More Raffle on Saturday, July 15, 2023 at Firelane Bar and Grill from 1:00pm to 4:00pm! All funds raised go directly into the trails and equipment. We’ll be doing a 50/50 raffle halfway through..”

The Rustic is having live music with Jason Albert Saturday night and a polka band Sunday afternoon. Ooom Paa Paa..

Have a great weekend and thank you for visiting!!

RJB

Tuesday 7-11-2023

Greetings and welcome!

I really wanted to update last week. I really really did. It was not a good week in Ray-land and I just couldn’t do it. I switched one of my servers over to a new ultra-fast cloud server setup. What they didn’t tell me was that it ran on a totally different operating system than I had never seen. It was very challenging getting all of the security into place web sites up and running again and it took my patience right to the outer limits.

At the same time I was rewiring my RV with a totally new battery bank, inverter and charger-converter setup. Between the four digit cost of that and the endless challenges wiring it in, I was in a fully foul mood by the end of the week. I just couldn’t bring myself to do an update with that much anger and fully exhausted patience. This is supposed to be a happy place. I am sorry for the lack of an update when so much was going on, but I just couldn’t do it.

Last night we had a big thunderstorm. Yesterday we were in the low 90s for temperatures. A cold front came through and today we are at a very comfortable 72. With a change that dramatic we were in for some dramatic weather. The storm hit at about 9:30pm with some wind, fitful downpours, and a really incredible lightning and thunder show. There was no severe weather associated with the frontal passage, so no worries there.

In the weather ahead I have to guess a little because the government weather forecasting servers are down. Apparently they supply my private forecasting sites too. From what I can tell a cut off low pressure area is going to set up camp to our east up in Canada and bring a chance of showers daily right through the weekend. We could sure use the rain. Temperatures though the period should be in the upper 70s to low 80s. There is a chance that the circulation of that cut off low could bring the Canadian wildfire smoke back. That totally depends on exactly where it sets up camp, so that remains in the ‘maybe’ column.

There is a lot of talk about gypsy moths and tent caterpillars lately. In areas that have them they have them bad. Driving up A from Crivitz you can see that the trees have been completely defoliated. It is very area specific. People are asking if the DNR is going to spray. The short answer is no. It is too late in the season for that. You are on your own.

For events this weekend we have the Lakewood Mardi Gras. That has grown into a big deal with, “Live music, carnival rides and games, a softball tournament, and more! Lakewood Mardi Gras parade on Sunday starting at noon!”

I am not aware of other events at the moment. There are always having live music at the local bars. Again it is too early to track all of those down.

I took a ride up to Lake X this week. I was happy to see that the clouds of mosquitoes had thinned out considerably and that there were a lot of dragonflies cleaning up the rest of them. That doesn’t bother me one bit. Hopefully I can finish up the upgrades on the RV and get the fishing boat in order and head up there soon. I am in serious need of some campfire and fishing boat time.

There is a chance of northern lights later this week. According to Space Weather (.com). There is a CME that will pass close to earth about Thursday night. The NASA model shows a glancing blow and the NOAA model is showing it missing the earth. Apparently this has made a lot of news and weather programs because people are asking about it. There is a chance, but I wouldn’t classify it as a good chance. The sky watchers that are into this sort of thing are skeptical. It would be great if it did hit. The northern lights are always cool to see.

With the rain last night it will be time to cut grass soon. The radar estimates ranged from 0.75″ to 1.5″ of rainfall. We have had it easy in the grass cutting department this year with the dry weather. Now that it had a nice rainfall and more on the way there will be some grass to cut soon.

I am off for today’s adventures. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday 6-30-2023

Greetings and welcome!

I have been absent for a few weeks but I’m back. Recently I have been either preparing for vacation, on vacation, or recovering from vacation. At the moment the focus is on the big holiday weekend.

The weather ahead looks hot and a little humid. Right now the forecast is for temps in the 80s except for Tuesday July 4th when we could go into the 90s. There is a little humidity expected too, hopefully nothing too tropical. There is a chance of typical pop-up summer thunderstorms, but nothing organized or predictable.

Staying cool by taking to the water is always a popular idea. Be aware that people are reporting swimmer’s itch in some local lakes like Noquebay and Little Newton. It has not been a problem at beaches on the flowages and on the rivers.

People are worried about the wildfire smoke from the Canadian wildfires. For the most part it hasn’t been too bad. Last Tuesday the weather and news people were all excited about it. The day turned out clear with very little smoke. Wednesday on the other hand was really bad. It was a deep haze that bothered your lungs and eyes. Since then it has not been bad at all. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

There are a lot of events coming up for the weekend. There are rummage sales far and wide. Almost every bar that has live music will be having players, mostly on Saturday night. Rapids, Rustic, The Coyote’s Den, Caldron Falls Bar, Dockside, Uncle Mike’s, Woody’s and many more have bands scheduled.

As far as 4th of July celebrations, we have a goofy weekend with the 4th being on a Tuesday. The celebrations are either on Saturday the 1st or on Tuesday the 4th. Here is my list of events.

Wausaukee- July 1^st at the county fairgrounds- Parade, celebration, fireworks

Twin Bridge Ski Show with fireworks Saturday July 1^st

Mountain- Saturday July 1st- Parade? Celebration and fireworks at Mountain Community Center

Crooked Lake- Parade on Saturday July 1^st followed by picnic at the Sportsman’s Club

ATVs-UTV Ride for the Veterans  Saturday July 1 at Paul Bunyan Ski Hill in Lakewood

Townsend 4^th of July celebration-Parade, celebration, fireworks. Tue July 4^th.

Crivitz- Tuesday the 4^th– Parade, celebration, fireworks

I mentioned the Coyote’s Den. That is the old Thornton’s Resort bar. There are some ambitious new people running it and they are giving it a valid shot. They have live music sometimes, including this weekend. They put in a kitchen and now serve food until 2am. They are open Wednesday-Sunday.

I am actually not looking forward to this weekend as far as fireworks go. I love fireworks and love lighting them off. Now I have a gun shy/ thunder shy dog that just goes through hell all weekend. We have the calming chews and tried the vest and nothing really helps. I guess that my only answer is to not light them off all day and all night. Have your show and be done with it. She can get through a couple of hours of it, but lighting stuff off from 10am till the wee hours for three days in a row is too much for her. I love fireworks but my dog doesn’t.

The bugs.. ahh yes. When we were camping last weekend the gators were definitely present and hungry. They aren’t as bad as they were in June, but they are here. For the most part we got by with a little Repel. Without it we were feasted on in short order. Bring Repel.

Someone suggested that the wildfire smoke knocked them down a little. Interesting theory, but no. They are still here in numbers.

Cutting the grass.. I have only cut once this year. Here at the house by Caldron Falls one side could use it, but the sunny side is dormant and not in need of it. At my old house by Hwy C & Landing 11 Rd it is a much different story. That lawn is more in the woods and definitely ready for a cut.

That’s it from here. Have a fun and safe weekend!

RJB

.

Wednesday 6-7-2023

Greetings and welcome!

We are in a very very dry spell right now. The roads and trails are very dusty and rivers are getting low. We haven’t had meaningful rain in about 3 weeks. Naturally fire danger is high.

We did have a little rain, I don’t remember if if was last Friday or Saturday. Some rain moved in from the NNE off of Lake Superior. Remember how I was talking bout those storms that pound rain on one side of the road but not the other? That’s what we had.

Here near Thornton’s on the north side of Caldron Falls Flowage we had a lot of dark clouds and rumbling, but in the end the sidewalk barely got wet. I was working on the RV air conditioner on the roof and I had to race back up there and tie everything down. The view from up there was pretty ominous with black clouds and thunder all around. In the end we got so little rain that the driveway was dry an hour later.

Down the road a little by Bobby J’s (The old Curve Inn) some people from the campground showed videos of it hailing so hard that it looked like it was snowing, and enough came to make the ground white like it snowed. Crazy.

I found the same thing around sunset on some northern forest roads. Looking down a long stretch I could see where patches fifty or a hundred yards wide were very wet and 10 feet later the road was totally dry. Crazy.

The dry weather has stunted the growth of the lawn, and I guess that is good news.

One place that it hasn’t hurt is the mosquitoes. I thought that they needed standing water for their larva to grow in. Apparently not. I went up to the forest to scout one of my secret spots over the weekend. Normally the place would have campers and fishermen. It was empty. I got out of the car and figured out why in about 20 seconds. This was as bad as it gets. It was like being in Canada or Alaska the gators were so thick. This pic was from a Facebook meme but it was about what it was like in 10 seconds.

They aren’t quite as bad away from the lake, but they are still really bad. How can that be when it hasn’t rained in weeks? I don’t know.

In the world of critters I am seeing a lot of people reporting fawns in their yard or being spotted. The bears are very plentiful and there isn’t a lot for them to eat so they are becoming a common sight around homes, cabins, and camps. Be careful about your garbage and bird feeders, and stay alert.

When I was up scouting my campsite I saw that the turtles had started coming up on gravel roads to lay eggs. To me that is a sign that I need to be fishing. Unfortunately I am so busy right now that it isn’t even a consideration.

Hopefully later this week I will get a handle on some weekend events. I just haven’t had a chance to do that yet. Being prime summertime there will be events.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

PS- Send Repel!!