NorthernDestinations.com

Wednesday October 26, 2016

Greetings and welcome!

We are wrapping up one cold and rainy day. The rain started after sunrise this morning and is still going at 8:30pm. It was a pretty steady rain all day, and with temps in the upper 30s and low 40s it was chilly too.

I don’t have any ground truth on this, but the radar today was showing snow up in the Vilas Co area, and as close to home as northern Forest Co. There was a blob or two of white that briefly showed up around Carter a little while ago. I will check with some friends in Wabeno tomorrow to see if they actually saw the first snowflakes of the year..

It has been cold in the recent past. I recall at least three mornings in the past week that I had to warm up the car while I ate breakfast to clear off the heavily frosted windows. The coldest that I have seen so far was 26. It’s cold enough, but I am not too concerned about exposed plumbing just yet.

We have been getting frequent rains too. One storm last week hit to our north and west with a lot of rain, bringing the Peshtigo River up to almost +18”. That is pretty big. It is still about +6” and we just had an all day rain. It has been a wet October.

The fall colors are pretty much done. There are still patches of color here and there, but you can see pretty far in the woods now.

The deer have been getting more active this week. Yesterday I had 9 different encounters in 20 miles on the way home from work. Some were e-stops, others close calls or deer bounding away from the roadside. I don’t see that getting any better as the rut approaches. Keep an eye out for the deer on the roads.

It is firewood season for sure. I have been making it, and burning it too. With LP under $1 a gallon I was considering installing a furnace and tank. I decided against it at the last minute, and now I am hustling to finish filling the wood house. I will be fine but there is work to do.

Time to go and stoke the fire. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday October 13th, 2016

It is another frosty night outside tonight. The front that brought dark skies and intense rain Wednesday also brought a big push of cold air. My car windows were good and frosted up this morning with our low of 28. As of 9:30pm the cycle was repeating, it was 28 and there was frost forming on everything.

The heating season has started. I have been running the wood burner the past few nights. Both nights when I got home from work the house was down to 58. I am not too concerned about the well house or stuff in the work shed that shouldn’t freeze. The buildings will hold enough heat to ward off any damage as long as it is above about 45 in the daytime and not too far into the 20s. I will be addressing a lot of that this weekend.

I was thinking on the way home from work today that it is a good thing that the fall colors are so late this year. Last week the colors were at or near peak for the early colors. Friday a storm came with rain and strong winds and knocked some of it down. Quite a bit of it survived because it was so late in changing. The same thing happened Wednesday with wind, rain, and more leaves down. Again because they were so late in changing, some early season color is still there, and the mid-season color is intact. It is still a good show.

We are looking windy days Friday and Saturday, with an increasing chance of rain as Saturday progresses. The upside is that it will be warmer. Highs in the mid-60s should be the rule for the weekend, with lows only in the 50s. Sunday and Monday look pretty nice.

That is news from here. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday October 6th, 2016

Greetings and welcome!

The fall colors really came around this week. They are very nice right now. The quilted hillside thing is coming into play as more species change. My travels took me from Silver Cliff to Wausaukee, down to Crivitz, and back up through Twin Bridge. The view was top notch. The colors will be great this weekend.

There is some interesting weather ahead this weekend. It starts tonight with some showers and thunderstorms. Once it clears out Friday morning it should turn into a cool and windy day. Friday and Saturday night bring our first real chance at a frost when both nights are expected to get into the mid- 30s. Saturday and Sunday look sunny and in the mid to upper 50s.

The corn maze on Nejedlo Rd & 141 just south of Wausaukee is open, and there is a haunted house on Moonshine Hill Rd and Camp 5 Rd this weekend. Moonshine Hill Rd is between Crivitz and Wausaukee west of Hwy 141.

We have had a surprisingly bugless early fall season. There were a few pests here and there, and the paper wasps were searching out new nests pretty aggressively, but that is about it. Last week a few dog owners were reporting a resurgence of ticks and the need for some Frontline. That will happen in the fall.

Chris has a couple of good fall events for us..

October 8
Near North Trail Riders 24th Annual Brat Fry – proceeds go to trail maintenance
11am – 4pm at Nimrod Inn, downtown Athelstane

October 8
7th Annual CL/Mountain Lions Club Oktoberfest Celebration
11:00 am at the Crooked Lake Community Center. Food and Refreshments, Pumpkin Decorating, craft fair, raffles, music, fun for the whole family.

The flashlight business has been going very well so far and the past few weeks have been very busy. I expect that with hunting season here business will be very good. You can buy my lights at Curve Inn and at Athelstane Country Mart, and that list is about to get longer. You might also catch me at Rapids Resort on Saturday night.

One of the new items that I have been working on is LED bulbs for campers and RVs. I found some that are pretty nice. They proved themselves out in my testing, and they are super-efficient. They are brighter than an 1141 bulb and use 4 watts instead of 18. This started when some friends were out-running their camper’s deep cycle battery with the incandescent bulbs. The new bulbs tested out nicely and I will carry them soon.

Time to get back to work. Check out the leaves this weekend and bring warm clothes. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Sunday October 2, 2016

Greetings and welcome!

I expected the leaves to change fast and they really did. Friday driving home from work the view was much different than it was Thursday or on the way there Friday morning. The maples are standing out nicely and a lot off other trees changed too. There was more new color in my yard this morning. The big show is here.

RJB