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