Greetings and welcome!
Hooray it feels like winter again! It is 25 outside with a bit of a breeze and a nice new blanket of snow. A quick walk around the front yard found about 6″, plus or minus an inch. The wind was strong during the storm, so I would not be surprised if that total was a little low with the wind stealing some of it.
A couple of days ago it was almost 60 degrees out. With the roads being so warm the first of the snow hit it, melted and turned into a pretty good layer of ice. There were reports of a few bad accidents and the ride home from work was a slow one. Bad for cars, good for snowmobiles.
The warm temperatures took a lot of trails down to dirt, and with the frost coming out of the ground in bare spots they were getting quite muddy. The snow came before it cooled down very much, so it will be a little soft under the trails until it freezes up again. Area clubs are advising to expect early season conditions and to be careful in low areas that gathered water. Some puddles are pretty deep. The soft ground will limit grooming in some areas too.
It was also mentioned that people should stay off of lakes and rivers. The Peshtigo was rising from the melt water, and that ice is not good. When I went by Waubee Lake the other day it had a white honeycombed looking ice, probably not safe. The other lakes between here and Antigo had a few people out fishing, but only on foot.
Time to address the monster in the room.. What happened to the old Big Snow Page. In short, I had to go back to working for someone else. Between that and all of the stuff that I used to do, 70+ hour weeks are not uncommon. I have considered stopping what I do here because all that I can tell you is what I see along Hwy C and Perch Lake Rd between here and Wausaukee. I am not big on that quitting stuff, I have made a lot of good friends and I am not ready to quit in year 19.
At the same time, running on 4 or 5 hours of sleep and only having my snowmobile be something that I walk past on the way to & from work makes me pretty crabby. I didn’t come here to work all of the time for half of what I made 20 years ago downstate.
There is an LED light at the end of the tunnel. Last July I started Work-Sport-Adventure Sales LLC. I sell LED flashlights, headlamps, work lights and a variety of other things, both direct and at some retailers. I started with nothing and built it a paycheck at a time into a decent little side business. After I finish here I am going to finish up my sales tax return and send the state a nice check.
If all goes well, that will replace my Carquest job this summer. I like working there and the steady income is easy to get used to, but it is a long drive and a lot of hours.
If you see goofy posts here it is me trying to update with my phone. I finally joined civilization and got a smart phone so that I could take credit cards on the go for the WSA biz. I am still mastering the WordPress plugin, and it is a little weak on capitalization and some spelling (With Sake? No.. Wausauke.). It has a great camera but doesn’t downsize images, so I am working on getting images off of the phone without blowing out my data allowance. The cable came Thursday, and I am working on an app that might help.
Anyway, that is why I only have 20 miles on my sled, don’t have trail pictures, am crabby sometimes, or have to do a 10 minute drive-by report. I am working very hard to change it, but it won’t be next week. You have my apologies, and my hope that it gets a lot better.
Have a good Saturday and thank you for visiting!
RJB
…