A dolphin leaps in the wake of an outbound tanker ship as it passes the big jetties. -Photo by Bruce Wakefield

Greetings from the island everyone.  Hope all of you are doing well and had a nice Christmas and are successfully trudging through the new year. I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions, my only goal is that my family and I stay healthy from one January to the next, and that’s easily achieved through prayer.

I finally got a little rain this past weekend, of course I had to endure 50 mph wind gusts out of the west to get it, but hey I’ll take it.   I later talked to my mom in Seadrift and they had lost electricity due to the high winds.  Of course her main gripe was not being able to make morning coffee, but I talked her through how to hook up her little propane Coleman stove and she was saved.  Oh how we coffee drinkers must have our morning fix.

I’m hoping the one inch of rain will kick start the rye grass seed that I spread out for the winter.  It did really well last year here on the island, and provided the chickens with fresh green grass through Spring.  I’ve learned that happy chickens are good egg laying chickens.

As I sit here Monday morning, another cold front is expected tonight and the temps on the island will dip into the low 30’s for much of the week.  I ran in a few days ago to stock up on supplies as I’ll be dry-docked for at least five days.

I always have to make certain that I keep at least essential type medications on hand out here, especially during the winter months when colds and sinus and crud related health issues are much more common.  Thanks to some evil inherited gene from my dad, sinus related problems have always haunted my sister and I.  I’m very rarely ever really sick (pause to knock on the wooden kitchen table), but I do occasionally have sinus headaches and congestion.

And I so hate taking any type of medication for it, as my system is then wondering what this strange medicinal substance is because it rarely needs it.  And when the medicine kicks in, my whole body feels discombobulated for the entire day.  Most of the time I forego the medicines and just try to breathe in more salty air to fend off my ailments, and I think it actually works.  Sun and salty air, natures organic medicine, maybe I should try to bottle that.

Well the duck hunters should be one happy bunch around here.  For the past few weeks there have been at least 400-500 ducks flying in bunches and sitting out on the front shoreline during the day.  I’ve heard lots of shooting on the weekend mornings, so dishes of duck are being enjoyed this winter.  I never had any desire to hunt those things, it seems as though they are most abundant when the weather is at its worst, no thank you.

Well that’s it from the island for now; everyone take care and have a great day.