Finally Getting Rain On The Island
Greetings from the island everyone! I hope that all of you are doing well and had a wonderful Mother’s Day with your mom, whether spending time with her in person or having a nice heavenly visit. I truly believe that for the large majority of us, our parents, and moms in particular, are the backbone of our existence and ultimately pave the path as to how we lead our lives. A very Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all of the great moms out there! I love you, Mom.
Well, the skies finally opened up on the island two weeks ago, dropping a very much needed 4” of rain in two days, and then another 1” the following week. It had easily been three months since Matagorda Peninsula Island had received any measurable rain, and the island very much needed the drenching. I can certainly tell that since the rain, the island has perked up, with more green grasses and flowers sprouting.
Just FYI, the proper given name for this barrier “island” is Matagorda Peninsula, however it is in fact an island, completely surrounded by water, and becoming so in 1962 when the Corp of Engineers cut a 1/4 mile wide and one mile long swath through it about 2 1/2 miles east of Pass Cavallo, creating the Big Jetties, a waterway access connecting the Gulf of Mexico to Matagorda Bay. Hence my reference for the past 21+ years of referring to it as Matagorda Peninsula Island.
It is wonderful having the occasional rain, filling water tanks and helping replenish the underground well water supply, and also providing drinks to the landscape of grasses and flowers and fresh water ponds for the Hawes’ cattle. Of course with the good, one must accept the bad, which means the abundance of rain and standing water will hatch out the little flying demons, aka mosquitoes! After any warm weather Spring/Summer abundance of rain, I bet I get five texts a week from the weekend islanders, asking if the mosquitoes are bad. Heck, I don’t blame them, I’d want to know as well if those flying pests were bad and to be prepared for them. As I sit at my little kitchen table, drinking my morning coffee and typing this out on my IPhone on May 14, they are not too bad, but that could change at any time with a big demon hatch-out. Just always gotta keep OFF and a few Thermacell’s on hand. Such is island life.
A small amount of the sargassum sea grass is beginning to wash ashore on the beach, a common occurrence every Spring out here. I never know from one year to the next how much sea grass is gonna wash in, having seen it so thick that the sargassum would easily be 2-3’ deep along stretches in some areas of the beach. But for the last five years or so, there has not been nearly the amount as there previously had been, with only small amounts occasionally washing ashore. I’m not sure why there has been such a decline, but I sure miss not being able to use it as an organic compost in my garden beds.
Well, that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a wonderful day.
