Being Thankful And Blessed For Island Life
Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well and had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends, and have plans for an even more wonderful time celebrating Christmas next week! Corky and I brought back lots of leftovers from our Thanksgiving with the family in Seadrift.
Christmas is such a great time of year for blessings, and to bring smiles to the faces of kids and grown-ups alike. POC has a wonderful tradition of holding the annual Freeport to Port O’Connor Toy Run, where toys are delivered for kids by way of traveling the water and delivering the huge assortment of toys by boat. I enjoy going upstairs and watching the boats coming across Matagorda Bay, as they make their way in from Freeport and begin heading into The Inn at Clark’s Marina for unloading. You would be amazed at the number of toys that are collected and donated for this great annual event. Thank You to the resilient and big-hearted boaters that make this long waterway trek from Freeport, and also to the local boaters. The POC Chamber of Commerce always provides wonderful pictures of the event on their social media Facebook site, please go check them out.
The official beginning of winter will be here in a few short days, always occurring annually on December 21st or 22nd in the United States, also referred to as the winter solstice, the day with the fewest hours of sunlight in the whole year. Even though Spring is my most favorite time of year, I also enjoy the barrier island winter months. My reclusiveness really shines during these months, relishing in the solitude and quietness associated with island life. I sometimes think back on my law enforcement career, ending nearly 16 years ago now, when solitude and quietness were non-existent words in that line of work. I do miss the brotherhood and some of the people that I worked with, especially those that I knew I could count on to have my “six”. . . but the job itself, one that social cry-baby restrictions now would certainly prohibit me from successfully carrying out, is simply a distant memory.
The seashells and miscellaneous beach finds have been pretty abundant the past several months. I enjoy finding the occasional fishing lures, good rope, buoys/channel markers and 5-gallon buckets to use around the house. You just truly never know what you might find that has washed up on the Gulf of Mexico beach, and of course the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean can also provide and generate Gulf of Mexico beach finds. In my nearly 22 years total out here, I have become very selective in what beach finds I’ll cart back to the house, preferring to either leave behind the common treasures/seashells for others to find and enjoy, or occasionally gather a bucket full for kids. Heck, I’d have already filled several warehouses with “stuff”, if I had brought everything back!
My current batch of chickens and guineas have pretty much run their course as far as egg production goes. I have had these for over four years now, much longer than I usually keep them before giving them away. At about the three year mark, egg production, especially during the colder months, drops to nearly nothing. . . yet they continue to need feed, which is nearly $20 a week! My plans are to bring out a new young batch of chickens and guineas, 15-20 total, in the Spring.
Well, that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a most wonderful Christmas!
