Clint and Corky
Rainfall and Island Quietness
Greetings from the island on this pleasant pre-Fall morning. I hope that everyone is doing well, and looking forward as much as I am, to Autumn (the more formal name) officially beginning next week on the 22nd.
The island finally got some much needed rainfall on Labor Day weekend, yay! From that Sat-Mon, my gauges showed exactly 5 1/2” fell on the island, filling my tanks and most certainly raising the underground fresh water level for our water wells. This summer has definitely been one of the driest June-Sept months that I have seen out here. I’m so glad that cooler weather is on the horizon, and hopefully more abundant rainfall will be in our forecast as well.
Of course with that much needed 5 1/2 inches of rain, comes a large amount of standing water for at least several days. And as all summer south Texans know, standing water breeds the devil mosquitoes, which has unfortunately happened out here on the island. It’s one of those “take the bad with the good” situations, so I’ll just grin and bear it, keeping a good supply of mosquito spray and those little Pic mosquito coils on hand.
This begins the time of year that the island starts to quiet down, meaning much less weekend islanders making the boat trek across the bay to spend time here. School having started, deer season preparations beginning, holidays forthcoming and hard bay crossing northers, all combine to keep island visitation at a minimum. Umm, YAY!! I’m somewhat kidding, but it is nice to enjoy the tranquil late Fall and Winter months out here, the quietness and cool north breezes, and rarely seeing a soul while beach combing.
Well it has taken about 18 months or so, but I once again have nice green grass covering my yard. During the summer of 2020, my entire yard was completely covered with Matagorda Bay salt water three separate times from storms. And then in February 2021 there was the devastating freeze that killed so much vegetation, including my two beautiful Norfolk Island pines, one palm tree, and also finished off my yard grass. And when I say there was no green grass, I mean not a single blade of grass existed, the entire yard was dead and void of any green grass. But over time it has slowly re-emerged and is once again thriving. I am very thankful to have a yard again.
That’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and enjoy these more enjoyable weather days.
