Surviving the Island Summer Season

A hot, humid and sweaty greeting from the island! I hope everyone is doing well, and hanging in there with this brutal high pressure staying over us, and creating this prolonged sweltering heat.

There are certainly tropical storm advantages to having this high pressure over us, but dang, it could maybe drift away for a week or so and give us a much needed reprieve, before wandering back over the top of us. I’ve said it before, and very likely will again, I don’t know if these south Texas summers are actually getting hotter each year, or if my aging body simply cannot tolerate the heat and humidity as well as in my younger years. I’ll tell you what, these feel-like 100°+ temps are almost swaying me into getting an AC window unit to feel the inside summer coolness like regular folk. . . but my stubbornness is keeping me from it, much to the chagrin of Corky. But we are doing okay, just gotta find the shade and something cool to drink during the worst hotness of the day.

And if the intolerable prolonged heat wasn’t enough, the island has seen practically no rain in the last several months. There were two days a few weeks ago, that a very much needed and appreciated 2” of glorious rain fell from the sky, this basically being the only rain for the summer thus far. The mornings felt so nice and cooler those two days out on the porch drinking coffee, and I was thankful for the rain that I had gotten.
Fresh water is an absolute must for survival, no matter where you are, particularly on a barrier island. With the absence of rain, which I collect in tanks and depend on for all my fresh water needs inside the cabin, for the past 3-4 weeks I have been needing to slowly pump underground well water into my rain tanks. However, with no rain to replenish the underground water table, I am noticing my well pump, which I run very slowly, runs for a shorter amount of time before the 4” well casing ( PVC pipe ), runs dry and I have to wait for it to fill up again.
This shorter amount of time before the pump starts sucking air, coupled with the water becoming a little more brackish, is an indication that the underground water table is getting lower, simply from the high heat and lack of rainfall. And making the well deeper is really not an option, as the salt water level on a barrier island rests below the fresh water. A continuous and uninterrupted supply of fresh water year round, is nearly impossible to achieve when you live full time out here.
Well, my tomato growing season is over, it has simply gotten too hot and dry to keep the plants healthy and producing. I am very happy with the amount and size of tomatoes that I was able to grow, starting all of them from seeds. Luckily the worst of the heat and lack of rainfall began after the tomatoes began to set, and they were able to grow very well. I ended up with seven tomatoes weighing over 1 lb, with the heaviest being 1 lb, 14 oz, a very nice one. And I also had lots of cherry type tomatoes, with the Sungold being my favorite. I don’t usually have a Fall tomato garden, and the conditions we are having right now is exactly why, just too hot and dry.

That’s it from the island for now, everyone have a great day and try to stay cool in this dreadful heat.