Clint & Barnacle
Looking Forward To Fall Weather
Greetings from the island everyone, hope all of you are doing well and staying cool in this typical south Texas summer heat. There were actually a few mornings several weeks ago that had a nice cool Fall feeling to them. An unusual mid-summer norther drifted down far enough south to bless us with a little reprieve, and tease us into thinking that summer was nearing the end, but I sure don’t think so. Normally all of August and into the first few weeks into September are the dog days of summer for us south Texas folks, but that’s OK, it keeps those Yankees up north where they belong. . . I’m kidding! Or am I?
Well the seaweed looks as though it might finally be slowing down washing ashore on the beach. This has been one of the worst summers for the sargassum that I can recall. Apparently as has been with any growing season, this was a bumper crop year for that stuff. But in spite of the unsightly and smelly beach it creates, the seaweed does act as an erosion barrier for the beach and dunes, which is definitely a positive aspect of it’s summer ritual of washing ashore. As with any of life’s happenings, you gotta take the bad with the good, so sayeth philosopher Clint.
Well the garden is played out for the summer, simply too hot and dry to grow anything out here right now. I’ll plant some type of greens in the Fall, so that the chickens will have something to munch on during the winter, but that will be the extent of my gardening until early Spring. Before then, I’ll construct twelve more small raised beds, 2 1/2 feet square each, to grow more watermelons next year. I did pretty well growing them this summer, so I’ll try some different varieties including a few seedless ones.
Before that time I’ll also use my small Mantis tiller to mix in a large amount of rabbit manure into all of my raised beds. My friends from Seguin, Cricket and Jim, trailered down 1,500 lbs of rabbit manure for me in 150 lb tubs. That’s right, 1,500 lbs!! Granted, loading a few tubs at a time into the boat and hauling them across the bay wasn’t the easiest task, but I’ll take it. Rabbit manure is said to be a wonderful organic fertilizer, so I’m looking forward to trying it.
Well that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a great day.
