The heat of summer

A sign at the harbor

Independence Day has passed. The heat of summer is upon us. Temps up here in Friendship have been in the 80s most every day. For about 10 days, rain was scarce, but we've caught up again. My guess is that this is a 'normal' summer, although we have had more days with the temp above normal than below.

Sticky has been with us, too. The dew points have been in the high 60s, meaning that fog rolls in just about every night, and the humidity stays high all day long. Under these conditions, it's guaranteed that you can work up a sweat just walking across the lawn. Pushing a lawn mower, as I did yesterday, multiplies the effect. The lobster men are out working on their boats in the evening, right around sunset because it's a bit cooler then.


So much for the weather. We've been polishing the house in preparation for company from Florida. The gang of 6+1 from Consuelo's family arrive tonight. Both of Consuelo's sisters are coming. A niece and nephew and their spouses are coming. And the baby. We'll have a houseful for a few days. I applaud the preparation and energy required on their part to get all the way up here. We're just about ready for them. Since they're "company", I'll be baking another cake. And we'll have a lobster dinner, too.

Our 20' pontoon is safely moored in Muscongus Bay. I put together the necessary cahin, a 100 lb anchor, and a float for our own mooring, acauired the proper permit, and placed it in Hatchet Cove. It was reasonably convenient to get to, requiring a 5 minute row in our old beat up dinghy. But the same day we put it in, another member of the Association told Consuelo that she had an unused mooring we could used. She has a dock, it's a 2 minute row, and that much farther out into the Bay. So we moved the boat to that location. So far so good.

Friendship Harbor

My garden is coming along well. The heat and rain have provided perfect growing conditions. If the tomatoes all bear fruit prodigiously, we'll have to rent another barn to hold the crop! Actually, we're planning to harvest and make sauce to can or freeze for the road this winter, along with whatever we get to eat as they ripen. The bugs are getting to the brussel sprouts, despite my efforts to protect them using pepper spray. My hope is that those bugs are going to devour the sprouts and leave the cabbage, broccoli and eggplants alone. That's what seems to be happening so far. We should have a good crop of squash and pumpkin later on, too.

The only downside of the warm, humid weather is that it's also perfect for silversfish, and we have a bumper crop of those pests, too. They're outside the house in huge numbers, hiding in any shady spot (like behind the knobs on our grill) and a bunch have found a way into the house. They won't hurt us, but they can do damage to fabrics.