Well, Connie and I have been on Sanibel for the entire month of June and part of May. Had a friend stopping over to water some plants for us, but apparently we got plenty of rain most of the time we were gone, so he didn't have much to do. Fortunately he got some of our peaches and blueberries that had ripened before the varmints got into them.
Speaking of rain. Got a hellacious storm yesterday that came out of nowhere. Wind and rain was blowing sideways and all sorts of crap was coming out of trees beating on the roof. Thought for sure we had a tornado bearing down on us. And then when the storm subsided a bit, the power goes out. Stayed out for a couple of hours.
So today we got another storm come in about the same time. Not as ferocious, but still a lot of rain and wind, and enough to knock the power out again.
All this rain is really working out well for the mosquitoes. I've got two mosquito magnets running right now, and am strongly considering buying a third (maybe a fourth too!) one this upcoming week. I had to go down to our temporary pond and throw some mosquito dunk bits in the standing water there. Of course, we have all sorts of temporary ponds all along our stream, so I guess mosquitoes are just going to be part of the landscape of living here. Impossible to get rid of them all, as we have found holes in trees holding water for quite a while. That's all it takes. At least the mosquito magnets do take a big chunk out of the population. Also catch up a good proportion of those damned yellow flies too. Which is better than just soaking everything with poisonous sprays, I guess. On Sanibel they spray the hell out of the entire island about every day this time of year. Not sure how healthy it really is going there. But I guess that is the choice that needs to be made. Been reading up on Sanibel, and apparently it was just about uninhabitable before mosquito control stepped in. Even without it, they are still a noteworthy nuisance there. I sure as heck wouldn't want to be there without something keeping those blood suckers at bay. One account I read stated that screens in the windows and doors would get completely blocked and blacked out by mosquitoes back in the old days on the island. And my guess that was back in the day when malaria was still a problem here in the USA. Now THAT will most likely really ruin your day for you.