Obnoxious Roosters, Planting, Mulch and Crazy Miss Izzy

Saturday started out pretty normal, load up the truck, and head to the Compound.  Along the way we filled up the truck.  Has anyone noticed the price of gas lately?  We live in Orange County, FL, gas was $3.61/gal on the way out, and the Compound is in Brevard County, where we paid $3.47/gal.  Makes you wonder what Orange County does with the extra tax we pay in our home county.  Doesn't look like things will get better anytime soon, as some oil refineries are filing for bankruptcy, and then throw in the threat by Iran to block the Straits of Hormuz.  We're in for some high priced gas.  There's already been a run on the pumps in Europe.  Here's the article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092129/Petroplus-bankruptcy-Queues-pumps-despite-Coryton-oil-refinery-opening.html

Things are all ready tough, this won't make it any easier. 

We did get some more seeds planted in the garden;  cucumber, squash, spinach, lettuce, carrots and swiss chard.  I tried to pick my strawberries, but they had holes drilled in and through them.  I'll need to do some extra research to see what this could be, so I can stop the little devils from eating my favorite fruit. 

 For those of you who have followed along for the past year or so;  remember the tiny fish in our pond, the ones that mysteriously appeared all on their own?  Well, the Moose decided to feed them some dog food along the way.  They really like the stuff, and Miss Izzy can't eat this particular brand any longer.  But, she's determined not to share it with the little fish.

This is a dog that doesn't like a bath, won't get near a hose, and refuses to go outside in a sprinkle.

We did finish putting mulch around the outside of the garden fence, to help keep the weeds back.  The Moose did his quarterly cleaning of the fresh water container.

The Hooligan's enjoyed their day outside the chicken run.  We're up to around 4 dozen eggs a week, from the 9 layers.  The eggs are so big, I can hardly put the lid on the egg carton.

The roosters are still obnoxious. I avoid them, but each time we're there, they seem to take their aggression out on the Moose. He just rolls them over until they're too tired to keep it up. Then typically they leave him alone, but not yesterday. It happened more than once from each of the two roosters. We're thinking maybe only one rooster would be better. I would like the one we're thinking of getting rid of, to go to a good clean home. Not for fighting, and one where the owners care for their animals.

Looks like raccoons are again trying to get into the chicken run.  They have been biting off some plastic zip ties we used to keep the fabric roofing material in place.  We just replaced it again.  I'll keep my eye on it, and if it happens again I'll find metal ties.  Even if they get past the fabric material, they would still need to get through the chicken wire.  One of these days, I'll do an article to show what seems to work for us to keep the critters and snakes out of their coop and run.