FRANCIS'S BLOG 04/18/2026
Luigi reports, “It has been very rainy."
“Therefore, it has been very muddy.”
”Yep, very very muddy.”
”Please get me back on dry land.”
”Close enough."
What a goldfish! 🐟
Look at this enormous carp Bill caught!
I would love to have this leviathan in the water tank: The horses and kitties would faint, and the sparrows would be fish food. 🐟 
Don’t worry, since Bill practices catch-and-release, this fish is still swimming in the Hennepin. 🐟
🐰 Easter Party Report! 🐤
We couldn’t let Easter go by without letting everyone know how much family fun we had! 💛
Here I am with my new best friends Owen and his dad Trent:
We had a great time and great warm weather! 🌞
Here’s Owen holding one of the chicks:
He’s pretty good at that. He knows not to squeeze the chick, but still hold it tight enough so it can’t get away. 🐥
Owen’s a good rider, too! Here he is taking RC on a stroll around the riding pen, with Ann and his Aunt Jen (we’re not certain who’s giving the friendly wave behind RC, but it might be Nathan, one of our many new Easter friends)! 🐎
More Fowl News
We’ve had the ducks for one week, too! See how they’ve grown compared to their first pictures. They are almost as tall as the pen (at least when they crane* their necks to see who’s coming). Luckily ducks aren’t the jumpers chicks are.
*I shouldn’t say “crane”—or we’ll be buying three of those, too. 🐴
Growing like weeds.
We’ve had the little buzzards chickens for a week now. Judge for yourself how much they’ve grown (click here for their first pics).
The Chicks and Ducklings are altering our schedule (and we were here first) 😼🐎
I’m waiting calmly, just 1 minute more, for my breakfast. And then. . .
I’M FREAKING OUT!
Poor Pretty Cat! What happened? 😿
This morning we noticed that Kanna (aka Pretty Cat) was sporting a new tuft of hair below each side of her face.
They make her look like she’s growing an additional pair of front legs.
Oh no! The extra hair came from the back of her neck! 🙀
Who or what on earth got ahold of you, Kanna?
Yikes! 🙀
Luigi inspects the cage that he and the rest of the kitties found in the old chicken coop. 😸
“We kitties declare this cage chicken-and-duck-safe! Yep—
—it will keep our chickens and ducks safe until we are hungry!” 🙀
Fowl News
Since the chicks are getting bigger everyday and can jump like Easter Bunnies, they got a new taller-walled tank!
The ducklings are less bouncy, so they inherited the chicks' old coop, and said goodbye to the cardboard corral!
We are going to have a cartload of steel tanks before this is all over! 🐤
Coming this summer—bantam chickens!
The kitties are excited! 😺
Right now our ten Chicken McNuggets are under a heat lamp in the farm house basement, and are doing well.
Well, I finally did it!
I finally bit that yappy dog’s head off! 🐕
In other news, we saw our first swallow today! 🐦 Here is a picture from last year of one of the babies just after it left the nest. Maybe it was the one we saw today!
News from Mary! 🐎
Mary and her class went to Amarillo, Texas for a judging event this weekend. On their way they visited the AQHA Headquarters!
Once again all the horses are together, with nobody in “ad-seg.”
Mary made the determination this morning that Misty and Iris would play nice, and they did. 🐎
Luigi says,
“Yes, I suppose I am keeping you from feeding the horses and changing their bedding—“
—make your point."
Here’s a picture from a couple days ago—
—when the weather was nice and we were all in a good mood. It rained all last night and part of today, and we feel like a grumpy bunch of mobile mud pies.🙀
Iris and her amazing prehensile lips.
We know that we’ve already had a video of Iris opening a feed door, but here’s a new video that let’s us better examine her technique:
Busted!
Schrödinger tries to hightail it back to the stable after being spotted out by the road (again):