FRANCIS'S BLOG 04/18/2026
Roosters make their rounds 🐎
Casting long shadows:
Chatting with Kanna:
Perching on the trash pile:
Nice work if you can get it. 🐴
Bedtime for Horsies 🐎
Chavez notices Iris and Charlie lying down for the night:
He joins them for a serious snore-fest:
We had visitors yesterday. 🐴
They were impressed with the chickens, ducks and kitties (why, we’re not sure):
It was nice that they at least got down our hay:
Today was gloomy 😿
But we can’t complain, since the 25th and 26th were wonderful. Meanwhile, the roosters browse for food while Mount Vespoovius smoulders ominously in the background:
That looks like it feels great. 🐴
Christmas and today were pleasant and sunny, so the hens enjoy a dust bath:
Dot gives her breakfast a double look 🐔
Beef is ok, but it’s just not chicken or turkey:
Evil cat may not much care, but the paying customers seem to prefer paté as opposed to bits. 🐴
Kitties keeping comfy 😺
On a particularly frosty morning, Luigi and Zelda sit over the steam rising from the horse waterer:
They’re trying to determine if their hot canned cat food is ready; otherwise there’s no point in giving up their spot at the “hot tub:"
Sometimes I do wish I had a long neck 🐴
Iris is helping Henry stick to his diet.
At least that’s what she says. 🐎
Schrödinger smiles! 😺
A pleasant puss with a pleasant puss. (Not that it makes up for his running across the street this morning.)
The Department of Horsefarm Security never sleeps—
—but horses do! Here we see DHS Cam3 catching Iris, Chavez and Charlie giving those long legs a rest in the middle of the night:
Cat caper 😺
Kanna claims she was run over by a car coming out of the garage:
Pumpkin knows there has never been room for a car in that garage.
Rooster rounds 🐓
Saturday when it was dry (and not rainy like today), the roosters enjoyed a dust bath.
And Petunio unraveled the mystery of what was behind the cat door in the hay barn: Hay. 
The C:D egg count is 99:102.
Daisy ice-skates. 🐴
But first, here are some more pictures from Saturday. They are of Mara and Mary getting Iris ready for her ride:
And now here’s Daisy, wishing more of the ice would melt so she could get a proper bath:
Some birds left us a decorated nest 🐦
The falling leaves reveal a nest garnished with a red leaf and ribbon. The nest itself is made of the material of choice around here—horse hair! 🐎
Weepy, gray, muddy day, 🐴
But the temperature is above freezing, so we won’t complain. Ukie was here this morning, which doesn’t bother us, since we are neither chickens nor ducks. 🐺 
Here she is helping to pull the manure cart. (The chicken:duck egg count is 92:96. It surprised us that the hens laid two new eggs recently: It must be that the weather’s been warm. “Daily Daisy” keeps producing on schedule, though.)
😿 Our hearts are broken 😿
Today (Friday) we took Sly to the vet because for the past several days he has looked sick. The vet discovered that someone had shot him with a pellet gun. There was nothing to do but let Sly go to kitty heaven.
Those who do things like this to innocent animals are bad, unhappy people, who do not like themselves at all. 😔
We love you, Sly. Thanks for many years of being a good kitty. 💛
Troublemakers 🐎
One of the daily chores is, before RC can eat,
Chavez and Charlie must be shooed out of his stall.
Both cat and horse understand solar heat
Everyone’s taking advantage of the solar heat today, except for Misty:
She can’t keep sonny-boy Stormy out of the way.
In other news this morning, “Daily Daisy” laid her ninety-first egg. That’s one more than the hens’ output combined!
Fantastic plastic 🐎
We have a new strip curtain door to help keep the wind out this winter.
As you know, I can avoid the wind in this stall that’s blocked off to the “giraffes" around here. 🐴