Christmas Day '07

Stardate 122507

Our Christmas cactus is in full bloom today!!

It was shortly after sunrise that Kittee and I finished our last eggnog latte and climbed out from under the heated blanket. The sun was shining bright, and we were ready to get started; feeding horses, cats, ourselves and maybe do a little horseback riding in our riverside arena today. Our first sight of the day was the house cats sitting in the living room window soaking sun. It was a beautiful morning outside with temperature in the 40's. Looking out the back window of the house to scope out the horses, there was Jasmine, Ginger, and Sinwaan eating one of the barn doors. Hummmm, our day's work was being cut out for us from the get-go. I started on breakfast and Kittee headed out to feed the horses. When she came back in she announced that the ground was frozen, which meant that it was too hard to ride on now and when it thawed it would be too slick to ride on later. So much for horseback riding on Christmas Day.

We now just enjoy our coffee, breakfast, and plan to tackle a couple of chores around the ranch. After breakfast we cleaned up around the house a bit, and then dressed to work outside for the morning.

First thing was to cover the barn door that the horses were eating earlier with chicken wire, to create a tooth barrier. It was a few years ago that the pony sisters began to eat the barn, so we covered it with wire at that time. This fall after we let the goats into the paddock, they begin to eat the barn and found grain in the walls. Shortly thereafter we had horses trying to eat the barn alive, so I sprayed it with Habanero pepper sauce/oil. That slowed everyone down for about a week. We have now covered the barn with exterior plywood sheeting and chicken wire.

Next course of action for the day was to repair the electric fence tape that the wind had broken apart yesterday.
After mending the fence, we checked on one of the goat's feet that had been limping for the past day, we found nothing wrong there. After these morning outdoor chores, we headed for the house as the wind was blowing cold. Temperatures were suppose to be dropping today with snow coming in by nightfall.

With this weather forecast calling for skies to become cloudy, and snowfall by early evening, we decided to live by the home fire for the day. Getting back into the house Kittee proceed to fill the fireplace with newspaper and firewood, and with a handy little flame thrower she got the home fire cranked up for the day.

It wasn't too long she had the fire started, I was putting the finishing touches on the Xmas Eve blog I started yesterday after coming in from PDT, and Kittee began to look up the recipe for her lentil soup works.



















After I finished the Xmas Eve blog, we suited ourselves up for another trip out to visit horses, and feed them another course of alfalfa. We wanted everyone to be happy today.

Here are a few of the horses pics, up close and with hugs...




Derby up close













Sinwaan in your face

Nugget up close


















and Goldie.


Goldie is quite the dirty mud-bath mess in this pic, and she has enough pride that she asked that I use another pic of her for showoff.


This past week our Goldie had a day of sunshine, so I brushed her out and had her pose for a few pics.




Just to let you know that our guys and gals do not stay mud puppies for the duration of winter. Here is Goldie on the right cleaned up, and looking her usual self, without the mud.

About Goldie... I fell in love with her at first sight, actually we fell for each other upon first sight. Now, she is my 1000 lb. like golden retriever puppy and we are waiting for Rusty to show up and ask them both for AHA palomino Arabians gets to fill the ranch.



It is sometimes hard to believe how much from Kittee and myself, that our herd will put up with. They really are fun pet to have around the ranch, and then we can get on their backs and ride away!!!





Here Kittee is warming up Nugget, Ginger, and Shaiela's muzzle as the day is clouding up and snow is on the way.












After this turn out with the horses, we opened the back pasture and let everyone take a run. Kittee and I headed back for the house and she began to put together her excellent Lebanese lentil soup for the evening meal. This batch smells great.




























After preparing the pot of soup and getting it cooking, we gave the indoor cats a special Xmas treat of cans of tuna, went back out and fed the horses their Xmas sweet grain treat.















It was not until we sit down for our dinner bowl of soup that we realized that we had not stopped during the day to have lunch. This probably was part of the reason the bowl of soup disappeared so fast. After dinner, I started working on this blog, Kittee took her shower and was ready of bed by 6:00, but while she was in the shower I placed a very large log on the fire that tripped the damper closed and created a two alarm smoke screen through the house.

During this time my Mom called, Kittee answered the phone and told her we would call her back... she probably wondered what he hell was going on with these alarms sounding off. Let me tell you this is one hellava way to check smoke detectors on Christmas night. I called Mom back once the air cleared of smoke and ash we chatted for awhile.

While the house is standing wide open to rid it of smoke we notice it was now snowing outside as was the forecast for Christmas Night '07. With the fire still roaring in its place, this does lend to create the atmosphere of a warm winter's night, of nearly outdoor camping.

Well most of the smoke is about cleared from the house now, it is time to put another back log on the fire for the night. So here I will wish each and everyone a safe and Happy New Year.

A Christmas day in the life at McKuster Ranch -- Dale

Xmas Eve '07

Stardate 122407

Kittee and I had a most pleasant time with the family in Pendleton this afternoon and evening.

Last week LaBelva called and invited us to join the Reed family Xmas Eve get together. Well knowing how these folks spread warm feelings and good food for our family get togethers the only reply was YES, we will be there.

Actually our west coast family tries to get together at least 2-3 times a year to have the opportunity to commune with each other and enjoy good food and good times.





Kittee and I got to the Reeds around 4 pm, and Aunt Pat, Elsie, Brilynn and Nicole were already there, partaking of good times. A bit later Lynn and Lois got off work and they joined us to make the family gethering complete.

LeBelva and Worth as usual had a complete food spread for the before dinner munchies, a full course meal, and after dinner deserts.What a spread of... turkey, ham, shrimp, dressing, shrimp cole slaw, potatoes, gravy, veggies, dinner rolls the size of two fist. It was much more that all of us could begin to consider cleaning up the dinner spread. Glad it was left with Worth and LeBelva, to have to finish off all that food.
Most everyone had to take a break, stretch back to rest and digest between the main meal and desserts.




















I wish now that I had taken pictures of the dessert spread, but probably what you would have seen here is a shot of all the pie (6 or 8), with many poses of the huckleberry cheese cake that disappeared from the table first. Mmmmmmm good.

Here are a few shots around the house of our good family time...





























Thank you LaBelva, Worth, for the wonderful family get together this Christmas Eve.


After the feast, the vino, the desserts, and the wonderful family time the party began to breakup and Kittee and I had to head back to the ranch with horses to feed. Coming home Kittee told me there was eggnog to go with the bottle of Crown Royal sitting on the kitchen counter. I did NOT know that... oh well, maybe next year.

Here is wishing you were here, and hoping you have a safe and very Happy Holiday Season.

A family holiday in the lives of Kittee and Dale

A winter's day

Stardate 120107

Plan A for this day's activities began two weekends ago, when Kittee and I made the purchase of our ranch stallion "Rusty". We were thinking that we would make another day trip to Bend, OR today and spend the time we had to visit and groom Rusty. Now with the advent of winter weather we fall back on Plan B.

Plan B, this time of year when it is too wet to ride, and we have no need to burn-up the environment with gas or diesel, we entertain ourselves with horses, reading, rental movies and a little eggnog/BV. Here is a recap of some of the things we did to entertain ourselves at the ranch today.

Before breakfast this morning Kittee and I had our seasonal eggnog latte's while still under the heated electric blanket. Mmmmm good, better than candy and it's caffeinated. Then just after daybreak we slid out of bed and went out to feed the herd. Burrr, that's a refreshing way to start the day.It has now been snowing for the past three days, and we blanketed most of the herd a couple of days ago. Today we went through the herd during their breakfast making corrections to their blanket fits. Everyone seems to be snug and comfortable in their winter weather wear.



After feeding the herd, we had our hardy ranch breakfast and then headed back out for a morning of horseplay.


It has been a month or so since we opened the riverside pasture, so everyone was happy to go to "new" pasture... even covered with a few inches of snow. Here is a series of photos of the gang coming out of the gate...
























Everyone had a few warm up runs around the pasture then settled into grazing through the snow. We have attached a short 11 second video of the herd winter's jaunt in the snow if you would like to watch them run through today's snowy playground.


While the horses and goats were grazing, Kittee and I continued our walk around the lower 18 acres to survey the river, and deer browse. I had put out a bale of alfalfa about a month ago, along with a partial salt block, and today was quite surprised to find very little of it was gone.



While back at the river I had to do a little wading to get the feel of the water... it's cold.

Kittee and I then visited our riverside Contemplation Station.

It was a bit cool and too wet to sit on our rock seats but we took a few minutes by the river and found the river's winter scape to be quite beautiful, as it has been in every other season.

After all was said and done we left the girls and boys grazing in the riverside pasture, and with chilling toes, we headed for the house for a bite of lunch.

To beat this winter storm system hohumm's, tomorrow we have riding times at Walla Walla Fairgrounds' indoor arena... Gittyup!!!

a day in the life at McKuster Ranch --- Dale

Thanksgiving '07

Stardate 1122-24o7

About 6 a.m. I awoke and realized that I had not taken our 22 lbs. dinner bird out of the frozen pantry to finish thawing overnight. Kittee and I hit the floor running this Turkey Day, which was according to plans, but not to realize first thing in the day that we had a frozen bird planned for dinner.
Realizing that dinner was not going to be ready for our guest when they arrived, Kittee made a mad dash for the grocery store to see if she could find a fresh turkey and some nicknack snacks to hold everyone over until turkey dinner was ready. There was no turkey left in town, so we began the fast thaw/ warm water process and it worked.

Now to make this story perfectly clear, when Kuon and Dale come to visit Kittee and Dale, and vise-versa, we have two Dales in the house. This bit of information will help as you follow this story through.

It was later Thursday afternoon when Dale, Kuon and Wendi arrived at McKuster Ranch for their share of a McKuster Ranch holiday weekend. Now here I will again let pictures paint the story of our next two days of family get together with food and fun.


With turkey in the oven and dinner running a bit later, it gave Wendi a chance to get out and meet a few of our horses, goats and boarder. Wendi, was really having a great time feeding the goats carrots and then Sinwaan (an Arabian boarder) came over and asked for a carrot. With the goats leaving the scene, Wendi began petting Sinwaan on his very soft muzzle much to their pleasure. Then all of a sudden we realized that Wendi had her thumb in Sinwaan's lips, and with the essence of carrots on her hand he began to walk away with her thumb. OUCH!!! No real damaged done, just a bruised and hurting thumb for the next few days. We too have learned from experience that horses will bite hard, but they are not carnivores.

NOTE: when at McKuster Ranch, please don't feed your fingers to the horses. Keep all fingers and thumbs tucked close together and feed from a flat hand.
Horses as this pic shows love to lick people and eat peppermint candies, and apple cookies.
Offer only a flat hand.

Anyways, this did not create a catastrophe, or traumatize Wendi, as she went to the back of the barn and kept petting more horses. While Wendi was here Thursday and Friday she had a good time petting goats, horses and the cats.

We also had a good time feeding the horses their treats of apple cookies and peppermint breath savers.





As the sun would have been sinking slowly in the west (we have never seen the sun on Thanksgiving day at McKuster Ranch) and darkness came over the ranch, Wendi and I went out and feed all the outdoor livestock, while everyone inside settled into a table for snacks with eggnog/BV for pre-dinner treats and relaxing by the fire.





It wasn't too late... around 6:30 that the bird appeared from the over and dinner prep went into full swing. I think it was shortly after 7:00 that Kittee had the gravy prepared and the potatoes were smashed to perfect gravy absorbing consistency.

After everyone was seated at the table, Dale took the lead as everyone considered their blessings of good health, family, togetherness.
After the stuffin' everyone did a fall out in the living room to recoup, read, contemplate our fullness. This was the course of the evening until bedtime.
Friday morning we started the day by restokeing and throwing another log on the overnight fire with a round of before breakfast eggnog latte's for everyone.





Thereafter Kuon and Dale went to work in the kitchen developing breakfast.

After our morning feast we made a quick trip to town to check the US Mail, look for some more eggnog and Dale demonstrated his GPS trip maker. Dale's GPS worked quite well out in the heather lands of NE Oregon, as I tried in a number of places to confuse the system's pointer.

Arriving back at the ranch, we spent most of the afternoon hours out and about, petting horses, goats, Dale and Kuon made a small walk around the lower 18 acres and riverfront. Again our routine was to feed the livestock at near dark and head for the house for another dinner feast, play a round of bridge, and kick back for the balance of the evening.













After Kittee, Wendi, Kuon and Dale finished their bridge game, Kittee asked Wendi to help her with a two week old hay throwing - back injury, and got a deep body massage to relieve her nagging back pain.









The rest of us had an evening of peace and quite, just reading, sitting by the fire.



To finish off the evening's activities, Dale pulled out the cats favorite spring toy and began to get them stirred. After Dale got dizzy from chasing cats in a circle he gave the toy to Wendi and she continued to play the cats until nearly bedtime.












Saturday morning the day began much as it did on Friday by restokeing and throwing another log on the overnight fire with a round of before breakfast eggnog latte's for everyone. After breakfast the westside family got their packing done, and Dale loaded the van. We all had our fond farewells. Shortly thereafter the folks were off and running. GPS said they would be getting home around 2:45 if there were no stops on their way.













Now we are looking for everyone else in the family and ole friends, to make plans to come visit us at McKuster Ranch as soon as possible. We are now just sitting here by the fire, and taking care of our livestock until every weekend riding season comes around in 2008.

Happy Holidays,
Kittee and Dale by the home fire burning