Stardate 082707
Went wet-wade fishing yesterday for a couple of late afternoon hours in the new and improved fish habitat of the McKuster Ranch stretch of the Walla Walla River. This was the first time I have fished our stretch of the river since 2005, and it felt grrrrreat. I found it very interesting the change in the riverbed configuration since 2005. All the fishing time (not horseback riding time) that Kittee and I have found for the past two years has been making quick day trips, maybe a dozen, to the stocked fishing ponds across the Blue Mountains to fill our creels and head home for dinner.
Started fishing with a Copper John to test the waters "working" downstream. Hooked maybe 15-20 small fish, having to use the Ketchum Release tool to unhook 4. Yes, I will call this outing "work" as it was 4:45 when I started, still a part of the scheduled workday.
Turning my attention upstream I changed to a Krystal Flash Elk Hair Caddis. Fished the better part of a half mile upstream hooking maybe 50 small fish (redband trout & salmon smolts) and a dozen larger redbands that I needed to use the Ketchum Release tool to remove the micro-barbed hook from their lip. Most fish were released by dropping slack in the line. Never touched a fish except for the day's final hookup netting.
Climbing over the new upriver cross-vane fish structure, I just about stepped on a 30" King Salmon that had white spawn decay on dorsal and tail fins. He/she moved from the shallow end of the river structure to the deep end and then turned upriver. With today's sightings this makes about 15 adult/ 1 jack salmon spotted here at the ranch in the past week.
I found interesting that one place in the river in 2005 there had been a deep swimming/ fishing hole (swimming divers could not touch the bottom), now it has filled in with river rocks 6-10" above water level and growing willows and grass. I did catch in the run that was once the head of that pool the best hookup of the day.
The last redband trout hookup of day was the largest- 9". I netted it and brought back to the new habitat structured portion of the river to play and fight another day. This fish swam upright after being released and nudged its way in between two rocks to catch its next meal. It was in great shape and should be ready for another fight next week.
I think that it will probably take some water events and the bull trout downstream migration this fall to truly "restock" this portion of the river.
This is a full moon week, and I find this usually effects fishing not for the better.
Plan to fish this same stretch again next week, to see if any larger fish have moved in after last week's excavation/ construction work (see blog of 082607).
Dale --- a day in the life at McKuster Ranch
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
King salmon run through McKuster Ranch
Stardate 08/20-26/07
This morning after breakfast Kittee and I went out to the river to sit and watch the salmon coming through our place on their 2007 run. We did spot two beautiful green backed King Chinook swimming the current and porpoise-ing in front of us on their way to their upriver spawning grounds. Talking with fishery biologist they tell us we have some very likely spawning habitat in our pristine stretch of the river of well oxygenated gin clear waters. We also watch a number of redband trout and salmon smolts attacking flies and parachute seeds on the surface of the river.
Last Monday morning we received a phone call from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), saying "we will be on your place Tuesday at 7:30 am to go to work on the river." Later that afternoon the excavator came onto the property. First thing Tuesday morning we heard the mighty machine at work. Quite amazing to watch this machine going almost anywhere they want to go, and make the changes in the river it did. The excavator’s operator name is Marvin and we give him and the CTUIR personnel a grand round of applause for the work they did here at the ranch.
Marvin worked here from early Tuesday through early Saturday morning to build a beautiful fish habitat and holding waters for salmon, steelhead, trout, the Pacific Northwest and McKuster Ranch. This project has been in the works for about 3 years, and had to be signed off by five different government agencies to proceed with the work of this past week. We feel it was a job well done, thank you BPA and the Treaty of 1855.
Amazing what this machine can do in the hands of a professional,
with a panel of joysticks and pedals.
I feel the beauty of this project is that it was done during low water conditions of the year. Most of the structures that were placed in the river are at or below the low water level and the results were immediate. We had salmon pulling into holes to rest/hide under the root wads that had just put in a few hours before. Also by placing these structures during this low water time of the year, we hope they are built low enough not to create too much resistance during high water events. Hopefully with winter runoff all the chinks will fill before a major water event. In the process of working in the river this past week, we spotted 7 Chinook working their way upstream.
Monday afternoon after getting the message of the excavator coming to the ranch, I went out and starting taking “before” pictures of the river scape. While in the river I ran into a couple of CTUIR tribal members conducting a salmon telemetry search for fish that were radio tagged at Bonneville Dam. After talking with them for awhile I was invited to join them at the South Fork Walla Walla fish hatchery on Wednesday morning to watch the man-made spawning procedure of the salmon that were being held at the hatchery.
A few shots inside the hatchery of CTUIR and Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) with personnel working some Chinook catch & release, some stripping the row from the female salmon, and the catch of the day (about 48 salmon).
The fish carcasses were also tested/ inspected for disease and virus that could damage/ destroy the roe and milt just taken. Pretty interesting operation with some of these fish being 30-36” in length. Yep, this is the land where many of the fish are as long as your leg.
Even though I have seen this work before at Three Mile Dam on the Umatilla River, it was still interesting to watch the process again, and think that in 4-6 years this prodigy would be adult salmon traveling thousands of miles returning to McKuster Ranch/ the Walla Walla River.
Other happenings of this week around the ranch is Kittee rode Shaiela, her Arabian princess for the first time bareback.
Shaiela was very easy and smooth with Kittee
while working in the round pen.
Shaiela is now better than 3
months pregnant.
Yes we are looking forward to her and her foal’s big day.
Saturday, Kittee did a trail ride with Nugget and her women’s horse club that she parades with. Sorry, no photos as husbands are not allowed to participate in most of these women only events. This next weekend -Labor Day- Kittee works the Walla Walla County Fair with this same group. I will be working the same Fair schedule with the Walla Walla Wagon Wheeler's at the beer booth. No horseback riding this week for Dale, as working around the ranch I found I was having too much pain in my back to want to jump on a horse. Went to have my back X-rayed Friday and we found two broken ribs from my bucking ride of Friday, July 13th.
Well, today one of our hay burners – Nugget – started earning his keep. He is now being paid to be a magazine/ journal model. He is a handsome horse and this afternoon we had a photo opt session with a publishing company out of College Place, WA. So after the first of the year 2008, you might begin to look for Kittee and Nugget to show up at your home or place of business in health and hospital journals.
To get the feel of the day you might wish to play the short 11 second video clip of Kittee and Nugget at the bottom of this blog's posting.
Recapping the week’s news from around the world…
1) I received an email from my friend/fishing pal Dr. Bob living on the east coast that he and his wife had celebrated the one-and-a-half decade wedding anniversary this past spring. They have been vacationing in Europe this year, and life was good for them. They are also about to begin a new episode in their lives of working in Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and elsewhere as Dr. Bob sits up his retirement ER orthopedic medical practice. Many of you met Dr. Bob at mine and Kittee's wedding 6 years ago on the Breaks of the South Fork, or our reception thereafter at the flyshop.
2) We received another email this week from my baby sister Mary Beth and she states that she and my brother-in-law David are about to celebrate their quarter-of-a-century wedding anniversary soon. WOW!!! That's my baby sister.
As the sun sank slowly in the west Kittee and I spent our evening watching the light/ shadows cross that portion of the river and bluff that is now our two-boulder Contemplation Station on the Walla Walla River.
Kittee also picked out another location on the river that is now our one-boulder Solitary Sanctuary. A beautiful place to be zen.
Leaving the river and bluff this evening, our plans for tomorrow evening after our work is done is to go fishing... in the new and improved fishery habitat, with about a dozen new fishing holes.
Hip-Hip-Hooray, this is going to be fun... trout, white fish, steelhead, and salmon... in the backyard.
Anybody out there wanna go fishing??
Kittee and I have declared McKuster Ranch to be a no kill fish zone, so we get to fight/ play with these wild fish again and again another day, unless they are heading for the Pacific Ocean or upriver spawning grounds. ODFW discontinued the Walla Walla River trout stocking program about 8-10 years ago, all Oregon trout and steelhead are wild, but we can fish for Washington stocked steelhead strays on the ranch.
Please NOTE - the Walla Walla River is not a salmon sport fishery, but it is inevitable, that fishing in these waters, King Chinook can be hooked. Likewise during autumn and winter fishing Dolly Vardens (bull trout) can be hooked when fishing our steelhead season. Catch & Release --- Short rodeo when fishing with a 1wt. or 2wt. or 4wt. fly rod!!!
This morning after breakfast Kittee and I went out to the river to sit and watch the salmon coming through our place on their 2007 run. We did spot two beautiful green backed King Chinook swimming the current and porpoise-ing in front of us on their way to their upriver spawning grounds. Talking with fishery biologist they tell us we have some very likely spawning habitat in our pristine stretch of the river of well oxygenated gin clear waters. We also watch a number of redband trout and salmon smolts attacking flies and parachute seeds on the surface of the river.
Last Monday morning we received a phone call from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), saying "we will be on your place Tuesday at 7:30 am to go to work on the river." Later that afternoon the excavator came onto the property. First thing Tuesday morning we heard the mighty machine at work. Quite amazing to watch this machine going almost anywhere they want to go, and make the changes in the river it did. The excavator’s operator name is Marvin and we give him and the CTUIR personnel a grand round of applause for the work they did here at the ranch.
Marvin worked here from early Tuesday through early Saturday morning to build a beautiful fish habitat and holding waters for salmon, steelhead, trout, the Pacific Northwest and McKuster Ranch. This project has been in the works for about 3 years, and had to be signed off by five different government agencies to proceed with the work of this past week. We feel it was a job well done, thank you BPA and the Treaty of 1855.
Amazing what this machine can do in the hands of a professional,
with a panel of joysticks and pedals.
Monday afternoon after getting the message of the excavator coming to the ranch, I went out and starting taking “before” pictures of the river scape. While in the river I ran into a couple of CTUIR tribal members conducting a salmon telemetry search for fish that were radio tagged at Bonneville Dam. After talking with them for awhile I was invited to join them at the South Fork Walla Walla fish hatchery on Wednesday morning to watch the man-made spawning procedure of the salmon that were being held at the hatchery.
A few shots inside the hatchery of CTUIR and Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) with personnel working some Chinook catch & release, some stripping the row from the female salmon, and the catch of the day (about 48 salmon).
The fish carcasses were also tested/ inspected for disease and virus that could damage/ destroy the roe and milt just taken. Pretty interesting operation with some of these fish being 30-36” in length. Yep, this is the land where many of the fish are as long as your leg.
Even though I have seen this work before at Three Mile Dam on the Umatilla River, it was still interesting to watch the process again, and think that in 4-6 years this prodigy would be adult salmon traveling thousands of miles returning to McKuster Ranch/ the Walla Walla River.~~~~~~~~~
Other happenings of this week around the ranch is Kittee rode Shaiela, her Arabian princess for the first time bareback.
Shaiela was very easy and smooth with Kittee
while working in the round pen.Shaiela is now better than 3
months pregnant.Yes we are looking forward to her and her foal’s big day.
Saturday, Kittee did a trail ride with Nugget and her women’s horse club that she parades with. Sorry, no photos as husbands are not allowed to participate in most of these women only events. This next weekend -Labor Day- Kittee works the Walla Walla County Fair with this same group. I will be working the same Fair schedule with the Walla Walla Wagon Wheeler's at the beer booth. No horseback riding this week for Dale, as working around the ranch I found I was having too much pain in my back to want to jump on a horse. Went to have my back X-rayed Friday and we found two broken ribs from my bucking ride of Friday, July 13th.
~ Sunday Photo Session ~
Well, today one of our hay burners – Nugget – started earning his keep. He is now being paid to be a magazine/ journal model. He is a handsome horse and this afternoon we had a photo opt session with a publishing company out of College Place, WA. So after the first of the year 2008, you might begin to look for Kittee and Nugget to show up at your home or place of business in health and hospital journals.
To get the feel of the day you might wish to play the short 11 second video clip of Kittee and Nugget at the bottom of this blog's posting.Recapping the week’s news from around the world…
1) I received an email from my friend/fishing pal Dr. Bob living on the east coast that he and his wife had celebrated the one-and-a-half decade wedding anniversary this past spring. They have been vacationing in Europe this year, and life was good for them. They are also about to begin a new episode in their lives of working in Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and elsewhere as Dr. Bob sits up his retirement ER orthopedic medical practice. Many of you met Dr. Bob at mine and Kittee's wedding 6 years ago on the Breaks of the South Fork, or our reception thereafter at the flyshop.
2) We received another email this week from my baby sister Mary Beth and she states that she and my brother-in-law David are about to celebrate their quarter-of-a-century wedding anniversary soon. WOW!!! That's my baby sister.
As the sun sank slowly in the west Kittee and I spent our evening watching the light/ shadows cross that portion of the river and bluff that is now our two-boulder Contemplation Station on the Walla Walla River.
Kittee also picked out another location on the river that is now our one-boulder Solitary Sanctuary. A beautiful place to be zen.
Leaving the river and bluff this evening, our plans for tomorrow evening after our work is done is to go fishing... in the new and improved fishery habitat, with about a dozen new fishing holes.
Hip-Hip-Hooray, this is going to be fun... trout, white fish, steelhead, and salmon... in the backyard.
Anybody out there wanna go fishing??
Kittee and I have declared McKuster Ranch to be a no kill fish zone, so we get to fight/ play with these wild fish again and again another day, unless they are heading for the Pacific Ocean or upriver spawning grounds. ODFW discontinued the Walla Walla River trout stocking program about 8-10 years ago, all Oregon trout and steelhead are wild, but we can fish for Washington stocked steelhead strays on the ranch.
Please NOTE - the Walla Walla River is not a salmon sport fishery, but it is inevitable, that fishing in these waters, King Chinook can be hooked. Likewise during autumn and winter fishing Dolly Vardens (bull trout) can be hooked when fishing our steelhead season. Catch & Release --- Short rodeo when fishing with a 1wt. or 2wt. or 4wt. fly rod!!!
Dale - a week in the life at McKuster Ranch
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Saturday in the Park
Stardate 081807
Kittee and I, went into town today. There we joined in and enjoyed the annual Muddy-Frogwater Days Festival of Milton-Freewater.
I shall digress just a bit... actually we went out to the festival for awhile on Friday (see blog 081707), to see Coyote Joe and the Western Trio Band and weave around the Yantis Park activities. Coyote Joe is an acquaintance of our, a mellow voiced cowboy troubadour along with his backup band. Their music show was most enjoyable... cowboy, western, trail songs of the late 1880's - 1940's, mostly turn of the century songs and music; some older, some more recent, good cowboy music. Coyote Joe seems to be quite an historian of such music.
Back to Saturday... Kittee did a mid-morning bareback riding session
with her Nugget, and I got on Justice for the first time to begin cue(s) training. Both of these rides went well just here around the ranch. The weather was mild, and clear. Afterwards we headed down for the festival to catch Coyote Joe doing cowboy story telling with song. 
Part of our entertainment while listening to Coyote Joe was watching this little fella -Wasn't me- and his sister running and playing around us as we sit enjoying a most pleasant Saturday afternoon. This little guy was so full of energy and go, go, go. Put a smile on our faces, mellowed our afternoon along with a large iced mug of WWWW & BV.
After Coyote Joe left the stage, we stayed on at the bandstand to watch a troupe of cloggers that came in from Walla Walla. There was 6 mostly middle aged ladies (half of their troupe, they say) that gave a fun demonstration of their clogging techniques - more Irish type clogging, than bluegrass style.
Following their show we just milled around the city park grounds enjoying, watching the kids and people, having fun, relaxing. Weather is great for a Saturday in the Park- pure sunshine, mid-70's temp, light breeze.
An attorney friend of Kittee that practice here in Milton-Freewater had given us two meal tickets for the annual Festival BBQ ½ chicken dinner - that was good deed. Talking with the
table waiter, he told us that the Rotary Club usually cooks about 1000 - ½ chickens for this occasion. This was quite a sight, as there were probably 8 of these chicken grilles working at the same time, and when finished it was some of the best open grilled BBQ chicken I have ever had. A job well done, and we had folks showing up for dinner and the festival from 70+ miles away.
After dinner we came home - yes, before dark as usual, and went out amongst the herd of horses and goats. As I was petting Misty she got a charged/feel good attitude and began a herd(s) stampede. We had mares running through three pastures, goats running around in one pasture, and geldings running through their pasture. Everybody was huck'n, buck'n, kick'n, except Shaiela (now in foal) and the two ponies. Misty was so charged that a number of times -maybe a half dozen- she did a rear-up and dance around on her hind feet. What a sight, what a joy. The weather was changing, to turn to rain on Sunday.
We were planning on joining a group of folks to do horseback riding along the northwest Oregon coastline today. This week we had an unexpected bill to come up, we didn't have a ranch sitter to keep the horses, so we ended up finding we had a most pleasant time just hanging around the ranch, our town. This weekend; life seems to be safe and sound living in the middle of who cares where, in this little Pacific northwest USA community- our town.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today, Sunday we have pouring rain at the ranch... our first one since May 2. Horses are soaked, don't seem to be very happy; our Shetland Island ponies love it.
Sunday afternoon- in the land where the skies are not cloudy all day -we sit out, enjoying the sun and watch the horses roll in mud. Evening's entertainment was watching two movies -- The Villain (you should get loaded to watch this one), and Lonesome Dove.
Dale - a day in the life at the ranch.
Kittee and I, went into town today. There we joined in and enjoyed the annual Muddy-Frogwater Days Festival of Milton-Freewater.
I shall digress just a bit... actually we went out to the festival for awhile on Friday (see blog 081707), to see Coyote Joe and the Western Trio Band and weave around the Yantis Park activities. Coyote Joe is an acquaintance of our, a mellow voiced cowboy troubadour along with his backup band. Their music show was most enjoyable... cowboy, western, trail songs of the late 1880's - 1940's, mostly turn of the century songs and music; some older, some more recent, good cowboy music. Coyote Joe seems to be quite an historian of such music.
Back to Saturday... Kittee did a mid-morning bareback riding session
with her Nugget, and I got on Justice for the first time to begin cue(s) training. Both of these rides went well just here around the ranch. The weather was mild, and clear. Afterwards we headed down for the festival to catch Coyote Joe doing cowboy story telling with song. 
Part of our entertainment while listening to Coyote Joe was watching this little fella -Wasn't me- and his sister running and playing around us as we sit enjoying a most pleasant Saturday afternoon. This little guy was so full of energy and go, go, go. Put a smile on our faces, mellowed our afternoon along with a large iced mug of WWWW & BV.After Coyote Joe left the stage, we stayed on at the bandstand to watch a troupe of cloggers that came in from Walla Walla. There was 6 mostly middle aged ladies (half of their troupe, they say) that gave a fun demonstration of their clogging techniques - more Irish type clogging, than bluegrass style.
Following their show we just milled around the city park grounds enjoying, watching the kids and people, having fun, relaxing. Weather is great for a Saturday in the Park- pure sunshine, mid-70's temp, light breeze.
An attorney friend of Kittee that practice here in Milton-Freewater had given us two meal tickets for the annual Festival BBQ ½ chicken dinner - that was good deed. Talking with the
table waiter, he told us that the Rotary Club usually cooks about 1000 - ½ chickens for this occasion. This was quite a sight, as there were probably 8 of these chicken grilles working at the same time, and when finished it was some of the best open grilled BBQ chicken I have ever had. A job well done, and we had folks showing up for dinner and the festival from 70+ miles away.After dinner we came home - yes, before dark as usual, and went out amongst the herd of horses and goats. As I was petting Misty she got a charged/feel good attitude and began a herd(s) stampede. We had mares running through three pastures, goats running around in one pasture, and geldings running through their pasture. Everybody was huck'n, buck'n, kick'n, except Shaiela (now in foal) and the two ponies. Misty was so charged that a number of times -maybe a half dozen- she did a rear-up and dance around on her hind feet. What a sight, what a joy. The weather was changing, to turn to rain on Sunday.
We were planning on joining a group of folks to do horseback riding along the northwest Oregon coastline today. This week we had an unexpected bill to come up, we didn't have a ranch sitter to keep the horses, so we ended up finding we had a most pleasant time just hanging around the ranch, our town. This weekend; life seems to be safe and sound living in the middle of who cares where, in this little Pacific northwest USA community- our town.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today, Sunday we have pouring rain at the ranch... our first one since May 2. Horses are soaked, don't seem to be very happy; our Shetland Island ponies love it.
Sunday afternoon- in the land where the skies are not cloudy all day -we sit out, enjoying the sun and watch the horses roll in mud. Evening's entertainment was watching two movies -- The Villain (you should get loaded to watch this one), and Lonesome Dove.
Dale - a day in the life at the ranch.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Taking a Friday off
Stardate 081707
Today Kittee and I took the day off to enjoy a day of rest, riding and relaxation. Right after breakfast we groomed Misty and Nugget, loaded them in the trailer and headed up the river - to ride the So. Fork Walla Walla River Trail.
While riding through the river fords, we counted 17 mature King Chinook holding in the river crossings in there annual rite of moving upriver to spawn. These were some gorgeous fish ranging in size from 24" up to 34" or better. A few had the spawned -white fin/ tail- deterioration. We found salmon in every crossing except the one pictured below which is a narrow, deep, and fast portion of the river, not really salmon holding
waters.
As you can see from our photos the day was beautiful, with highs in the low 80's and pure sunshine on our shoulders. It was a wonderful ride, but we had to cut it a bit short as I began to realize back pain for the previous bucking ride of a month ago. This day we made about a 2 hour ride , of which was non-eventful except for the joy of riding through our beautiful northeast Oregon upriver back country, which is 7 miles from home. One thing that was pretty neat was that at our last river crossing there was a very large salmon that had white dorsal fins that ran right along side Kittee and Nugget as they crossed the river, the four of us were amused by this
happening, not sure about the King Salmon, he could have been pissed by our presence in the back country. It was a very good ride.
After settling Misty and Nugget into their pastures back at the ranch, we made a quick trip into town to watch/ listen to some great western music (composed 1840-1920) by various artist and preformed by Coyote Joe and the Western Trio Band. It's Muddy-Frogwater Festival weekend in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. We are having a good time, enjoying life.
Dale - a day in the life around the ranch
Today Kittee and I took the day off to enjoy a day of rest, riding and relaxation. Right after breakfast we groomed Misty and Nugget, loaded them in the trailer and headed up the river - to ride the So. Fork Walla Walla River Trail.
While riding through the river fords, we counted 17 mature King Chinook holding in the river crossings in there annual rite of moving upriver to spawn. These were some gorgeous fish ranging in size from 24" up to 34" or better. A few had the spawned -white fin/ tail- deterioration. We found salmon in every crossing except the one pictured below which is a narrow, deep, and fast portion of the river, not really salmon holding
waters.
As you can see from our photos the day was beautiful, with highs in the low 80's and pure sunshine on our shoulders. It was a wonderful ride, but we had to cut it a bit short as I began to realize back pain for the previous bucking ride of a month ago. This day we made about a 2 hour ride , of which was non-eventful except for the joy of riding through our beautiful northeast Oregon upriver back country, which is 7 miles from home. One thing that was pretty neat was that at our last river crossing there was a very large salmon that had white dorsal fins that ran right along side Kittee and Nugget as they crossed the river, the four of us were amused by this
happening, not sure about the King Salmon, he could have been pissed by our presence in the back country. It was a very good ride. After settling Misty and Nugget into their pastures back at the ranch, we made a quick trip into town to watch/ listen to some great western music (composed 1840-1920) by various artist and preformed by Coyote Joe and the Western Trio Band. It's Muddy-Frogwater Festival weekend in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. We are having a good time, enjoying life.
Dale - a day in the life around the ranch
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Martini Croquet with Miriam
Stardate 08/02-04/o7
This past weekend Miriam came out of the city to visit and play a round or two of Martini Croquet at McKuster Ranch. Let me tell you something about Miriam; she lives on the west side (of Oregon) and leads a most hectic lifestyle. She seems to have at all times about 6-10 pots on the fire (family and her businesses), so coming out to McKuster Ranch, she says gives her a break and a dose of fresh air. We are glad she enjoys it here.
We always try to make her stay here a get-away-from-it-all trip. Damn the telephone and internet connections. Part of the get-away ritual is the playing of Martini Croquet on the front lawn, and horseback riding in the arena... during most of her trips.
This season with the afternoon temperatures in the upper 90's we played games of wet not dry
Martini Croquet. Wet Martini Croquet is accomplished with the pasture and lawn irrigation system running to keep everyone cool. On the right you see Miriam after completing a beautiful mallet stroke of her ball shooting for the mid-course pin. It was at that point she then got hit by a sprinkler shot of cooling Walla Walla River shower. OHoooo, that feels so good!
~~~~~~~~~~
Let me digress --- the McKuster Ranch definition of Martini Croquet is
1: a sport that Kittee and Dale started playing a few years ago, on a universal croquet laid out course (on our front lawn) with the use of extra dry Bombay Sapphire Martinis. We feel that a good Martini should be made with only fine gin -Bombay Sapphire London Dry- (frozen) and the best of extra dry vermouth, French or Italian -Martini&Rossi- (frozen), poured over ice, then shaken not stirred and strained into a 6-8oz. Martini glass. To properly play Martini Croquet, we would each have a Martini while sitting up the course, and then another Martini while playing the first game or two.
NOTE: Once we had a third Martini apiece somewhere during the second, third, or fourth, or fifth or whatever game it was. Well, after that third Martini we could not find our croquet balls. We called the game off and just went to sit on the back porch for awhile. We won't do that again. Thereafter definition #2 came into effect for "Martini Croquet".
2: to play Croquet by the rules of the course and drink what you want.
~~~~~~~~~~
After the lost balls experience we no longer restrict our game of "Martini Croquet" to the beverage of frozen Martinis. It is now players choice --- diet Cola, water, Fuzzy Navel (Miriam's favorite), WWWW & BV, McKuster Ranch Bloody Mary (like no other), whiskey sour, or any of an assortment of fine Oregon/ Washington vintaged vinos, etc. The game now is not as wacky as when drinking straight Martinis, but still challenging and fun. Ones' eye/mallet stroke skill level has to be maintained to the max to complete the course of the game, even though one does not have to be able to pass the universal FST if you are playing the game and spending the night at McKuster Ranch.
We followed our evening game with guest of "Martini Croquet" as usual with a hickory smoked BBQ - being Miriam was here, this cookout was chicken from the backyard smoker of McKuster Ranch.
With Miriam here most of the weekend we spent it in relaxed mode, enjoying each others company, eating, napping, playing croquet and horseback riding. This weekend was Miriam's third or forth time to make a horseback ride at McKuster Ranch and she is getting better all the time. While riding Misty, she came to realize how responsive a horse can be to proper cues for riding directions.
Saturday, we polished the morning with Miriam on Misty, and then did lunch in Pendleton at our favorite Ms. Patti's restaurant, and a visit to Tamastslikt Cultural Institute of the CTUIR. Kittee and I bought the neatest coffee table book- Celilo Falls: Remembering Thunder - a pictorial collection from Wilma Roberts of the oldest established and currently occupied community in the Western Hemisphere (12.000 years of community living at Celilo Village). After our visit to Tamastslikt, Miriam headed back to the west side and the city life there.
Sunday Kittee saddled up Nugget, I helped her with Justice and they made a few turns around our riverside arena, just to stay in tune. I am still taking life easy trying to mend the rib cracking of three weeks ago during the Derby bucking fit. Thereafter we made a trip to Walla Walla to catch the new Harry Potter movie on the big screen. All in all this gave us a full weekend of fun, grins, relaxation with friend and horses, as well as making two trips to the cities (PDT & ALW), of which we made it home before dark so we were able pet and brush our herd of horses. Life is good.
We hope you too will consider taking a break from the hectic, come relax, have some down-home cooking, play croquet, maybe take a horseback ride with us.
Dale - a weekend in the life at McKuster Ranch
This past weekend Miriam came out of the city to visit and play a round or two of Martini Croquet at McKuster Ranch. Let me tell you something about Miriam; she lives on the west side (of Oregon) and leads a most hectic lifestyle. She seems to have at all times about 6-10 pots on the fire (family and her businesses), so coming out to McKuster Ranch, she says gives her a break and a dose of fresh air. We are glad she enjoys it here.We always try to make her stay here a get-away-from-it-all trip. Damn the telephone and internet connections. Part of the get-away ritual is the playing of Martini Croquet on the front lawn, and horseback riding in the arena... during most of her trips.
This season with the afternoon temperatures in the upper 90's we played games of wet not dry
Martini Croquet. Wet Martini Croquet is accomplished with the pasture and lawn irrigation system running to keep everyone cool. On the right you see Miriam after completing a beautiful mallet stroke of her ball shooting for the mid-course pin. It was at that point she then got hit by a sprinkler shot of cooling Walla Walla River shower. OHoooo, that feels so good!~~~~~~~~~~
Let me digress --- the McKuster Ranch definition of Martini Croquet is
1: a sport that Kittee and Dale started playing a few years ago, on a universal croquet laid out course (on our front lawn) with the use of extra dry Bombay Sapphire Martinis. We feel that a good Martini should be made with only fine gin -Bombay Sapphire London Dry- (frozen) and the best of extra dry vermouth, French or Italian -Martini&Rossi- (frozen), poured over ice, then shaken not stirred and strained into a 6-8oz. Martini glass. To properly play Martini Croquet, we would each have a Martini while sitting up the course, and then another Martini while playing the first game or two.
NOTE: Once we had a third Martini apiece somewhere during the second, third, or fourth, or fifth or whatever game it was. Well, after that third Martini we could not find our croquet balls. We called the game off and just went to sit on the back porch for awhile. We won't do that again. Thereafter definition #2 came into effect for "Martini Croquet".
2: to play Croquet by the rules of the course and drink what you want.
~~~~~~~~~~
After the lost balls experience we no longer restrict our game of "Martini Croquet" to the beverage of frozen Martinis. It is now players choice --- diet Cola, water, Fuzzy Navel (Miriam's favorite), WWWW & BV, McKuster Ranch Bloody Mary (like no other), whiskey sour, or any of an assortment of fine Oregon/ Washington vintaged vinos, etc. The game now is not as wacky as when drinking straight Martinis, but still challenging and fun. Ones' eye/mallet stroke skill level has to be maintained to the max to complete the course of the game, even though one does not have to be able to pass the universal FST if you are playing the game and spending the night at McKuster Ranch.
We followed our evening game with guest of "Martini Croquet" as usual with a hickory smoked BBQ - being Miriam was here, this cookout was chicken from the backyard smoker of McKuster Ranch.
With Miriam here most of the weekend we spent it in relaxed mode, enjoying each others company, eating, napping, playing croquet and horseback riding. This weekend was Miriam's third or forth time to make a horseback ride at McKuster Ranch and she is getting better all the time. While riding Misty, she came to realize how responsive a horse can be to proper cues for riding directions.
Saturday, we polished the morning with Miriam on Misty, and then did lunch in Pendleton at our favorite Ms. Patti's restaurant, and a visit to Tamastslikt Cultural Institute of the CTUIR. Kittee and I bought the neatest coffee table book- Celilo Falls: Remembering Thunder - a pictorial collection from Wilma Roberts of the oldest established and currently occupied community in the Western Hemisphere (12.000 years of community living at Celilo Village). After our visit to Tamastslikt, Miriam headed back to the west side and the city life there.
Sunday Kittee saddled up Nugget, I helped her with Justice and they made a few turns around our riverside arena, just to stay in tune. I am still taking life easy trying to mend the rib cracking of three weeks ago during the Derby bucking fit. Thereafter we made a trip to Walla Walla to catch the new Harry Potter movie on the big screen. All in all this gave us a full weekend of fun, grins, relaxation with friend and horses, as well as making two trips to the cities (PDT & ALW), of which we made it home before dark so we were able pet and brush our herd of horses. Life is good.
We hope you too will consider taking a break from the hectic, come relax, have some down-home cooking, play croquet, maybe take a horseback ride with us.Dale - a weekend in the life at McKuster Ranch
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