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