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