Saturday, November 24, 2007

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

Friday, November 16, 2007

Adrenaline Rush

Stardate 111607

Took my wife on a little day trip to Bend, OR today to see a horse. While there we got a real Adrenaline Rush out of our ride.It was a year and a half ago, after we purchased Goldie, that we were introduced (by word of mouth) to Adrenaline Rush and his pedigree. We were really hoping to find a Purebred Arabian stallion, chestnut in body color with flaxen mane and tail to breed with our palomino mare. However, he was far away in Bend, and the situation just didn't work out. All this time I have kept talking to Goldie about Adrenaline Rush, and hoping someday we might get to meet him.

Today started quite early as we planned to leave the ranch at 7:00 a.m. after feeding horses and loading the car for our day trip. Fueled up in Pendleton and made a bee line for Bend, about 280 miles from home through the high Oregon desert. It was a most pleasant day for travel, as it was mostly overcast, warm air, with an occasional shower along the way. As we were traveling to Bend, Kittee was reading aloud the new book we had bought this past week - The Stallion by James P. McCall, Ph.D. It was most interesting reading while at the same time put the fear of God's most noble four legged creature in our mind. We got to the Double J Ranch just in time for our 1:30 p.m. appointment with Jean and David Straight (Adrenaline Rush's owners) and the vet, Dr. "Charlie", to do a vet check of "Rusty".

Everything went well, and halfway through the vet examination we took Rusty out to the round pen, gave him a few laps of warmup, and watched his moves.

What a horse....






After the round pen workout Jean, David, Kittee and I surrounded Rusty and adored him with pets and apple cookies. Like his sire, Fire An Ice, Rusty is a most well mannered stallion. He is a very easy handler, and has the beauty of a purebred with Arabian legend *Bask++ showing twice on his AHA registration front page, on his sire and dam side.

















Here we had the opportunity to see how Rusty flies.


















Rusty is a self-longeing horse, and very showy with his long flaxen mane and tail flowing in the breeze of his movements. He is a seven year old, full of vim and vigor as we watched him making 5 of these flying leaps during his playtime in the round pen today.

We were just thrilled to be in the presence of such a very mild-mannered stallion that had the wonderful horseality, (nothing like the horror stories we had just read about) characteristics, and the handsome looks of the Arabian horse breed that we had been looking for. He is not a pencil- nosed Arabian, and we feel he should make a great sire for our palomino quarab Goldie's foals.

Before we left, David walked Rusty out to the mare's paddock and we witnessed his mild manner around the mares and his deep gruntal voice neighing to the mares.


Well, to top this story off...
before we left the Double J Ranch, Kittee pulled out the McKuster Ranch checkbook and made a deposit to buy Rusty for our ranch stallion.

This is a big move for us, but we feel that we are going in the right direction. We plan to have our stallion's domain constructed in a month or two, and be able to have Rusty at home for our 2008 breeding season.

After being thrilled by this Adrenaline Rush exposure, we faced the long trip back to the ranch, but first we had to make a dinner stop at McGrath's Fish House in Bend. WOW!! what a treat for the palate. Kittee made the long drive back home, as I was quite tired since I have been awake since 1:30 a.m. --- must be the excitement of a year and a half wait to meet Rusty. We got back to the ranch around 10:30 p.m. to feed our herd, make this blog post and get to bed by midnight.

You can now find the expanded and updated Adrenaline Rush webpage at http://mckuster-ranch.com/AdrenalineRush.html

What a day... in the life at McKuster Ranch --- Dale & Kittee

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Never look a gift horse in the mouth!

Stardate 110907

Believe me... Nugget McKuster is a gift horse, given to us by the Great Spirit. And no we didn't look him in the mouth when we bought him. He is a wonderful, handsome thousand pound pet and a gorgeous ride. But there are some Friday afternoons, from time to time that Nugget will go on a binge. This past Friday we found Nugget in the above condition and had to prop him up just a bit.

Yep, that is our Nugget. Please don't tell Kittee you ever saw Nugget in this condition. She is so embarrassed when we have to prop him up...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Friday morning we had Dr. Sarah Metcalf -equine dentist- pull into the ranch once again. This year Nugget was to show the results of his three year dental plan to correct his overcrowding teeth situtation, short of applying braces.

Dr. Sarah comes fully equipped and ready for a day's work when she get here. This day we were just going to have her work on our geldings. Dr. Sarah keeps a very busy schedule in the Pacific Northwest, with her day's work here and after being on the road for awhile she was ready to head her Idaho home.

It has been a joy to have the opportunity to get to know and work with Dr. Sarah over the past three years. It is great to have such a kind, gentle, knowledgeable person to help us with our horses. She brightens our day each time she comes to McKuster Ranch. Again we are thankful for the wonderful horsey folks that have come into our lives.

Below you will see the progression of work she has done on Nugget over the past three years of correcting his dental situation of too many teeth for a horse. If you are interested in seeing the work done with Nugget with more detail visit our dental clinics webpage.

Anyway, here is a quick view of our horses' trip to the dentist office...

A shot of Nugget's smile in 2005 - this condition of too many teeth was on the way of creating tooth decay and a major lost of his lower incisors at an early age.









A shot of Nugget's smile in 2006 - here all of Nugget's lower incisors were shaping up nicely, but he had one more large overlapping tooth to remove.





A shot of Nugget's smile in 2007 - this year his teeth were all beginning to line up nicely, with no more extractions needed. He also has a much sweeter horsey breath than in 2005.

Some of the routine dental work done on most of our geldings, and the mares will get their turn in the spring.



Checking Nugget's records of past work done, maintenance work to be continued.





The upper molar arcade - here you might notice on the outside of this row of teeth there are some points... very sharp points that are to be "floated" smooth. These point do create cheek sore as they are quite sharp.





Mechanical floating - with an adaptive drill, Dr. Sarah grinds the molars to reduce Nugget's likelihood of developing cheek sores and to shape a better chewing surface of his teeth.






Manual floating - same as the mechanical floating but by hand just doing the fine tune work.
This is how you will see most equine vet float a horses teeth.






Finishing touches - to help set Nugget's bite a little closer for better chewing, food consumption.


Yep, it would probably had made no difference in where Nugget calls home, if we had looked this gift horse in the mouth.

After the work is done, everyone has a little difficulty (like a drunk sailor) in walking around so before going to the round pen for a couple of hours of recoup, they get to stand around the hitching rail to start sobering up. Here is Justice in a most relaxed state of mind.

Attached below is a short video (7 seconds) of reducing the canine teeth that gelding will develop. Nugget is now 7 years old and this year his canine teeth showed up.




Friday was a beautiful autumn day and after everyone made their dental work recovery, everyone had a jolly ole time just relaxing in the sunshine and munching on alfalfa hay for the rest of the day. No one had to go back to work after making their dentist's office visit.

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

Thursday, November 1, 2007

A backyard brawl

Stardate 103107

"He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day." The Great Race

It was a gorgeous 56° Wednesday afternoon, the last day of October and most of my day's work was done. This was the last day of our northeast Oregon '07 trout season, so I headed for the backyard to see if I could pick a fight, or two, or three, or four, maybe more with some of the pea-brains that live back there. The picture above will give you an idea of where I started by placing a few cast to the left side of the river around a fish holding rootwad, a few cast behind the rocks in the middle of the river, and then a cast towards the rootwad on the right side of the river. POW!, first fish of the day a 9" redband trout (by the tape--pictured here) caught just above the rootwad on the right. There were more October Caddis flying over the water this day than I had seen all season, so I was fishing with a high floating Orange Stimulator, this was a nice way to start the day's fish fights. Gee, was I pumped now, ready for the next fight.
Being the last day of trout season I knew that anything I hooked into, would not be around to offer a fight next Memorial Day Weekend; so I was fishing for dinner, a rare occasion for me when fishing over wild trout, particularly in my own backyard.

I continued to fish upriver casting my fly in all the usual places that I usually get rises and hookups, but little was happening. It dawned on me... I should check the water temperature to determine the trout's activity level. 40°, that was 8° cooler that a couple of weeks ago, the last time I fished the river. Trout fishing begins to slow down as the water temperature approaches 38° and colder, and we have had some good snowfalls in the mountain timber this autumn, with overnight frosts around the ranch most of this past week.

I tell myself, "I needed to start fishing with a nymph" eventhough those B-52 type October Caddis were flying around. So my next move was to tie on a Copper John. I was still fishing upriver and my fly presentations were not the best when I placed a cast behind a nice 4' boulder and my line went tight. Then all the tackle beyond the tip-top guide begins to run downriver. OH Boy, what a fight developed using my 1 wt. rod. I brought this guy to the landing net about 4 to 6 times, and each time it had it's way and ran across river/down river/trying to get away. I got pretty excited about the weight of this fish on my line, just hoping that I could get a picture of the end result of our fight.

Yep, this guy was about to get an invitation to dinner. A nice 12" redband.
It really hurts to be thumping these guys out, but I kept telling myself that they won't be here after winter, the spring runoff so Kittee and I should enjoy their company now.
After hooking this 12"er, I fished a couple hundred yards further upriver and as the sun had set, the evening light was getting dimmer; I turned around to fish back to the ranch. Having fished about 20 yards downstream still using the Copper John, I hooked into another nice fish. The fish felt like it had good weight and it swam strong; right into the fast current... another long line release, a short rodeo.
By the last light of day as I was passing caves in the bluff wall next to the river, and I began picturing bear and cougars climbing out of them for their nocturnal feedings. I sped up my wading steps back to the ranch's river takeout, there I cleaned our dinner and headed for the barn. I still had horses and goats to feed. Just as I finished putting out hay for everyone, Kittee got home and headed for the barn. We talked with horses, goats for just awhile, and headed for the house to put away the 1 wt. river fishing gear for the balance of '07, and got ready for dinner.

It was a very good day.

A day in the life at McKuster Ranch -- Dale