Christmas in February -or- Winter in the High Desert

Stardate 02/22-24/08

Took my wife on a little road trip to Bend, OR just to see this horse. While there we got our seafood fix, our Adrenaline Rush, and headed home. This made a most pleasant weekend outing.

We were quite excited about getting out of town Friday by noon, heading for the high desert of Central Oregon, and hoping to have a chance to be with/visit "Rusty" before dark. Everything was packed and ready to go, when it turned into 1:30 before Kittee got out of court trials. We knew we were not going to make it to Bend before dark, so it was time to slow down and just enjoy the trip.

All of the search and finding (of Adrenaline Rush) begin two years ago as Travis Webster and I were training Derby to trailer load; that's another story I won't go into here. But for 2 years I have been studying Rusty, not for purchase but for stud service.

Anyway, back to Friday's trip... it was a most pleasant afternoon ride, skies mostly clear, temperatures quite mild. The day's weather forecast was for rain, and snow developing by nightfall, but we were getting all sunshine, little breeze as we passed the new wind turbine farm south of Biggs.

We were well south of Shaniko, before we saw clouds developing. By the time we got to Madras it was dark, raining with a mix of snow. It's still February.

Heading on into Bend, we were planning dinner at McGrath's Fish House. Again we found this to be a treat for dinner that borders on being sinful. I think I have now shown Kittee the rewards of stopping at a McGrath's Fish House whenever we get near one. After dinner we checked into the no frills roadhouse inn, for a shower, a beer, a movie, and a night's rest before heading out to pick up Rusty.

Now it has probably been 50 years or so since I had a night like this. This night reminded me much of the excitement of Xmas eve of my youth... awake half the night, just waiting for daybreak, the treat of the morning to come. We are getting our Arabian stallion this day for Xmas, birthdays, Goldie, and Misty.

Saturday, after a restless night's rest for both Kittee and I, we awoke by morning's light, got up, had our coffee, muffins, sweet rolls and headed out to defrost and wipe the snow off of "Blue". All the other vehicles in the parking lot were covered with snow, but "Blue" was only lightly dusted. "Blue" fired up pretty easily this morning without using the engine glow plugs more than one cycle, and we were off to get our Rusty. It was a beautiful morning in Bend with a light dusting of fresh snow everywhere, very light Saturday a.m. traffic, and the sun was breaking through the partly cloudy sky on this fresh new day.

Having been out to the Double J Ranch to meet Rusty last November, we had our directions and it as easy to find, even through the increasingly deeper snowfall as we approached the ranch. Before we got to the Double J Ranch we did have to go into 4x4 drive as the fresh snow was about 5" deep, and very few vehicles had traveled the back roads this early Saturday a.m. Pulling into the Double J Ranch it was a beautiful winter's landscape with bright sunshine on everything.


After greetings with Jean and David, at the ranch house we proceeded out to greet Rusty at his stallion keep. Kittee was biting at the bit to put her hands on him, get him into the round pen and begin communing for the day. Rusty was in a blanket for the snowy night so after taking it off, David brought out the curry brush and knocked off some of his loose winter coat.
Kittee worked Rusty in the round pen for maybe 15-20 minutes. He was warm under the blanket but she wanted to take any edge off of his nerves before loading him in the trailer for the long ride home.









Again, like last November we found Rusty full of vim and vigor, but so easy to pet, and to be around.














After knocking a little edge off his energy level, we brought him around to the trailer, brushed him off a bit more and travel booted, blanketed him for loading in the trailer and going home.

The ride home was again quite pleasant, with plenty of sunshine, and mild temperature all the way back to Milton-Freewater. Again the new wind turbines were shining bright in the mid-day sun, coming up the Mighty Columbia River we found beautiful views, with most of the river's /lakes being smooth as a mirror.


Arriving home we found our weather to be beautiful, and a great day to off load Rusty. While Kittee took his boots and blanket off, I went out and began to feed the rest of the herd and close them out of the adjacent pasture to Rusty. Getting back to the trailer Kittee and I both continued to brush and comb Rusty to remove a lot of loose fur and de-tangle his mane. He takes handling and grooming very well.

After giving him a through work over with brushes, and fingertips we put him out to pasture. That was probably quite a different experience for him, as he has been living in a stallion keep for awhile.

In the pasture he ran and ran, and begin connecting with the goats in the next pasture.

Rachael, from across the street came over and welcomed Rusty to the neighborhood. The Woodhall's with horses came by, Shana and Sinwaan came back from their ride up Cashe Hollow Road and Rusty went out to the front fence line and greeted all.

The rest of the herd was feeding behind the barn so very little interaction between Rusty and them took place. He did give quite a few stallion bugle blows trying to get their attention, but everyone was focused on their feed.

There was a few times that Rusty did stop running after he sweated up, stood around for awhile and found a few bite to eat. We knew this was a all new experience for him, and we just gave him space and time to enjoy.
Kittee and I stayed out with him the rest of the afternoon, as clouds began to come across the southwest sky, and be wind began to blow. The wind had quite a chill, felt like and began to look like the weather from Central OR was heading in our direction. Got a call later in the evening from Shana saying that Sunday's forecast was for 50% chance of rain. Whelp, guest that will knock out our chance to get out and ride for the day.

Sunday, Kittee and I slept in a little longer than usual before having our first cup of coffee. Yesterday made quite a trip, with a lack of sleep from the night before.
After a cup of coffee, Kittee went out to feed horses as I prepared our breakfast of biscuits, gravy, eggs, and more coffee. A pretty good way to start the day that's cool and wet outside. It wasn't raining when we got up, but it had been raining overnight and Rusty did fine weathering through his first night in Northeast Oregon.
After breakfast, and the horses' a.m. feed, Kittee went out and brought Nugget into the pasture adjacent to Rusty. That didn't go so well, as Nugget often times can act studdy, and Rusty is full blown stallion, so Kittee put Nugget back with the rest of the herd.
Then she brought out ole steady Derby, who has been mellowing more and more in the past six months as he has now called McKuster Ranch his home for over three years. Derby and Rusty, acted like gentlemen as they greeted each other over the fence line, and there we fed them and gave them a chance to get use to each other. Rusty did a little dancing around on his side of the fence, while Derby just ate his rations on his side of the fence as the goats were coming and going to grab bites of hay. The horses did touch noses at one point and just then Rusty's chest touched the top strand of electric braid which gave them both a shocking how-do-you-do. But all in all this meeting was quite uneventful. We feel this will be a good sign, as we do plan to turn Rusty out to pasture very often, and we hope for him to have a grazing pasture mate to share time and space with, not a mare.

Speaking of mates & mares for Rusty to get aquainted with... this afternoon Rusty got to meet Misty over the fence,

and Goldie from a distance.

Rusty is a bit winter thin so we are hoping to get him shaped up asap, and have a formal introduction between he, Goldie and Misty this spring.



This we must do in May and June so that Misty has her foal set before we start training and preparing for the trail ride heading into Minam River Lodge planned for August.

We have now had Rusty at McKuster Ranch for almost 24 hours. All is going well. We feel that we have found the Arabian stallion that we were looking for... a good mind, gentle disposition, should be strong for endurance riding, and relieves us from the idea of having to handle a stallion that rips, snorts, and strikes at the hand and head of the one that feeds him.
We have seen and read about those guys. YIKES!!! Not at McKuster Ranch.

Beginning spring of 2008 Adrenaline Rush will be
standing stallion at McKuster Ranch.
See Rusty's web page for details.
~~Happy Trails~~

a day in the life at the ranch -- Dale

A day on the trail with the Purple Sage Riders

Stardate 020908















Kittee and I have been so looking forward to this day, since Wednesday evening. At our Back Country Horsemen (BCH) meeting Robin Dale, our club's trail ride chairwoman announced that there was going to be a trail ride Saturday in our neck of the woods, hosted by the Purple Sage Riders (BCH of Tri-Cities, Washington).
We curried our horses at the ranch and left home about 9:15 this a.m. got to the park at about 10:20. We were all biting at the bit to get started on this ride.


Last weekend Robin and our Pendleton Chapter of BCH was hoping to do a ride along the mighty Columbia River just east of Wallula Junction at Hat Rock State Park, but freezing wet winter weather squelched those plans.

Everyone is saddled up and warming up our rides.

The past several weeks we have looked at snow cover and mud season every weekend. The last time we saw the ground was the Saturday I tilled our garden for the first time this season. I was almost ready to start planting that week. Today most of the snow is now gone from our world and our saddle horses were much cleaner, from their pasterns up.

Today's weather forecast for the Wallula Junction area was for mostly sunshine, 50º, and a bit breezy to windy. Much the same as it was when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark walked across this ground a little over two hundred years ago. Today the weather was a bit more cloudy than sunny, but if felt great to be out riding the trail with no falling snow
or freezing weather in sight. Kittee's cheeks even got rather rosy riding around in today's bright fresh air.


Instruction for today's ride was to be saddled-up and ready-to-ride at 11:00 a.m.
We hit the trail leaving Madam Dorian Park pretty close to 11:00. Most of us were bundled up well for the cool weather and breezing conditions, but there was no rain in sight and being in the saddle again felt great. This ride lasted about 3 to 3½ hours riding up the Walla Walla River and around its delta area next to the Mighty Columbia River. The trail is mostly a sandy dunes like area, with plenty of hills and draws to ride through. This is sagebrush country, and the smell of fresh sage that we brushed against was in the air most of our ride.

I would say that today's group was about 15-20 rider from age 4 years old and older.

Kittee and I found that Nugget and Misty wanted to jog the trail most of the way going and coming, while cantering up most of the hills. It has been quite awhile since they were out trail riding together, as most of our winter riding is done in an indoor arena.About an hour and a half out we came to our turn around point where everyone rested themselves and horses awhile.




Took a few pictures...



At this point most everyone's horse was in a good sweat /lather, and most of the rider took our gloves off as the ride was warming up. A good day's exercise; a good early season workout jogging/trotting/loping through the sand. It was fun for all.

Turning around and looking at the way back towards the trailer and Park, Misty was sizing up the trip, as most of the time she does to decide how much of that distance can she jog and run to get back to the trailer and some food and water.

Because all of our horses are now barefoot, we only rode the gravel road for a little ways, and returned to the sandy river bank of the Walla Walla for the return trip.

Upon getting back to the Park, there was a camp fire waiting and we had come prepared for a potluck feast to top off this communion. We did not have a pure sunshine afternoon, but it was very bright, mostly sunny and the wind stopped blowing during our lunch. It felt great to be in the great outdoors with new and ole friends.

OH what a wonderful feast we had spread for lunch. As the table was set, we found 3 or 4 different salads, a pot of warm rice, a large hot crockpot of gravy with meatballs, a pot of chili con carne, with desert goodies of homemade fudge, chocolate chip cookies, and sugar cookies. Mmmmm good stuff.

Today Shana, her husband Matt, son Levi, and Sinwaan joined us for this early season ride. Shana told Kittee that this day made a big different in helping lift her spirits from the winter blahs. Follow this link if you are interested in looking at this day's blog work from Shana's perspective. Shana does a very nice job with her blog, and is the young lady that got me into blogging.

I feel today made a big difference in everyone spirits, free from snow, free from freeze, warm and having a great communion with our horsey neighbors and our horses in the grandest cathedral ever created.
Purple Sage Riders, we have to give you a BIG Oregon Thank You for breaking up our winter humdrums with a great trail ride and a wonderful open air/potluck lunch to follow. Thank you Robin for bring this ride to our attention.

Again we are glad the Great Spirit-Creator of All, turns us loose in these great outdoor settings.

Tomorrow's weather forecast is 40% chance of rain... again. Makes no difference, it has been two or three weeks since Misty and I danced and cantered together, I know I am going to be sore after this day in the saddle.... but gee it felt good.

another day at the ranch, on the trail --- Dale

Super Bowl Sunday at McKuster Ranch

Stardate 020308

Giants - 20

Bills - 19
New Snow = 5 inches

Weather forecast for today in the Blue Mountain foothills is 3-5" of new snow, with more accumulation overnight.
I got up this morning about 3:30 to put another log on the fire, check on the cats, and saw that it was once again turning white outside. Kittee and I discussed last night about looking for a place/ arena to ride horses this morning/ early afternoon before game time. Since we don't drive our horses around on snow covered roads, now horseback riding is out of the picture for this day.

After our morning coffee by the fire, Kittee headed out to feed the herd while I prepared breakfast. Thereafter I did some update work on our ranch website, Kittee sit by the fire and read
over client files in preparation for her week to come.

About noon I started working on our Super Bowl party treats. Pulled out of the pantry our lunch of red beans, sausage and rice with cornbread and put this on the stove to re-heat. Hard to beat a batch of cured bean soup on a snowy winter's day.

At 12 o'clock - high noon- we popped beers in preparation for the game's screaming and shouting match.

Now Kittee and I, do not have TV connection with the outside world, so we have not followed football seasons/teams for a number of years, actually since we have been married. We just watch the Super Bowl on these particular day each year for the thrills of this game.
Today, Kittee will be routing for the Giants; I will be shouting at the Bills.

Usually for Super Bowl festivities we go out to our favorite local watering hole and watch their Big TV for the afternoon and have a brew or two, burger/fries with all kinds of party favorites that goes with the game. This year we decided to do something a bit different...
we are going to stay home, watch it snow, create our own Super Bowl Party and watch the game... here at the ranch house. Gee the Black Butt Porter really taste good, coming out of our 40° open-door mudroom this afternoon. After the mid-day feeding of horses and goats, we had an enjoyable walk back to and along the snow covered river bank. We talked about the next time it snows and the wind doesn't blow we should probably Pam a couple of horses' hooves and go for a snowfall ride up Cashe Hollow Rd, a rarely used wheat harvest road across from the ranch. Today it was really gorgeous walking along the river through the fresh fallen snow with air temperature about 40°, almost no breeze.
This snowy weather is becoming a regular Sunday event in our corner of the Pacific Northwest this year.

Snow is still pouring down hard outside as we go into the Super Bowl Pre-Game Countdown...

1:00 time to put another log on the fire and head out to feed the horses
2:30 we just got back from a snowy walk along the river
2:40 had lunch and getting ready for the 3:00 festivities
2:55 reset our husband/wife lounge in front of TV
3:00 we turn TV on watch pre-game, coin toss, and Whitney Houston sings the National Anthem
3:15 Kickoff of Super Bowl XXV - Bills win the coin toss, and chose to receive

Half-Time Score

Bills - 12
Giants - 10

This game had a great first half, that keeps Kittee and I shouting... do it this way, do it that way, watch out for the pass, etc., most of the way through it.

At half time it was time to go feed the herd so Kittee went out in the snow and took care of everybody and special fed Shaiela her mare and foal suppliment while I prepared our Super Bowl snack treats. Kittee found the first bite of my cajun fried chicken thighs a bit spicy, but she ate her fair share of them before we headed back to the game's second half. I thought the spicy thighs went very well with our beer and side dish of fresh veggies/dips.

Yep, these were spicy and hot chicken thighs.
Mmmm good--- Oh Baby, remember it's cold outside.

Today's game finished up around 8:30 this evening and with that we had a pretty full day. The Bill's lost the game by one point with the miss of a 47 yard field goal attempt in the last 5 seconds of the game. We feel that it was one of the best Super Bowls ever played, and even though Kittee and I had not followed any teams this season, this game was a good one for us to have chosen sides and rout, rout, rout for our team of the day.

So as we polished off the day, putting our Super Bowl XXV party stuff away, I gave my chair to Charlee to lay back and enjoy the warmth of the fire for the rest of this evening. Kittee is still going through her client's files, says the case doesn't look good.

I have to stop here and thank the teams playing today's Super Bowl XXV, the NFL, ABC Sports, and all the sponsors for today's replay. This was a great football game, just good clean play and winning football strategy.

OH, by the way has anyone heard what the score was for the other Super Bowl game played today??
Maybe we will hear about that on the BBC tonight.

a day in the life at the ranch --- Dale