Rosey -or- Yet-to-be Named ** Chapter 2 **

Stardate 042808

Rosey and Shaiela are out and about, doing well.

Rosey was born around 9:15 on Sunday evening 4/27. Her birth took between 5-10 minutes and she was on her feet in about three hours. She began nursing in about 3-4 hours with the help of our friend and horse breeding mentor Dale Cosper coming downriver to help us get her started.

It was about 5:00 a.m. Monday that Kittee and I called it a night and went to bed to be back up around 8:30 a.m. to check on our baby horse and her Mom. All was well, even though we did continue help Rosey get to her feet in order to nurse.

Around noon Kittee went into her office for a couple of hours, I continued to keep an eye on our baby. Upon Kittee's return to the ranch we went out to turned out Shaiela and Rosey into pasture.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I shall let the pictures tell the story of Rosey's first day in the great Oregon outdoors...





Leaving the barn










now standing on spring pasture grass...





Our goat herd came over to call on Rosey







Everyone is interested in this new little one




Goats got a bit too close to Rosey for Shaiela's comfort







The Uncle's Gallery formed and looked on...

and then just laying around relaxing,
as Monday was a long day...
being born on Sunday and all.

After the 2500+ mile cross country trip Jennifer and Phoebee go out for a couple of hours ride up Cashe Hollow Road. We feel this is what Jennifer was looking for as her "out west" experience of life with horses.

As the shadows get long and sun sinks slowly in the west, all is well at McKuster Ranch.

To be continued...

a day in the life --- Dale

Rosey -or- Yet-to-be Named * Chapter 1 *

Stardate 04/26-28/08

Still trying to recover from the wake up call of 2:00 a.m. Saturday 4/26 announcing that we were going to have a baby... horse - McKuster Ranch's first foal!!!

Kittee had been spending every night with Shaiela in the barn for almost 10 days, waiting for this arrival. We spent two hours that morning in the barn waiting for something to happen. At 5:00 a.m. we called it a good night and went back to bed. Got about four more hours sleep and begin to start the day all over again.
We had a very full day of work around the ranch, and were also waiting for two new boarders to arrive from the Claiborne Horse Farm of Lexington, KY as we were also keeping a constant eye on Shaiela for the day. Mid-morning we got a call from the transport company that due to a snow and ice storm in the mid-west the truck was delayed by a day and should be here on Sunday. A bit later Saturday afternoon our new horse boarder, Jennifer came over from Walla Walla to say Hi. She had arrived in Walla Walla the day before, from KY and was getting settled in and wanted to come out to the ranch and see where her horses' new home was going to be/ like. Jennifer brought her friend Henry with her to the ranch and we had a very pleasant early evening just sitting around and getting to know each other. The rest of the day was uneventful and casual, just waiting for Shaiela to make the next move.

Sunday, was a busy day with a backhoe coming in that morning to do some work around the ranch; watching Shaiela hoping for a foal at any moment, and two new boarding horses to arrive in the early afternoon. All went well this day as we got the backhoe work done, Jennifer's horses arrived in good shape and happy to see pasture, Don and Arlene, our retirees from AZ came by to check on their horses, Kasey a boarder from So. Fork River Road dropped in to say Hi. We all sit around and chatted thereafter for awhile. As the sun sank slowly in the west of a perfectly beautiful eastern Oregon day, everyone headed for home, Kittee and I had dinner and was ready for bed. Again, with her sleeping bag over her shoulder Kittee headed for the barn for the night. I took a shower and was getting in bed with Sylvester when the walkie-talkie went off. Kittee announced that Shaiela was down and going into labor; this was about 9:00 p.m. PDT.

By the time I drew up some hot water, and got the cameras in hand, made it to the barn just in time to observe Shaiela's foal with two feet and a nose being birthed. Within five minutes or so, we had a perfectly beautiful foal... a filly. With the color of her foal coat being kind of a red roan we have given her the "barn" name of Rosey. This night or morning, whatever... we laid down about 5:00 a.m. for a couple hours sleep before restarting Monday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few hours later...

YouTube video connections...

SHAI AL BEY's birthnight- equine birthing - 1:01 min

We have a filly- 1:01 min

Rosey has teeth-  2:58 min

Rosey's first steps- 0:49  sec

Rosey learns to nurse- 2:26 min

To Be Continued...

Life around the ranch with Kittee, Dale, Rosey, etc. --- Dale

Life in the doghouse -or- a Kittee in the barn

Stardate 041808

Well, the time is getting close for our mare/Kittee's mare, Shaiela to offer her foal to this great wide world.


Since last weekend and a few nights in between Kittee has been spending nights with Shiela in anticipation that we are about to have a brand NEW baby horse delivered to McKuster Ranch.

Over the past month Kittee has been reading Dr. Robert Miller's book on foal imprinting, we now own the video DVD of the same and this past week we acquired another DVD video presentation on foal birthing and imprinting. Gee, that was an eye opener.

Each night spent in the barn Kittee goes prepared to her comfortable folding cot with flashlight, walkie talkie, sleeping bag and goose down comforter, not to mention her goose down underwear, wool socks and turtle-fleece head wrap. She is reporting, most mornings when she get back to the house that she got over heated during the night with all her cold weather wraps on.
Also ready for the birth of this foal, Kittee's has a foaling kit of everything for the birthing needs except instant hot water.

With this blog posting I am going to let the pictures tell these thousand word story of nightlife with a pregnant horse.

Kittee reports that some nights Shaiela is restless, other nights she lays down and is quite, restful.

All I can tell you that my wife is not only a graduate of one of the finest law schools in the Pacific Northwest/the West with her JD in hand, she is also a devoted horse rancher/lover. For someone that "hates to be cold", she is willing to spend her nights, weekend and some mid-weeknights to be in the presence of her about to foal mare.
That's my wife Kittee... and, Don't get in her way!!! ;>)


























Then the lights go out.
What a woman, what a love of horses!!!

Yep, Kittee in sleeping in the barn tonight, with the weather forecast for tonight and this weekend being freezing temperatures, rain and snow for the entire weekend... there is Kittee, sleeping in the barn.

My wife has guts!!!!

She also informed me this evening that next year when we are both a year older than today, that she expects me to sleep in the barn with my/our two mares Misty and Goldie, as we hope they will be foaling in April and May '09. It's a rough life, horse ranching that is... but someone has to do it.

Please stay tuned... like it's grandsire a new world champion Purebred Arabian foal is about to be presented to McKuster Ranch, LLC. We will provide you with pictures and videos of this happening ASAP ;>)
and they should be coming to a computer near you very SOON.

Tonight, I am keeping the home fire burning, for Kittee's warmth in the morning and hopefully for the entire weekend of let's stay close to home.

Good Night and Good Luck to all,
Dale

They said... "It was 85º in town."

Stardate 04/11-13/08

Took our computer* into town this morning and I heard that yesterday's high temp was 85º. Here at the ranch while smoking ribs for the first (of the season) McKuster Ranch's BBQ the outside window thermometer was showing 80º.
Snow levels on the mountains appeared to have receded up to about 4000 feet yesterday. This was truly like icing on the cake of a gorgeous early spring weekend for riding horses, working outside, and having friend over for an evening meal/get together. Gee, it felt good here yesterday, actually for the entire weekend we enjoyed a lot of fresh air, sunshine and keeping the bedroom windows opened all night.

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

Today during lunch the Ostermans came by to grain their horses Mark and Mink, and we had sleet pellets hitting us on the head. What a difference a day makes. Overnight as was forecast our weather changed, the winds began to blow, by morning's light it started to rain here in the Walla Walla River canyon, and the snow level had dropped back down to 2000 feet elevation. During his mid-day feeding Rusty and I continued to watch it snowing on the mountains.

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

Sunday was a busy, busy day. We kinda started where we left off on Saturday with the spring cleaning mode all around the ranch, after breakfast and a leisurely walk back along the river.
As Kittee was doing this and that, I worked at fertilizing the last three pastures I hadn't done last month. Thereafter we turned on the Big Guns and watered most of the pastures. With this going on one of our apartment renters came by to pay a bill, and before he left the Ostermans came in with their horse to be boarded for the season. So it turned in to a very busy day, with a pleasant sit down visit of new friends and neighbors to finish the day.



The Ostermans have been working with us for over a year to bring their horses back to the Pacific Northwest, from their retirement home in Arizona. This past weekend was a perfect weekend to arrive in Oregon.

They were lucky to have some very nice arrival weather since they were driving in from AZ, with an overnight layover in Ontario.



With a trip like that we invited them to join us for a BBQ dinner with our upriver friends, Dale and Cheri Cosper. It was a very pleasant evening as our horse trainer, Travis Webster also dropped in with his/our lady friend Kasey to help with the consumption of 10-½ pounds of pork ribs. Travis and I were going to start our work on Rusty yesterday to bring him into being my other saddle horse, but Travis got tied up with the barrel racers weekend in Walla Walla and was running a bit too late to bring Rusty out of his keep.




Since Travis was not working with horses this particular evening he asked if he could to take a walk back to the river to check out the fish habitat improvements we made in August of last year. Upon his return, he had a bull snake, he caught in the pasture, and that Kittee and Arlene had to handle. A very mild mannered character that took handling well.


The evening's dinner was under the stars after a warm April day, which made a most pleasant outing with a bit more than a half moon to light our eat-off-your-lap-BBQ dinner. Cheri remarked, it was much like having a campout dinner with everyone circled around and the trace of hickory smoke in the air from the nearby smoker grill. After dinner it seemed that everyone wanted my recipes for this or that, and I had to tell them the only way that info gets out of here is by regular taste testing. I really don't have a recipe for my BBQ ribs-works, just a base of ingredients that changes with each batch.

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

Saturday, the weather was great and according to plans Kittee and I were up and at'em rather early for our usual weekend routine to eat breakfast and saddle-up Nugget and Misty for a gitty-up ride on Cashe Hollow Road. Again it was a wonderful morning ride that reminded us much of the same trail we took last fall when all was in red and gold. This weekend there was little coloration except the early spring green buds on trees and bushes.
The past couple of months Nugget has been quite winded when being exerted on uphill and running rides, so for the past ten days he has been on medication for respiratory infection and this was his initial test ride. He did quite well as compared to the past couple of months, but was huffing and puffing a bit more than Misty at the top of the hill.

After our morning ride, we spent most of the rest of the day doing household and lawn chores... a bit of spring cleaning. Kittee even tore the old front door steps off the house as I was mowing the lawn and pasture edgings. We are still hoping to have the January 4th storm damage repairs done in June this year which will include a new roof and siding for the old farm house. After the riding and working we called it "Bloody Mary" time to watch horses graze and play, while we kicked back, relaxed and discussed.


After a most busy day around the ranch, we watched another beautiful golden sunset in the clear western sky.

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

This past Friday, had been declared a CLO holiday by Kittee earlier in the week. It was also Misty's birthday. The past few weeks Kittee has been tied up in court trials and I have been driving a school bus, so we have had only two day weekends for over a month. Kittee and I really don't think that a two day weekend is fair for anyone having turned 50 years young. It is time to spend life in the go mode, living life... so we do most of the time with our three day weekends.
Friday we moved out early with our coffee and got the necessary work done around the ranch, had a little birthday party for Misty and her herd. Thereafter went to town to do the necessary things to do in town, then headed back to the ranch. After lunch we saddled up Derby and Misty, soon Shana came in and saddled up Sinwaan, and we made a two hour horseback ride up the hill for the balance of the afternoon. Misty was not real eager to make this trail ride (PMS) so we did a little work in the pasture, I took it easy on her and we only went halfway up the hill; and it's Misty's birthday!! The horses had enough work to become damp, without a heavy sweat. After we got back to the ranch, I had an appointment with Travis who came over and worked with Goldie to help develop her trailer loading skills. That went very well for all concerned.

So, this is the way it is in Northeast Oregon; as usual the skies are not cloudy all day and now the sun is shining so I need to head out and continue to wish Goldie a Happy Birthday with carrots and cookies and pet our stallion for awhile.

a spring weekend at McKuster Ranch --- Dale

*Working on our home puter and new camcorder to produce videos of Shaiela's new foal. Hopefully this will bring you into the live action... of life around the ranch. Coming to a computer near you SOON.

Springtime at McKuster Ranch

Stardate 040908

It has been awhile, actually I see that it has been a month since I have been at the blog site to make mention of life around the ranch. Spring has arrived in beautiful Northeast Oregon and most of our life is now spent with outdoor activities from morning 'til dark.

Kittee and I have been putting in a fair about of riding time from the ranch's front gate as well as tuning up Misty and Derby with early spring training sessions in the front pasture, and the arena.

We are still getting some snow on an every other day basis to some extent, but every other day looks like the picture below (which I made this day) with mostly sunshine on our shoulders and snow on the mountains.

About one day a week we are getting some snow ground coverage here at the ranch, the rest of our spring is about half and half rainy or sunny days and a mix thereof. The weather forecast for this weekend's weather is for pure sunshine and temperatures around 75º. And yes, we plan to saddle up and gittyup for rides all over our neighborhood, wish you were here. Actually this afternoon Kittee is hoping to come home early enough for us to get in a 3-5 mile ride today.

Generally once or twice a week now, Rusty has the opportunity to go out to pasture and run, run, run. Rusty rarely stands still, whether in pasture or in his keep.

The last couple of weeks he has shed much of his light chestnut winter coat, and now has a very shiny liver chestnut coat with light rusty mane and tail. I know we are a bit bias, but we think this guy is gorgeous in his shiny new spring coat.

Most of the rest of the herd still have a fair amount of winter coat and guard hairs, so they are still a bit shaggy in appearance.

This coming Sunday afternoon I have an appointment with our trainer to put Rusty in the round pen and begin working with him to become a saddle horse. This venture should be quite an interesting trip. I hope to apply what I can learn to our Goldie to begin working her into a saddle horse as well.

Shaiela, is getting more and more round as her due date draws nearer. Kittee and I are getting more and more excited to see just what we are going to get with our first Arabian breeding. Kittee has already separated Shaiela from the herd at night, giving her a deep bed of straw for resting behind a close gate in the barn.


Kittee declares that Shaiela is now getting quite tired of being pregnant, and as her udder has began to fill, this is a good sign that her delivery time is getting very much closer.
Shaiela doesn't run much anymore ;>)









It has been a few weeks ago that we bought a new hard disk camcorder just to be ready for the event. We intend to produce a full play DVD of this foal's early year(s) at McKuster Ranch. Once we figure how to make this new machine work we will be posting our videos to YouTube for your reference point of view.

Last Saturday we had a most pleasant afternoon ride out and about Cashe Hollow Road which is just across from the ranch gate. That day I took out our new video camera and made a video of our ride, which was very usual for the ride and the pictures until Misty and I began to trot up the road. That made a very amusing video production from horseback, and now I know why westerns were filmed from a vehicle or aircraft, never a horse.

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

As springtime progresses here at the ranch I have got most of the garden tilled and weeds cleaned out of my rows, so we should start planting in another week or two with a few cool weather crops. Plans are now to garden about 1/2 of what we have usually done in the past with a very small crop of garlic and most everything else to be canning/freezing veggies and berries.

Kittee has been biting at the bit to put seeds in the ground, but I have pointed out to her that the past two Sundays we have still been getting snow. with the Sunday of March 30 we were covered with snow most of the day. That day we were snow covered when we got out of bed, we were snow covered at lunch, and even though it cleared of snow mid-afternoon we found ourselves covered with snow before nightfall. It was a beautiful day, as during the morning feeding we saw and heard flocks of geese flying by through the snow, after breakfast there was a flock of turkeys in the pasture across the road from us (I counted 10 toms and hens) and after lunch we were out visiting Rusty with our trainer Travis and watched a herd of deer moving across the snow covered bluff.

I have now got most of the pastures fertilized and they are turning green and developing some good grazing grasses. Most days we are turning the herd out to pasture for about 3-4 hours a day while supplementing their diet with alfalfa hay.

This is how our spring is progressing at the ranch in 2008. This is about all the news we have for now, hope you will find the opportunity to come visit at your leisure.

Happy Trail to you.

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