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.
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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
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
1 comment:
Tell Kittee she can always start some seedlings inside - I have some going already. A good way to pass the time until frost ends. Enjoyed the blog, see ya soon.
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