Spring has sprung at McKuster Ranch for '08. This past weekend was a very busy one, that almost turned into summer.
It now appears that last Friday evening maybe the last evening of the season for sitting by the back yard fireplace; warming our bones and having a round of refreshing "McKuster Ranch Cider". This spring Kittee by chance found a new and better way to enjoy all the apples that are grown in our Walla Walla River Valley. We now call her find "McKuster Ranch Cider". As you may find the time, we hope you will drop by and join us for a round or two** (over ice it goes down very, very smooth and is most refreshing).
This past week the orioles have begun to nest in the front yard Hawthorne tree, (I caught this male Western Tanager in our weeping willow tree on Sunday) while the lilac bush, dogwood tree, are in full bloom, the iris are just beginning to bloom as the temperatures went well into the 90's. Yep, it was a scorcher here this past weekend.
Our new foal Rosey,
aka. Yet-to-be-Named is now three weeks old, and appears to be growing almost as fast as the spring weeds in our garden. You may notice the title of this blog, and the next few contains a V, which is for Varian Arabians in honor of Rosey's grandfather's heritage. With her black mane and tail, we are kinda hoping that she will turn into a bay mare showing the beauty of her sire Eagle and grandsire on Shaiela's side.
Rosey is now showing very few rib lines, appears to be growing much taller (lot of leg) and to "look her in the mouth" shows her beautiful baby buck teeth smile. Kittee was quite surprised at how sharp these little teeth are.Are we imprinting our little girl to be handled or what?
Youbetcha.
This past weekend Kittee and I took our Friday afternoon to do odds-and-ends chores around the ranch as we had made plans to take off on a ranch trailride first thing Saturday a.m. The weather forecast was calling for weekend temperatures to soar into the 90's to 100°, and we had company coming to the ranch on Saturday afternoon.
We started Saturday morning very bright and fairly early as we prepared Derby and Misty to be saddled up and ready to ride with Jennifer and Phoebee at 8:30. All went well as we prepped our horses and mounted. Just as we crossed the Walla Walla River Road onto Cashe Hollow Road, our horses encountered a new herd of cattle. We all got a bit of "spook in place" out of that encounter, Misty was then ready to return to the barn. But after the calm down and steady up, we headed up Cashe Hollow Road and had a most enjoyable, even though hot ride until about noon. Returning to the ranch, the horses had a chance to shower off and cool down a bit under the barn's washwand. After that we turned Derby out to pasture with a new boarder - Calvin, who came on board with us last Saturday.
Calvin is a most congenial 3-year old cinnamon Appaloosa that stands 16 hands. After he and Derby had a while to get to noses each other, we then introduced Nugget and then Gray to Calvin. All went well and Nugget and Calvin began to horseplay quite a bit. Fun watching these 1000 lbs. pet playing with each other, in the same horsey manner as puppies do. Calvin's tri-colored paint buddy will be joining us around June 1st.
Now, after all of this was said and done, Kittee and I were expecting to have company join us for the late afternoon and evening. The Temple family were coming over from Hermiston to ride and pet ponies, goats, watch Rosey, and joining us for a McKuster Ranch BBQ dinner. We had a most enjoyable
evening with the Temples on this visit, as Harrison spent quite a bit of time riding Jasmine, Kalli also rode Jasmine a little, and they both treated her to some monster strawberries. As the afternoon temperatures approached 100°, everyone kinda kicked back with the Big Gun irrigation works running in the pasture and Kittee and kids running through the lawn sprinkler in the front yard. Patrick and I had a few beers trying to beat the heat, while watching the kids play in the sprinkler and ride pony.
Patrick (who built Grandfather) at the time of Kittee and my wedding, brought parts with him and did a motor replacement on Grandfather. We are now happy to announce that Grandfather is giving us the correct time once again as we come and go through the front door and pass through the house. Thanks, Patrick for building our clock and putting him back into gear. Most of the late afternoon and evening the Temples had a laid back p.m. at the ranch, petting the animals, taking a walk along the river (which is full of spring runoff), and we then polished off the day with a McKuster Ranch BBQ. From the comments passed around the table, I think everyone enjoyed our ranch grub. It was about 9:30 p.m. as the evening wound down, and the Temples headed out, Kittee and I headed to bed.
Sunday again was quite a busy day, as Kittee and I started working with horses and ponies and were a bit tired from the activities and hot temperature of Saturday. Late morning we sit under the maple trees on our west-side lawn and watched horseplay; taking pictures and videos of the frolics of Calvin and Nugget in the pasture. I was feeling the onset of a head cold, so with all the go, go, go of Saturday we planned to call Sunday a day of rest at 2:30 p.m.
Shortly thereafter, cousin Worth and LaBelva dropped by for an afternoon visit. Shortly thereafter Jennifer and Henry dropped by for an afternoon visit. Shortly thereafter Kristin and Galvin dropped by for a visit. Shortly thereafter Travis dropped by to work with Rusty and I; doing groundwork training and preparing Rusty for the saddleup/gettyup mode of horsey companionship. By this time of day, the onset of a cold was getting me down and I was so exhausted that I asked Travis to postpone our training session until Thursday evening.
Even though Rosey has taken most of the limelight since her arrival to McKuster Ranch, Rusty and I are having quite a bit of quality time as I pet and groom him daily, and we work together once or twice a week with our trainer Travis Webster in making our connection in the round pen. It is interesting to watch the progress on communication that Rusty and I have with each round pen session, even though he gets his butt worked and generates quite a dripping full body sweat. Through our working together, I am finding Rusty to be much more congenial/relaxed and eager/easy for me to handle.
Yep, Rusty is a hard body stallion, a very handsome creature, but more and more this gentle fella is a joy to be around at all times. When it comes to handling Rusty, I always keep it in the back of my mind, he is stallion, not mare nor gelding and handles nothing like either. We are connecting... a man and his stallion.
It wasn't long after Travis left that Kittee and I started putting things of the day away, and paid our last respects to the herd, had dinner and went to bed. It was quite a busy day... even as our day of rest, but we enjoyed it all.
**NOTE: If you have two rounds of "McKuster Ranch Cider" we will ask that you not drive out of here too soon. ;>)
another weekend in the life at McKuster Ranch --- Dale
No comments:
Post a Comment