November's Gold

The activities at McKuster Ranch are beginning to wind down with the advent of November, and it appears the wet season has returned. Most everyone in the horse herd is covered with a nice coat of dirt/mud. Most of the Cottonwoods on the river are now in gold, the Sugar Maples in our front yard are mostly bare of their golden leaves as we have had rain and wind the past three days almost stripping these trees. These maple leaves must be sweet as the goats and horses love to eat them as soon as they blow into the pastures. Warm temperatures the past few days have made a very pleasant Indian Summer in northeast Oregon.

This past week was the closing week of our '08 trout season here at the ranch/ Northeast Oregon. Because of the activities around having a new foal this year, Kittee dislocating her shoulder, we did not even purchase a 2008 fishing license to fish anywhere other that our own backyard this year. The two blog entries that follows this one gives details of those two afternoons of fishing I had on Wednesday and Friday, as I finish off this season.

Rosey turned VI months old this past week. She has been weaned from her mom for about 2 weeks now and she is doing very well on her own, with Aunt Misty at her side most of the time.
Rosey is still just as sweet, and soft a pet as every, even though she is a bit more muddy these days. Her coat is starting to look a bit winter shaggy, she is putting on a winter hay belly, as are most of the other horses here, and she has a few skuffs on her face since she has been living on her own. All in all she is still a most adorable little horse, and it is a joy to hug our baby.















































Rosey still spends much of her time taking small naps while out in pasture, but also enjoys hanging out with Raji her yearling Arabian filly buddy.

We still have three of our horses, Rusty, Shaiela, Derby showing Pigeon Fever, but their abscess wounds are greatly improving, as they are being medicated twice a day with a good dose of sulfur drugs. Today as I was washing Rusty's abscess wound I was holding his head in my arm, and he like Rosey showed complete relaxation and confidence that everything was alright. It is neat to have this kind of rapport with a stallion.

It was last weekend we did have a couple of very nice afternoon horseback ride up Cashe Hollow Road, and I rebuilt the front porch which Kittee had taken off the front of the house before it was re-roofed and new siding applied this summer. This past week I worked on putting gutter guards on the gutters at the back of the house... putting the finishing touches on the outside of our house.
You might notice from the photo below that even the late afternoon sun adds a golden glow to the house.
So with plenty of hay in the barn most of the outdoor projects completed around the ranch we are about set for winter, with the exception of bringing in more firewood. I have been making arrangements to gather a couple of cords of wood and hope to have that project completed by the middle of November.

Happy Trails to you until we meet again.

a week in the life at McKuster Ranch --- Dale